Giant Angora Rabbit
Facts about Giant Angora Rabbits. The Giant Angora Rabbit is the biggest of all the domestic Angora Rabbit breeds, which was developed by a rabbit breeder, Louise Walsh, of Taunton, Massachusetts. The Giant Angora Rabbit breed was developed chiefly for wool-production by feeding it an alfalfa based feed and hay.
"Scientific name for Giant Angora Rabbit is Oryctolagus cuniculus". "Fear of Rabbits Leporiphobia". All rabbit breeds are "lagomorphs" various plant-eating mammal of the order Lagomorpha ; a hare, rabbit, or pika.
The Giant Angora Rabbits are capable of living in the normal size all wire cages, meant for commercial rabbit breeds. Louise Walsh created a new rabbit breed from French Lops, German Angoras, and Flemish Giants to generate an entirely dissimilar body type, which he called as the Giant Angora Rabbit. This 6-class rabbit breed is considered a showy rabbit by most of the rabbit breeders.
Features of Giant Angora Rabbit
The Giant Angora Rabbit is a big size rabbit that has a minimum body weight of 12 lbs (5 kg). Though this rabbit breed comes in three types of wool, such as soft under wool, awn hair, and awn fluff most of the Giant Angora Rabbits are found with the awn type wool. This breed will have furnishings on its ears and face.
The Giant Angora Rabbit produces more wool than other Angora Rabbit varieties. It is easy to place this rabbit breed on a normal grooming table to carry out the clippings. The loose fur of the rabbit can also be plucked while they are shedding. Similar to other Angora Rabbit varieties, the Giant Angora Rabbit needs their wool to be harvested once in 90 days. When the Giant Angora Rabbits are appropriately fed, their wool will be capable of growing about 1 inch (2.5 cm) per month. Their coat needs to be monitored subsequent to 6 months of their growth because it may tend to expire and mat easily. More than 12 ounces of wool are common for each clipping of a superior-sized Giant Angora Rabbit.
The Giant Angora Rabbit is the only 6-category animal among the Angora Rabbit breeds. It is classified as junior, intermediate, and senior rabbits.
Rabbits that are below the age of 6 months are considered junior rabbits and both male and female rabbits will have a minimum body weight of 4.75 lbs (2.2 kg).
Giant Angora Rabbits whose age lies between 6 months and 8 months are considered intermediate rabbits.
Giant Angora Rabbits that are more than 8 months of age are considered senior rabbits. The male senior rabbit will have a minimum body weight of 9.5 lbs (4.3 kg), whereas a senior female rabbit will weigh 10 lbs (4.5 kg).
It has a commercial type of body, with an extremely thick coat of wool. The head of the Giant Angora Rabbit will be oval in shape, and be wide across its forehead and narrow at its muzzle to some extent. The Giant Angora Rabbit has cheek furnishings and forehead tufts. However, the head trimmings of the rabbit are noticeable. Usually female rabbits do not need frequent trimmings when compared to male Giant Angora Rabbits.
The ears of the Giant Angora Rabbit are flippantly fringed and they are well tasseled. This is the solitary Angora Rabbit breed that is only exposed as a rabbit of ruby-eyed white. The coat of this rabbit breed contains three fiber kinds for its texture.
The under-wool is most dominant when compared to the other two kinds of hair. It is medium, superior, soft,and carefully waved with a mild shine.
The Awn Fluff, which is the second type of hair that this rabbit contains, has a protective hair tip and it is a stronger, curly wool. The Awn Fluff hair can be seen between the Awn Hair and the Under-wool.
The third type of hair of the Giant Angora Rabbit is the Awn Hair, which is also called the protector hair, is straight and powerful hair that projects above the wool.
The male Giant Angora Rabbit is called a buck and a female Giant Angora Rabbit is called a doe, also both known as a bunny. A young rabbit is called a kit "kitten" or baby bunny.
Giant Angora Rabbits have long ears which can be as long as 4 in" (10.2 cm) and can be longer. Giant Angora Rabbits are herbivores (a herbivore, eats leaves, grass, hay and furns (plant eaters) and also mammal.
Giant Angora Rabbits are born without fur and its eyes are closed and their eyes will open after 7 to 14 days of their birth.. Half of the rabbits in the world live in North America. Giant Angora Rabbits are comfortable living in groups. European rabbits like to live in burrows underground. Warren is known as a group of burrows. Cottontail Rabbits are the only rabbit that does not live under ground.
Giant Angora Rabbits love to run and can reach speeds of 30 to 40 mph. The average lifespan of a Giant Angora Rabbit is around 5 to 8 years and in captivity can live up to 10 years. Giant Angora Rabbits have 28 teeth and an incredible fact, a Giant Angora Rabbits teeth never stop growing throughout its life.
Giant Angora Rabbits can jump up to 36 inches (91.4 cm) and sometimes higher.
Giant Angora Rabbits are very clean animals and will groom themselves and also each other. Giant Angora Rabbits are crepuscular-(meaning the are most active at morning and evening) and do most of there feeding in the evening. Giant Angora Rabbits on average sleep about 8 hours.
Giant Angora Rabbits as pets enjoy wet food, carrots, hay or lettuce, dark leaf lettuce is good. (Iceberg lettuce contains too much water and too little fiber to be suitable.) Limit giving them fruit with sugar in it. Alfalfa provides the high caloric content necessary for baby bunnies development. Once Giant Angora Rabbits reach seven months of age, gradually switch them over to timothy hay, oat hay, or orchard grass. Avoid giving them yard clippings, since grass is often sprayed with fertilizer, insecticides, pesticides, and other chemicals rabbits should not be eating. Their diet should consist of 70% of timothy hay and make sure they have fresh water every day.
For bedding, give Giant Angora Rabbits wood pellets or aspen. You can use pelleted horse bedding. Do not give them pine or cedar. Clean the cage with either white vinegar or a cage safe cleaner; don’t use bathroom cleaner or other things that are toxic for the pet cage.
De-worming is a major concern and should be done in the spring and fall. A pea sized amount of de-worming paste in the rabbit's mouth is sufficient for the Giant Angora Rabbit.
Giant Angora Rabbits have an outstanding sense of vision, smell and hearing. Having eyes on the side of their head and being so big, gives the Giant Angora Rabbit nearly 360 degrees vision, allowing them to see predators from all directions. The Giant Angora Rabbit can see everything behind and in front of them and have just a small blind-spot in front of their nose.
Pet Giant Angora Rabbits should be kept in pairs for Companionship, its important for a Giant Angora Rabbits happiness and it can live longer with a companion. In the wild, rabbits are very social. Female Giant Angora Rabbits can produce about 2 to 4 litters of bunnies per year with 4 to 6 babies.