Angora Rabbits

[Sporadic_E]

Looking for subject animal in Edmonton area.

[Shadewolf]

I've got some Flemish Giant/New Zealand Cross fryers available. Butcher day is coming for them roughly within a week either side of Christmas. We have some white ones and some various coloured ones. They are good meat rabbits or pets if you are interested. We have 2 more litters due in the next couple weeks too.

[Sporadic_E]

Are the New Zealand's Dwarf or standard? The Flemish Giants are just too darn big. If I need to put together a rabbit sled team I will get eight or nine of them. Unfortunately, I cannot keep rabbits where I am. However I was thinking of a Christmas present for my buddy out by Athabasca who is already raising some for meat (pending the psychological detachment of his kids). My kids are allergic to some animal dander so it limits what variety I can get. 

[CdnGuy]

Rabbit sled team! Now that's a funny visual! 

[Shadewolf]

They are New Zealand Standards, not dwarfs, mixed with the Flemish Giants. Our breeding buck is a white New Zealand and the breeding does are Flemish Giants. The fryers look like they're gonna top out between 11-13 lbs on average (if allowed to grow to maturity for breeding) as the New Zealand blood looks more dominant in the ones we have now. We just gave 2 to a couple 4H kids who are doing the rabbit project with my son, and are keeping 3 other pretty does as breeding stock: a silver, a sable and a brown.

I've got 7 to sell: 3 whites (females), 1 cream/light brown (female), and 3 dark browns (1 male, 2 females). They are 16 weeks old and have reached butcher weight of over 5 lbs now. I'm thinking $25 each to recoup my feed costs and I'd also be willing to trade 1 straight across for a young breeding buck to add some different genetics to the herd. As breeding stock, they should be able to produce blacks, sables, and silvers as well.

My husband can bring them into Edmonton for drop off, or I can bring them in to the St. Alberta area as my office is there. I took some pics to give an idea of the colours they are. Boy they were hard to get clear shots of, they don't respond well to being told, now hold still and smile! Mostly they were curious about the blackberry being stuck near their cage so kept trying to inspect it while I was clicking pictures.

[Johenyst]

I take our drawf rabbit to vets about ever 4weeks to have his teeth trimmed they grow so fast the vet has suggested maybe have them removed Has any one any advise ? Or had their rabbits front teeth removed ?

[Shadewolf]

My question on this is: does your rabbit have what is known as "wolf teeth" and the teeth grow all screwy or misaligned? This is an inherited condition called malocclusion and you should not use this rabbit for breeding stock. Also, you shouldn't have to take your rabbit to the vet at all for teeth trimming, you're paying for something easy to do yourself!

Rabbit teeth grow about 1/2 inch per month and this is NORMAL. I would not remove the rabbit's teeth completely. Seems an inhumane thing that would cause more nutritional/digestive problems for the rabbit than regular trimming. So, if the rabbit's problem is chronic, get a pair of dog nail clippers - the kind with the scissor action and the semicircular blades. You can trim the teeth yourself, just firmly wrap the rabbit in a towel so he can't hurt himself or you or escape, and hold him on his back and trim the teeth. Another thing to note is if a rabbit breaks a tooth by random chance, the opposing tooth in its mouth can grow very long as a result and need trimming until the other tooth grows back. It's something to watch for.

I give my rabbits plenty of hay and a few of them have grey chewing blocks from the pet store to chew on. For 99% of my rabbits, this is plenty sufficient to keep their teeth in good order. You can also give them sticks to chew on, just make sure you lookup the species of wood first and ensure it is not poisonous to them. Many of my breeding does and their babies chew on their nestboxes since I make them out of wood. I have only ever had one rabbit born with a case of wolf teeth. It was so bad the rabbit had to be culled as it couldn't eat. We'll be watching future litters from the same parents and should the wolf teeth recur again, the rabbit with the bad gene for it will get retired from breeding.