Angoras in a colony

Update on 2 boys in a box..

The double wide has not, of course, arrived. Or rather, it arrived and was not what I'd ordered. It looks like the boys will be in a standard 30x36 floor space with extra height (I have cages built 24" high) for a while longer. When some dominance play started I made a "train" across the back of stools and a bit of cardboard tubing to create an "underground" hiding space and an "above" space, and it seems to be working well. When they get tired of each other one goes up and one goes down. I have food bowls on both levels, and a crock which they shove into the back bottom corner under the stool. Two buns in a box? Much more waste in the pan. Have adjusted the cleaning schedule accordingly.

I let them out to play yesterday, in what I think may be our last decent fall day, and groomed each of them. No (tap wood) spraying on each other and the fiber is in lovely, growing out, condition. Unlike my single buck, who admittedly is 2 months into his growing cycle, vs. about 5 weeks for these two, I don't have matts behind the ears. Could be the unique properties of each rabbit, of course, but these two do groom each other.. it is possible they're pulling out fibers before they settle into matts.

I am very much hoping this continues to work well. I have decided that in the near term (certainly for 2011) I am not interested in introducing a doe, or getting involved in breeding. While the German Angora is relatively rare, that very rarity, combined with an dogmatic effort to get ever more production out of the animal which dates back to the German breeding programs in WWII, seems to be conspiring to produce an animal with a shortened life expectancy and recessive gene linked defects (I bought two knowing they had juvenile cataracts.. one animal is quite possibly almost blind). I love the breed, but I'd want to be much better informed before I started buying stock specifically for breeding.

So... we're all baching it for now, and I am cautiously optimistic that the experiment with the two younger boys is working well.

Good news about the boys getting along. Sorry about the doublewide, but it sounds like the boys are going to be just fine in their cage for now.

I think what you're running into is the scarcity of the breed here in the US. There haven't been a LOT of animals imported, so a purebred means it's from one or two lines. English/German crosses seem to be a good alternative, from what I've read on the yahoo lists. Most breeds of animals go through the "must improve THIS TRAIT " to the determent of other things. Irish Setter in the US is a prime example. To show, they HAD to have a long long coat and skinny body...and in the process they lost the hunting nose and developed major problems with hips.

My 2 boys, who were introduced to each other at 4 months, are doing well together..and as you've noticed, no matts from the grooming of each other and the movement. I did try to introduce a 3rd recently. :roll: that went..poorly. sigh

Good luck with your group

followon update:

The cage is simply two small for the growing boys, and the new cages aren't here yet (of course) so it is NIC and zip ties to the rescue. I've fashioned a "play pen" off the main cage, put a pan down, and put hay on the pan. Thus far, things are going much better than when they were confined to one box. And surprisingly.. if I throw down new hay every day (I have yet to dump the pan) they do not appear to be fouling themselves.

The down side is the arrangement is not "square" which means there is no lid over the top, and even if there were, the NIC panels are not robust enough to slow a determined predator down. The buns have shown no interest in going over the top, but the flimsy nature of the affair makes me nervous and this is something that will need attention going forward if I decide to keep this arrangement. Or have to because the cages don't ship.

But again.. so far, so good, in the mini-angora colony.