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).