Happy New Year, Fellow Angora Enthusiasts!

We are getting off to an exciting new start here in 2009.   Our first big show of the year is right around the corner (see details on the UARC homepage at http://www.unitedangorarabbitclub.org/), and we have a large number of programs and projects falling into place for the new year.  Julie George has sent out the first Fiber test run with donated fiber from the BOD and received it back already.  It has been beautiful processed and will be offered up for sale at the PA Convention to raise funds for the club, after which we expect to begin offering regular yarn runs as a service to our members and to raise funds for the UARC.

In addition, we have several shows lined up for the new year in various parts of the country with more in the planning stages.  If you are interested in hosting a UARC Specialty in your region please contact a member of the BOD.  We are interested in hosting many shows with organized members, and look forward to raising the number of angoras shown throughout the country.   Also, there are plans for a UARC Calendar in our future, a greatly expanded and improved website, and a new Sweeps program which has now been completed but is awaiting the last minute details.

Kathy Taylor is currently working out a program with the Purina Mills Rabbit Club to save weight circles and raise additional funds for the club, and Lisa Rodenfels has compiled a list of fiber-related businesses that she will be approaching by email to purchase advertising on our site.

If you haven’t done so already, please add your name to the growing Member list on the UARC website in order to promote your rabbitry.  If anyone has ideas or input at any time as to how this club may be expanded and improved to serve it’s members, please contact the members of the BOD who are available at all times and positively thrilled to answer your questions.

And finally—last but not least—WELCOME TO ALL THE NEW MEMBERS!!:)  Here is to a bright and constructive New Year with lots of activity and bunny fun:-)

All the Best,
Amy Spang
UARC President
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Vice President’s Message:
Hi All,

Things are gearing up this year, we have a big show coming up this weekend at the PA Convention! I hope I get to meet many of you there! The PAngora Club will also be holding a Wool, Skein, And Garment contest, so even if you don’t show your rabbits, come and enter the WS&G, or just come by and say Hi. 

We will be holding our first election this year as well. Please read the article later in this newsletter for details.

Janet Gruber
UARC VP
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Secretary’s Message

Happy January!  This is my first note as secretary of the UARC, and as such I’m feeling my way around how much to cover.  There is so much going on in the club right now I’m not sure where to start!

First off, a big wooly ‘welcome’ to all the new folks who took up our offer of a free membership drive.  We are looking forward to hearing from you, getting your help and giving you a community of like minded rabbit breeders and aficionados!  That has been the best benefit, in my opinion, of the establishment of our small club; we are close, we are here to support our membership and above all, we are here to promote and learn the best ways to raise these wonderful rabbits!

Lots of folks are working hard to expand our club’s benefits – we are piloting a wool pool, expanding our show participation and working on a 2009  calendar!

I am thrilled to see our membership growing, and I hope you will find the time spent reading and posting to be as valuable a source of information as I do.  You all are my ‘rabbit friends’ and I look to you for help and support.  I hope we all can grow in 2009!

Julie George

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Treasurer’s Message

Hello! I hope everyone is enjoying the winter months. With the cold weather settled in here in the mountains of western NC, things are moving at a much slower pace. We’re getting past the part of winter when the days are so short and dark, and are moving into the time when the days are lengthening….but the temps are still cold. Right now it’s 19 degrees and I believe our high today was 23. As the days get longer, they’ll get warmer. More light and warmer temps should get these sluggish does woke up and thinking about babies before too long;) I HOPE!

There is very little to report on the financial end of things. For the last quarter of 2008:

Income- None

Expenses- October 27th- $8.00 to reimburse our outgoing Secretary for shipping the Secretary supplies to our new Secretary.

Balance as of January 31, 2008- $286.68

Hopefully I’ll have more to report at the end of the first quarter of 2009:):)

Lauren Waters
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WOOLBLOCK- Description and Remedies
Amy Spang

This article is a compilation of various tips and facts about woolblock from the UARC membership and other sources:

Woolblock is a condition in wool bearing rabbits in which excess wool gets ingested and accumulated in the stomach. Since wool is indigestible and a rabbit cannot vomit out the excess, a mass develops in the stomach eventually preventing food from passing into the intestine so that the rabbit essentially starves to death.  Symptoms of the condition are as follows:

1) Rabbits goes off feed
2) Poop pellets are small, dry, hard, and there are very few of them
3) in advanced cases a rabbit may sit hunched up in the corner and grind it’s teeth due to stomach pain
Woolblock often occurs when a breeder/owner does not observe the normal growth cycle of a coat and fails to remove it at the proper time. This leads to a rabbit cleaning itself during a molt and ingesting the loose fibers. When coats are held over for an extended show season or angoras are harvested by plucking rather than clipping, the likelihood of this condition tends to increase because the coat gets left on until a full-blown molt occurs.

Some rabbits / lines are more prone to woolblock than others.  Also, some lines molt more often AND shed wool out more easily in between molts, leading to a greater ingestion of fiber.  One breeder years ago performed necropsies on several rabbits who had died from woolblock and realized that some of her angoras had a larger opening leading to the intestine than others, leading her to believe that susceptibility to woolblock was genetic.  In New Zealand / French Angora cross experiments recently begun in my barn, I noticed that F2 and F3 generations were much more prone to woolblock than the purebreds in the herd.  It made sense to conclude that Angora digestive systems have had generations to adapt to the presence of wool, yet short haired rabbits would not have developed the same capability and may have genetically smaller cecal openings.

Dawn Panda of Fluff n’ Furr Angora described the anatomy of a wool mass in this way:
“The blockage forms a large, roughly spherical lump in the stomach. At
first appearance, it seems to be a chunk of semi-digested pellets
encased in a layer of slime.

Upon cutting the blockage open, it shows itself to be comprised of
layers. Each layer is coated in the slime. The outer couple of
layers tend to be fairly moist and can be pulled apart. Some hair
will be mixed in with the pellet slurry. Working inward however,
reveals layers succeedingly dryer and hairier, until the inner core is
reached. This core is generally hard and dry; the combination of
wool, pellet and mucous have hardened to a cement-like texture.
I posted this because there seems to be a lot of misunderstanding
about what a wool blockage really is. It is NOT a clump of fur
swishing round like a washing machine. The amount of papaya or
pineapple enzyme needed to “dissolve” it would completely obliterate
the stomach walls first. What the enzymes actually do is work on
that layer of slime. The slime, btw, is the stomach’s attempt to make
the blockage slippery enough to pass through. Once that layer of mucous
is reduced, MOISTURE can reach the pellet/fur block. Add enough water
and gut action, and the blockage will break up and pass (if caught early
enough).

Measures that can be taken to cure woolblock once it has occurred are also listed below:

1) Clip the rabbit down to the skin ASAP
2) Take away the normal pellet ration and replace it with a constant supply of hay and grain mix (birdseed w/o corn) for 2-3 days
3) Provide a constant and very fresh supply of water, even swapping water bottles for crocks until the rabbit improves.  Consider adding an electrolyte solution like Acid Pak to boost energy levels.
4) Feed up to a handful of dandelions each day
5) Provide the bunny with frequent exercise–put them into an exercise pen or safe environment in the house and encourage them to hop at a slow but regular pace (not short fits and bursts) to slowly work the mass through their systems.
6)  There are several mixtures that can be fed to a rabbit that may also help. Some swear by force-feeding frozen pineapple juice concentrate to a sick bunny, but this can be messy and it is not certain whether the juice contains enough enzyme to be 100% effective. Many breeders also use chewable papaya or bromelain tabs, but the mg content needs to be at least 250 in order to be effective, and most chewable tabs have enzyme levels far below that.  500mg Bromelain tablets can be found in the health food store (or on the ‘Puritan’s Pride’ vitamin website) and 1- 2 can be mixed into 1/3 of a piece of banana that is mashed up into a little dish. Not all rabbits enjoy banana but many absolutely love it, and this method forces them to consume the amount of bromelain that will be effective in passing a wool mass.
7)  Another mixture that works well is Meat Tenderizer (Adolph’s works well) mixed with water and syringed directly into the rabbit’s mouth.  Meat tenderizer contains papain or bromelain and has the same effect as tablets mixed with water or bananas.   Other ingredients that could be mixed in with this product to make it palatable include applesauce, pumpkin, banana, birdseed (w/o corn), and oats.
8)  As a last ditch effort in very serious cases, some breeders have had luck administering Petromalt (a hairball remedy for cats), but others warn against using petroleum jelly-based furball medications due to their water resistant properties and the possibility that they exacerbate the problem rather than correct it.

For the most part, woolblock is a condition that is entirely preventable with good management and care. As long as rules are observed similar to the ones listed below there should be very few problems in any herd:):

1) Keep close tabs on the growth cycles of your coats. When a coat really begins to slip remove it promptly—-do not ignore the signs of an impending molt or try to extend a coat beyond it’s natural lifespan.
2) Harvesting by clipping generally leads to fewer problems because it enables you to remove a coat in the slipping stage all at once rather than waiting until the molt phase takes place and removing it a little at a time.
3) Feed a handful of hay to each rabbit every day, and when in peak full coat, feed an extra handful a second time to keep wool moving cleanly through the system.
4) Try a ‘hay and seed day’ once a week where pellets are removed in lieu of grain mix and hay, and follow it up with more hay the following morning.
5) Feed greens such as dandelions and parsley regularly as an aid to digestion and to prevent the symptoms of woolblock from occurring.  Plain, dried papaya (non-sugared) can also be given in small amounts.
6) When breeding and culling, select for coats that seem to hold tightly and shed very little between molts. When a bunny is in Prime wool condition (or growing towards Prime), you should see very little wool coming off on your slicker brush during grooming. The tighter the coat the better the wool quality tends to be and the healthier the rabbit will be in the end. Also, the angora who molts every 6-12 months will usually be healthier than the one who molts every 3, but since there is no rule stating that hold time must be a certain length, make sure that yours is at least long enough to ensure several good months of no shedding or molting, and the bunny tummies will surely thank you for it:).
7) Try to maintain a stress-free environment and a very regular, predictable management schedule.
Before breeding your does, always clip them down so that the wool for their nests will be extremely short and their litters have less chance of getting tangled. This is a good practice for woolblock because it prevents the condition from occurring while wool is being pulled for the nest.

**Of these rules, the absolute, most important one of all is probably rule #1—knowing the growth cycle of your rabbits and removing coats on time. If a breeder does this and nothing else for their herds over the long term then they will see a drastic decrease in the incidence of woolblock in their barns.  When it comes to Angora coats–as always–timing is absolutely everything!

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Genetics 101
Lisa Rodenfels

OK, its time for a brief rabbit color genetics lesson:
There are 5 gene pairs we are most interested in right now. A, B, C, D, & E.

The first is “A”. A is agouti, ‘a’ is solid or self. Agouti is
dominant to self. So an agouti rabbit can be AA or Aa. Self is
recessive, so it can only be ‘aa’. Watch how the gene pairs change
colors for you.
A-B-C-D-E- is a chestnut agouti, the same as a wild rabbit. It has
banded hair shaft, with grey at the skin, a tan band, and black hair
tips.
aa-B-C-D-E- is a black rabbit. The only thing that changed is that
this rabbit has 2 copies of the recessive “a”.

B is black, ‘b’ is chocolate.
A-B-C-D-E- is chestnut agouti , A-bb-C-D-E- is a chocolate agouti.
aabbC-D-E- is a chocolate rabbit. Notice chocolate has 2 copies of
the recessive a and b genes.
So you should know that you could never breed two chocolates together
and get any agoutis, or any blacks, since they don’t have those genes.

I am going to skip “C” until later, since it has more variables. Right
now, just know this gene pair creates the REW, pointed white (himi)
sable (shaded) and chinchilla rabbits. REW is the most recessive gene
in this set.

D is dense color, “d” is dilute color. Black and brown are dense, blue
and lilac are dilute colors.
aa-B-C -D-E is black, to make it a blue, you need two copies of the
dilute gene, or aa-B-C-dd-E-. Chocolate is aa-bb-C-D-E. A lilac is
aa-bb-C-dd-E-
You could never breed to lilacs together and get agouti, black, or even
chocolate or blue, since they do not have those genes.

E is extended color. ‘e’ is non-extended. This gene effects how the B
or b gene is expressed on the wool of the angora. It easy to see on a
tort. Notice how on a black rabbit, the black is all over or extended
all over the body. Then look at a tort. The points have black color
pigment in them, but it the body does not – only the tan/orange
pigment. That is what non-extended means.
Look at the genetic codes.
A-B-C-D-E is chestnut agouti. To make Fawn, its A-B-C-D-ee. The
non-extended gene takes the black out of the hair shaft – just leaving
the smut on the face, feet and tail of the rabbit.
aa-B-C-D-ee is a tort. The only thing different from a black is just
the non-extended genes.
aa-bb-C-D-ee is a chocolate tort. A lilac tort would be similar, just
with the ‘dd’ instead.

OH, the REW. The ‘C’ gene is for another post – or get a book!
hehehe. For now, just keep in mind, REW only masks the rabbit’s
color. Remember, A-B-C-D-E is a chestnut agouti? Well to get a REW,
just change the C to a cc. This works both ways – in an REW, change
the “cc” to “Cc” and the colors the rabbit carries will show up.
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UARC’s First Election!

Here are the requirements for running for office, taken from the UARC Constitution:

A: The Officers of this Club shall be the President, Vice President, Secretary,. Treasurer (can be combined into one office) and at least 3 Directors . All members of the BOD have to be paid members of the ARBA
All of these Officers are elected by the membership via a paper ballot to be issued in the Club newsletter, or to be mailed individually.

The President, or in the absence of the President the Vice President, with the approval vote the BOD, may appoint a person pro tempore. The appointment shall expire at the normal term end, at which time elections shall take place.

B: Membership dues for all members running for an office shall be paid 10 days in advance of their resume’s being published in the Newsletter and / or on the Club’s website. Dues are to be paid for the the full term of office being sought. Members running for an office have to be paid up members of ARBA as well.

C: All elected Officers have to be adult members of this Club.

D:The term of office for all officers shall be 2 years. The President, Treasurer and 2 Directors shall be elected in even years. The Vice President, Secretary and 1 Director shall be elected in odd years. There shall be no term limitation on all offices.

E: all newly elected officers shall assume office on August 1 and run through their term of office on July 31 of their respective year. Vacancies in any office shall be filled by appointment from the President , subject to a simple majority vote from the BOD. All outgoing Officers shall offer help and facilitate a smooth transition of office or risk being disciplined by the BOD for their actions.

F: There shall be no “ write-in “ candidates during elections. All members willing to run for an office on the BOD shall furnish a written resume to the Secretary prior to the deadline which will be noted on the club’s website and in the Newsletter. Resume’s received after the deadline ( post mark ) shall not be considered.
Resume’s will be included in the Ballot, which will be mailed to each adult member.
Deadlines for all election procedures shall be noted on the website, in the newsletter as well as in the ballot.”

So, start thinking about whether you think you could be of service to our membership.
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PaSRBA UARC Specialty Show Results:

Congratulations also to the BOB/BOS winners of the Specialty
(the majority of whom were UARC members:)! The results of the show
were as follows:

English Angora:

BOB–Linda Cassella
BOS–Alex Stepnoski

French Angora:

BOB–Amy Spang
BOS–Charlotte Schweikart

Giant Angora:

BOB–Terri Robertson
BOS–Janet Gruber

Satin Angora:

BOB–Lisa Rodenfels
BOS–Trina Dunn

BIS: French Angora/ Amy Spang

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Sure fire easy knit cap -

I always seem to have a collection of small balls of leftover yarn that I need to do something with. This knit

cap is a great way to use them up!

If you can knit and purl you can knit this hat – it’s easy and quick. You don’t need a pattern, just some basic

steps!

1. Knit 2 test swatches – one with the kind of rib you want – 1×1, 2×1, 2×2. Make it at least 3 inches wide by 3

inches long.
This is the ribbed band for your hat. Knit a 2nd swatch, at least 3 inches wide by 3 inches long in whatever

stitch you plan to use for the field of the cap. I used a simple knit stitch on mine.

2. Measure the distance around the head, then take that length and deduct 2 inches. Based on your tension swatch

for the rib, multiply the number of rib stitches per inch times the length of your head measurement. this is the

number of stitches you need to cast on and knit your rib in.

Example:

head measurement: 17 inches
deduct 2 inches: 15 inches
purl gauge: 4 st = 1″
multiply 4st x 15 = 60 stitches

3. When you’ve made the rib as long as you want, knit one row in straight stitch, adding 8 stitches evenly around

rib.

Following the example above, you would now have 68 stitches.

4. Next measure the distance from the top of where the ear meets the head to the crown of the skull. multiply

this distance times the rows per inch in your knitted field swatch. this is how long your cap will be from the rib

to the row that decreases will begin.

Example:

distance from ear to crown: 6 inches
knit gauge – 4 rows = 1″
multiply 4 rows x 6 inches = 24 rows

Knit 24 rows

5. when ready to decrease the top, divide number of total stitches by 7. Decrease by k2tog by that sum of total

st divided by 7. pl st marker just after each decrease k2tog. Continue to decrease every row by k2tog just before

ea st marker until 7 st are left. Cut main yarn a few inches long, draw thru remaining stitches into a loop and

tie off.

6. Add a top decoration or just let it drawn into a closure.

You’re done!

Julie George