Poll: does your bun also have troubles with abnormal moulting this year?

[Ellie from The Netherlands]

We’re experiencing massive moult problems here, with you as well?

The weather has been quite odd in western Europe these past few months, we’ve had a relatively warm spring which changed into a rainy and cool summer in June. Breintje has been moulting since April I think, but it just isn’t coming along properly. He’s still stuck with that “run over by a lawnmower”-look: tufts and semi-bald spots everywhere. We’ve already discussed it with the vet, but she found no medical cause for this. No mites or anything like that, just a very extended moult which progresses too slowly. It’s nearly October again, and then he can go into moult again for his winter coat.

In the meantime we’re going crazy with all the fur flying around. It gets everywhere: in my nose, my food and even in my crafts. As I mentioned in the pictures thread: my dad’s going to get a pair of knitted socks with at least 25% bunny fur in them if this madness continues…
Breintje is very grumpy, itchy and refuses to be brushed. I try to pet him as much as possible and remove stuck tufts gently by hand. We’re feeding him a couple of sunflower seeds daily, for some extra protein, minerals and healthy oils. Hoping that all this will help.

[Bam]

Your first 3 options describes Bam’s spring/summer molt of 2017 very well. Started in April, proceeded quite normally, but when I thought he was done, it began again in June, with big bald spots. Then he paused the whole thing. The bald spots were just bald and ugly. A couple of weeks ago he started up again, grew hair on the patches and lost the hair on his fore head and ears. He lost his cheek hair in April, so he did his face in two steps, so to speak.

We had a cold spring and summer’s been cold and rainy. A sub-par spring/summer even by our very low standards ?

Could Breintje and Bam be plotting their molting together on BB when we hoomins sleep? ?

[Ellie from The Netherlands]

I just might have to dust my desk with talcum and check for paw prints in the morning…

[Mikey]

Badger’s is weird this year. Granted, its his first ever year with molting Around Feb(warm) he shed his very thin short fur into long thick fur; it looked like he gained a few pounds, but it was just fur! First of August(cold) he started to shed his thick coat into a super soft short coat again. I think his fur is confused on the seasons, hahah

[Luna]

Luna’s first molt this year was either the lightest and quickest molt she’s ever had, or it was a half-hearted one that stopped midway and then finished very lightly (she doesn’t molt in patches so it’s hard to tell sometimes). She still hasn’t had her second molt yet. The weather this summer has been all over the place, but that’s usually the case here, so I’m not sure what is throwing off her molt schedule.

[Q8bunny]

Chewie’s been moulting (somewhat gracefully, in the sense that it’s all over) non-stop since spring. I’ve been stealth brushing during cuddle sessions, and plucking during petting sessions, and eating floof during food sessions, and breathing in a flurry of fur in between.

Just yesterday he blew his cheeks and I ended up with those little tufts that look like paintbrush heads (you know… with the sebum clump on one end?)

I’d blame it on the weather, but since Kuwait only has two seasons: nice and way too friggin hot, we don’t have that excuse. Unless Choo’s tuned into the European bunny network??

[Dface]

Peep has been shedding since I brought him home, to the point I actually cut off his fur to help me get out the moult layer easier. Which was a mistake. Because he continued to moult and now the fur isnt being trapped by the longer hairs and as a result puffs of fur come off while he runs around.
I thought it miight be because he has gone form outdoor to indoor living and that can affect animals as the move acts as a “change in seasons”. Its weird to hear that a lot of other people seem to be experiencing it too though!

My boyfriend is actually allergic to rabbits and its been really frustrating for us all. Yumi is moulting too and is just so not in the mood to be brushed ever…they are such little terrors

[Q8bunny]

That’s why I’m puzzled, though! Chewie lives in a steady 23 Celsius environment since 3 mo, and he hasn’t gone to the park/beach since spring when it started getting too warm for him, so what the heck, rabbit??

[Gina.Jenny]

Everybun but Gina (and Latte) are all in mega moult mode – the keyboard is covered in a fine mist of hair even as I type. It is definitely different to other years, I’ve been putting it down to the fluctuating hot and wet weather. Mini started his first, then took a mid-moult break of over a month , then restarted when the other four all started shedding and sporting the ‘all-over-spikey look’ of the season! Chewie is just keepin’ in the trend ya know, Q8!

[ThorBunny]

Q8 – what’s a sebum clump? Thor never got those paintbrush head tufts, but I pulled some of them off Boo last night and had a small panic that something was wrong with him!

I’m not sure if it’s abnormal for her, but Thor’s been molting weird ever since we adopted her, just one half-hearted molt after another…

[Q8bunny]

Sebum is the oily/waxy secretion on the scalp (or body). Mammals produce it to lubricate the hair and skin. Buns often blow out cheek fur in little ‘bouquets’ or ‘mops’ of hairs all attached at one end by a dry/crusty little bit of this waxy stuff (usually beige-ish in colour).

[ThorBunny]

Good to know this is normal! Yes they were coming out of his cheeks, I was a bit concerned

[Q8bunny]

I toyed with the idea of saving them and making a makeup brush, but they’re too soft (and cute).

[Bam]

Breintje, Cho, Bam, Badger, Luna, Peep. Working together for world domination by fur. I think their strategy could be a winner. Exhausted hoomins with clumps of fur deep in their airways can’t fight back.

It is seriously crazy this year, I save Bam’s hair and it’s quite obvious that this spring/summer has yielded the same amount as 2 normal years.

Q8, Bam did the paintbrush-shed early on. I love plucking out those.

[joea64]

On Sunday, I briefly discussed shedding/molting with my new buns’ foster mom. I don’t remember exactly what she said, unfortunately (maybe because I was in such a haze over being groomed &nbsp but Panda and Fernando did seem to be shedding a bit; both us humans came away with a decent amount of bunny fur on our clothes, but still being a bunny newbie, I don’t know whether it was an excessive amount or not. I’ll check back with them.

[Dface]

I did two 20 minute sessions of brushing Peep yesterday, and the amount of fur coming out simply wasnt letting up..it just kept going and going and going…
Bam -Im pretty sure its a secret uprising too!
I frequently wish I could shave him sometimes….

[Mikey]

Lol! The buns are definitely trying to take us over through their weird shedding! I swear, every time I brush Badger (an hour a day), I can make a new bun out of the fur he has left me. Its so crazy

[Luna]

Maybe the molting-weird epidemic is due to the upcoming solar eclipse!  (…twilight zone music…)

[jerseygirl]

This was todays Secret Life of Rabbits Comic. Underneath, the author had written: “In Ohio. it seems constant”

[Deleted User]

So I have been confused about molting … I got Ophelia in March, so it’s been 5 months. I live in the U.S in Florida………………………………….. so we never truly have a “cold” season lol. We are happy if we get down to the 70s in the winter! I’ve read on the subject and I see that there’s supposedly a cycle of molting, but she has only ever just shed lightly. I have a soft bristle brush that I brush her with when she will let me, but mostly I just pet her and some loose furs come out. No clumps or anything like that. So I’m wondering if maybe it’s because she is kept inside at 75-77 Fahrenheit and so she’s not really exposed to temperature fluctuations?

[Q8bunny]

Mine isn’t either (same thing… no distinct four seasons). But moulting is affected just as much by the light levels throughout the day (and the length of that day) as by temperature.

[Ellie from The Netherlands]

It’s coming through! All the floodgates have been opened, the fur apocalypse is here! With the approval of our vet, we’ve fed him some sunflower seeds each day (10-15), and after a week or two we’re suddenly experiencing massive moult. Maybe this trick will help others as well?

Breintje was super itchy yesterday and was practically screaming for attention and pettings. He kept pushing my sewing out of my hands and trying to lick me, so I put him on the towel of shame and started to pluck him very gently. His entire coat on his left flank came off, revealing a new coat underneath. The old coat was loose, but wasn’t coming out properly. It must have been so itchy, no wonder he was so annoying.

[Q8bunny]

Poor bub. Glad you got him to blow his old coat.

[kirstyol]

Our house is covered in bunny fluff!! Ron has always shed a lot but Bramble is too over the last week or so which is unlike him, he normally just goes through a subtle colour change with a few loose hairs but there are literally clumps of it coming off him this time round. We brush them every single day and there are still clumps of hair lying about every day to sweep up its nuts! Never been like this before

[vanessa]

This years moult is heavy and slow… I’v never seen this much clumps of hair. The bunnies all look so ragged.

[Author]

Messages