There is fur EVERYWHERE

[Lightchick]

Lizzy is SHEDDING.  She’s been shedding, and white bunny fur has been floating around, but when I came home tonight, the slightest touch sent clouds of white fur wafting everywhere.  It’s ridiculous.  (Remember PigPen from the peanuts, with his cloud of dust?  That’s what Lizzy’s like, but with white hair.)

When I first got her, it was June and she was shedding for the summer.  Then, it came out in chunks/tufts.

This is SO much worse.  The clouds are uncontrollable and everywhere.  And they seem to prefer floating in the air and sticking to skin than going anywhere else (like a brush, or the trash). 

Lizzy hates being groomed.  Normally I swipe at her with a wet papertowel every so often, and that seems to be enough, but that wouldn’t begin to make a dent in this madness.  So first I tried brushing her in the living room.  She squirmed and flailed and scratched and I couldn’t breathe for all the fur in my nose, mouth, eyes (hair, cleavage, ears, everywhere!).  So I took her into the kitchen (slippery floors that she hates, and she’s never been in there so she doesn’t know how to escape), and she crawled up my front and buried her head in my neck and was highly pathetic.  And I hauled her down and talked nicely to her, and brushed.  And brushed, and brushed, and brushed.  I brushed for 30 minutes.  And Lizzy was miserable.  And I couldn’t breathe.  And I was trying not to sneeze because it freaks Lizzy out, and she was already traumatized.  And I can’t vacuum because it’s 2am (I came home after work at 12:45am to this dust-devil of a furball-bunny).  But after 30 minutes of brushing, there is absolutely no dent in the amount of fur flying everywhere, but I don’t want to torture Lizzy beyond all endurance.

So I gave her a raisin and put her to bed.  She’s not a happy girl.

What is up with this shedding?  How long does it last?  Why was the summer-shed in clumps, and this one is floating and everywhere?  Why shed now, when it’s getting colder…shouldn’t she be gaining fur, not losing it?  Does anyone have any tips/hints on how to deal with this?

Argh…

[GHbun]

My boybun used to shed like that, too. I chould have stuffed a comforter and matching pillows, every year. Sure, he was 11 pounds, but how was it possible that such a small body could produce so much fluff??? When I would brush him on the front lawn, there would be black-and-white fur all over the yard and drfting into the neighbors’ yards. My neighbor came home and asked if my rabbit had exploded on the grass. I finally resorted to shearing him like a sheep every spring and vacuuming him with the Shop-Vac. He didn’t like it, but could forgive anything for a slice of banana. He’s been gone for 378 days now, and I still miss him like crazy, but I don’t miss the “hareballs” all over the family room.

[KatnipCrzy]

You could try using damp hands to “pet” her- and the loose fur will stick to your hands- rub your hands and the wet fur will clump up- and then start again with damp hands.  Since this is more than a pet or 2- I would make sure your hands are only damp and not really wet as to avoid soaking Lizzy.  I use a Super Big Gulp cup (44 oz) to hold the warm water for my hands.  This will pull alot of the loose hair off of her and prevent her from ingesting it.  It will not groom as much off as a Furminator, Zoom Groom or Hair Buster- but if you use damp hands on the days you are not forcing a grooming session it will help alot.

Julie

[Beka27]

bunnies have two heavy sheds and two light sheds per year. i’m guessing you’re entering a heavy shed. there does not seem to be a lot of rhyme or reason as to when they shed. some are just ending sheds while others are just starting so i think it has to do with region as much as with breed of bunny… possibly diet too? i know a good diet creates good hair and fur in animals, so that all might be interconnected as well?

i think you did the right thing taking her to the kitchen. unfamiliar territory is much better than an area she’s used to for grooming. i also do the paper towel thing after grooming. during the heavier shed, even tho it’s a pain in the rear, you will want to do more frequent sessions. even if it’s 5 minutes a day. i think doing 30 minutes a day would be too much on both her and you.

[Bunnies4ever]

I know how you feel Lighchick! My two lops shed like crazy. Now I know where the term “dust bunnies” come from. They are balls of rolled up fur floating all over my house (like little tumbleweeds). I have hardwood floors so, it just floats from their room to my dining room and stay there. I vaccuum all the time. Like others have said, take a damp towel and just rub her down and that will take some of the fur away, but don’t despair. I know it’s a pain. When they are in a heavy shed, I usually take my bunnies outisde and groom them to keep the fur from flying all over my house.

[TARM]

OMG, the other day I furminated Digger…and so much fur was coming out I gave up and just started pulling furr off of him in clumps. It was EVERYWHERE and I had so much on me I had to take a shower! I couldn’t get it off!

[bunnytowne]

that sounds like Honey bunny.  Clumps and floating fur.  I pluck. He tolerates it but doesn’t care for it. Ruby’s hair is shedding and floats too. NO clumps from her yet. Cotton well…. Not so much shedding right now. Fortunately 2 shedders are enuf at 1 time.

[Lightchick]

Yeah, Beka, 30 min was a long time…I kept waiting for there to be some improvement, but the fur just kept coming off!

I’ve been brushing her every morning for 3 days now, 10 minutes or so at a time.  I could have build another rabbit out of the fur I pull off of her…  And OH, the EPIC stinkeye I get from her! 

So how long do these heavy-sheds last?  Anyone know?

She still leaps at me to “save” her from…not sure what.  The kitchen.  The brush.  The entire situation.  Tries to CLIMB me!  And I put her back down, and she sits perfectly still, with the nastiest stink-eye she can manage.  (You know you’re in trouble with Lizzy when she turns her ears back, and they sort of fuse together into a single demon-horn!  She’s like the anti-unicorn when that happens!)

Poor angry shedding bunny…

[Lightchick]

Hey, KatnipCrzy, you mentioned, “Furminator, Zoom Groom or Hair Buster”. What are these things? How do they work? Where does one get them?

[Beka27]

mine are still not talking to me from this morning’s torture, uhm… grooming session.

demon-horn. oh my god. i love it.

what KatnipCrzy mentioned are dog brushes that are used for very thick-haired dogs (ones that have double-coats.) some folks use them for their bunnies too. i was thinking about getting one, but i never did, i think it’d be too much for my relatively short-haired Max and def. too much for my delicate mini rex, Mead. if i had multiple species of animals in my house i might get one, but i don’t, so i just have a slicker and a soft bristle brush…

[MimzMum]

Lightchick, I feel your pain. My three are seemingly in constant states of flux concerning their coats. It seems I just get one through a shed, then the other starts…it’s a nightmare of epic proportions. I have bits and tufts of bunny fur EVERYWHERE. (can’t speak to the cleavage, don’t have that anymore, but…) My son is always threatening to take back his spare XBOX (I use it for DVD’s/CD’s and stuff) because the bunny fluff floats right for it and clogs all the openings. But in my house, there’s already so much dust and fur and whatnot collecting in corners, waiting to destroy my vacuum cleaner the next time I attempt to control it, I almost don’t notice the extra offender. … Almost …

I hear you on the ear/horn deal…when Fiver is angry, his ears go backwards and fuse together…he looks like a little vampire bat.

Watch out for that leap for your shoulder. Even if you’re on the floor when it happens, your diva bunny could try to swan dive from there and, if rabbit falls from that height, well, the end result could be very sad indeed. All my bunnies try to go over my shoulder, not just stop at it. When they are not happy with a sitch, all they know is “get away”. It’s normal for them, but it scares me every time and they get a lecture from me.

Do you happen to have one of those “Love Gloves?” There are two kinds, one is just red plastic nubbly material on a canvas glove and the other is like rubber dots on a glove and this tends to take hair off and stick to it instead of you by static electricity. I then use a tape roller (pet hair pickup) to take the fur off the glove and dispose of it. Or I suppose you could get some of those Swiffer (without the Febreeze-sorry I just don’t like that stuff) cloths and use those to try to contain the fluff.

I have to giggle thinking of PigPen. I’m a bigtime Peanuts fan, my stepbrother knew Sparky Schulz and introduced me to him when I was younger. I was stunned when he shook my hand and I don’t think I washed it for a week afterward. ^_^

Violet: “You’re an absolute mess! Just look at yourself!” *hands him a mirror*
PigPen: *looks at his reflection* “On the contrary, I didn’t think I looked THAT good!”

[MooBunnay]

I like the “Zoom Groom” myself, the North Texas Rabbit Sanctuary gave them out at their bunny spa day, and it seemed to work really well for my bunnies. I don’t have any that really do any crazy shedding, but I do have a few that need to be *plucked* will all the clumps of hair they have coming out, and the Zoom Groom seems to do well with that.

[Lightchick]

I’ll have to look for one of those glove things…

I have a $1 Walmart special rubber-brush-thingy. I had something I bought in the “Small Pets” section of PetSmart and it was USELESS! This $1 rubber-thingy is okay.

And I am already in love with the tape roller! It is well-integrated into my grooming routine–you’ll notice in the pictures above that half of the shedded hair winds up on the rug. A bunch winds up on me. And a bunch stays trapped in-between rubber-bristles of the brush. The tape roller takes care of much of that! (I threatened to take the tape-roller to Lizzy directly this morning, and my boyfriend was horrified! You’d think he hadn’t been dating me for 2 years…)

I’m very careful to not let Lizzy go flying over my shoulder. She does try, but she’s a klutz, so I always manage to catch her mid-leap. Although I do have bunny-claw-marks all over my shoulder/chest again, which I haven’t had since I got her and had no idea what I was doing, way back in June!

Seriously, how long is a shed? I don’t think I can take too much more bunny-fur up my nose!

[MimzMum]

Let’s see, Fiver just started blowing his coat about a week ago. He’s still working on it, but once I got him to the point he’d let me use the love glove on him every day or so, it’s not as bad now. But he’s missing great chunks of fur down his sides, on his nose and around his bum. He looks like he got in a fight with a lawn mower…and lost.

Geez, what does everyone else think? I think it depends on the bunny. Lizzy is relatively short haired, right? No wild bushy stuff? How long did the summer shed last? I would think at the rate the hair is coming off, it would take less time for a major shed, but I assume it depends on other things like house temperature and how often you can groom and such. If you can brush her more often, you may see it diminishing rather more quickly than if she only gets a grooming once in awhile.

And what about Robbie? Is he also shedding? Is he grooming her? Keep in mind, he’ll need to keep up his hay intake (actually they both should) if he is and watch for any signs he’s ingesting too much of her fur as well.

[Lightchick]

Yes, Lizzy is relatively short-haired. She’s an English Spot–her fur is longer than Robbie’s slightly, but she’s definitely not a long-hair. I have no idea how long her summer-shed was, as I got her on the tail-end of the shed, so she was a little patchy, but mostly done. This is a totally different kind of shed, too! Not patchy. To look at her, she looks entirely normal…then you touch her, and the cloud of loose hairs floats in a cloud around her!

Robbie managed to get rid of all of his long, rough, brown outdoor fur without my even noticing. It’s crazy…he’s soft and sleek and grey, now (except for some patches around his face), and not at all like the scruffy-thing I first took in. But there were never any clumps. I never noticed any fur-clouds, like Lizzy has now. He really is the stealth rabbit. He jumps and lands silently. Destroys my computer cable silently. Sheds silently… He’s even shadow-colored, which makes him hard to spot when he’s hiding. But that’s another topic!

They’re both being EXCELLENT about their hay intake, right now. Not sure whether they know that they should be eating more, or whether they’re just happy that I’ve been buying them orchard grass and have given up trying to make them eat Timothy (they HATE Timothy!). So they’re doing as much as they can, hay-wise. They get dried pineapple a few times a day. No more Papaya Tablets, cause I ran out…

They seem healthy…I’m the least healthy, because Lizzy’s bunny-fur is making me sneeze and wheeze and rub my nose raw with Kleenex!

[MimzMum]

I know that feeling. I had a moment of yipes when I thought briefly that I might suddenly be developing allergies to my bunnies themselves right after Fiver arrived. I was heart broken, thinking I would have to possibly rehome him, or all of them. I was really having trouble, even my throat closed up for a little while and almost no decongestant/antihistamine would help.
Then I realized that at the same time, I’d developed an allergy to the wine I was drinking and stopped that. Nose is better now, but some of that timothy hay, I agree it’s nasty, not only do the buns not really like it, but it’s SO dusty it sets off my hay fever. The orchard grass, eh, not so much, but it still affects me.
I always worry the orchard grass isn’t going to keep them as regular as the timothy would though, so I try to keep them eating it and I take lots of Benadryl.

You may have to wear one of those painter’s masks to brush Lizzy while she’s in shed mode.
Also, can you get an ionizer? I’m thinking of buying one myself. From what I’ve heard, those units help pull irritants out of the air, like dust motes and hair and stuff. It’s not so much a filter as it just gets stuff out of the air? (It repels airborne stuff.) Maybe one of those could keep your indoors clear for you?

[Cassi&Charlie]

Charlie is shedding at the moment – so suffocating. I swear I have dreams of drowing in fur because there is fur everywhere & no amount of vacuuming can keep up!

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

UGH I hate shedding Rupert had finally stopped and now hes started again!! I have every brush they make (including the useless petsmart brush….) and the best is the cat slicker and the furminator. And they hate you for hours after brushing!

[MimzMum]

Here Lightchick, I finally got a moment to spruce this ebil lookin’ bunneh up for you… xD

11020143388171.jpg

[GHbun]

“Mwahaha” – I LOVE IT!

[Beka27]

i like the idea of a mask of some sort… i get fur up my nose, so then i have to do that backward “phew” blow out of my nose, all it succeeds in doing is scaring the crap outta Max… i’ve learned the hard way to do all the grooming early before i take a shower… then i can just hop in and rinse away…

[Lightchick]

MM, that’s AWESOME! She does get an evil look, doesn’t she?!

I’m liking the mask idea, too…

So in today’s grooming session, I was, of course, on the watch for the leap-over-the-shoulder maneuver. Well, it didn’t happen today…

Did I mention that Lizzy’s a KLUTZ?!

She jumped at the counter. The kitchen counter, that’s like 3’6″ tall. Of course there was no way she could get that high. And there were no handles or shelves to grab hold of. So she sort of went *Splat!!!*, and then slid down. *Thud*.

*STINKEYE!!!!!*

Sometimes I feel like I’m living in a Tom & Jerry cartoon. I don’t know WHAT she was thinking! (It’s not that she’s dumb, either! She really is secretly planning world domination. She’s about 100x smarter than Robbie. She’s just…jumping-challenged. And lacking in spatial awaremess. And a terrible judge of distance.)

The fur shed shows no sign of letting up, either.

[MimzMum]

Um, have you had her eyes checked? Even three feet is too high for her to be jumping for if she consistently misses. Did she hit very hard?

Pip will be going in for an eye exam at the end of the week. Her eyes have a cloudy appearance to me all of a sudden, so I’m having her checked for cataracts. It might explain why she is still so feisty towards Mimzy while they are in the xpen together (they’ve actually had some nice sessions of late) if she can’t see him properly and he comes up behind her, it might be what’s spooking her worse.

Perhaps if Lizzy is not seeing you properly, she is feeling more of a ‘fight or flight’ response to the constant attention she is getting of late having to do with the grooming?

Or maybe Lizzy is just accentuating the drama queen area of her diva personality? 0_o But that’s the hard way to do it, for sure.

[Lightchick]

I’m pretty sure her eyes are ok. She can see to turn hair-pin corners on Bunny 500 laps. And to keep track of what Robbie’s up to across the room…

She didn’t hit very hard. She tends to under-estimate the amount of push needed, which is why she MISSES so soften! So she didn’t have much momentum.

I’d go with the drama-queen option. I mean, seriously! Part of me thinks she actually LIKES brushing, just a little. I mean, she sits perfectly still, glaring at me, in between taking flying leaps at me. It’s not like she’s constantly scrambling away (she would be, if we were in the living room, though). So she’s tolerating it, to some extent. I don’t know what her deal is, litte Diva-bun!

Poor Pip’s eyes! How do they check them? Obviously this is something more than what a vet normally does…is there a special test or machine they use? Are they specifically looking for cataracts, or is it a more general eye-exam?

[MimzMum]

I am not sure what they’ll do, probably just peer in there with a lighted instrument of some sort. They’ll be looking for a clouding/milky appearance to the eyeball. In my place, since it’s so poorly lit, it just may be my eyes, but I’d rather not take any chances if I can nip something serious in the bud.

[Cassi&Charlie]

LC – Lizzy’s antics are always hilarious, esp now that I have a really clumsy bunny too. Layla misses almost all the time and tries to jump onto things with no grip, so of course her furry paws slip right off. My favourite is the moment of realisation that flashes across their bunny faces

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

LOL That’s a great caption Mimz!!

She defo has that evil plotting look about her!

[Lightchick]

So, I haven’t been officially on in a while (I check the lounge from my phone even when I can’t sign in), but definitely have not been reprieved from bunny fur. Lizzy’s shed is still going strong. Sigh.

Caroline at the Bunny Bunch also recommended the “Furminator”, so $27 later, I have one of those. I wouldn’t have bought it if several bunny-people hadn’t recommended it, because it’s so metallic and scary-looking…looks awfully harsh for soft bunnies…

And here’s what I have found, in case anyone is curious.

The Furminator is great, for hair that’s already going to come out. It gets all of that. Definitely reduced the mid-day hair-halo.

But because you can’t actually brush with it, because it’s hard metal, it doesn’t encourage any loosening fur to let go. So I’ve been Furminating first, and then using my $1 WalMart pet brush with thick rubber bristles afterwards, to encourage more of the hair to come off.

I keep a wad of wet paper-towels next to me, for when the hair gets stuck to my hands. If I dunk my hands in water or wash them, I have wet hands, which just encourages more hair to stick to me. But if I wipe them on the damp towels, the hair comes off but my hands stay dry.

Also, I have about 3 of those lint-rollers, which are sticky paper on a roll. It gets the fur off my clothes, the rug I put Lizzy on, and out from between the bristles of the rubber brush, which I couldn’t get at otherwish.

My big secret triumph…OMG, you will think I am silly!…is cotton balls. My BF the EMT looked for medical masks at work and failed me. My nose was literally cracked and bleeding from fur-irritation, and then I had to go to Las Vegas (no, I’m not complaining, I’m just saying!) for a convention, and it was DRY, and I was in tears from the pain of trying to breathe through my nose, and it was not good. Not good at all. So the answer? Now I shove cotton balls up my nose. It’s embarrassing. The BF must stay locked in the other room when I do this so as not to witness such an embarrassing scene. But I’m not crying because of my broken irritated nose anymore, so that’s just fine.

Still waiting for the shed to end, though…

[MimzMum]

I went to Vegas for my wedding, Lightchick. And the air there was so dry (for a person who was used to beachfront) and my lips cracked terribly. You can’t kiss at your wedding with chapped lips!
So I used bag balm to heal them. Didn’t even take a day. You might try using this on your nose. It’s in a green tin usually with the other jelly-like emulsions for chapping skin. It’s used to rub on cows teats when they have been chapped from milking. it’s fabulous stuff!

Sorry to hear the shed is no less. Yeah, I like the Furminator, but I’m not fond of how heavy it is. I often feel it ‘clunk’ on top of a bun I’m brushing with it and I feel bad because it must hurt.

Have you recently turned the heat up at your place? I would think it’s not cold enough for forced air heat yet. My husband won’t let us turn the heat down all day and my bunnies are suffering as a result.

All three of them are shedding now. Pip is the worst, it’s coming off her in chunks AND wisps! >.<

[Lightchick]

It’s finally tapering off….I only got half-a-dwarf-rabbit’s worth of fur off her today, rather than a whole second Lizzy!

I skipped grooming her yesterday, because I had to be at work ridiculously early, and thought I’d come home to a hopping dust-bunny…literally.  But she was ok.  And when I groomed her today, she was much calmer than usual.  No flailing.  No leaping over my shoulder.  And instead of biting me, she licked me!  She even lowered her head for nose-rubs while I was brushing her…Could it be that she missed all the attention yesterday

*big sigh of relief!*

With my luck, this will mean it’s Robbie’s turn next!

[MimzMum]

Oh that’s good to hear! ^_^ And that she’d warmed up enough to you that she missed being groomed?? Wow! That’s really good news!

*shhhh! don’t give Robbie any ideas!*

How’s the nose doing?

[Author]

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