Bunny butts

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These category things are confusing me. Does a post about bunnies go in “Cabol” because they are my bunnies? Should it be a “Farm” item because bunnies are animals…even though they are pets and not food? Or, do I list it as “Country Living” because many people who live in the country decorate with geese and bunnies?

The bunnies are shedding. Each has their own way of going about it, but the results are the same: clouds of white fur floating around in the air and gathering along the baseboards.

Wibble is the most fun of shedders. He sheds in clumps. His back and rump are shaggy, and I can pluck little plugs of fur right out. I find this extremely satisfying. Wibble finds it extremely annoying and usually runs off after one or two plucks, glares over his shoulder at me and thumps. Hrmpf. Fine.

Hop also sheds in clumps, and she would probably let me pluck at her fur for minutes at a time. Of course, she doesn’t get all shaggy, and there’s not enough fur for more than one or two plucks. Here’s the neat thing, though: Hop’s butt fur is brown, but the little shaggy bits of fur are white. (I guess it’s only brown on top?) It looks like she’s sprung a fur leak sometimes when a little fountain of white shaggy fur works its way up.

Carla sheds in silent, secret foofs of fur. I rarely ever see her looking shagy, and I can never find little fur bits to pluck. I would almost say to you that she is not, in fact, shedding. Thing is, she has a fluffy, white border of Carla fur tucked into the snaggy parts around the edge of her cage and sticking out from under the straw floor mat.

On top of Hop and Wibble’s cage is a dark green glass jar. At one point it was a sugar jar, then it became a kitchen utensil jar, and now it is a rabbit fur jar. When my mom and I harvest bunny fur, we shake it off our fingers into the jar. (You don’t drop it really…it’s almost too light to be affected by gravity.) I have visions of using the fluff to make some incredibly floaty yarn. I know the fur is too short to make yarn on it’s own, so I’m going to see if I can toss bits in to some wool fiber as I spin that. I suppose this brief paragraph about harvesting fiber (haha) and spinning yarn firmly puts this into the “Farm” category. I’m glad I got that figured out.


3 thoughts on “Bunny butts

  1. My dad once had a scarf made from the fur his beloved Husky shed. I didn’t know you could do that. Bunny fur is angora, isn’t it? You have the apparati to spin? That’s cool! Tell me more about that! You guys are so neat!

  2. I think I’ve seen online where you can buy dog fur. I think only angora rabbits have angora fur, but I’m no bunny expert. I did find it neat that German Angora rabbits don’t shed like other angoras, so instead of plucking them, you shear them a few times a year. Imagine shearing a herd of rabbits!
    -A

  3. Yeah, only Angora bunnies make angora fiber. Other bunny fur is probably just as soft, but because its very short, it’s hard (impossible?) to spin. I still think it will make nice fluffy bits.

    I have only a drop spindle now with which to spin, but one day (especially after we sheer our sheeps) I’d like to get a wheel. Once Andy is here, I’ll try to post some photos of my drop spindle spinning adventures so far.

    I have a big ball of cat fur. I told my mom I was gonna spin it and make her a scarf. Bwahahaah. I’ll call it the Allergy Scarf!

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