Venting, cause I feel like a bad bunny mom

[Jessica]

So as the title says I’m venting

Last night when brushing Amelia I noticed that she was blowing coat pretty bad, and it was time to comb and pluck her out. She’s 6.5 months old and this is her third time blowing coat. Well turns out this coat is blowing out weird, I’m guessing because she is transitioning from an adolescent to adult coat. Her back and prime wool came out beautiful as always, however the problems arose as we got to her sides. As I’m gently plucking out the long tips I notice that her sides are looking quite thin, she now has two patches what are rather thin, and the new shorter coat doesn’t appear to have come in yet. After seeing this obviously I stopped, she doesn’t have the slightest care about it and is behaving completely normal. Maybe a bit cuddlier since she’s a bit cold until I turned the heat up. I just feel like crap about this. The skin is not sensitive she’s not being hand shy she just looks awful, Nice short coat on her back rump and legs, then thin spots and then a wooly dust ruffle

Like I said she is behaving perfectly fine, being her normal lovey cuddly self all day. I’m just feel horrible, I end up crying looking at how her coat looks right now and she just kisses my tears. Last night I was so afraid I had hurt her.

[jerseygirl]

Aw, don’t be too hard on yourself. She’ll be okay. The fur and wool is still covering her core and will keep her warm. Plus she’s inside.
I know the feeling though. I always regret after Ive plucked out a ton of fur and they look so shabby afterward. And sometimes have bald spots. They are standoffish (more then usual) toward me afterward too.
I imagine it’s even more noticeable on an Angora with the different lengths in their coat.

She won’t look like this forever! Is the season changing there? Maybe that’s part of why shes’ having such a big moult?

[Theodorusrex]

Don’t worry – it is quite normal for rabbits to look a bit ‘rugged’ during a big moult. Theo is having a big moult at the moment and he’s got a big dent in his head where the fur has fallen out in one place but nowhere else, bald spots on his ears and a super patchy back. Once the moult is finished and all the old coat is gone and the new coat comes in they will be back to looking lovely and handsome!

[Ellie from The Netherlands]

It’s moult season indeed. And no you’re not a bad bunny mom, I think she was thankful for it.

Moulting makes rabbits very annoyed, I think it must itch a lot, like your hair being tangled.
Getting that loose fur out may look bad, but I think the rabbit loves being rid of it.

It’s common for rabbits to look odd when moulting. Breintje looked so bad 1,5 years ago that the description would be “driven over by a lawn mower”.

[Vienna Blue in France]

the description would be “driven over by a lawn mower”.

[Jessica]

The past two times I’ve plucked her coat she looked pretty good, the shorter coat is usually about an inch to inch and half long and her wool that’s ready for plucking is about three to three and half inches. She usually goes from her long hair poof version to looking like a wild bun.

We are just starting to change season, it’s been unusually warm out the past week and half. Usually we are buried under snow and having well below freezing temps for all of February and early march. We have had a couple days about 70F (my usual inside temp) but then it snowed last night, crazy Michigan weather.

But I’d have to say I agree she does look like she may have tangled with a lawn mower

However as I’m sitting typing this she is running around doing bunny 500s and binking every time she’s near me

[Jessica]

Also THANK YOU everyone

[Jessica]

One more question

The thin spots look good, skin is very pale there are no signs of redness, except for one small scratch ( didn’t break skin) she got rough housing with dog, there is some black “stubble” where her new coat is starting to come in. She is an agouti color and her guard hairs are black tipped. Should I get her checked for fur mites? I’m trying to decide if a vet trip is needed. Should I wait until Monday to see if there is more new growth?

[Jessica]

Took Amelia and her brother (Zilla the dog) to the vet today, our vet did a skin cytology and did not see any evidence of mites but thought it looked like she may have them. We decided to just go ahead and get her started on Revolution now. I planned to talk to the vet next month about flea prevention since her brother is in and out and loves taking walks. Since they cuddle and play he could very easily pass a bug on to her. What I thought was funny is that they are on the exact same dose, both are on the 0-5lb puppy/kitten formula.

On a side note the bun is officially bigger then the dog now, weighing in at 5.5lb, and the dog at 4.75lbs

[Winter]

I don’t pluck anymore because my Harley always had this weird horizontal shed line that I would pluck around and he kind of hated it. My baby now just throws fur everywhere lol so I don’t know but sometimes you just have to be patient.

[Jessica]

I collect Amelia’s wool to spin and then knit, so I will keep with combing and plucking her

On the plus side, two days of revolution and she has new hair coming in, the bald areas are mostly covered in a dark grey peach fuzz. She is also significantly less itchy. I didn’t think she was really itch before, but comparing her to a dog with chronic allergies isn’t a fair comparison

[Author]

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