Any novice rabbit breeder expects that the natural ability of rabbits to reproduce with a high degree of fertility will please the eye and generate income or provide dietary meat in the diet. However, rabbits are rather capricious in leaving, especially if you choose a hybrid breed of broilers: flanders or giant. They are more sensitive to infections, drafts, especially for newborn rabbits.
Rabbit breeds
The positive side of rabbit breeding is that they are fertile and clean, therefore, organizing proper care, it is quite possible to avoid problems. However, if you opted for a large breed of rabbit, you should know about some of the nuances of their breeding.
Breeds of rabbits are large broiler (they rarely reach even 18-20 kg in weight), medium (up to 6-7 kg) and decorative (these babies are often kept as an apartment animal, because there is not much space needed to accommodate the cage, and the sizes of the mother liquor for the rabbit are also very compact). They are classified according to the color and quality of the fur, the volume of attainable weight, some characteristic features specific to the breeds.
Decorative rabbit uterine
If you keep a small decorative rabbit (or rather, a rabbit) in your apartment or house and intend to get offspring from her, you must take into account her complete safety and the safety of her brood from other domestic animals. In order to prevent future rabbits from getting through the bars of the cage when they are born, it is necessary to provide a special room where the rabbit can give birth to them and leave them for the time that she needs to go away. This room is called a mother liquor for rabbits, its size should not be large, this is not necessary, however, the comfort of such a home for the next few weeks for rabbits should be respected.
Growing broiler rabbits
Meat and fur breeds are the most popular among rabbit breeders, many prefer to grow rabbits for meat, so they take large meat breed.
Among the most popular large meat species:
- Belgian giant (flanders) - at a mature age, this breed is distinguished by males up to 6-8 kg, females up to 4-6 kg.
- Gray giant - this breed weighs an average of 5-7 kg in live weight (adult individual).
- White giant - 4-6 kg (adult rabbit).
What to consider when breeding rabbits of large breeds
Large rabbits are characterized by signs such as a phlegmatic nature, relatively low fecundity, and late maturation. It should be noted that such rabbits need large cells, respectively, and the size of the mother liquor for rabbits of large breeds should be larger. In addition, the nutrition of rabbits that are bred for meat should include proteins so that they gain weight more intensively, they are quite demanding on the purity of the cells. Usually the sizes of the mother liquor for rabbits, the drawings of which illustrate a regular box with a convenient entrance, depend on whether it is planned to have a year round or only in the warm season. On the one hand, it is advisable to create conditions for the appearance of offspring in the warm season from the considerations that it is easier to feed a mother who feeds babies with milk for up to two months, and older offspring are easier. Often, rabbits who drink breast milk are slaughtered for meat at the age of two months. Leaving for growth a young rabbit that has been eating rabbit’s milk for longer, it is possible in the winter, it has strong immunity. On the other hand, if the place allows, and the round is planned year-round, the sizes of the mother liquor for the rabbit should also take into account the cold season. Such a mother liquor should have good walls with insulation.
Summer mother
If you make mother liquors for rabbits with your own hands, their sizes vary depending on the breed and, first of all, on the size of the rabbit. On average, they have the following parameters: side walls 350 mm by 400 mm, front and rear walls 500 mm by 300 mm. The bottom and top cover will also be 500 mm by 300 mm in size. It is not difficult to build a box, the only thing to consider is to make a sufficiently large hole in the front wall so that on one side the rabbit enters the queen cell and falls into the nest, and on the other hand there are rabbits in this nest. If it is difficult to make the entrance round, like a hole, then it is quite possible to make it rectangular: the main thing is to provide a side in the construction of the queen cell so that little rabbits do not fall out of the queen cell, accidentally falling out of the nest.
Rules for the care of newborn rabbits
Rabbits are born, like all mammals, blind and practically without hair, therefore their body is weak and prone to infections and drafts. This is precisely what should be avoided in the first days: do not touch the rabbits with your hands, so that the mother does not refuse them because of someone else's smell, do not open the motherboard without urgent need and prevent the cold and drafts into the nest. Not surviving in the litter the rabbit will clean itself. As for the size of the mother liquor for rabbits should be for year-round scrolling, there are some subtleties.
How to insulate the walls of the mother liquor
If you use the classic design of a rectangular box, the lid can be arranged on top of the entire width, or you can do it on the side, in front. The winter mother liquor for rabbits is, accordingly, larger due to the insulation, which passes along the perimeter of the cage and the bottom in a separate layer. As a heater use small sawdust, wood shavings. Sawdust is packed very tightly between two parts of plywood, which makes up one wall. You can also use polystyrene, and replace the outside of the plywood with another, cheaper option. The sizes of the mother liquor for the rabbit on the inside will be 2-3 cm larger in width, only all the details will need to be cut in double quantity, two parts will go on each wall and floor. The outer side will be equipped with additional rails fastening the walls, each pair of parts will be fastened together with 2-3 cm thick blocks, depending on the width that you choose for the insulation.
Standard sizes of mother liquor for rabbits, drawings, recommendations
Usually they use a rectangular mother queen with a side entrance for the rabbit, which is installed directly in the cage. The mother-mother is subsequently removed from it, and the rabbit with the brood remains and feeds the babies, who are already quite adapted to independent life.
If the rabbit breeder is simultaneously waiting for replenishment in the rabbit family of several females, it is advisable to place the mother cells in such a way that the side walls are in contact, and the entrance to them is in front, the nest is located under the rear wall. It is very practical to use the heating of the entire wall in particularly cold months. And you can do it with the help of a led-in bulb into the niche of each mother liquor, formed by an empty cavity for insulation, between two plywood walls. It turns out that the nest will be warm, and the rabbits will survive even in the cold. What size should be the mother liquor for rabbits if you use a light bulb as a heater? Taking as a basis the dimensions of the mother liquor for the rabbit that you make for the summer period, you need to add 7 cm to its length, using this place under the cavity for the light bulb. The only concern will be to regularly check to see if the bulb is blown out from round-the-clock heating.
Fibreboard is not suitable for the material, the rabbit, being in anticipation of the scent, can gnaw all thin sheets, therefore it is recommended to make them from plywood: this material is good in operation.