Angora rabbit

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The Angora rabbit is a variety of domestic rabbit bred for its long, soft hair. They are believed to have originated in Turkey, along with the Angora cat and Angora goat. The rabbits were popular pets with French royalty in the mid 1700s, and spread to other parts of Europe by the end of the century. They first appeared in the United States in the early 1900s.

An English Angora rabbit

There are four different ARBA-recognized Angora rabbit breeds:

English: This is the smallest Angora rabbit of the four breeds recognized by ARBA. In addition to the wool on the rabbit's body, there are furnishings on the face and ears as well. This breed is more common as a pet because of the facial features that give it a puppy dog or teddy bear look. If the texture is correct, the maintenance is relatively easy; if the texture of the rabbit is cottony, it requires a great deal of maintenance. There are many recognized colors in this breed including but not limited to: white, black, blue, chocolate, fawn, tortoise, chinchilla, sable, and chestnut.

French: This breed has guard hairs on the surface with wool as undercoat. If the texture is correct, it requires less maintenance than other Angora breeds. Ear tufts are allowed but not preferred. If you wish to spend less time in maintenance, this is a good Angora to own. The recognized colors are the same as English Angora plus broken, which is the combination of white with any recognized colors.

Satin: Spinners love the wool and sheen of this breed. However, this breed does not produce as much wool as other breeds of Angora rabbits. This trait is being improved upon by selective breeding. It should have a silky texture with good guard hair for ease of maintenance. The colors recognized including, but not limited to: white, black, blue, chinchilla, fawn, chestnut.

Giant: This is the largest of the four ARBA recognized Angora breeds. It produces more wool than the others in general. This breed may or may not have furnishings on the face and ears. In addition to the underwool and guard hairs, it has an "Awn Fluff" that does not exist in the other three breeds of Angora. The only recognized color is white with pink eyes.

There is one more Angora breed, although it is not recognized by ARBA:

German: This breed looks much like the Giant Angora, except it only comes in REW, ruby-eyed white or albino. Many spinners breed the German Angora with another Angora breed so they will still have the bountiful German Angora wool, but with many beautiful colors. These Angora crosses are called hybrids and most German Angora sellers will tell you what the percentage of the hybrid is German Angora. Many German lovers are trying to get ARBA to recognize this breed.

It should be noted that Giant angoras were created in the United States using imported German angoras and also other large breed short haired rabbits, including but not limited to Flemish Giants. So in a certain sense, a Giant is a cross-bred German. A separate club for German angoras exists in the United states. It is IAGARB, http://www.iagarb.org. Instead of conformation showing, the emphasis is on the wool bearing properties of the rabbit for commercial purposes. The rabbit must meet objective standards and perform well on 90 day shearing tests in order to be officially recognized as a registered German angora rabbit.

IAGARB, unlike ARBA, recognizes colored rabbits and a colored rabbit may achieve merit-based registration if it conforms to the standard and proves it's wool bearing ability via the witnessed 90 day shearing tests. IAGARB also recognizes the worth of the rabbit based strictly upon it's tests and judging, welcoming all breeds to test for registration status. It does not require breed purity.