The rabbits have been getting some extra salon treatment in preparation for the Lyon County Fair.

Milk Maid

Beauty School Hop Outs

Imagine it’s a normal summer day, a little hot and a lot humid. Now, you are walking into your barn and you are quickly engulfed in huge frenzy of fur.

No matter what you do, you can’t escape it. Sounds scary right? Well, this has been my reality lately. My rabbit barn is just a tornado of hair. Most, if not all, of my rabbits are currently in a fierce molt.

They all look like beauty school hop outs. Like most mammals, rabbits need to shed their fur. Rabbits tend to shed every three months or so, and they’ll shed according to the seasonal changes.

The shedding is pretty light most of the year. But once or twice every year, rabbits go through a heavy, storm of a molt. Molting can be caused by weather, stress or other factors.

Some people say they shed their summer coats to help cool them and to prepare for heavier, fall coats.

There may be some truth to it, but I think my theory is correct. I think that rabbits can sense when county and state fairs are near, because the great molts appear.

Every year, it seems my rabbits know their week long stay at the county fair is coming up and think the need a new set of hair.

A rabbit’s molt usually begins on the head, moving down the neck and back then towards the stomach, but some rabbits molt in patches all over their bodies.

To put it into perspective, a really bad molt can give the appearance that the rabbit is a man with a really, really bad toupee.

Think Stan from the Golden Girls bad. Rabbits like to be clean, just like cats, and will groom themselves daily. However, during a bad molt, it can cause blocked intestines.

That’s why my rabbits eat hay and other greens to alleviate the blocks. So what can 4-Hers and rabbit owners do during a molt?

Not a whole lot, unfortunately. A fellow breeder told me to, “Pray, pray and PRAY HARDER!”

Sound advice that may help relieve stress, but I think the big man upstairs has more on his plate than my hares’ bad hair days.

The biggest thing my 4-Hers have been doing is getting that dead hair out so new hair can grow in.

The kids have been working hard on their rabbits and brushing and blow drying that dead hair out.

Yes, an actual hot pink blow dryer.

The barn looks like a full out rabbit salon equipped with combs, brushes, aprons, nail clippers and two pink blow dryers. We have some time before the Lyon County Fair so I am hoping the stars align and so the rabbit show team looks presentable.

I’m also hoping some ribbons are in the cards for these beauty school hop outs.

Brittany Moorse

Contact Us

The Minneota Mascot
Address: 201 N. Jefferson
Minneota, MN 56264

Phone:(507) 872-6492