Getting matts (knots) out of a jersey wooly

[Starla]

So my jersey wooly had two matts on each arm pit area, i groom him almost everyday but clearly never groomed down enough to get the area he has been hiding from me. I’ve been told by some rabbit savvy people not to trim matts, and I really didnt want too. But i worked on 1 matt for a week and he lost some hair on his body (brushing it), it makes me sad. I know knots come out in weird ways, I have wavy/curly hair i can relate. I just don’t want my rabbit to fear me. It was so sad when the matt got out and revealed the (kind of) hairless spot, but he was way more outgoing and happy so i felt the matt was’t feeling good for him so that is why I brushed it every day (or every other day at  times to give him a break so I could get it out). I bought a new comb and brush him because i never want this to happen again, obviously. Any advice on his other secret (armpit area) matted hair??? I love him and don’t want to hurt him, i wish I knew that they could sort of hide their hair from combs and brushes. I think he might of came with mini matts (when I rescued him) which no complaint on since he was strayed left alone. Maybe so, maybe not. I just need help, I try to be the best mom I can be and feel like a failure!! I hate myself for not noticing his armpit area but he literally tensed up when holding/grooming him and since he is a newer rabbit I didn’t want to make him to uncomfortable, I wish my brushes were better!!     

P.S. I would give my rabbits my life, I didn’t see this happening because he tensed up and I didnt want to scare him. I know better know. 

I hate that I feel like I failed him, I groomed him daily, but my brushed.combs were;t enough. I fixed that problem tho. 

[Luna]

Mini matts can usually be brushed out, but I think a special brushing tool is needed for real matts. By not trimming matts, do you mean not cutting them off? I’ve heard that before, but I’m pretty sure you can “shave” the matt off with electric trimmers/clippers. If the area is difficult to access and you are afraid of hurting him, you could call your vet and have them do it .

[ownedbybunnies315]

Please don’t beat yourself up about this…you seem like a very observant and aware long-haired bunny owner.  The armpit area of angoras and jersey woolies is notorious for getting matted.  My angora’s armpits seem to mysteriously mat overnight sometimes.  I think the friction of them just hopping and moving about causes mats to build up quickly.  There is really no good way to avoid this issue, except doing what you are already doing and combing frequently.  Also, please know that every time I comb out the mats on my angora’s armpits, he ends up with little bald patches under each arm, so that is a very common occurrence.  Their skin tends to be very loose in that area, so I agree that clipping out the mats can be a risky idea.  Sometimes I give my angora some greens to munch on as I groom him, which distracts him and helps him get through the grooming process without trauma.  Also, he always gets a treat afterward, so now he knows he has that to look forward to.  Your jersey wooly will get more accustomed to it as you do it more often.  It’s just something new to get used to, although it will probably never be a favorite activity   The more calm you are as you groom, the more your bun will sense that it isn’t something to stress over.  Anytime you need to de-mat, spread the work out into several 10 minute sessions over the course of a few days, with lots of rewards after each session, and plenty of snuggle and petting time that doesn’t involve combs so your bun doesn’t start to associate your hands with combing (I made this mistake with my angora boy when I first got him because he was so badly matted I felt that I really needed to work on the mats.  He started to associate my hands with combing out mats, and then I had to overcome that issue)  You will find what works best with your bun, but please know that armpit mats don’t mean that you are neglecting the grooming, and are very very common with long-haired rabbits regardless of how much you groom your bun.

[Starla]

Sadly veggies won’t work for him, he only was his veggies when I’m sleeping it’s really weird. He also won’t eat treats outside his cage, or when I’m in it. That’s a other issue I’m going to have to work with when I bind him with my female who eats every treat and veggie as soon as I give it to her (unless In the stroller/stress bonding). I know it happens but he is so small and I know when he was rescued by the rescue he was covered in matts (worse condition from his other brothers). I think that can kind of explain his somewhat odd behavior with food and hiding behavior. What comb or brush do you use? I have a flea comb, a comb that is like a flea brush but the bristles are further apart, a brush with bristles alternating in size (one tall bristle, one shorter bristle, tall, short, so on), a slicker brush with plastic balls on the end (to cover up the tiny needle like bristles, so they don’t get scrached by them), a brush that is has a hairbrush like bristles but shaped like a slicker brush and has the bristles closer together than a hairbrush, and an off brand furminator brush.
Good to know I’m not the only one!! I felt so bad when I noticed the baldish spot. Just want to find the most painless way to get them out when it happens. I have been working on the other side almost every night, I like to give him breaks so he doesn’t associate going out of his cage as grooming time. It makes sense that the hair hidden would knot up, kind of like how the bottom/back of human hair knots so quickly for no reason but now I can see how moving can make it happen.
Thank you for responding, I try not to blame myself. I just want to seem like I don’t care for my babies!! Its so hard to separate his hair hair from the knot because of how my hair he has, so cutting it out would be impossible since I wouldn’t want to cut out hair that is fine. It’s a deep knot, meaning it’s closer to the skin and the hair coming out isn’t knotted. Since he is only 3 pounds I feel like he is so much more gentle and fragile (which he is more fragile than my 9 pound female). It was defiantly a huge transition from having just my short hair female who just doesn’t get knots and now having a bunny with such long & beautiful hair that knots so easily.

[ownedbybunnies315]

I totally get it. My normal-haired female chose my angora boy to bond with at the rabbit rescue, and I had a very steep learning curve when I brought him home and found tons of deep mats hidden in his fur (both shoulders, all the way around his neck and chest, and in his armpits). It took months to de-mat him. I love my alternating length comb, like you described. That is my favorite tool to use for my angora. It looks very similar to the one sold on this website. It works better than anything else I have tried for combing out loose fur. I have found the the furminator occasionally works to get under the deep mats and sort of pry them away from the skin so that they are easy to pull apart and comb out. To be completely honest, sometimes with deep mats, the best way is to get in there with your fingers and try to pull the mats apart first, which loosens them up and then they are easier to comb out. I’ve seen websites that tell you to wait until it grows out away from the skin more, but all I have found happens is that they get bigger, but don’t ever grow out. I use my slicker brush after a grooming session, just to smooth everything out and get any loose fur remnants up, before I turn him loose for play time. It’s so funny I ended up with so many different grooming tools when my normal-haired girl bunny won’t let me come within 5 feet of her with any grooming tool. I’ve always just used my hands to groom her and pluck out fur tufts because she loses her mind if she sees me with any brushes or combs.
On a side note, what are you feeding your jersey wooly in terms of pellets? Just curious because I have found that my boy’s fur health has improved significantly since I put him on a partial alfalfa diet for slightly increased protein. He mats a little less, and seems to maintain a healthier coat. It hasn’t solved the matting problem, but has helped a bit. I couldn’t find any information online about it because most websites that have angora information are farms that harvest the wool, so I ended up asking several rabbit savvy people at the rescue here and they all agreed that a slightly increased protein diet was the way to go.

[Starla]

Thank you so much for the advice. I have been doing more frequent (painless) grooming sessions with every other day working on the matts. It’s crazy how much hair these wooly buns have! My bed and clothes will forever have some hair on it lol, thank god for lint brushes. I also groom my larger rabbit the same way as your normal haired bun. She is shedding right now so I just stroke her and pick out the patches of hair coming out. My girl isn’t scared of the combs/brushes but my hands do a better job for what she really needs. I’ll just the finger method with my jersey wooly for sure! 

I’m feeding both of them the oxbow adult rabbit pellets. However, since you mention that alfalfa may help I recently got a bale of hay from a local feed store (Orchard/Alfalfa) which is usually more Orchard than Alfalfa. But, since this is a new place, there is a lot of alfalfa in it. I have been picking out some the Alfalfa to specifically give to my jersey wooly since he ate it in front of me. I always felt that he wasn’t eating enough hay and he refuses to eat any hay/veggies in front of me. So if the Alfalfa is a thing that will help, then yay!! I have been feeding the Alfalfa (noticeable) to my larger rabbit as a small treat. Since my big girl (large bun) is a very lover of food I decided to give handfuls with the most Alfalfa in it to my jersey wooly (who doesn’t eat that much, he’s not underweight but more food might be better.)

[Lemonsoup]

Ownedbybunnies – I have a question for you re the slicker brush. I too have an English Angora and he’s just now starting to get mats (he’s only 13 weeks old so has had his young coat up until now which was a breeze to deal with). The little brush I was recommended for him was great with the young wool – but it’s not up to the job of the more mature coat. But my local pet store (the girl I deal with is a bunny owner) told me not to buy a slicker brush (used on cats) because it would be too much for delicate bunny skin. But most angora owners tend to recommend slickers. Is there a specific one I should look for? And do you only brush the wool as opposed to letting it touch the body (which I imagine can be quite tricky). Pellet wise, we use Barastoc (in Australia) as it’s a high protein pellet (higher than Oxbow) and despite trying to switch him to the young rabbit Oxbow when he was a baby (because again, it was highly recommended), he simply refused it and would eat all the Barastoc I put into the dish and leave the Oxbow completely. 

[Starla]

I can answer that, they sell slicker brushes with balls at the end so the wire won’t hurt the buns skin! The first one i brought which i described as like a hair brush (because it is) was okay, it was sold as a slicker brush at walmart, but it wasn’t as good as the real slicker brush I bought at petco. The one I bought is by the brand you and me, I’m not sure if they sell it at other stores but they might. Look up “you and me slicker brush”, it’s a teal blue color. You don’t have to get that exact brand or from the exact store, but just giving you an idea of what it looks like and what you can look for. The one I mentioned from walmart works okay but dont work like a slicer brush really. So if you want a slicker brush, make sure it has the metal bristles with the plastic tips, the one from walmart has black plastic bristles with white tops. It’s obviously opinion but plastic bristle slicker brushes don’t work like metal bristle slicker brush. I would defiantly steer clear from any metal bristle stickler brush that doesn’t have the plastic ball at the end. The plastic ball at the end simply erases the scratches and damage that can be done to a buns skin!

Also, I do know that many people recommend the comb sold on binky bunny, i think its called hair buster? It is a comb with some material woven in between, I think it’s purple. The rescue I am fostering to adopt from uses them and recommends them. So I would also consider ordering one to add to your collection in the future. (I am planning on ordering one soon). It’s good to have a collection of combs and brushed sometimes because you can find out what works best with your rabbits!

[Lemonsoup]

Thanks so much Starla! yes, I have a plastic one with balls on the end – but I find that it skims as opposed to gets in and does the work. I’ll look into the You & Me brand and see if anyone here in Australia stocks this one (or a similar metal one with plastic balls). I’ll check out the hair buster version on the site here too. Appreciate your feedback. Cheers!

[ownedbybunnies315]

You’ll definitely find that the purpose of the slicker brush for an angora bun is to detangle the guard hairs and smooth off any remaining loose hairs after a grooming session. Most don’t do much besides skim the surface of an angora because they have so much fur and underwool. The ones with metal bristles do a slightly better job, however. You’ll definitely want a hair-buster type comb with alternating length bristles on it for the underwool work. Those types are excellent at detangling underwool, combing out loose mats, and pulling out loose underwool before it mats. It is my most favorite tool to use for my angora, and I use it often. The metal on them is rounded at the tip, so it won’t hurt the bun’s skin at all. You’ll end up with a collection of various tools to help you manage your rabbit’s fur. I don’t worry too much about touching the skin of my bun when I groom him, only because I know that none of my tools will hurt him. I sometime wonder if I ever get all the way down to his skin though, because he has so much fur on him…

[Lemonsoup]

Thanks for this. I’m in Aus – so it’ a bit trickier in some parts to find proper tools for bunnies. Yes, it’s so hard to get the underwool brushed. I’m always worried about pulling it too much, so maybe I’m going a bit too softly. I literally found big ‘balls’ around the undersides of his cheeks today. I brush these areas constantly, but clearly not deeply enough. They’re really quite matted feeling. We’re off to the vet tomorrow for his booster shot of vaccination so I’ll see if she has any suggestions of how to get these out. I’m not confident to use any scissors in this area since I don’t want to get too close to skin and nor to I want to chop whiskers.

He also has some of these balls of wool behind his ears. Darn things. I only wish there was somewhere in my area / state that actually did a proper clip of an angora and I could go and get lessons from them!

[Author]

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