What does the growth curve look like after 90 days?

[ingers02138]

Hello friends! I have a lovely angora-coated young doe rabbit (99 days old today) who is part rex and part french angora (more rex than FA). I'm trying to figure out how big she is likely to be full grown. I see lots of growth charts online, but all for meat rabbits and they usually end at 90 days. She is 85 ounces currently at 99 days or 14 weeks. I know I can just wait and see but it affects my breeding plans -- I'm going for smaller sized, long-coated rabbits.

Does anyone have a sense or a knowledge of what percent of adult weight a rabbit (medium sized rex/french angora) is at 14 weeks? If not, I'll try to keep this updated as she grows for future people with the same question!

 

[hotzcatz]

English angora are 5-6 pounds, so they start out pretty small. Getting small English and breeding them smaller may be an alternate route. How small of a rabbit do you want?

How's the coat on the French/Rex mix? A lot of times you'll lose the coat structure and end up with a long wooled coat the mats a lot if you can cross breed and then get back to the long wool.

At fourteen weeks, they're about three quarters or more of adult size, more or less. At least, with the English angoras around here, haven't a clue about French or Rex, specifically.

 

[ingers02138]

Thanks for your reply! Yes, English angoras are about the size I'm going for but I don't love the facial fur (I know some do, I'm intimidated by trimming it if a rabbit gets nippy!)

This rex/angora mix was a fortuitous find from a friend who otherwise raises meat rabbits. This doe is the only one of her litter who has long hair. My friend is a few generations into rex/angora raising (as meat rabbits). I raise rabbits mostly for fiber (spinning and other fiber arts) and also as pets.

My rex/angora rabbit's coat is AMAZING. She's four months old now and yet to have any mats. It's much softer & smoother than my full angoras without the cottony texture junior coats can have. It is a bit short at not quite three inches, but it has delicate crimp and a gorgeous color. I know she didn't get double rex (although her dad has a rex coat) but there's something very special about what she's wearing. She's also the sweetest rabbit of all the ones here.

My goal is full-grown, healthy rabbits in the 3-5 pound range that look like French Angoras (clean faces) and have excellent wool for spinning. The little boy I plan to set her up with (when they're old enough) is currently four months old and seems to be slowing down at just under four pounds. He's jersey wooly x french angora. Super long coat and a perfect miniature french angora body type. His coat is a little cottony but let's give it time.

For my promised record keeping, the rex/angora doe is 92 ounces today (5 pounds 12 ounces), at 17 weeks old. But she was about the same weight at 15 weeks with just a few ounces up and down since then. She's full of energy and seems in great health. That's her on the right, next to the jersey wooly x french angora buck.

 

[hotzcatz]

great density of color on her. FWIW, losing the ear wool can happen even between an English to English breeding so should you need another line to outcross into this one, getting a small English to breed in might help keep them small. Although English have a different body shape, they're round and French are loaf shaped. Aren't Rex round, though? Are your crosses coming out with rounded or loaf shaped bodies?

 

[ingers02138]

Thanks for your reply! I love your website. And yes, maybe I do need a small english angora to work into the mix. I'll need to plan a trip to Hawaii when you have one available.

My rex x angora mix AND my jersey wooly x angora mix have more roundness than a french angora but not the super high back of a full rex. When I have kits to evaluate, I'll look for more of a compact body for my "keepers."

Now I'm curious about whether my little rex x angora mix could possibly be both, as in, did she magically get both ll and rr? Her fur is... different. It's not exactly curly, though individual hair strands have a lot of crimp. I thought long-haired, rex rabbits (if they exist) would have curly hair like a sheep. That's not what she has.

But her guard hairs are almost exactly the same height as the undercoat. And it always has loft -- it doesn't fall under its own weight. Whatever it is, it does not mat. Between that and its silkiness (and that she's a total sweetheart), I feel like I got a real winner. Her dad (also a rex x angora mix) has classic plush rr rex fur. Her mom doesn't but would be a rex carrier.

For record-keeping, Charlotte is almost 20 weeks old and about 6.5 pounds. Sopho (jersey wooly x french angora cross) is just over 4 pounds at 21 weeks old. I'm not yet good at posing rabbits, but I made an attempt to get a top-level view of sopho. Charlotte and her fur in the other photos.