Angora rabbit is a popular choice as a pet among other rabbit species! Angora rabbits are also often bred because of their silky soft wool hair. But, do you know that other rabbit species also have silky hair, as pretty as Angora rabbit? In this article, we will introduce you with some of them so we can easily identify which one is Angora rabbit an which one is just another rabbit species with fluffy hair! Let’s get started!
How Do We Identify the Fluffy Rabbit and Angora Rabbit?
Angora rabbits originally bred in Turkey and then their popularity spread across Europe as a royal pet to the United States. They are so many angora breeds, or at least 11 distinct breeds, from English Angora, French Angora, Giant Angora, Satin Angora, German Angora, Japanese Angora, Russian Angora, and more but the first four are the most popular ones, so let’s talk about them!
1. The English Angora
English Angora is the smallest breed among the other angora. Usually, adult English Angora can reach 5 to 7 and a half lbs in weight. They are popular because of their cute faces and unique ears. And just like any other rabbits with long hair, daily grooming is a must to keep their fur from matting, especially English Angora has more wool percentage rather than guard hair, so you might want to be as gentle as possible when you brush them! We don’t want to ruin that silky hair, aren’t we? English Angora is also great to breed because they can produce 10 ounces to a pound of fiber each year.
2. The French Angora
French Angora, on the other hand, is friendlier with touchy-touchy because unlike English Angora that needs to be treated as gently as it can be, French Angora has more guard hair percentage rather than wool hair. Not only that, but French Angora usually also has more intense colors in the fiber, which makes them one of the most favorite fibers to use in garments with its halo effect. Its coat is also easy to harvest because French angora can molt naturally so you just only need to pluck it.
3. The Satin Angora
Satin Angora was created from crossing the French Angora with satin rabbit. Satin Angora, just like its name, is popular because of its ‘sparkling’ coat. They have a unique quality of the fiber scales that makes its coat looks as it is shining incredibly. The coat is also easy to harvest and easy to spin. However, despite all these sparks, Satin Angora produces less wool rather than others type of breed, about half a pound a year.
4. The Giant Angora
As you can tell from its name if the English Angora is the smallest breed, then Giant Angora is obviously the largest of the angora breeds. Giant Angora can produce one to two pounds wool per year, which makes them the highest fiber producers among the other Angora breed. The giant rabbit was created from crossing German angoras with other big breeds; Flemish Giant. No wonder where did the hair and body come from, huh? However, harvesting its coat is not as easy as the other angoras. Giant Angora’s wool has to harvest by hand shearing.
Angora Rabbit’s Personality and Taking Care of Them
Angora rabbits are usually calm and docile. You can easily pet them but you have to be careful about their hair care so it will not be matted or damaged (matted hair is not only bad for their appearance but also their health condition!). A lot of works needs to be done to keep the long silky hair in the best condition!
Okay! That’s a quick brief about Angora Rabbit. Now let’s jump into the other fluffy rabbit that we have to know!
1. The Jersey Wooly Rabbit
If the Giant Angora is a crossing between Angora rabbit and big breed rabbit, then Jersey wooly rabbit was created from a crossing between small breed rabbit, which is Netherland dwarf rabbit and the French Angora rabbit. Can you imagine a cute little fluffy rabbit, with a poof of fur, hopping around the room? That is must be the Jersey wooly! Jersey wooly has a soft and silky fur just like Angoras, but it is less quick to mat, which means Jersey wooly is so much easier to take care of. Moreover, it is not only its fur that makes Jersey wooly lovable, but it’s also because of the adorable head! Jersey wooly is also known as the Mug Head Rabbit, with that bold and squarish head shape. They are also super friendly, playful, and can easily bond with the owner. Jersey wooly is absolutely a perfect petite companion!
2. The Loop Rabbit
The easiest way to differentiate the Loop rabbit with others breed is with the ears. The Loop rabbit has a long pair of ears that hang down, rather than point up like any other rabbits. There are at least 19 breeds of them, from American fuzzy lop, as the most popular one, and then there is mini lop, English lop, French lop, Holland lop, and more.
American fuzzy lop was created by crossing the angora rabbit breed, which is French Angora with Holland lop rabbit. From the crossing, we get a fluffy hair rabbit with low-hanging ears! What a dream, isn’t it? American fuzzy lops are usually a woold breed because of its wool similar to the Angora breeds, but the hair is usually shorter than Angora breeds’ hair. They are super active, friendly, and playful!
On the other hand, English lop rabbits have a smooth and short coat, with furry and silky ears. They are bred in solids and broken colors, like black, orange, agouti, blue, chinchilla, and several more different colors. English lop has a wide nose with a broad head with no visible crown. And obviously, as a lop rabbit, English Lop has long and loose hanging ears.