Backgrounder
If you have to buy meat, or if you’d like to earn some extra money, think about raising rabbits. Rabbits are popular because they have lots of babies that grow quickly into big rabbits that you can eat. One healthy doe, can produce five litters of six rabbits each year. That is about 30 kilograms of meat a year. The meat, when cooked, tastes like poultry meat: rabbit curry and chicken curry taste just the same.
When your buck and your does are living in clean, dry, safe hutches, you are ready to think about breeding your rabbits. To breed the doe, put her into the cage with the buck in the early morning or evening when it is cool. Watch her carefully to make sure she mates. It should take only two or three minutes. If she does not mate, you can try again later. After she has mated, put her back in her own cage.
Thirty one days after mating, her litter will be born. Three days before the baby rabbits are due, give the mother a nest box where she can give birth. Put a little soft, dry grass in the box and the mother will mix it with her own fur. The nest is also a warm, dry place for the young rabbits. There are usually 6 to 10 babies in a litter. The baby rabbits will not open their eyes for about two weeks. Do not touch any of the baby rabbits until they are 7 days old. If you touch them, you will change the way they smell, and the mother won’t feed them. If you must touch them, rub your hands over the mother first. That way, you won’t change the way the babies smell. The rabbits will be ready to eat in only four months. You can wean them at 2 months of age. When the baby rabbits are weaned, it’s time to breed the doe again. Feed them for 2 more months and, when they weigh 2 kilos, they’re big enough to eat.
You may cross rabbits of the small local breeds with larger New Zealand Whites and California Whites. Your extension agent may be able to help you get good breeding stock. Some local rabbits have grown small due to poor management and parents breeding with their own offspring. Ask your extension worker for advice.
Feeding the rabbits Rabbits eat almost anything that is eaten by people and other animals. You can cut grass or gather weeds. If the forage is wet when you cut it, let it dry for a few hours before using it. Otherwise the rabbits may get diarrhea and may even die. Kitchen scraps, sweet potato vines, porridge, bread crusts, kale, and carrot tops are also very good. Maize plants, banana leaves, and mulberry leaves are also good. Potato tops are poisonous to rabbits and to most animals. If you live in the city, keep an eye out for rabbit food. Ask your neighbours to keep their kitchen waste for you if it is fresh and clean. Give them rabbit droppings you clean from the cage to use as fertilizer in exchange for clean kitchen waste. You can also buy commercial feed prepared especially for rabbits. This is good for all rabbits. It makes them grow faster and stronger than just grass. It is especially good for does producing milk for young ones.
Rabbits also like hay, dry grass and dry leaves. Experiment with what grows near you. The rabbits will chose what they like. Rabbits don’t want to eat dirty food. If food is put on the floor of the cage, it will get dirty and trampled on. If the rabbit does not eat it, the food is wasted. If it does eat it, the rabbit may get sick. So tie the forage from the top or side of the cage so that it does not touch the floor. For feed or kitchen scraps attach a simple rack or bowl to the wall of the cage so that it cannot get knocked over. Be sure that you can remove the container easily for regular cleaning.
Often people say that if rabbits drink water, they will die. That is not true. Rabbits should have about one cup of clean water in a clean container every day. Make sure that it cannot be spilled. Rabbits often get bored and try to play ball with their food containers. Also put a small piece of wood into the cage for the rabbit to sharpen its teeth on. The wood should be clean and should not have any paint or oil on it.
Rabbits can feed your family or they can be bartered or sold. They are easy for women and young people to raise. They are quiet and they do not smell.
But you do not get something for nothing. Your rabbits need checking every morning and every evening and while they eat, to see that all is well. Take a few minutes each time to see that there is clean food and water. You should also look around to see if the rabbits are getting too much sun, or wind or rain. Check too that no young rabbits are trapped behind a nest box.
Clean rabbits are usually healthy rabbits. But, if they get diarrhea, you may need to put chicken antibiotic in the drinking water. An injured rabbit may be best to cull and eat.
Some final advice. Keep a small notebook to record what happens. Keep your best, biggest, strongest rabbits for breeding. Never pick up rabbits by their ears or you will injure them. Hold them by the loose skin or scruff on their shoulders, and support a heavy adult with one hand under the hind legs.
Rabbits can feed your family and give you extra income, whether you live in the country or in the city.
Information sources
Rabbits, edited by Rene Coste, 1991. (106 pages). The Tropical Agriculturalist Series, Centre for Tropical Veterinary Medicine, University of Edinburgh. MacMillan Education Ltd., London, in cooperation with the Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Co operation (CTA), P.O. Box 380, 6700 AJ Wageningen, The Netherlands.
The Rabbit Project Manual: a trainer’s manual for meat rabbit project development.S.D. Lukefahr, 1992. (103 pages). Heifer Project International, P.O. Box 808, Little Rock, Arkansas, U.S.A. 72203.
“Rabbits”, in Footsteps, No. 10, March, 1992, (page 6). Tear Fund, 100 Church Road, Teddington, TW11 8QE, U.K.
“Raising Rabbits” – World Neighbors in Action Vol. 8, No. 2 (8 pages). World Neighbors, International Headquarters, 5116 North Portland Avenue, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73112, U.S.A. (Based on a booklet originally produced in Zaire, Central Africa). A filmstrip, “Rabbit Meat Is Good Meat”, is also available from World Neighbors.