Tis the season; for shedding!

[Cottontail]

Alright… I know bunnies go through seasonal sheds, just like cats and other animals, but for how long?  I’ve read posts saying that sheds can be short and heavy, some can be light, some can even leave bunnies with temporary bald spots from moulting.  Is it simply genetics that determines the severity and length of the shed, or is it environmental?  

I know that my experience with cats indicates that their seasonal sheds (although genes do affect it) can be triggered or shifted by the amount of sunlight they get–since it does effect the amount of vitamins they produce and consume.  Is this the same with bunnies?

Peter started his seasonal shed once the outside temperatures here dipped below about 45 degrees Fahrenheit (the inside is kept about 70, but he likes to sit by the small drafts in the morning/evening).  It’s been going on for a couple months now, but is a light shed that doesn’t leave any balding… just lots of hairy poops and fur on the sheets.  He’s also been lounging more and eating heavier on his hay (which I assume is normal… he hasn’t lost any appetite).

 I guess I’m just curious how much your bunnies shed, and if there is anything you’ve noticed makes it heavier or lighter?

[JackRabbit]

Marlee has a couple of heavy sheds a year. She’ll start looking like she has a bad toupee on her back and as the shed line moves downward she looks like she’s wearing a skirt or even a bed ruffle. She puts out enough fur to make a couple of extra bunnies. The rest of the year, she has a constant light shed.

Moshi also has a couple of heavier sheds a year, but nothing like Marlee. His coat just starts looking rough and lumpy. He also sheds lightly the rest of the year, but again, not as heavy as Marlee.

Kieko has one of those road map looking sheds, worse in the Spring. Her face even gets the weird shed lines.

With all three of mine, their heavier sheds seem to last 4 to 6 weeks. None get complete bald spots, but Marlee will get two or three almost bald spots almost the size of a dime right behind her neck. All three eat even more hay during heavy sheds, and Marlee gets extra moody.

[Megabunny]

I’m not sure Gus ever stopped

[Cottontail]

JR – I think I know what you mean about the road-map sheds. Pete gets swirls of black and tan throughout his coat since he’s got 3-4 shades per hair and he’s currently under constant shed… some days they’re almost blended in, other times it almost looks like I took a sharpy and scribbled on him!

Mega- lol. I just pictured this little trail of fur behind Gus, like a bunny snail-trail.

[JackRabbit]

Cottontail — Yep, drawing on the bunny with a Sharpie is exactly it.

[kirstyol]

Bramble almost totally changed colour with a shed a few months back, then changed back to brown and is now both brown and grey! His last shed seemed to go on for ages but it does seem to be calming down now. His was more a sort of getting rid of baby fluff the first time so I figured that’s why he changed colour, then it was like I woke up one day and I had a brown bunny again! it was the strangest thing, he never looked like he had bald patches or anything like that, it really did just seem like an overnight thing.

[Cottontail]

Kirstyol – Pete will go through similar phases… along with his “roadmaps” when his fur blends it will be more black or more brown, depending on how he’s been shedding… It’s finally starting to look like his normal coat (brown-brindle with tan, rather than black-heavy), but he’s gotten like this a couple times and been a different pattern the next day, too. We’ll see how long his shed lasts.

[MoxieMeadows]

Since by bun is an angora, I don’t think her shedding patterns are the same. Around every 4-ish months, Moxie gets REALLY fluffy with fiber, as her breed is supposed to. If I don’t keep on top of it and “pluck” her, (pull off all the ready fiber, it’s like plucking the loose fur off a dog almost?), she’ll leave good-sized clumps of long fiber befind her. Other than that she may leave behind a little fur/fiber here and there, but nothing major.

[khrisangel]

My english spot sheds all year;(

[kirstyol]

I Think the problem with Bramble is that he doesn’t look like he is a fluffy rabbit because his coat is smooth, but if you actually run your fingers against the growth you realise that he actually has quite long hair which is white underneath it looks a little odd actually after he has had a good brush until he grooms himself to fix the mess I make of his fur. So he sheds a lot more than you think he should because he looks like a short haired bun but actually has medium length hair

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