What are Angora Rabbits?

What are Angora rabbits? The English Angora, French Angora and Satin Angora breeds come in an assortment of rainbow colors recognized by the ARBA. These rabbits are allowed to be shown. In addition, Satin and French Angoras can also be Siamese Smoke Pearl. It is only the French Angora which exhibits the broken color pattern. The Giant Angora is only recognized by the ARBA in one color and that is Ruby-Eyed White. If the color is not a Ruby-Eyed White then it is not considered an Angora. What are Angora rabbits? The color assortment include Ruby-Eyed White, Blue-Eyed White, Tortoiseshell, Seal, Sable, Red, Pointed White, Opal, Lynx, Lilac, Fawn, Copper, Chocolate, Chinchilla, Chestnut, Blue, and Black. In this article, you’ll learn what are Angora rabbits?

What are Angora Rabbits: Types of Angora Rabbits

What are Angora rabbits? Aside from the Angora rabbit, there are many other individual breeds of these Angora cottontails. Other breeds of this sort are the Giant Angora, the Satin Angora, the English Angora and the French Angora. All Angora rabbits have a special diet requirement and they need daily attention in terms of grooming. A dedicated caregiver/keeper of one has their mind set on making the grooming process of the Angora part of their daily routine. The other breeds of Angora include the Swiss, Finnish, Chinese, German, Korean and St. Lucian Angora. 

What are Angora rabbits? The Giant Angora weighs around 12 pounds, with females weighing heavier. It sports a commercial body with a large oval head which is broad on the forehead, slightly narrowing at the muzzle. These rabbits have facial forehead tufts and cheek furnishings. Its ears are well tasseled and lightly fringed. 

The English Angora vs. French Angora

The English Angora weighs around 5 – 7 pounds and its thick wool covers the rabbits’ entire body, including its face and its stand-up ears. This gives the English Angora the appearance of a big fur ball and they come in many colors. 

The French Angora weighs around 7 ½ to 10 ½ pounds and sport medium-sized, long rounded bodies with long, erect ears. Its face, ears, and forefeet have short fur and the rest of its body sports very long, soft wool. They come in different colors through breeding. As with all Angoras, the French Angora needs a special diet and needs to be carefully groomed every day to avoid molting. 

What are Angora Rabbits: Standard Colors

What are Angora rabbits? The American Rabbit Breeders Association presently recognizes four of the Angora breeds in its registry. These breeds are the English Angora, the French Angora, the Satin Angora and the Giant Angora. The Angora is sought after not only as a family pet to enjoy days with, it is also in demand for its thick, woolen coat. 

Before 1939, Angoras were classified as one breed – the Angora Wooler. It was in this year when ARBA classified the Angora Wooler into two types; the English type and the French type. Only in 1944 did ARBA separate the two Angora types into two breeds; the English Angora and the French Angora. Due to the Angoras popularity many Rabbit Clubs have been founded by rabbit aficionados purposely for the advancement, promotion and care of these generally docile creatures.

Each of the Angora rabbit breeds come in a variety of colors. Let’s find out what color varieties are acceptable to ARBA. The American Rabbit Breeders Association recognizes the four Angora breeds and is very straight forward with color requirements for these Angoras.

English Angora Color

The smallest and gentlest of the breed, the English Angora rabbit, requires regular combing and grooming because of its very dense wool. Those who have an already full schedule should rethink acquiring one because the rabbit cannot be left to neglect. The only rabbit breed which has fur covering and hiding its eyes, the English Angora is a sweet ball of fur that is easy to fall in love with. ARBA accepts English Angoras in varieties of agouti, self-shaded, broken, pointed white and ruby- eyed white. 

French Angora Color

The French Angora is much larger than its English cousin and it sports a commercial body type with a big undercoat. It differs from the other Angoras because it has a hairless face and forelegs that is save for minor tufting on its rear legs. Its wool fiber is of a smooth silky texture. The ARBA accepted French Angora varieties are self, agouti, ticked, pointed white, shaded, brown tones, broken, and white band. 

Giant Angora Color

The largest of all Angoras and the one which produces the most wool amongst the four breeds is the Giant Angora. The Giant Angora, which has a commercial body type and possesses a very dense coat of wool, mostly appears in ruby-eyed white and this is the only color accepted by the ARBA. The result of cross breeding between a French Angora rabbit and a Satin is the Satin Angora. Not a big producer of wool as its other Angora cousins, the Satin Angoras wool is silky in texture, has high luster with good guard hair. Shaded, agouti, self, wide band and pointed white are the varieties accepted by ARBA.

What are Angora rabbits? Angoras are lovable, fluffy, friendly, and docile rabbits that are typically raised as pets and more often kept and cared for because of their production of fine quality wool. Stay tune for more posts!