Posted by Meagan | Posted in Angora Rabbits, Riker | Posted on 04-03-2010
Everyone, meet Riker! Riker is my first official fiber animal joining the farm (hence his name, as he’s Number One, and so is William T. Riker). He’s an English angora buck who’s been described as a lilac cream tort. His fibers will pair wonderfully with my Shetland sheep fleece to produce a wonderful Angora-Shetland blend of yarn… but not for at least 3 months as he was just sheared.
He is currently living in a “Rabbit starter cage” bought from Petsmart, he seems to be happy and relaxed and has a healthy appetite and poop production. I’m looking into the best diet for him and our future farm lifestyle. I’ve seen two different approaches so far, one which advocates mostly pellets with a bit of hay and veggies, the other which advocates mostly hay with a quarter the amount of pellets and much more fresh food. Right now I’m feeding him the same diet he had in his older home, pellets with a bit of hay and veggies. Once we get into growing season I might play around with the veggie/hay/pellet ratios, gradually of course!
I bought a wire comb meant for little dogs to comb his fiber with, and it worked wonderfully. He just sat right down with us on the couch while we combed him and pet him. No poop or pee mishaps with us so far. He’s such a champion! We are very happy to have him on the farm, and I’m now thinking much more seriously about raising Angoras sooner rather than later.
[...] blogged more about him on my Adventures with Yarn blog, but I wanted to take a moment to announce him on the Happy Panda blog as [...]
Ahh – you are bitten by the Angora rabbit bug! He is a contented little one (well, not so little) – and quite affectionate.
I bet it was a sight to see him on your lap, enjoying the combing! so will you keep that fibre in a bag until you have enough, or how does one do this
And out of curiosity, sheep fleece need to be washed, does Reiker’s hair need to be washed, or the fact they wash themselves like cats do the job?
Inquiring minds want to know!!
For the most part you don’t want to wash Angora fiber unless it’s been spun, the fibers will get really tangled up and it’s really hard to straighten to spin properly. You usually spin and skein it up before you wash it. They keep it pretty clean themselves though, there’s no grease in it at all.
Since he was just sheared recently, the stuff I comb off is too small to be used. I’ll probably save it up for stuffing or quilt batting though. Once it gets longer the comb-offs will be useful, as will the final sheared lengths.