Rabbits are territorial

It was half past ten in the Night, just an hour into sleep when I found myself in an unknown gloomy scene then followed the noise of struggle as if two people were having a fierce fight. Flying objects, heavy thuds of feet, punches and the i beat you or i die resolve all could be felt from that noise.

As my focus shifted to where the noise was coming from, a loud high pitch cry like that of a baby who's been pinched by her nanny echoed from the other room where the rabbits lived. I sprang up from the bed as the cry re-echoed and scampered towards the cry.

By now I had realized it was the rabbits. Were they fighting or being attacked? That I did not know. I just kept running until I collided with a concrete wall, my head getting the rougher and harder part of the wall. The pain coupled with the dizziness of sleep made my whole body spin for a few seconds.

Rabbit breeding records

 

Rabbit breeding records

The does were mated in August and kindled in September 8 kits each, totaling 16.

The does will suckle the kits September and October. And another mating will happen in November.

 

Rabbit mating record

 

The date each doe is mated or will be mated is recorded on this table along with other data like the does number, the bucks number, date doe kindled and the size of the litter.

 

Keeping records even for the smallest unit of rabbits is very important. It helps me to keep track of mating, doe performance and future events that are yet occur but which have been scheduled in well kept records.

Rabbit babies

Extract from Rajis book 'Milking babies from rabbits'

With Rajis permission I am going to list some does and don'ts of rabbit babies, breeding/nursing does, nest box and weaning.

Rabbit babies DO's

1. Put in a nest box on the 28th day of pregnancy
2. Make sure the nursing doe has plenty of fresh water to drink
3. Fill the nest box with dry grass
4. Check the nest box 24hrs after she kindles and remove dead rabbit babies if any
5. Check the rabbit babies daily to be sure they are being fed and to be sure the doe does not need help feeding the kits.
6. Clean and disinfect the cage two weeks after birth, just before the babies start coming out of the nest box.
7. Feed the young babies dry grass/feed and fresh water once they start eating hard food until they are 4 months then you can introduce fresh green and vegetables.
8. Separate the rabbit babies from the doe at 3 months in Extensive breeding or at 4 weeks in intensive breeding.
9. Separate males from females at 3 months old
10. Fatten the males for slaughter from 3  to 5months (2 months)

Rabbit babies DON'Ts

1. Don't touch the babies immediately after they are born.
2. Don't put the nest box in too soon.
3. Don't use hard objects as nesting material.
4. The nest box should not be move from it original position.
5. Kids should not be allowed to handle the litter/litter box without supervision.
6. Too much or loud noise around the does hutch should be avoided
7. No stranger should be allowed close to the maternity  hutch without supervision.
8. Do not leave the buck together with the doe before, during and after kindling.
9. Scattered baby rabbits should not be left on the hutch floor. Pick them up, warm them up, place them in the nest box and put the nest box back to where the doe is.
10. Male and female rabbit babies from the same doe should not be allowed to stay longer than four months together.

10 Baby rabbit facts

 

With a gestation period of four weeks the baby rabbits are born blind, deaf and hairless on the 30th or 31st day from mating.

 

These ten baby rabbits facts are worth remembering for every rabbit breeder.

1. Baby rabbits open their eyes from the tenth day
2. Baby rabbits depend solely on the mothers milk until they are two weeks old
3. By two weeks, new born rabbits are fully covered with fur, have functional eyes and ears
4. Baby rabbits start eating solid food from two to three weeks fro birth and will begin to come out and run around at this age
5. Baby rabbits born same day by same doe are called litter (collective name)
6. Baby rabbits begin to wean from the mothers milk at three weeks
7. The early morning cecal droppings from the nursing doe which the baby rabbits eat helps in introducing the necessary micro flora that aids digestion of solid food in them
8. Between the ages of one month and three months, baby rabbits can be sexed
9. Baby rabbits have fragile digestive system and should be fed mostly dry fibrous feed until they are four months to introduce fresh greens and vegetables
10. The mortality rate in baby rabbits is higher between two to four months when they wean from the mothers milk

 

There are tons of baby rabbit facts on the net. You might have some and want to share it with the world... drop it in the comment box below someone might find it useful.

Nursing doe

Walking towards Raj a smile betrayed my happiness. Triggered by 8:45am event earlier in the morning my face beamed with smiles, anticipating what will be learned about the nursing doe, her litter, the probability of survival, weaning, fattening and all the other events that will likely take place in the coming weeks.

 

Me: Hi Raj, hi everyone

Raj: That doe has lightened up your day Alfred, you were smiling all the way down here

Me: I can't help it Raj, can't help but let the emotions flow

Raj: If you're so happy then you should buy me a drink

Me: I sure will, lets do that at lunch time.

 

Lunch time came and I got Raj his favorite drink ... Red Bull

 

My ears were itching seriously already. The next moment Raj handed me a note. He had been preparing this through the day. The note was packed with lots of information about nursing does, caring for the litter, weaning, fattening and the possibility of selecting newer breeding stock from this does litter.

 

He told me it's a good sign the doe kindled up to 8 kits all alive as her first litter. It shows the doe is an excellent breed and will perform better if I continue to take care of the does and the buck properly.

 

And that the note he gave me was carved out from his unfinished book which is about producing 3000 rabbits in a year from just a buck and a  doe rabbit.

 

I will post the snippets from that note in the coming days.

 

Stay in touch for regular updates here

 

Rabbit kits

8:45am 05/09/17 languidly I unlocked the door and walk in. As I dragged my feet towards the hutches with sleepy eyes, there were lose fur on the floor and in the nest box of one of the cages and blood stain too. I realized the first doe had kindled (given birth to) her first kits. It was truly a mixed feeling at that moment.

Phone dialing moments later...

I: Hello Raj... one of my rabbit has kindled, I guess it was during the night. There is blood stain in the hutch... will the rabbit  be okay?

 

Raj: That's good news. Have you counted the kits?

 

I: No. I don't know what to do next...

 

Raj: Don't touch the kits yet if you have a strong scent on you - the rabbit will perceive the scent and may abandon the kits. Also pick the rabbit up gently and check her downside to see if she is still bleeding.

 

I: Okay... I don't have any smell on me... and there is no blood on the doe

Raj: Check if all the kits are in the nest box

 

I: There are no kits outside the nest box, the are all in the nest box. The mother pulled fur to cover them.

 

Raj: That's good. You can count the kits. But if you are not sure, you can place a drop of deodorant on the rabbits nose before touching the kits.

 

I: Okay...

 

Raj: Be sure the nursing rabbit has enough pellets, hay and water... That will be all for now. We'll talk later. Don't be late for work.

 

I: Thank you Raj. See you later.

 

I hurriedly went back to my room and brought a roll on deodorant and rolled it a few times back and forth on the rabbits nose before gently pulling the nest box out of the hutch. The kits had burrowed to the bottom when I removed the fur that the rabbit coverd them with.

 

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. There are 8 baby rabbits in the nest box, no death and the kits looked plump and were hairles and blind.

 

I returned the fur I removed over them and returned the nest box back to its original position in the does hutch.

 

Tic-tac the clock tiking. Few munites left. I filled the feeding bowls with their morning ration, except that the the rabbit with kits will be having more today onwards to help her produce more milk and get back to shape ealier.

Palpation - The rabbit scan

In the previous post  I mentioned mating the does on  04/08/17. Today being the third week, I had to palpate the two does early in the morning before leaving home.

The palpation process:

This requires some practice - two or more tries before you can master it. When I was feeling the does abdomen, I wasn't doing it to grab the kits or to count how many there were... that could have endangered the developing kits as well as the does life. I was mindful of the of the amount of pressure I applied and how long.

 

When palpating, the focal point should be the upper side of the abdomen. The pressure applied should be very low most of the time. Move your hand gently up and down from the upper to the lower abdomen while your thump and middle finger are used to prob the abdomen with gentle pressure.

 

Of course, you can feel a lot in the belly. Amongst others, right behind the left ribs you can feel the liver; all the way up in the abdomen on both sides and just under the spine, halfway back you will feel the kidneys. You may also feel the small fecal pellets and the guts. If she is pregnant after two weeks, you will start to feel hard things like marbles, also in the upper side of the abdomen. These become progressively larger until you might even be able to feel the form of an embryo.

It is also possible to check for pregnancy by putting the doe with the buck again 12 days after mating. If she refuses, the first mating has almost certainly worked out well. If she is willing again, the buck can repeat his work. This method has the very small risk that an already pregnant doe gets mated again with the possibility of starting another pregnancy halfway through the first. This super-pregnancy occurs occasionally.

At the end of the end of the palpation the first doe gave a positive sign while the second doe did not.

 

Bingo!... the first doe is already heavy. I could feel the embryos.

 

Meanwhile, I have rescheduled the second doe for mating...

Why rabbits?

An old friend of mine who did not fancy rabbits came visiting my apartment last weekend and was asking me "why rabbits?"

After highlighting to him these five reasons, he has been begging me to sell two females and a male since then...
He is a family man and I am not so I understand his desperate need of these rabbits...
There are a hundred and more reasons why myself chose the rabbit as meat source, but here are five (5) reasons that got my friend speaking bunnish:
 

1. They are cheap

• It is not expensive to keep them. They can be kept in a relatively small space.
• Rabbits can eat waste materials, and they are efficient at extracting protein from forage.
• The rabbit's basic shelter needs are modest. It is fortunate that a variety of locally available building materials used in the construction of simple sheds, hutches, nest boxes, hay racks and feeding and watering equipment are generally abundant in tropical developing countries
• Suitable shelter for rabbits can be made in an outdoor shed, backyard, veranda or spare room, or a complete hutch (cage with roof and siding) can be constructed. Similarly, accessory equipment, hay racks, nest boxes, salt and feeding and watering containers can be made from a diversity of products, including such refuse items as bottles and tins. Nest boxes made of wood, clay, metal and basket materials are useful for accommodating young litters.
• They eat almost anything.  Rabbits are herbivores and will consume large quantities of forage (greens), which people do not eat and convert this forage into valuable meat for human consumption. Practically, rabbits can be fed anything from the garden, forest or kitchen including banana and papaya (pawpaw) peels, pineapple cores, corn stalks, weeds, vines from pulses, leaves (cabbage, lettuce, cauliflower, carrots) etc. This indicates that rabbits compete minimally with humans for grains.

2. Products they offer

• The skin of rabbits is valuable if there is a market for it, possibly in local handicrafts.
• Meat, Rabbit meat is suitable for special diets, such as those for heart disease patients, diets for the aged, low sodium diets, weight reduction diets, etc.
• Manure. Rabbit manure is packed with nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and many minerals, lots of micro-nutrients, plus many other beneficial trace elements such as calcium, magnesium, boron, zinc, manganese, sulfur, copper, and cobalt just to name a few.
• Blood. Rabbit blood has great value and is being tested for possible blood transfusion in humans. I don’t have much details on this for now, but promise to keep you updated about the market for this and the possibilities in the near future.

 

3. Environment friendliness

• Their manure does not smell too much.
• Rabbits are quiet and small,
• Rabbits do not need force to be restrained.
• Because they are noiseless, rabbits can be raised in garages and servants' quarters in urban centers without infringing on the peace of the neighbors.
• You don’t have to pluck them.

4. They are Nutritious

• Their meat is nutritious. It is lean, high in digestible protein, very low in fat and cholesterol, has good taste and can be prepared in over 300 different ways.

 

 

5. They are prolific

• Litters (number per birth) are large with short generation intervals. A single doe (female rabbit) can give birth to (litter) up to 40 kits (baby rabbits) in a single year. This means you can start with two mature breeding rabbits (one male, one female) and end up with over 40 rabbits in less than 12 months. That is because rabbits can breed throughout the year and it takes just about a month (30-33 days) for a pregnant doe to produce baby rabbits.

 

To start a raising rabbits one does not need a large initial investment. A few does (females) with a ram or buck (male) is enough to start, once the kindling begins, the herd rapidly increases in size (if done well and with no bad luck) so that very soon one can slaughter the young males.

 

With increased awareness of what makes a healthy diet and the economy in a turmoil, now is a good time to consider raising rabbits. The best way I know to good meat on the table without a large investment is raising rabbits.

Contrary to popular belief, rabbits are not rodents  and do not belong to the rodent family. Rabbits are Largomopha, belonging to the family Lagomorph, which is closely related to horses. Rabbits are livestock, and very good livestock, too, (the cleanest and most disease-free of all).

Garden Affairs

It's one of those rare days when rain went missing in the month of August, the sun shining so bright, the sky so clear and the weather is warm.

 

Lucky day for the rabbits!

 

I am taking them out into the garden for some refreshing air, fresh grass and herbs. But that's not the only reason I am bringing them out... they will also mate, am 100% sure of that, especially when the garden is a neutral ground.

 

A neutral ground is where neither the male or the female has a marked territory. It is not always necessary to have them in a neutral ground for mating to take place. Except in rare cases where the doe (female) is aggressive even when she is placed in the bucks' (male) territory. Another suitable option would be artificial insemination.

 

On this particular day, the doe had all of the buck... + had a really good time in the garden.

 

If both does were not pregnant, I could still use the garden method to have them both conceive. Another way is to take the does separately to the buck on scheduled dates.

 

Artificial insemination would have been more precise but much more expensive and harder. Besides, the rabbits will want it natural I am sure. 

 

By 9:56am I placed both rabbits in the garden. A rabbit tractor was on stand by incase they were destructive.

By 10:06am the buck had done it twice and was still attempting to mount the doe the third time. Now that's precisely what I wanted. That buck rocks!

 

The second doe should have been in the garden too if the palpation on her was negative.

The butcher table

After just a few weeks, it took me no time in setting up a functional mini meat factory in my apartment. And here I am rolling out a time table for meat production/processing for the year 2018.

Here is the meat production time table:

The butcher table:

The two does will be mated in the month of January and between 28-31 days later the kits are born and the number is recorded. One or two may be lost between the period of birth and weaning. The kits are weaned at 3 months. Fattened for 1 month and slaughtered at 4 months. The number of kits weaned, their total live weight, number butchered and dressed weight are also recorded.

 

The first set of litter will be butchered in May when they are 4 months old.

 

In February, the two does will not mate and will only nurture the January kits and be mated in March. The January kits are then fattened from April to May. At the end of May, the January litter will be butchered and all the necessary figures/data are recorded in the tables above.

 

The circle will be repeated from March to July and from May to September and from July to November i.e. Mating to slaughter. Each of which will take five months.

 

That's just about it! The tables are ready to be filled...

 

Meat on the table

In todays short post I will highlight what three rabbits are capable of putting on the table.

Their basic needs are:

- Pellets 50kg [annual consumption] at N8000
- Hay grass 70kg [annual consumption] at N6000
- Feed supplements [annual] at N2000
- Misc. [annual] at N3000

Their reproductive circle is as follows:
A male and two females, with gestation period of 30 days and a litter size of 5-10 kits per birth.



From birth to wean age is 4 months.
Dressed weight of each weaned is approximately 1kg
Total dressed meat per year = 150kg

Meat prices:

Chicken 1kg = N1,250.00                                                       
Beef 1kg = N1,820.00                                                       
Turkey 1kg = N 1,600.00                                                                                                          
Goat per kg = N2,300.00                                                       
Veal 1kg = N1,400.00
Sources: easy shop easy cook, Numbeo, Jumia


Unlike myself, I don't know the quantity and quality of meat you consume annually. If you consume above 100kg, here is a possible estimate of your annual expenditure
Chicken 100kg x N1,250.00 = N125000.00
Beef 100kg x N1,820.00 = N182000.00
Turkey 100kg x N 1,600.00  = N160000.00
Goat 100kg x N2,300.00 = N230000.00
Veal 100kg x N1,400.00 = N140000.00

What the rabbits are offering:

Approximately 150kg dressed white meat devoid of cholesterol and rich in easily digestible protein annually

At what cost?

N19000 annually

Time consumed: 30hrs monthly

Almost too many analysis already. However, these are my targets:

• Cut down cholesterol and fat levels
• Cut down feeding cost
• Cut down belly fat
• Live a happier and healthy life
• Get more meat protein by eating more and more meat

What more?

You can easily increase the number of breeding females and multiply the meat yield since they reproduce fast and mature early.

Always remember that there are consequences to the artificial introduction of any chemical into processed foods that nature has not designed.

Don't miss the next episode...


 

Is the rabbit pregnant?

During my routine cleaning/sanitation on Saturday I saw my rabbit lying lazily on the floor... I then made a comment on how fat and sluggish she had become. I assume something is wrong with her...

 

"What is it?" "You eat and sleep a lot"

"But am pregnant, can't you see?" the rabbit fired back... I took a very long look again observing her stomach more closely. The last word that tried coming out of my mouth is 'yippee!'before my left hand crashed into  one of the bed post. I woke up and sat on the bed reflecting for a couple of seconds before reaching for my diary. I flipped a few pages, 04/08/17 it was, the day the rabbits next door mated.

 

It's been 2 weeks already and the right time to palpate the rabbits. Certainly not today though, I have got a lot of clients to attend to today. Palpation will have to be tomorrow.

 

Palpation is the process of feeling the rabbits abdomen to check for sure if she is pregnant. There are plenty other ways of knowing if a female rabbit is pregnant. However, palpation remains the surest way to know... 

The Rabbits Next Door Episode III

How fetish it might sound I don't know. One thing I believe is that you are like the kind of animal you like or keep.
Once, I had this turkey in the backyard. The turkey made me believe that turkey is the dumbest animal on earth.

Animal myths

I believe goat and sheep are stubborn noisy and persistent animals. snail is soft and slow, cattle is large and patient, snake is thin and poisonous, dog is lovely and intelligent, pig is dirty and fatty, duck is noisy and intelligent, chicken is cute, weak and noisy.

Did I just reveal something that could be true or are these just myths

However, this particular turkey was so dumb a turkey. Made too much noise, poo-pooed with very wicked smell and was just too skittish.

One morning I had had it all, that was all I could take. I know the turkey is just an animal with its own special attributes, but... Trust me, I used it to prepare a pot of stew and had a treat later in the evening.

After that evening I began to worry if the meat can make me dumb and skittish... "No! The meat is already down, along with it a glass of good wine and it felt so good." However, that was the last time I stayed close to a turkey.

And now, three rabbits are staying next door...

Everything these rabbits do - in future episodes. Don't miss!

The rabbits next door II

It's Friday. Me and boss having a late afternoon chat and I was expressing dismay at the way abattoirs in town operate.

 

It's the start of the weekend, I had earlier contemplated going to the abattoir to get me beef. The last time I was there is not something I wish to remember this long. However, what I saw there always triggers a reaction that makes me not to forget. I guess it is some sort of inbuilt safety check for health's sake.

 

I continued narrating to boss how scary the meat market has become and how desperate meat vendors are for profit at the expense of our health. "In this country, person will use his money to buy what will kill him" I sighed.

 

My boss had a laugh, then narrated his experience, how large farms with infected birds go ahead to slaughter, treat, package and preserve these birds with chemical substances like:
1. Sodium Benzoate, Sodium Proprionate and Benzoic Acid (preservatives). Causes severe damage to DNA in the mitochondria
2.  Asthma-Like Drugs - Ractopamine (growth booster). Causes elevated heart rates and heart-pounding sensations in humans.
3. Nitrites/Nitrates (inhibit the growth of bacteria and enhance meat color). Causes cancer.
4. Antibiotics (growth booster and prevent disease outbreaks). Causes fatalities in human.  Excessive levels are also found of risky antibiotics like tilmicosin, whose label tells the farmer, “Not for human use. Injection of this drug in humans has been associated with fatalities.
5. Sulphites (preservatives in food to maintain food colour and prolong shelf-life). Could pose a hazard of unpredictable severity to asthmatics and others who are sensitive to them.
6. Carbon Monoxide (treat meat and prevent spoilage in modified atmospheric packaging (MAP)). CO is toxic because it sticks to hemoglobin, a molecule in blood that usually carries oxygen, even better than oxygen can. When people are exposed to higher levels of CO, the gas takes the place of oxygen in the bloodstream and wreaks havoc. Milder exposures mean headaches, confusion, and tiredness. Higher exposures mean unconsciousness and death, and even those who survive CO poisoning can suffer serious long-term neurological consequences.
7. Heavy Metals (for weight gain and feed efficiency, to control parasites and to improve “pigmentation.”). Ingestion of large amounts can lead to gastrointestinal symptoms such as severe vomiting, disturbances of the blood and circulation, damage to the nervous system, and eventually death. When not deadly, such large doses may reduce blood cell production, break up red blood cells in the circulation, enlarge the liver, color the skin, produce tingling and loss of sensation in the limbs, and cause brain damage.
8. Viral Sprays (a mixture of different special viruses called bacteriophages — viruses that infect only bacteria, not people, animals or plants). The bacteriophages might also get into battle with the friendly bacteria in the digestive system, making it harder for the body to digest food.
9. Meat Glue (Meat glue is thrombin, a coagulation protein which together with the fibrous protein fibrin can be used to develop a “meat glue” enzyme that can be used for sticking together different pieces of meat. It can be made from blood taken from either cows or pigs).
10. Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria.

 

Many argue that nitrates, nitrites, sulphites and bacteria are naturally occurring substances, and that they are essential for health, however they also react with other compounds in your body to form cancer-causing substances. In nature, antioxidants prevent this process, especially in fruits and vegetables which counteract it, but you are not getting these protective substances from factory farmed meat. The high concentrations of chemicals injected into processed meats are far from natural and their ingestion is far from natural. Many damage blood vessels, making your arteries more likely to harden and narrow and affect the way your body uses sugar.

 

All of the above chemicals have a negative effect on metabolic processes and although many are occurring in nature in other foods, they are not naturally occurring in meat in the high levels being introduced as preservatives.

 

I got a shiver when the boss told me how donkey meat was sold as beef to him. Wo! wo!... A couple of munities later I decided not going to the abattoir this weekend and probably the next!

 

I got three rabbits in the next episode.

 

The rabbits next door I

13/07/2017 5:00pm. Three rabbits moved in. Mr. Raj, the 'boss' I call him, gifted them to me.

They had no names so I just call them the rabbits next door, a male and two females.

 

The rabbits wore an all white shade and had pink/ruby coloured eyes. These rabbits were really big, joke aside. Their muscular thighs, broad heads, long ears and clean white fur made them adorable like the white boss from whom I received them. Except, they were not bossing anybody here.

 

The room has ample space, windows for ventilation, two light bulbs, a sink and water supply. I had also brought in three 40" x 40" wire hutches, feeding/drinking bowls, three collection trays, a stand for the cages and collection trays, hay and pellets few days before the rabbits arrived. The supplies cost me roughly N18000.

 

Before then, the room has been left unoccupied. I had the room thoroughly  cleaned and arranged the supplies the morning of the day I received the rabbits.

 

I also made sure no strong smelling chemical was used in the room. And the pellets and hay were packed and stored in a cupboard that stood on one corner of the room.

 

Shortly after dropping them, the rabbits became preoccupied with possessing and marking the entire room. The first female peed on the foot mat sitting in front of the door, while the second one got busy dropping on the concrete floor hard pellets from her backside. The male thumped from one corner of the room to another while nosing/chinning at any object on its way.

 

"Strange neighbors" I sighed, closed the door and went back to my room.