It’s a difficult trade-off because they’re a great beginner angora breed, but they don’t have the best fiber for beginning hand spinners. Unfortunately, that also makes it much more difficult to spin than English angora wool. This makes it great for extra soft and silky scarves.įrench Angora wool has a very smooth silky texture, which helps prevent matting on the rabbit. These short fibers mean that finished yarn from French angora rabbits will have a “halo effect” as the short fiber ends fluff out of the wool. The guard hairs have the most intense pigment, meaning that French angora wool makes a more striking natural colored wool.īeneath the long outer coat, French angoras have a separate short wooly undercoat. Their coat also contains more guard hairs, which help prevent their wool from matting. Like the English Angora, this breed also sheds its coat naturally and the wool is harvested by plucking or brushing rather than clipping. That means that even though French angoras are slightly bigger than English, they still produce about the same amount of wool per rabbit (12-16 ounces per year). The French Angora breed requires much less maintenance than the English Angora because they have very short hair on their face and feet. Keep in mind you’ll need to pay for that extra productivity in additional bunny grooming time. If you’re only going to have a few rabbits, and you have a lot of time to devote to grooming, English angora produce the most fluff for their size. Add in the fact that they have long wool on their feet and face, the two most mat-prone areas, and they’ll need extra grooming attention. While the extra fine texture of their wool is sought after by spinners, but it’s also very prone to matting. That means harvesting angora wool is not optional, regardless of whether or not you have a use for it.Įnglish angoras have a very low proportion of “guard hairs” mixed in their wool, which means it has a very fine texture and the finished yarn is softer. If you don’t stay on top of their grooming as it sheds, the shed hair will just tangle in with the new coat. Their wool naturally sheds every few months and is harvested by “plucking” or brushing. That gives them an especially cute “ball of fluff” appearance, but it’s also extremely difficult to maintain. They yield roughly 12-16 ounces of wool per year or roughly 3/4 to 1 full pound of angora fiber.Įnglish angoras produce silky fiber on just about every inch of their body, including their face, ears, and feet. Though they’re only 5 or 6 pounds, they still manage to produce an impressive amount of wool for their size. Though they’re the smallest of the angora rabbit breeds, they’re also extremely productive. Regardless of the breed, grooming is a daily requirement, but the wool of some angora breeds is naturally resistant to matting. Some breeds naturally shed, while others require shearing.

While you may have thought that “angora” was a breed of rabbit in its own right, there are finer distinctions that make a big difference both in care and fiber quality. He had more face fur than a french angora typically does and his fur was very fine similar to the English breed. I believe he was a cross between French and English angoras.

Rabbit viber