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Lewis

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I currently have a beautiful white English Angora Male. I am debating on getting another English Angora or a German Angora. From my research Germans yield more fiber but with more guard hairs. Does anyone have experience in both English and German Angoras? I will be using his wool for spinning.

And does anyone have experience in having two unaltered male house bunnies? (They’d have their separate cage). I’ve done a lot of research and I’m not looking to get a female nor do I want to risk my rabbit’’s life with being put under anesthesia to be altered. For me & my bun, right now the risks do not put way the benefits.

And if anyone wants to share their bunnies I’d love to see them!
 

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Sorry, no experience with the English or Giants, I have satins and frenchies myself, but I have had boy house rabbits so I thought I would chime in a bit there.

Be aware that unaltered male buns will spray urine to mark their territory, more so when they smell another male nearby. Be sure to put something between their cages and the wall and be vigilant when allowing them to free roam.

Buck fights can be brutal. I would not allow 2 unrelated intact bucks to interact at all. They would be on a rotation schedule for sure.

I have had the best luck with my boys by having them in different rooms.
 
Oh satin and French are gorgeous! What about introducing a baby buck? Will they still fight for territory? Thank you for your insight!
 
Oh satin and French are gorgeous! What about introducing a baby buck? Will they still fight for territory? Thank you for your insight!

The satins are a dream to spin too!

I would imagine that once the baby buck reached sexual maturity the testosterone wars would begin. I myself wouldn't risk it.

The only instances I have heard of making it work was with 2 neutered bucks, 1 intact and 1 neutered buck, Or in a larger colony settings.
 
Two intact bucks will eventually fight, even through cage walls. There will be blood.

Between English and German, if I had two house bunnies, I'd stick with English. German do produce a lot of wool but if you have the time to groom, you will get more from English. Germans have more guard hair so they can produce commercially without needing as much grooming. Both are sheared, so in the end feed to wool ratio is greater in English.

Ref neutering, in the 1930s and 40s, at the height of US angora wool production, breeders neutered their own bucks, without anesthetic. It took about 5 min, if that. Neutered males produce a markedly increased amount of wool, smell less, and the wool rarely has a film of urine. I encourage my fiber families to neuter. In the long run it's nicer for all. I've never had a family lose a rabbit and I hope that I never do.
 

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What is the neuter procedure without anesthetics called?! Thank you for your in-depth input! I appreciate it! Also what do you feed your EAs? How fast do their hair grow (I am very new to the breed- long time admirer though)

so far he is very clean and no urine stains.Cleaning his anal glands made a huge difference in his smell! He hasn’t sprayed (He is the only rabbit) or anything but he is still young (8-9 months) we are working in litter training - he keeps his poop in his area (not in the litter pan yet but on his pee pads outside his enclosure)

I was just thinking of getting a younger rabbit while he is still so young and getting the hang of things- but maybe I’ll just leave everything as it is- no pissing wars for me 🙈🙊6180A5F5-9859-4103-968D-75723D422BAF.jpeg
 
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aster1.jpg

This is our REW buck, Hillside Aster. He's kinda opinionated sometimes but has very lovely wool. He's a bucky kinda buck, too, and manages to find dirt on occasion. He really should have been an agouti or some other kind of colored bunny so the dirt wouldn't show up.

Aster would not get along with another buck, sometimes he's not even happy with the bun on the other side of the wire. There haven't been any pissing contests, although I think that's just because they're too lazy.

phineus.jpg

This is Hillside Phineas Phogge when he had a chocolate mask during one of his coats. Next time it grew out, he was back to lilac all over. For some completely unknown reason, other bucks will find ways to wiggle into Phin's space and hang out with Phin. No fights, no pissing, no hassles. Two intact adult bucks happily sharing space. I have no idea why. I've tried moving Phin out of the space and giving it to the visiting buck but then the other buck will just figure out a way to wiggle back over to Phin's space. I've put a different buck next to Phin just to find that buck finding a way to go visit with Phin. I haven't a clue why they do that.

Phin is a son of Grinlow's Dozer who had the most mellow temperament of any buck we've pretty much ever had here. Dozer was bred to a REW daughter in order to create Phin since I wanted to concentrate the Dozer lines into the replacement buck for Dozer when the Dozemiester was getting old. Doze was a chocolate and bred to a REW they produced lilac offspring so we kept the best buck to replace Dozer.

Aster is the son of Phineas, although his dam is an opinionated black doe so Aster seems to get his attitude from his dam.

The buns here are fed high protein pellets mixed with rolled barley and some black oil sunflower seeds. They get as much pellets as they can eat in about a half hour along with lots of fresh ti leaf, mulberry leaves, grasses, dandelions, etc., etc. Hay is too expensive in Hawaii, it's about $40 a small bale which then mildews before it can all be used so they don't get hay.

They get a haircut about every three months and provide anywhere from several to six ounces of good clean spinnable wool each harvest. I'm finding that the denser coats which provide more fiber are also harder to shear since it's almost too dense to get the scissors into. No hope for electric clippers on the really dense coats. A more open flowing coat is much quicker to shear, even using scissors instead of the clippers.
 
aster1.jpg

This is our REW buck, Hillside Aster. He's kinda opinionated sometimes but has very lovely wool. He's a bucky kinda buck, too, and manages to find dirt on occasion. He really should have been an agouti or some other kind of colored bunny so the dirt wouldn't show up.

Aster would not get along with another buck, sometimes he's not even happy with the bun on the other side of the wire. There haven't been any pissing contests, although I think that's just because they're too lazy.

phineus.jpg

This is Hillside Phineas Phogge when he had a chocolate mask during one of his coats. Next time it grew out, he was back to lilac all over. For some completely unknown reason, other bucks will find ways to wiggle into Phin's space and hang out with Phin. No fights, no pissing, no hassles. Two intact adult bucks happily sharing space. I have no idea why. I've tried moving Phin out of the space and giving it to the visiting buck but then the other buck will just figure out a way to wiggle back over to Phin's space. I've put a different buck next to Phin just to find that buck finding a way to go visit with Phin. I haven't a clue why they do that.

Phin is a son of Grinlow's Dozer who had the most mellow temperament of any buck we've pretty much ever had here. Dozer was bred to a REW daughter in order to create Phin since I wanted to concentrate the Dozer lines into the replacement buck for Dozer when the Dozemiester was getting old. Doze was a chocolate and bred to a REW they produced lilac offspring so we kept the best buck to replace Dozer.

Aster is the son of Phineas, although his dam is an opinionated black doe so Aster seems to get his attitude from his dam.

The buns here are fed high protein pellets mixed with rolled barley and some black oil sunflower seeds. They get as much pellets as they can eat in about a half hour along with lots of fresh ti leaf, mulberry leaves, grasses, dandelions, etc., etc. Hay is too expensive in Hawaii, it's about $40 a small bale which then mildews before it can all be used so they don't get hay.

They get a haircut about every three months and provide anywhere from several to six ounces of good clean spinnable wool each harvest. I'm finding that the denser coats which provide more fiber are also harder to shear since it's almost too dense to get the scissors into. No hope for electric clippers on the really dense coats. A more open flowing coat is much quicker to shear, even using scissors instead of the clippers.
Thank you for sharing! Your bunnies are gorgeous!!!
 
This is Lewis!
 

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More of Lewis
 

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Hmm, if his name is Lewis, then the second one could be Carrol and then shouldn't there be an Alice around there somewhere? He's a pretty bun!
Haha have a little white dog named Alice in the family!
 
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