English Angora, First Coat vs. Second Coat

In the post yesterday, English Angora white doe Princess Ga Ga was paired with French Angora fawn doe Monique to show the regrowth coats of English and French Angoras.    In this photo, Princess Ga Ga is paired with tort doe Vianna.

At the San Jose 5-show weekend, Vianna won English Angora BOB four times and one advanced to open Best In Show.  Vianna is 8 months old wearing her first coat or the virgin coat.   Princess Ga Ga won 4 BOV and 1 BOB, she is 1 year older than Vianna and has raised a litter of four just 6 months prior.   Princess Ga Ga is wearing her second coat or the regrown coat.  

Comparing side by side, it seems that Vianna is a bit "bigger".  It is understandable that Vianna has 8 months to grow her first coat while Princess Ga Ga has 6 months to regrow her coat after giving birth to four babies.  

This is a close up of the first and second coat.   Can you tell the difference?  The virgin coat on the left does not have prominant guard hairs.  The wool and guard hair are blend in, and the guard hairs tend to be thinner diameter.  The right side is the regrown coat, the guard hairs are very obvious.   The underwool is in the process of catching up with the guard hairs, but probably needs another month or two of growing. 

Here is another comparison of Princess Ga Ga with a virgin coat tort doe.  They look about the same size.

The two does have the same time frame to grow the length of their wool. 
Guess what, that's Princess Ga Ga and her daughter Aurelia!   

Aurelia is almost ready for showing but since Vianna is two months older, there is no reason for Aurelia to be handled before she is totally ready.  She is here to visit with her mother and they have a great time.

Left is Aurelia's first coat but not totally ready, you can see the guard hair is a bit longer than the underwool.    Mama Princess Ga Ga has longer guard hairs too.  You may ask why is Princess Ga Ga in shows if she's not totally ready?  The simple reason is that there isn't any white doe in the litters this year.     As mentioned in the post yesterday, I believe in showing, grooming, caring and loving; breeding is only done when it is absolutely necessary.  When the oldies are goodies, there is less incentive to bring more into this world.

A similar post about the English Angora first and second coat was posted earlier, if interested, go to:

https://ncag.blogspot.com/2022/01/english-angora-first-coat-second-coat.html?m=0