Angoras on pasture

I have 13 angoras, mostly French and a couple German/English. 9 are does and are spilt into 2 colonies which is inside our barn. The 4 bucks are in wire cages. I also have American chinchillas which are used only for meat purposes. Our angoras are only for fiber purposes. Of course both are also for our enjoyment .

I would love to get my meat rabbits outside in pastured pens that I can rotate them through. But if I do this, I'd like the angoras to also be outside for 3 main reasons. 1) our barn is on the opposite side of the property as the space where the pasture would be. It would be inefficient to have half my rabbits on one side of our property and the meat buns on the other side. 2) hubby would really love to turn the barn into something special. Like an outdoor living area. It is a very nice barn with concrete floors, insulated, windows, electric. 3) I feel like the rabbits will be much happier with even more space and we would even have a seperate pen for each buck instead of their wire cages.

My only real concern is the angoras ruining their fiber if they lived on pasture. The other option I am considering is putting down a cement slab and still using shavings and straw as the bedding. But I would really rather them have access to fresh grass if it wasn't going to ruin their fiber!

Has anyone tried angoras on pasture? TIA!

I'm sure there has to be a way to make it successful. It might mean a lot of moving, and keeping things dry though...

I had my angora male in a parrot aviary for a day and he got pretty gross pretty quick on his hindquarters.

I could see the angoras getting pretty nasty. I do know someone who keeps them in colonies though.

Right now mine are on cement floors with shavings/straw as bedding inside the barn. I am finding it very doable for us. But the thought of them on pasture is different. We would have many pens that they can rotate through and the goal would be not to allow them to complelety graze the pen down to dirt.

I'm thinking more like grass stains or morning dew, things that would not be a problem for short haired breeds.

for angoras .. I wouldn't do it.. You want your fibre to be in top shape and with no stains in it when you harvest it.. there will be stains for sure on the ground .

Stains and mats for grass pasture, and shavings will get stuck and cause matts too. I don't know how matting doesn't occur in a colony already...

I do give mine a few hours each individually on the grass once or twice a week, but then I spend time plucking crap out of their fiber before they go home to their cages. I would never do a pasture set up, but if you find a way to make it work, we'd love to know.

The protein a wool breed needs and the matting of the wool...I think it's best to keep them on wire!

Mine do really well on shavings and straw actually. I blow them out 3-4 times a week. The stains and morning dew is my big concern. I think what we will do is have indoor space and outdoor space. I'll just let them have outdoor time on occasion and when they have recently been trimmed down. Oh and my main thing for having them on pasture wasn't for feed so much. Right now I harvest most of their food by hand actually. They mostly get weeds/herbs but also have a grain mix and unlimited alfalfa hay. They are thriving! Anyways, I mostly want to watch them enjoy being bunnies! But since the fiber is really important to me, I think I will have to compromise!

PSFAngoras":3c8qtc1a said:

Stains and mats for grass pasture, and shavings will get stuck and cause matts too. I don't know how matting doesn't occur in a colony already...

I do give mine a few hours each individually on the grass once or twice a week, but then I spend time plucking crap out of their fiber before they go home to their cages. I would never do a pasture set up, but if you find a way to make it work, we'd love to know.

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Same here. Everyone gets "alone time" in an outdoor pen, but even on outdoor carpet and straw, I spend wayyyyy too much time picking them clean afterwards. I personally wouldn't do pasture or colony raising for my angoras, but then again-- I don't want to waste any wool. I'd be concerned about them mucking up their rear-ends on pasture from moisture alone.