Dee Dee writes:
<<I have a black giant Angora. I'm told by a breeder that they're no
longer called German Angoras, but just Giant Angoras. >>
They're actually separate breeds today, but Giants were bred originally
from Germans.
Someone more expert than me on the subject can correct this if I'm
inaccurate, but my understanding is that German angoras were developed
in, coincidently, Germany, with the goal of providing large quantities
of angora for mill spinning. The rabbits were bred larger, to help
produce more fiber. The bunnies have to meet certain production
standards, and can only be white, to be officially Germans.
Once the breed hit the US, folks wanted to compete in shows. But
Germans were somewhat similar to English, so the Giant breed was
developed from the Germans to be even larger. I don't know if crossing
was done for that purpose or not, but that's perfectly OK in the angora
rabbit world. Purebred bunnies need only have either 4 or 5 (I forget
which) generations of one breed on their pedigrees. Crossing is
actively done today on the Satin breed, for example, to improve their
fiber yield, then the bunnies are mated back to pure Satins to retain
the sheen and get to the point where they can be registered again.
Because Germans are white, where there's a colored Giant, there has been
crossing to colored bunnies of other breeds. I believe colored Giants
are not yet accepted for show purposes, but they are common with
handspinners.
It's not a theory that German can't be plucked, but a fact :) They
don't shed, as that will be a problem when the fiber will be harvested
by clipping/shearing, so shedding was bred out of them. Some Giants,
depending on what sort of crossing has been done, may shed, and
therefore can be plucked. I don't know if registration standards allow
that or not, but from the point of view of the best quality fiber for
handspinning, plucking is certainly the harvesting method I would
choose.
Holly
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