Clipping am angora?

[Bianca]

I’m finding with Maggie being in charge and demanding the most grooms, there are some spots on her that have become matted right near the skin – the other well meaning rabbits are kind of pushing the mats down. I am having trouble getting them out/keeping on top of them. Thankfully Maggie loves being combed, but last night I nearly created a small bald patch getting a mat out and felt horrible!

She is also a very warm rabbit already. With summer coming up I’m a bit more worried about her than the others.

So my question is would clipping/shaving be a more practical option at least over summer rather than constantly fighting matted fur right by her skin? If so, how short should I go? Should I do her whole body (maybe leave her head because that’s not long anyway) or just do the areas that get groomed by the other buns and mat the most?

We had our first warm spring day of 29 degrees Celsius yesterday. We had the whole house air con on low, window open, then fan on in their room. They have floorboard which stay cool. The others were certainly nappy, but Maggie spent a lot more time than normal flopped out on the floorboard instead of on her bookshelf, and she was by herself rather than cuddled up to someone else. She was near the others, just not squished up together. So if that’s her on a slightly warm day I think keeping her cool will be a challenge on hot summer days! I do know of other methods such as frozen water bottles but if clipping will help I would like to do it.

Thanks!

[Dface]

Peep isnt a pure angora but I still clipped him in the summer-i hand cut with a blunt nosed scissor as I was afraid a clippers would rip his skin!
He was still plenty hot even with his new hairdo, but their fur is crazy warm so it was worth having a scruffy looking rabbit to avoid heat stroke.
Rabbits cant sweat properly so removing any of their insulation is helpful!

A handy thing is to place tiles in the freezer, and then leave those down -they stay colder longer and rabbits will lie on them more readly than a frozen bottle!

[Bianca]

Thank you, I think I might give her a hair cut soon before the weather heats up too much.

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