Thinking about how to raise rabbits at home? Recently, a similar issue has begun to worry more and more farmers, which, however, is not surprising. Rabbits are a good source of healthy dietary meat, as well as valuable hide from which you can make many beautiful things. However, in order to get all these resources from animals, you must first learn how to properly care for them. This is exactly what will be discussed in our article.
Breed selection for growing
Raising rabbits at home is a rather complicated and painstaking process, the success of which depends on many factors. Perhaps every professional breeder knows that these animals tolerate any infectious diseases rather poorly, so a novice farmer will have to familiarize himself with the schedule for vaccinating pets. However, it, in turn, depends on the breed that is used for breeding. The list below shows only the most popular ones.
- The gray giant is one of the largest meat breeds in the world. The weight of adults often reaches 5-6 kilograms. On average, the female produces from 7 to 8 cubs. This breed is characterized by a fairly rapid gain in live weight and unpretentiousness in care. Ideal for breeding for beginner farmers.
- European silver is a rather picky breed that is grown, as a rule, to obtain valuable silver fur. Animals have a fairly calm disposition and tolerate even the most severe cold. The skin is soft and thick - an ideal material for the manufacture of fur hats and scarves.
- New Zealand white is a meat-and-hide breed of rabbits, which is characterized by very good fecundity. A distinctive feature of animals is their pubescent soles, allowing rabbits to be raised in ordinary metal nets without bedding. On average, the female brings from 7 to 12 cubs per litter.
Also, do not forget about the decorative breeds of rabbits. At home, such animals are very often raised as pets. The cost of one such individual can be from one to several tens of thousands of rubles, in connection with which the breeding of rabbits turns into a pretty good source of additional income. Although in order to grow an individual for sale, you will need to study a huge amount of theoretical information regarding the rules for the care of rodents.
Methods for raising rabbits
Not sure how to keep rabbits at home? The information in this section will help you answer this question. If you decide to organize a serious business, then you should pay special attention to the place where your animals will live. For this, it is recommended to build a special room (barn) in which the animals will feel comfortable. It should be protected from drafts and frosts, and also have the ability to ventilate in the hot season. As for the methods of maintenance, professional breeders distinguish among them three main ones:
Cells are the most common option. Depending on the size of the structure, it can accommodate from one to eight individuals. This method allows you to separately care for young and pregnant females, which is very important, since their diet is significantly different from the food that adult males eat. The area of the cage is recommended to be calculated approximately like this: for each adult, there should be from 0.7 to 1 square meter of free space (depending on the breed grown). Also, each cage should be equipped with a feeder and a drinking bowl.
As for the cultivation of rabbits in pits, this method is very popular among professional farmers. The depth of the pit should be no more than two meters, and the length and width - from 2 to 3 meters. All around the perimeter, it is imperative to strengthen the walls with a flat slate, so that the earth does not collapse on the animals, leaving several open areas so that the animals can dig holes in them. After that, you can populate a group of rabbits in the pit. In the cold season, such a structure can be covered with polycarbonate so that more heat is stored inside, and a dry litter should be put on the bottom of the pit.
Keeping rabbits at home and caring for them almost always involves the use of an aviary, in which the animal can safely move. However, this does not mean that special pens cannot be used on the street. If you have a lot of free space, you can organize an aviary on the grass or even in the barn by putting a layer of dry grass on concrete. As for fences, it can be very different, but for convenience it is best to use a conventional grid, since this option is the most budgetary and is easily dismantled if necessary. Additionally, you can make a small canopy for rabbits, which will protect them from rainfall.
Basic Rabbit Care
If you do not know how to raise rabbits at home, but decided to start breeding them, then you should familiarize yourself with the basic rules for caring for animals. This is especially true for those who want to organize a whole business on furry animals, since high-quality care ensures good productivity. Below are just the most important rules that absolutely any farmer must follow:
- Avoid direct sunlight on cells in the summer.
- Aviaries should be kept away from places with strong drafts.
- Provide animals with a complete and balanced diet.
- Timely vaccinate the entire population, including rabbits.
- Plant young growth from other individuals in 45-60 days.
- Observe the temperature regime in the cold season.
- Clean aviaries, cages, and pits regularly.
- Change the drinking water to clean daily.
If you follow these simple rules for the care and maintenance of rabbits at home, then over time your work will not be left without payment. The cost of rabbit meat today reaches 600 rubles per kilogram (depending on the region), and the skin remains very popular among lovers of clothing made from natural fur. What can we say about decorative rocks, the cost of which can reach 20 thousand rubles apiece.
How to feed rabbits at home?
In winter, animals need quite large amounts of hay, which must be harvested in advance. Herbal gathering can be very diverse, but it should not contain celandine or buttercup, since these plants are poisonous to rabbits. For hay, it is best to rent or purchase land for alfalfa - ideal for hay, which can be given to animals in unlimited quantities, not only in winter but also in summer.
As for fresh feed, the choice is extremely diverse. Almost all known root crops can be given to rabbits: carrots, beets, potatoes; nor will they give up pumpkins or fresh cucumbers. Rodents also like to eat white cabbage, but in large quantities it can lead to bloating. But it is best to refrain from using zucchini for food, since rabbits often have diarrhea from them.
It is also strongly recommended that animals be given sprigs of fresh raspberries, elm currants, oak or birch from time to time, as they use this material to sharpen their teeth. However, in no case do not give them branches of various stone fruits (apple, peach, apricot) - this material is too hard. Otherwise, animals can simply break their teeth about them.
Vitamin and Mineral Supplements
Thinking about how many rabbits live at home? As a rule, the answer to this question depends on the quality of animal care. For example, if you add special vitamin supplements to your diet, then your pets will live much longer than if they received all the useful trace elements only from food. The same goes for breeding animals on the farm. If you regularly add various vitamin supplements to water and feed that can be purchased at any veterinary pharmacy, then the animals will gain weight much faster, and the quality of the fur will improve significantly.
Typically, rabbits are severely deficient in calcium and phosphorus. Both of these elements are contained in large quantities in bone meal, so you should add it from time to time in food for animals at the rate of 2 grams per adult animal. Other mineral fertilizers can be fed to rabbits ordinary chalk (not more than 1% of the daily diet), table salt (from 0.5 to 1% of the daily diet or special complex additives based on natural components. Well, most vitamins are obtained from rabbits from high-quality hay , like protein, you can also occasionally give the animals capsules of fish oil, which contains a large amount of vitamin D and A.
What foods should be excluded from the diet?
Now you know a lot about what rabbits eat at home. However, so that the animals do not suffer from indigestion and diarrhea, it is recommended to exclude some foods from their diet that can lead to various unpleasant phenomena: from bloating to poisoning. Here is a list of things that rabbits should not be given under any circumstances:
- bread, pasta and other flour products - from them stomachs can inflate quite strongly from animals;
- red cabbage or white cabbage in large quantities - will lead to the same as feeding bread;
- chocolate, cookies, sausages and other “human” foods are extremely harmful to animals to varying degrees;
- various legumes (peas, beans) - they can be fed only in combination with other plants;
- nuts and mushrooms - can be very toxic to rabbits and very often lead to the death of animals.
In addition, do not forget about the whole list of various herbs that are forbidden to be given to animals in fresh form: bird cherry, euphorbia, datura, bindweed, hemlock, tansy, wormwood, liveliness. It is also best to avoid getting such crops into the hay, so carefully inspect dry feed before throwing it into a cage or pit with animals.
Vaccinations and disease prevention
To keep rabbits at home, you need to get them vaccinated against the most common diseases (myxomatosis, HBVC), especially if young children like to play with animals. Most farms have a special vaccination schedule that allows you not to miss the time for the next vaccination. Such actions can significantly extend the life of rodents. Therefore, if one of the novice breeders asks you: “How many rabbits live at home?”, Then feel free to tell them that it all depends on whether vaccinations have been made against common diseases.
Myxomatosis vaccination is first done on the 28th day after the birth of rabbits. For this, a special vaccine "B-82" is used, which can be purchased at any veterinary pharmacy. The method of administration is intramuscular (injection). In this case, the dosage should not exceed one cube per head. Revaccination is carried out no earlier than six months later. However, it should be understood that myxomatosis is the disease with which rabbits most often become infected by mosquitoes, so you should make such a schedule of vaccinations so that revaccination occurs at the end of spring, when insects wake up from sleep.
A vaccine against rabbit viral hemorrhagic disease (HBV) is usually given 45 days after birth. However, if the cubs were taken from the mother at an early age, then the vaccine can be introduced on the 30th day, because by that time the rabbits will already have a good immunity. As in the past case, the method of administration is intramuscular. The dosage of the drug should not exceed 0.5 cubes per head. Revaccination is carried out after about six months. As an alternative, you can use the associated vaccine, which produces immunity in animals simultaneously from HBV and myxomatosis.
As for rabies, rabbits rarely get sick with them, so it makes sense to vaccinate animals only if they often come into contact with humans (ornamental breeds). Re-vaccination should be carried out at least once a year, and when selling rabbits, the breeder must provide the buyer with a certificate confirming the vaccination of the animal. You can only get such a certificate from a veterinarian who was vaccinated. Vaccination is also allowed only on healthy animals - this rule is as important as maintaining the optimal dosage. As for the treatment of rabbits at home, it should be carried out only by a qualified specialist.
How do rabbits breed?
Now you know a lot about how to care for a rabbit at home. However, in order to get uninterrupted profit from the business, animals must constantly breed. The information in this section will help you better understand how animals breed at home.
As a rule, mating animals is fast enough. For one charge, the male is able to isolate up to 2 milliliters of seminal fluid. About 20 minutes after mating, sperm enter the oviducts, and fertilization occurs within 12 hours.
Pregnancy of rabbits is an average of 30 days. The mass of newborn babies is usually 50-90 grams (depending on the number of rabbits in the offspring and breed). A few days before the bunny rabbit will become quite aggressive towards males and will run around the cage.
The fertilized rabbit must be put in a separate cage for okroli. During this period, it is necessary to give more hay and less fresh feed. Before the birth, the rabbit will begin to pull down fluff from her chest in order to arrange a nest for her offspring.
After the round, it is necessary to carefully examine the cage so that not a single newborn rabbit remains outside the nest. Do not unnecessarily unnerve the female with her frequent presence, because due to stress she can easily destroy her offspring.
Tips from experienced farmers
Many experienced farmers are happy to share useful tips with newcomers about raising rabbits at home or in cages. For example, professionals recommend changing water in animals more often, since contaminated liquid negatively affects the digestive system of rabbits. As a result of this, animals grow much worse and gain weight.
And what do professionals advise about keeping dwarf rabbits at home? Experienced farmers recommend watering animals at room temperature after each meal. If animals are raised outdoors or in a barn, then you should monitor the temperature of the life-giving fluid, especially in the winter season.
How to grow rabbits at home strong and healthy? It is recommended to add several branches of plants to the diet so that they can sharpen their teeth about them. Otherwise, animals will not be able to eat solid root crops.
Video and conclusion
We hope that now you understand what breeding of rabbits is at home and in cages on the street. If the information from this article did not seem enough to you, we recommend watching a short video in which an experienced farmer also talks about the many nuances of breeding these animals at home. This material will answer most of your questions.
As you can see, raising rabbits at home is not so difficult as it might seem at first glance. Yes, these animals do not tolerate various diseases very well, but if you schedule a vaccination and get vaccinated on time, you can reduce the mortality rate from diseases to almost zero.As for the relevance of the rabbit breeding business, it has always been and remains quite high. Many people like rabbit meat, so they are willing to pay any money for diet meat. What does it say about the valuable fur bought by factories for sewing clothes in unlimited quantities? If you manage to build a good mini-farm for animals with all the amenities, then raising rabbits at home will be not only profitable, but also interesting.