How much brushing during shedding?

[mdith4him]

Nibbles sheds. Quite a bit, actually. It seems like we have about three months of no shedding, then three months of lots of shedding. Anyway, he's currently shedding and we've been brushing him at least every other day, if not daily, for several weeks now. He gets those strung-together-poops which I know isn't good. So much comes off when I brush, I could probably brush him for 2 hours and I'd still be coming away with brush-fulls of hair!! I try to keep the brushing to about 20 minutes just because he HATES it. Anyway, last night I noticed there's one patch over his rear end that is very thin now. So much so, that when I smoothed the hair backwards I could see a patch of skin (about the size of a dime) that had no hair! I know their skin is very delicate so I feel bad that I must have brushed him too much in that one spot. I'm avoiding it for now, but it made me wonder if I'm doing too much brushing? How long do you brush when your rabbit is shedding? Has anyone had this happen to them before?

By the way, we're using the (very awesome) Binky Bunny brush: http://store.binkybunny.com/hairbuster-for-rabbits--cats-p116.aspx.

 

[ZRabbits]

With Lion heads who are loosing their baby fur, which has been really heavy, I've been brushing them twice a day.

Definitely not good to see hair in poo. I saw that with Luna so I doubled up the brushing.

What you are doing is good. Not too much brushing. And regarding the bald spot, got freaked out the first time I saw Dobby's. Some hair does fall out in patches. Just check the skin. You will see the pigment of Nibbles skin start to change to a darker color. That shows that the new growth of hair is growing back. This is all normal rabbit shedding.

Here's some pictures of Dobby during his first big shed. Really unnerved me to see the patches. But found out this is all normal. Some rabbits loose their fur like this.

Just remember, lots of hay will help those hairs they ingest pass.

Also tried the link regarding the brush, but it doesn't work.

K

 

[mdith4him]

Thanks! We'll keep trucking away with the brushing!

I put a period at the end of the link, lol! This one should work:

http://store.binkybunny.com/hairbuster-for-rabbits--cats-p116.aspx

 

[ZRabbits]

mdith4him wrote:

Thanks! We'll keep trucking away with the brushing!

I put a period at the end of the link, lol! This one should work:

http://store.binkybunny.com/hairbuster-for-rabbits--cats-p116.aspx

Definitely an awesome comb. Have one myself. Works great!

K

 

[LakeCondo]

As a change of pace sometimes, try a lint brush &/or pulling loose tufts out with your hand.