Rabbit Farming

You are all welcome to my site ! This site is all about rabbit farming. Rabbit farming is now very popular. You can earn money and fulfill your family nutrition by raising Rabbit. There are some steps for farming Rabbit.

Advantages of Rabbit farming

• Breeds of New Zealand white and Soviet Chinchilla are well adapted to agro climatic conditions of your area.
• They grow very fast and attain 1.6-2.1 kg in 90 days of age.
• Broiler rabbits are very prolific in nature. Female rabbit known as doe can give birth 4-5 times a year.
• They can be survive on wide range of green grasses.
• Broiler rabbit farming gives early good return with least investment.
• Disease problems are minimum and almost free from any worm infestation.
• Does not require any special care and management for broiler rabbit rearing.
• Rabbit meat is almost cholesterol free and does not attach any taboo for its consumption.
• Rabbit excreta is better organic fertilizer than those of other animals.

Why we consume rabbit meat ?

• It is one of the best white totally lean meat available in the market.
• This meat is having high percentage of easily digestible protein.
• It contains the least fat content among all the meats.
• There is no religious tabbo attached to the consumption of this meat.
• Rabbit meat is almost "cholesterol free" and therefore, heart-patient can eat this meat instead of other meats.
• It is the highest nicotinic acid containing meat.
• Usually a commercial rabbit yields between 60-65  percent dressed out meat which means consumer gets higher percentage of meat from a lice one.
• Ratio of meat to bone is quite high and higher than chicken.

Due to its excellent quality, taste, flavor and appetizing nature, rabbit meat is now becoming more popular among the people of all communities.

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Which breed is best ?

It is very important to choose right breed to start rabbit farming. Popular rabbit breeds are New Zealand White, Soviet Chinchilla, California, Giant Blanc etc. Out of these breeds, New Zealand White and Soviet Chinchilla are the best. If you want to make a rabbit farm, you have to choose the right breeds according to your geographical area.

Housing of Rabbit

For scientific and profitable rearing of rabbit, housing plays a vital role. Housing for rabbits depends on the location of rabbit farm, local climate and size of the farm. Neat design and comfort are essential. There are three types of housing systems, individual cage, hutch and colony system.

In the cage system, the cages are arranged inside the shed in single, two or three tier systems. But single tier is preferable at small farm. The cages are made with welded wire mesh placed on metal stand and about 2-3 ft above the ground. The space of a single cage is 50 cm* 40 cm with a height of 40cm for keeping rabbit from 42 days onwards. Below the cages, the floor should have a drainage system for easy cleaning of urine and faeces regularly. The roofing should preferably be of asbestos, thatch or other locally available materials.

The hutch system is a self contained cage-cum-nest. There can be 2-10 hutches in a row. This system is generally used for small and backyard rabbit farm. It is economical to construct hutches with locally available materials. Walls may be made using muli bamboo, floor by the welded wire mesh for easy cleaning and roof by the chan grass. Floor should be 2-2.5 ft above the ground. The floor space measurement for single hutch is 3.5*2.5 with a height of 3.5 ft at the front and 2.5 ft at the back. Generally, 5-6 rabbits can be kept in each compartment. In colony system, more number of rabbits can be kept together from weaning to marketing age. The walls of colony house system can be made pucca to half the height and rest half with wire net. The floor is concrete. Roof can the made using corrugated tin or bamboo. Size of a room is 10*10*10 ft. Twenty five to 30 rabbit can be kept in this room. As feeder and waterer, aluminum bowls of 400-500 ml capacity or baked earthen bowls are used.

Care of rabbits

For profitable rabbit farming, reproduction plays a vital role. Female rabbit is ready to accept male at about 6 month of age whereas male starts mating from 7 month onwards.

• For successful mating, doe should be put to the buck's cage and watch carefully for successful mating. In successful mating, doe emits a sound and buck falls on either side of the doe. If female does not allow the male, repeat the same procedure after 4 days. Sometimes some does require assisted mating.
• Right time of mating is either early morning or evening of a day.
• Check the pregnancy 14-15 days after mating by palpating the abdomen. If not pregnant, go for re breeding.
• Their pregnancy period is around 30 days.
• Pregnant does should be shifted to the kindling cage at 25th day of pregnancy.
• Pregnant doe generally starts making nest by plucking her own hair one or two days before kindling. If she does not pluck hair, give some fine quality straw in the cage.
• A doe generally gives birth to 6-7 kids. Kids are devoid of any hair and eyes are closed.
• Watch carefully immediately after birth and check the condition of kids. Do not touch the kids until some emergency comes and use the gloves in such a case.
• Doe gives milk once or twice a day. So, keep all the kids together for proper feeding.
• Remove dead or defective kids from the cage.
• Sometimes does kills her own kids or does not give milk especially after first kindling. If that Particular doe repeats the same habit at the next kindling, it is advisable to cull that doe.
• Give adequate amount of balanced ration along with plenty of clean drinking water for the production of sufficient milk.
• Eyes of kids generally open at the age of 10 days.
• Hair start growing from two weeks of age.
• At three weeks of age, kids will also start taking feed along with mother's milk.
• Best time to wean kids is at 42 days.
• Breeding buck and doe should be kept in individual cages.
• Rebreeding of doe should be performed immediately after weaning.
• One adult doe can give 4-5 kindlings a year depending on the space availability and scientific management practices.
• For efficient breeding of rabbits, the male to female ratio should be1:5.
• A mature buck can successfully mate 4-6 does a week.
• Buck should not be overfed to avoid overweight and deceased libido.
• Keep the productive and reproductive data of buck and doe.

Therefore, the farmers should take care of breeding, feeding, housing, health care etc. so that the meat production from rabbit is profitable. It is hoped that the points as given above would help the farmers particularly marginal ones, landless laborers and tribal to raise the rabbits in a scientific manner which would fetch them more returns and provide better nutrition.