Bunday Business

Hello everybody!  It's Pippin reporting for Bunday Business.  Today, we need to talk about an embarrassing rabbit problem that plagues most of us, although on some of us it is more noticeable than on others.  The subject today is moulting.  By the way, we Canadian buns, and a lot of other buns around the world, spell it "moulting" but you American buns spell it "molting." It's the same thing.


The main thing is that it happens, and when it does, we can look pretty dreadful.  Sometimes people think we are not well, because we look like we might have mange or something.  There are lots of animals who moult.  Snakes shed their skins, horses shed their fluffier winter coats, chickens and other birds moult their feathers...so it's a totally normal thing, and buns should not be embarrassed about this normal phenomenon.


The female hoomin bean (FHB) had another bunny a long time ago named Thumper.  The FHB had him for 14 years!  He was a very senior bunny, but the FHB says she never saw him moult.  The FHB looked at Épinette Nutkin this week and she said "Hmmm...something odd is going on here."  She started to notice tufts of fur sticking this way and that out of Épinette Nutkin's back.  She brushed them away, and more of them showed up.  "Hmmm..." said the FHB.


Then, the FHB saw there was a bit of a bald spot forming on Épinette Nutkin's back, only it wasn't really bald, because there was new fur underneath.  "Pippin!" said the FHB, "you are a bad bunny! You have been pulling this fur out of Épinette Nutkin's back!"  I completely denied anything to do with it but she wasn't listening.


The next day, the bald spot was bigger and the FHB picked up Épinette Nutkin and inspected her.  As she did so, more fur began coming out in her fingers as she was doing the inspection.  "Ah-hah!" I said to her, "YOU have been pulling the fur out of Épinette Nutkin's back," but she wasn't listening again. She was sitting at her computer and using the Google thing to look up rabbit moulting.  "Hmmmm..." said the FHB.

Sure enough, she found out that some domestic rabbits do moult, and they look exactly like Épinette Nutkin in the pictures that Google showed her, and therefore it is not my fault at all, and possibly not the FHB's fault either, and just the fact that Épinette Nutkin is a very visible moulter.  Poor Épinette Nutkin thinks she might need a sweater to hide her funny fur until she is finished moulting, but I told her not to be so silly, it's just normal.


The FHB thinks that it might also be due to the fact that Épinette Nutkin wasn't in a very good place before she went to the SPCA where the hoomin beans got her, and maybe now that she is having proper nutrition and is settling in, she is having a very big moult to get rid of her former not-so-good fur.  The FHB learned that some rabbits have "mild" moults and "heavy" moults.  We'll have to see if this happens every time (rabbits can moult every 3 months) or if Épinette Nutkin is just having a special moult this time.


All rabbits moult to some extent, and some of us look worse than others when we do, but our lovely, soft, furry coats grow back and there is nothing wrong with moulting, so all of you bunnies who feel reclusive when you are moulting should moult with pride.  After all, the hoomin beans can't grow a whole new hairstyle every 3 months!