Rabbits are easy to breed, short growth time, quick capital recovery. No need for a large breeding area, farmers can take advantage of the small area to raise rabbits. Therefore, in order to raise rabbits effectively and at the same time limit the disease rate and reduce costs in breeding, people need to apply and strictly follow the requirements. Rabbit farming techniques.
Choose a breed
Rabbits have many types such as domestic rabbits (black rabbits, gray rabbits), foreign rabbits (New Zealand rabbits, California rabbits, French rabbits, Hungarian rabbits…). When raising rabbits for meat, you should choose New Zealand rabbits (all white fur, red eyes) and California rabbits (white fur with black spots on ears and nose). Only choose to buy animals with good physical strength, flexibility, sensitivity, clear eyes, dry nose, clean ears and feet without scales; The hair is shiny and the incisors grow normally. Standard breed rabbits can be purchased from the Son Tay Goat and Rabbit Research Center (under the Institute of Livestock Production) or the Vietnam-Japan Rabbit Farm (Ninh Binh). Adult rabbits, males reach from 5 to 5.5 kg/head, females reach from 3.5 to 4 kg/head, with a carcass ratio of 55 – 60%.
Animal lodging
Build a barn with bricks, with a sturdy roof. Inside there are cages made of wood, bamboo or iron, stainless steel. Each cage for raising rabbits needs to ensure that the rabbits operate comfortably, are easy to clean, disinfect, and protect from the attack of harmful enemies such as cats, rats, etc. Rabbits are sensitive to weather and easily infected, so the cages are stable. need to be ventilated, clean and have a place to collect feces and garbage. Feeding and drinking troughs can make use of discarded plastic bottles, crockery pots (currently the market sells automatic water valves for rabbits to drink, which saves water and avoids spilling drinking water on the floor of the cage). Raising meat rabbits should reduce afternoon light in cages and cages, creating a quiet space for rabbits to rest, sleep, and be less active.
Food
Green food includes corn leaves, kohlrabi, cabbage, guinea pig, elephant grass, tea… Green food for rabbits needs to be collected from clean sources. Do not cut food from places where livestock and poultry are grazed or stagnant water to avoid helminth diseases, intestinal bleeding. Also, do not feed rabbits with moldy, sour, stale or fermented food to avoid diarrhea, bloating, and flatulence. Forage should not be piled up (grass, leaves) but should be spread out or dried out for new feeding. You can make a drying rack to dry the grass carefully, bunch it up to store it for food on rainy days.
If raising rabbits with industrial bran, pay attention not to feed high-protein bran, but only need food from 15-16% protein. Note that rabbits should not be fed bran concentrate because too much salt will kill the rabbit. 7-8 days before slaughter, reduce the amount of vegetables and leaves, but feed pellets or mixed feed according to the following formula: 1kg of mixed feed = 50g corn bran + 20g rice bran (or powder) cassava) + 20 g bran pellets + 10 g green vegetables for rabbits to gain weight.
Hygiene of the hospital
Every day, you have to clean up feces and garbage left at the bottom and corners of the rabbit cage. Spray disinfectant Vinkon, Hantox, iodine around the cage once a week. Sprinkle with disinfectant lime and leave the cage empty for 7 days after the rabbit is sold.
Attention: Be careful to catch rabbits to avoid injury. If you lift the rabbit, you must hold it firmly but very gently. When catching rabbits, don’t scare them, run around and react, scratching and biting. Do not grasp the legs, grasp the rabbit ears to lift. Because rabbit ears have many blood vessels, if caught in rabbit ears, it is easy to cut blood vessels and die. With an adult rabbit, one hand stroked along the ear and firmly grasped the skin on the upper back close to the nape of the rabbit, the other hand supported the bottom of the rabbit’s bottom to lift. With baby rabbits, firmly grasp the area between the pelvis and buttocks and lift the rabbit so that the rabbit’s head is down.
Rabbit development stages
1- The stage when the baby rabbit follows the mother
After the rabbit is born, the number of rabbits must be checked and the dead ones should be removed immediately, then warm the baby rabbits immediately with nesting agent. The mother rabbit only goes to the nest to breastfeed once a day, so after the baby is finished nursing, the nest should be removed from the mother rabbit’s cage and carefully covered so that the mother rabbit can be quiet.
Newborn rabbits weigh 40-60g, baby rabbits are born after 14-15 hours to start breastfeeding. Newborn baby rabbits are hairless, shaped like mice, and open their eyes for 12 days. In the first 18 days, baby rabbits live and develop completely with mother’s milk, this is a decisive period for the survival rate of baby rabbits.
After 18 days, the baby rabbits can come out of the nest, the baby rabbits are left in the cage with the mother and learn to eat the mother’s food, the food that needs to be supplemented with forage is vegetables, leaves and young grass for the baby rabbits. can learn to eat. When the baby rabbit is 23-25 days old, the baby rabbit’s body can already absorb 50% of the nutrients from the food outside. After 30 days, it is possible to wean baby rabbits, at this time the weight reaches 400-500 g / head is good.
2- Post-weaning rabbit period (30-70 days old)
At this time, male and female rabbits are still kept in the same cage and cage; they are not breastfed, must fully adapt to the new food (forage, concentrate…). Therefore, it is necessary to use foods rich in nutrients, with high protein content, with lots of Vitamins A, B, and C, or you can supplement nutrition for rabbits by using Eco-Garden Products for rabbits to eat. or drink together. Pay attention not to give a lot of refined food (rice, corn, rice, dried cassava).
It is recommended to feed the leaves and herbs such as mulberry leaves, cassava leaves, acacia leaves, bean leaves, chrysanthemum leaves… Or you can just use bran pellets with the amount of 10-15g/head/day and gradually increase later or 5-10g/head/day and use more grass. In particular, during this period, rabbits should not be fed arbitrarily and improperly, rabbits will die at a high rate due to diarrhea, infection with coccidiosis, liver fluke, Ecoli… from food, drinking water…
3- Young rabbit stage (70-100 days old)
At this time, rabbits raised for fattening meat were raised separately and not kept together, most of the male rabbits did not choose to breed. Stages 1 and 2 need to provide food rich in protein (protein), rich in vitamins or feed to rabbits or regularly drink Eco Garden Preparations for rabbits to grow in length, width and height. Develop muscle cells, bones, internal organs. Raising the right technique, the weight at the end of the period will reach 2 – 2.5 kg / head.
The large amount of food for rabbits is still leaves, vegetables grown and found in the wild, adding potatoes, dried cassava, rice bran, corn flour, dried peanuts… to help rabbits gain weight quickly, over time. from the barn at the right age.
4- The fattening stage of rabbits (100 – 120 days old)
Animals need about 1/9 – 1/10 of the amount of forage forage.
Hopefully with the information we share. You will receive more useful experiences in raising rabbits for business. Good luck!
