How to raise rabbits at home for meat?

Rabbit meat is rarely found on store shelves. Moreover, it is a more valuable product than pork, beef and even lamb. Rabbit meat is absorbed by ninety percent. In addition, it is less fatty and belongs to dietary types of meat, which is its undoubted advantage.

Benefits of breeding rabbits

Breeding rabbits for meat production is a promising business. Their fattening is much better than other animal breeds. In a short time, they gain a lot of weight (about a kilogram per month). Intensive feeding makes the meat better and tastier. It becomes bright pink in color and takes on a rather attractive appearance. The resulting fat is also a valuable product.

Meat breeds

Breeding rabbits for meat

Breeding rabbits for meat will be more successful if you select the breed of meat direction, which is most adapted to local climatic conditions. In this case, the animals will quickly gain weight, and by six months of keeping, they can be slaughtered.

For beef breeds, the following quality indicators are characteristic:

• The rapidity of growth and weight gain;
• High percentage of clean meat at the exit;
• High palatability of meat.

The best meat breeds

The most popular for breeding for meat were the New Zealand White and California breeds.

New Zealand white

Animals have a strong constitution and thin bones, a short body with a small head, deep and wide chest, straight back with a wide loin. They are also characterized by straight legs, thick, fluffy legs, and short, thin ears. Their coat is thick and dense. Females are distinguished by high fertility and careful attitude to offspring. New Zealand rabbits are quite calm and very well adapted to indoor rabbitries. They are early ripening, the weight of an adult individual reaches five kilograms, and the meat yield at slaughter is about 58 percent.

California breed

The California rabbit was bred by a complex crossing of several species, from which they took the best qualities: thin bones, compact body, wide back, lumbar and chest. Their ears are short, and their legs are muscular and well pubescent. This breed is characterized by early maturity and meatiness. well tolerated by closed rabbitries and mesh floors.

Rabbit breeds for meat

There are also a number of common breeds of meat and meat-and-skin types.

Flanders

Very large and massive animals that are the ancestors of all large-sized breeds for meat purposes. They can grow up to 70 centimeters in length, while weighing up to ten kilograms. Clumsy, lop-eared and very calm, Flandre has a fairly muscular body and beautiful fur. Its meat is soft and tasty.

Despite its large size, this breed is not considered effective enough for breeding for meat. Flandre requires a lot of space, food and maintenance. Moreover, they are late ripening. Rabbits often have difficulty giving birth.

You can learn more about this breed of rabbits by clicking on the link

Ram

Rabbits Rams are widely used as a meat breed. An adult animal can weigh up to eight kilograms. One rabbit brings up to nine babies. The ram is sometimes called the lop-eared rabbit because it has very long ears. It is believed that they impair the hearing of the animal, due to which they are distinguished by perfect calmness. The meat is very tender and tasty Baranov.

Read more information on the Sheep breed at this link.

Black-brown

Black-brown rabbits are the most hardy and unpretentious in breeding. They are characterized by good meat taste and original skin. The female rabbit usually brings eight babies at a time. They have very good and fast growth.

It should also be noted breeds suitable for breeding for meat: White giant, Gray giant Giant chinchilla, Butterfly.

Want to know more about the Black-brown breed, and also look at this link for the White Giant breed and the Butterfly rabbit breed.

Breeding rabbits for meat

Breeding rabbits for meat

When breeding rabbits for meat, you need to know about the features of their feeding. There are several types of feed:

• Green - branch food and herbs (dandelions, plantain, horse sorrel, loach, sweet clover, alfalfa, clover and others);
• Juicy - roots, tubers and silage;
• Rough - dry grass (hay);
• Concentrated - grain, bran, cake;
• Animal feed - dairy products, bone and fish meal, fish oil;
• Mineral supplements.
• The feed can be dry and mixed with the addition of green and succulent feed. Drinking water should be kept fresh and clean at all times, as rabbits consume large quantities of it.

Summer period

It is necessary to transfer rabbits from a winter diet to a summer one in stages. In the early days, the green mass should not exceed fifty grams per individual. For ten days, the daily rate increases to five hundred grams, and then to one kilogram.

Important! If you very quickly replace dry food with green ones, this can lead to excessive gas formation, and often to mass death of rabbits, especially young animals.

Green food should include a variety of grasses. Wet grass (dew, rain) must be pre-dried. You need to know that in very hot weather, rabbits eat in the morning and evening hours, and during the day they can completely refuse food. At this time, the daily feeding rate should consist of 800 grams of green food and 25 grams of concentrates.

Winter period

If rabbits are not designed for intensive fattening, they are kept at a moderate body condition in winter. Green herbs are being replaced with succulent food, which has a positive effect on their digestion. They are usually given during the day's feeding. In the morning and evening, in addition to concentrated feed, animals feed on hay and branch feed.The daily feeding rate for an adult is 200 grams of hay and succulent feed and 35 grams of concentrate. The addition of chalk, salt and bone meal (2 grams each) to the feed should be mandatory.

Fattening rabbits for meat

When feeding rabbits for meat, a phased approach is used.

First stage (preparatory)

Rabbits

At this time, the animals are prepared for the transition to enhanced nutrition. This is done in order to adapt the digestive system to the new diet. In the first few days, the consumption of green fodder is reduced, which is replaced by cake, grain, compound feed and bran. The diet includes beets, carrots and their tops, cabbage. If hay is given to rabbits, it is best if it consists of high-calorie legumes. You can add some clover.

Second stage (main)

At the second stage, rabbit fat is deposited, which is of great value. Also during this period, the taste of meat is formed. Therefore, the main component of the diet is a mash and high-calorie porridge. For this, you can use a mixture of potatoes, bran and feed. For cereals, the emphasis should be on corn, barley and oats. The consumption of wheat and peas is limited. Feeding with root crops is gradually discontinued, greens are issued in small quantities.

Twenty days after the start of fattening, the rabbits are no longer very willing to eat. To increase their appetite, you need to give them salt water (a pinch per liter). If you need to get more fatty meat, you can additionally feed with soy.

Third stage (final)

At this stage, you need to maintain enhanced feeding. This requires additional stimulation, since the rabbits themselves do not eat well. In addition, they can completely stop eating and begin to lose weight. Therefore, dill, caraway seeds, parsley, celery and chicory are introduced into the daily diet. It increases the appetite of animals very well. They are given along with a mash, to which bone meal, dried nettles and a little salt are added. If the animals refuse from this feed, then the feeding process is completely completed.

Important! If rabbits have problems with the digestive tract, you need to include branch feed, fried sunflower seeds or flaxseed in the diet.

Rabbit meat demand

Rabbit meat is a healthy and nutritious food that can be consumed by people of all ages. Low fat and cholesterol content allows those who suffer from high blood pressure and atherosclerosis, liver and gastrointestinal tract diseases to use it as a dietary product. Therefore, the demand for rabbit meat, which is not only tasty, but also healthy, is constantly growing.

Rabbits are very fertile and mature quickly. Therefore, breeding these animals at home is becoming not only a hobby, but quite a profitable business.

Raising rabbits at home, you can get 4-5 kg ​​of dietary meat from one individual, as well as valuable natural fur. You can keep them in a minimum amount only for your own needs, or you can breed an entire farm. Raising these animals is not very costly and time consuming. To breed them at home, you need to take into account some factors and nuances.

Growing young animals at home

Rabbits in a cage

Raising young animals is one of the most crucial moments for the owner. In rabbits, by the end of their first month of life, all teeth change, they are completely covered with wool. From now on, they are ready for an independent life. It is very important to provide them with proper care. The main reason for transplanting pups from the female's cage is a rapid decrease in her milk production (in 70%, lactation stops before 45 days after the birth of pups). Some breeders prefer to plant the female, and leave the rabbits in the cage to which they are accustomed.

Young animals may even experience weight loss during this period. There is no need to change the feed. New food should be introduced gradually, adding it to the usual for rabbits. When the female is deposited, the young are sorted by age and weight groups.

First, young animals are placed in 6-7 individuals in a cage. For breeding young animals for a tribe - no more than 4 rabbits of 3 months of age. Later, females (2 per cage) and males (1 per cage) are seated in separate cages.

When rabbits are in groups, skirmishes can occur between them and they can be injured. Therefore, the breeder needs to frequently examine the young. Sick and poorly growing individuals are seated separately, their diet is improved.

Nutritional mistakes in rabbits can lead to gastrointestinal problems in animals. At first, after breeding rabbits and females, young animals are given small portions of feed, which is easy to digest. In the period 30 days after shedding, when the rabbits have already stopped feeding on milk, they are given mixed feed. In summer, it is good to feed them with herbs (St. John's wort, alfalfa and others). In winter, hay of cereals, bran, oats, carrots are suitable.

Green food should not be given immediately, from the 3rd week of the rabbit's life it is introduced gradually, starting from 20 g. Before each feeding, young animals need to be watered.

Cages for young animals

Rabbits in a cage

They should be prepared in advance. It is more profitable to make them yourself. The structure of the cage can be different, but it must be clean, dry, light in it. The health and performance of pets depends on this. If animals are kept outdoors, the floor and walls of the cage should be insulated. It is better to make the floor of wood or plastic, rather than mesh, so that the paws of the animal do not get inflammation. It is better to build a double floor - first, the slats or lattice are laid, and on top of the plank floor.

Outdoor keeping has its advantages, but at home it is better to raise rabbits indoors. In winter, animals can often get frostbitten in the cold.

Growing at home

Before breeding rabbits, you need to decide what is the purpose of raising them. Based on this, you can already navigate the choice of animal breeds, which are divided into the following categories:

• meat;
• downy (skinny);
• meat-skin.

You need to choose a rabbit for growing with clean eyes, a shiny dense pile, a strong torso and normal fatness. If individuals of a particular breed are purchased, then it is necessary to pay attention to its standards - whether the color, weight, length of the rabbit correspond to them.

You should not take an animal if it has the following defects:

• falling hair;
• limb curves;
• sagging belly;
• obesity or wasting;
• drooping ear tips;
• protruding hips.

In order for rabbits to be in a healthy state, it is necessary to follow the general rules for caring for them. Cages and feeders should be cleaned every day. Once every 10 days, everything contained in the cage is disinfected. Do not allow a draft in the room where rabbits are kept. It is necessary to conduct a thorough examination of the pets as often as possible in order to identify deviations in time. The sick animal is immediately isolated and a veterinarian is called. The optimum temperature for breeding rabbits is + 14-16 degrees.

Raising rabbits at home requires mandatory vaccination. It is imperative to get vaccinated against myxomatosis and viral hemorrhagic disease. You can use both a complex and a single vaccine.

Features of raising rabbits for meat

Rabbits for meat

A rabbit's productivity for meat production is determined by many factors. The main ones are the quality of food and growing conditions. It is better to mate the female for the first time at 4.5-5 months. After the birth of the rabbits, it is implemented, and after 3 months, young animals can also be sold. Rabbits are best kept in the same cage where they were born.

Due to the fact that young rabbits are used, the productivity of the young increases. Due to the low milkiness of a single female, it is better to leave no more than 6 cubs under it.

The live weight of a rabbit for meat must be at least 1.8 kg. According to fatness, animals are of the first and second categories. The first includes fairly well-fed individuals, muscular. The thighs and back are rounded, the spine cannot be felt. Rabbits of the second category have a poorly expressed fat layer, retracted hips, slightly protruding vertebrae.

Underweight animals and females weakened by feeding should be fattened for 3-4 weeks. Caraway seeds, wormwood, dill, coniferous branches are added to their food.

Highlights of growing up for fluff

Rabbit keeping

To grow rabbits at home for fluff, you need to stop your choice on individuals with well-covered paws, back, head, sides, etc. The length of the pile is at least 6 cm.

Such rabbits can be kept in several ways: in cages of 4 individuals, or in group enclosures (10-15 pieces). In cold weather, animals must be sure to bedding straw.

Downy species of rabbits require more protein, amino acids containing sulfur. They are an integral part of the hairline. Their diet must necessarily contain cake, meat and bone meal, legumes. At 2.5 months of age, the selection of fluff from rabbits begins. If it is shorter than 5-6 cm, then it is not harvested. It is impossible to pluck out all the fluff in winter, so that the animal does not get sick or die. The second assembly is carried out after 4 months, the third - after 6. In adult rabbits, the fluff is taken every 2 months.

Professional recommendations

Experienced breeders for productively raising rabbits at home give some useful tips.

• To improve performance, animals are given 1 mg of cobalt chloride once a week. It is dissolved in water and mixed well with food. It must be given to begin with the beginning of the selection of down. You can replace it with cobalt nitrate.
• To preserve the fluff at home, it is packed in a box 80x50x50 cm. It must be carefully closed to prevent moisture, insects, and rodents from entering. Naphthalene is placed in the box to protect the product from moths. The capacity of such a container is about 7 kg of fluff.
• When a new rabbit is purchased, it must first be placed separately from the others. It must be kept in quarantine for about a month in order to identify possible diseases and defects during this period.

Nutritionists recommend switching to dietary meats for those who suffer from cardiovascular diseases, as well as various abnormalities in the digestive tract. Rabbit meat not only contains many useful substances, but is also easy to digest, unlike pork or duck. Consequently, when using it, the load on the heart, stomach and other organs is reduced. If the area of ​​the site allows, you can try to grow a rabbit for meat yourself.

How to start breeding rabbits

The rabbit is not as popular in the household as pigs, since there is much less meat from them. But the price of these animals is high enough to think about breeding them. And in leaving they are not very whimsical, as it might seem at first glance.

First you need to choose a breed, since not all rabbits are suitable for breeding specifically for meat. After all, many are engaged in rabbit breeding because of their beautiful fur, used to decorate clothes and accessories. It is good if there are familiar rabbit breeders who can share the offspring of their animals. Otherwise, the search for a suitable breed will need to be done by yourself.

Next, you need to prepare a place for the rabbits to stay and take care of food and vitamins. The current ecology does not allow to do with one good food, since animals get sick, like people. It is better to take care of what vitamins and at what age are best to give and where to get them.

What breeds of rabbits are suitable for breeding for meat

There are several popular breeds that are most suitable for domestic breeding. They have the characteristics that are important in raising rabbits for meat:

• rapid growth and weight gain;
• a sufficiently large number of offspring;
• good adult weight.

The New Zealand White Rabbit produces 7 to 12 babies in one round. Already at three months, the weight of a baby reaches three kilograms, and an adult animal can weigh about five. The New Zealand red rabbit has the same growth parameters, but there are usually no more than nine babies in the offspring.

Individuals of the Risen breed can weigh up to 14 kilograms, but the average weight ranges from 7-9 kilograms. But the rabbit breeds with the loud names White and Gray giants are not so large in size and rarely grow over 7 kilograms. But they perfectly adapt to the climate and do not require any special care.

The female Californian rabbit brings 30-35 juveniles per year. In addition, they have a fairly dense and thick wool that can be used in haberdashery. But on average, their weight is no more than five kilograms. The French ram has the same characteristics of size and fertility.

Meat breeds of rabbits are distinguished by a special structure of the legs, on which the pads are lowered. This allows them to move comfortably on mesh floors. Early puberty allows these rabbits to rapidly expand in numbers, and rapid growth ensures a quick return on investment.

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Rabbit corrals

These animals can be kept both in closed pens and in individual cages. They perfectly tolerate a temperate climate. When arranging a closed rabbitry, you need to calculate how many animals will be in one pen, since infections spread quickly in crowded conditions, and rabbits do not grow well.

You also need to equip trays for feed and water. It's good if there is a separate space in the room where you can drive the rabbits in order to calmly clean the pen. You also need to ensure a constant supply of fresh air and the penetration of sunlight.

During the warmer months, rabbits can be kept in mesh cages. But in winter, individual cells must be insulated. The bottom flooring of metal mesh is not recommended, as rabbits often develop pododermatitis. It is better to make the floor from wooden slats with a small gap so that animal waste does not accumulate inside the cage. You also need to fix the trays for water and food well in them, provide free access to them from the outside. For example, make hinged doors to conveniently add food.

Young animals are kept together with the rabbit until a certain age, so there must be a supply of cages for shedding mature animals. Young individuals are more active, therefore the enclosures should be more free. If pregnant females are found, they should be seated immediately, and not wait for the birth of rabbits.

How to feed rabbits to get good meat

Regardless of the breed, the diet of rabbits is about the same. These animals are herbivores and, in principle, feed on most meadow plants. But without grain, a lot of meat from a rabbit will not work. Therefore, preparations for the winter need to be taken care of in advance so that by the spring the animals do not remain on the cut ration.

Since spring, dried grass appears in the diet. It is better not to give fresh herbs, as they are too heavy to digest. In winter and autumn, you can feed it with hay. During the year, give pruning from cabbage, beets, carrots or apples that has lain for at least a day. Jerusalem artichoke and young vine from grapes, which remains after pruning, also go well.

The diet of a lactating rabbit and a pregnant female should be increased by 10-15%.In winter, it is worth adding oil cake, boiled potatoes and bone meal to the standard diet of young animals. Concentrated feed allows you to raise a rabbit for meat in a few months. In this case, the mass fraction of such feed from the main diet should be about 50%.

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Vaccination and treatment

Due to the constant appearance and mutation of various diseases, young rabbits need to be vaccinated. For these purposes, you can invite a specialist or learn how to vaccinate animals yourself. But it will be difficult to do without consulting a veterinarian. After all, a specialist is always aware of new products on the veterinary market and will advise on the latest drugs.

For vaccination, it is better to use complex products that protect against several diseases at once. If the offspring are large, then this significantly reduces the time for the procedure. If any rabbit from the common cage shows symptoms of the disease, it must be immediately transferred to the infirmary cage in order to exclude the spread of a possible infection. And until his complete recovery, do not return to the rest of the rabbits.

It is better to buy medicines in specialized veterinary pharmacies on the recommendation of the veterinarian who examined the sick animal. Rabbits with signs of illness should never be eaten. Many diseases can be prevented by timely vaccination and a balanced diet with vitamin supplements.

Recommendations for raising rabbits for meat

In addition to the standard advice on how to house and feed rabbits, there are many more recommendations for raising these animals for meat. This type of household has existed for a long time for some developments and their own secrets to successfully raising rabbits have appeared.

Sexual maturation of females begins at four months of age, but mating is best done closer to five. This will give you more chances for healthy and robust offspring. The weight of a young rabbit should be more than 2.5 kilograms, but obesity should not be allowed either. After the first rounding of females, it is already possible to sell them for meat, but only after weaning the young. The optimal age for transferring rabbits is 40-45 days.

A young female does not differ in high milkiness, therefore it is not recommended to leave more than six rabbits under it. The optimal age for selling rabbits for meat is three to four months. Later, feeding them is not cost-effective, since weight is gained slowly, and more and more feed is consumed. Moreover, the meat of a young rabbit is more tender and healthy.

Rabbit breeding is a fairly promising area of ​​domestic activity, subject to a responsible approach to business. Knowing the little secrets of experienced livestock breeders, you can soon get the first profit for business development. Selling good fresh rabbit meat will not be difficult, because the popularity of dietary food is growing, and the market in this direction is not yet sufficiently secured.

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Video: training course for starting a family rabbit farm

Background information about feeding rabbits is useful for a beginner and experienced rabbit breeder. Using the examples of industrial and home feeding, we propose to start feeding rabbits for meat at home from scratch, or raising rabbits for meat as a business project.

Photo. The profitability of feeding rabbits is potentially very high.

Profitability of rabbit meat farming

To answer whether it is profitable to breed rabbits for meat, you need to remember that rabbits are the earliest animals. At 4-8 months, these are adult animals, compared to a 6 month old bull. From one rabbit, you can get up to 100 kg in net weight of an ecological, dietary product per year. Rabbit breeding is one of the most profitable livestock breeding, profitability is high in two economic segments:

• feeding rabbits for meat;
• extra charge for products received.

In the world, raising rabbits for meat is the most promising direction of organic animal husbandry. Perhaps, soon in our country, the intensive fattening direction of rabbit breeding will revive in full force. Mikhailov's MIACRO technology, despite being promoted on the Internet, is not as cost-effective as they try to imagine. A big disadvantage of Mikhailovsky cells due to the high cost (up to $ 600) per cell and high maintenance costs, outdated technology, which is more than 40 years old.

On foreign farms, for breeding rabbits, from 100 females of the breeding nucleus per year receive up to 1100 fattening rabbits, with labor costs per rabbit no more than 5-7 minutes, data from 1995. Currently, there are about 6 thousand rabbits per employee per year.

In Russia, the situation in the meat-feeding of rabbits is somewhat more modest, or rather not at all. A critical review of the positive and negative aspects of the rabbit business in Russia.

Rabbit breeding in the USSR did not become the same promising area of ​​livestock breeding as pig breeding and poultry breeding because until the 80s there was no technology for winter rounding (it is impossible to obtain meat in line) and because rabbit meat was not in great demand among the population as in Europe. In our country, rabbit meat is traditionally a favorite product only in the southern regions.

Comparative analysis of the content of rabbits is more profitable than raising meat gobies, dairy cows, pigs, sheep, poultry. Why rabbit breeding is more profitable on specific examples.

For fattening rabbits, the saturation of the compound feed with protein, carbohydrate, and fat is not very important. And this is very economical for a person feeding an animal. Watch the rabbit eating feces and you will all understand that even "unedged boards" will be digested in the rabbit's stomach in two or three visits of food (cecotrophs).

Rabbits are very sensitive to the quality of feed ingredients

Rabbits for meat - Theory

The goal of any fattening is to get a lot of products with minimal costs. Raising rabbits for meat is a profitable occupation, not inferior in profitability to poultry and pig breeding. In modern conditions, the technology of raising rabbits as a business has stepped forward. The use of complete feed, the improvement of winter breeding, made it possible to consider feeding rabbits, even on home farms, a promising direction of animal husbandry. Rabbit and rabbit meat products can take their rightful place on the table of Russians.

Rabbit feeding - practice

Raising rabbits for meat begins not before slaughter, but from the birth of the animal. Meanwhile, on the Internet, the essence of fattening is understood in different ways. Let's clarify so that there is no further confusion. Fattening rabbits are young animals, rejected, based on the results of grading, for breeding use. The division of rabbits and their transfer to different sex and age groups implies preparation for the final stage of feeding:

1. sucking group (to feed the dairy rabbit correctly);
2. weaning group (competent change of the type of feeding of rabbits);
3. feeding group (final stage or feeding itself).

Try to bypass at least one stage and make sure that there will not be a good offspring from a weak uterus, a sharp transfer of rabbits from milk feeding to the main diet is almost always painful.

It is more correct to count the time of the beginning of feeding from birth of rabbits, and not from the beginning of the formation of the feeding group.

How long to feed rabbits

The technology of raising rabbits for meat, as an industrial type business, involves several options for feeding, from birth to slaughtering a rabbit:

• 120 days or more (outdated technology, do not rush to refuse);
• 90 days (optimal technology, not always suitable);
• 70 days or less (in countries with developed rabbit breeding).

It has been proven by scientific research that a fattening rabbit to gain 1 kg of its weight must eat the main feed (converted to oats) at the age of:

• 30-60 days - 4 kg (very early feeding);
• 60-90 days - 5 kg; (early fattening)
• 90-120 days - 7 kg (optimal feeding);
• 120-150 days - 9.5 kg (late fattening);
• 150-180 days –12.5 kg (irrational fattening).

It is known that the maximum growth occurs only in young animals, before puberty. A rabbit at 4-6 months is a mature animal, its age corresponds to 20-21 years in humans. According to the theory of a growing organism, in a rabbit at 4-8 months. growth points begin to "close". Therefore, feeding the rabbit after 120-150 days gradually loses its physiological meaning.

It is not profitable for a rabbit breeder to increase the mass of heavy bones, fat and internal organs of a sexually mature rabbit; a double feed counter is not needed

In rabbit farming, an unofficial scale for the growth rate of a rabbit is adopted, it is easy to remember, but it is not always correct. At 1 month, the rabbit will weigh one kilogram, at 2 months - two kilograms, at 3 months - three kilograms. This is easy to verify on the results of measurements of rabbits of different ages.

What weight should a rabbit have before fattening

Several options have been developed for setting up rabbits for meat feeding, at 30, 60, 90 days. Accordingly, there are tables of optimal weight before feeding. We have collected summary data on the main breeds of rabbits of I-II classes (the weight of rabbits of the elite class was not taken into account), suitable for fattening and not suitable for breeding.

Weight of rabbits by month of different breeds for fattening

For fattening, starting at 30 days, rabbits are selected that have reached body weight:

• 0.5 kg (Vienna Blue, Silver);
• 0.6 kg (Giant Gray and White, California and New Zealand White);
• 0.7 kg (Black-brown).

For fattening, starting at 60 days, rabbits are selected that have reached body weight:

• 1.4 kg (Vienna blue);
• 1.5 kg (Giant Gray, Californian, Silver);
• 1.6 kg (White giant, New Zealand white, Black-brown).

For fattening, starting at 90 days, rabbits are selected that have reached body weight:

• 2.1 kg (Vienna Blue);
• 2.2 kg (Giant Gray, Silver);
• 2.3 kg (California)
• 2.5 kg (New Zealand White, Black Brown)
• 2.6 kg (White giant).

These are experimental data, they serve solely as a guideline when selecting young stock for fattening. For practical application, it is better to use the method of re-weighing young stock on a farm in 30, 60, 90 days. The selection is carried out not according to the table, but on the basis of the transfer data, taking into account the average weight of animals in the group, animals with the maximum and minimum weight. Animals with an average and maximum weight are assessed for the possibility of transferring to the breeding nucleus, the rest for fattening or marriage.

Rabbits that are not admitted to the checked (per tribe) group are transferred to the feeding group. Make sure that animals weighing less than the average for the group do not get to fattening. They will not give a good feed conversion, they are rejected, before the start of setting for intensive rearing for meat.

What weight should a rabbit have after fattening

At 4-5 months, the rabbit gains fat, along with this, the dietary value of its meat decreases. However, the Russian consumer of rabbit meat prefers to buy a large carcass of a fat-fed rabbit. Rabbit breeders are forced to continue feeding to a solid size of the animal. Compare Rabbit Carcass Carcass Carcass Carcass Standards By Carcass Weight In Different Countries

Table of the weight of rabbits of different breeds by months after feeding in different countries

• Russia - 2.0-2.5 kg;
• Spain - 1.0-1.3 kg;
• Italy - 1.0-1.8 kg;
• France - 1.3 -1.4 kg;
• Germany - 1.6-1.8 kg.

Slaughter weight of a carcass is about 60% of the weight of a live rabbit, 40% is liver, skins. It is clear that fattening a rabbit in live weight up to 1.6-1.9 kg and getting 1.0-1.5 kilograms of rabbit meat in slaughter weight is easier than feeding up to 3.2-4.0 kg and getting 2.0 -2.5 kg. Stereotypes of consumers interfere with setting records for Russians in feeding rabbits.

After fattening, rabbits do not always show a record live weight, the average indicators are as follows:

1. Large breeds of rabbits: White giant 4.6-6.1 kg, Gray giant 4.6-6.6 kg, Black-brown 4.6-6.3 kg, Silver 4.6-6.7 kg, Soviet chinchilla 4.6-5.2 kg.
2. Medium breeds of rabbits: Vienna Blue 4.4-5.6 kg, California 4.0-6.1 kg, New Zealand White 4.0-5.8 kg.

Not always fashionable, among novice rabbit breeders, breeds - California and New Zealand White are able to show a record weight gain. For these breeds, a well-functioning regime of keeping and feeding is needed (special rooms and complete feed for different feeding groups).

Amount of compound feed for fattening

In one month, the rabbit gains about one kilogram of live weight. Fattening rabbits for slaughter in order to achieve their mass of 3-4 kilograms (slaughter weight) will require about 13-18 kg of complete feed, per animal (data from the tables).

However, the need for compound feed, especially on small family farms, is reduced by auxiliary feed (hay, grass, root crops, branch feed, mash) - cheap substitutes for complete feed. On medium-sized rabbit fattening farms, inexpensive compound feed is used.

Pig feed suitable for feeding rabbits

Pork feed recipes are cheaper, often of better quality, than rabbit feed recipes due to the fact that they are produced in huge quantities at feed mills. On medium-sized farms for fattening they also use: meal, cake, silage, vitamin and mineral supplements in the form of meat and bone meal and bone meal, feed chalk, ready-made solutions of vitamins, such as "Chiktonik" and others.

When fattening rabbits, they try not to use injectable energy drinks (vitamins of groups A, D, E, C, mildrovet, carnitine) and the like, which affect the increase in weight gain.

The rabbit needs to constantly chew food, he eats about 30-60 times a day (a physiological feature of rodents), due to the fact that saliva is constantly secreted, and not like other animals, the incisors are constantly growing. However, rabbits have a phenomenal ability to digest feed and convert it into weight gain (feed conversion). Conversion rates are one of the highest among pets. More about methods of how to calculate compound feed.

Rabbit fattening cages

The most common cage for feeding young rabbits is the group type. In a group cage, fattening rabbits are kept together until puberty, until the end of fattening. When calculating, we take into account the average number of cubs in a female. We take the average value - eight rabbits, according to the number of mammary glands in a rabbit. One cage for feeding rabbits will not be enough. During weaning, the rabbits form groups according to gender, it is not recommended to split the groups later, the animals get used to each other.

Photo. Industrial type group cage, designed for keeping and fattening young rabbits

Thus, for one rabbit, you will need two group cages for fattening young animals. Planning more cages for fattening is not a disaster, cages will always come in handy, all the more so making them yourself at home is not at all difficult. Some types of fattening involve keeping the rabbit together with the offspring up to 60 and even up to 90 days, while fattening continues up to 150 days. In one of the articles, we will talk in detail about the size of group cages, types of cages, how to make feed cages for rabbits.

Breeds for feeding rabbits

List of common breeds of rabbits of meat and meat-skin breeds suitable for fattening in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus:

1. Gray giant;
2. White giant;
3. Soviet chinchilla,
4. Vienna blue
5. Silver,
6. Black-brown
7. California,
8. White New Zealand.

The best rabbit breeds for fattening

Which rabbits are the most meaty and grow fast is one of the most common questions about feeding.The Californian and White New Zealand rabbit breeds are considered the best for beef fattening due to their early maturity. Sometimes, these rabbits are called broiler rabbits. But the correct answer to the question of which rabbits are better: New Zealand or Californian is hardly possible, due to many subjective and objective factors. We will present the common characteristics of rabbits of two meat breeds.

How to properly form a group of rabbits for fattening

Choosing the right rabbits for fattening is an important and difficult task, sometimes rabbits of even one breed do not meet the necessary requirements. Rabbits suitable for beef feeding, especially New Zealand White (NZB) and California beef broiler rabbits, share the following characteristics:

• the weight of the rabbit by months, before fattening, is important
• massive head, well noticeable in males, less in females;
• short and muscular neck, wide shoulder blades;
• fleshy hind limbs, internal muscles of the thigh are well felt;
• the contours of the muscles on the back are felt;
• the back of the body is round and wide. when feeling the muscles of the rabbit's body, like a trained athlete;
• the skin is elastic, soft.

Broiler feeding in rabbits

Broiler feeding of intensive and super-intensive types is practically absent in Russia. It is wrong to think that broiler rabbits are first-generation meat breeds or hybrids that are easily fattened on cheap, local feed.

Broiler rabbit breeding, from the English. Broil (fry) is a system of super-early and early feeding of rabbits (no more than 90 days), based on: advanced principles of keeping, feeding with complete feed and obtaining meat for the fast food industry - fast food.

The principle of the broiler method - fast feeding of rabbits

1. Okrols are carried out all year round, leaving 6-7 young rabbits under their mothers, no more than eight (according to the number of nipples in a rabbit).
2. Females happen immediately after the young rabbits are jigged.
3. One feeding cycle takes an average of 90 days.
4. From one rabbit, no more than 24 rabbits are obtained per year.
5. Rabbits are kept together with suckling young in one cage, larger than usual, area (0.8-0.9 m2), including the nesting department.
6. When growing broilers, no additional costs are required for the construction of group cages, so the need for cages is reduced by 25-30%.
7. The broiler type of feeding allows one worker to serve up to 250 females x 24 (the number of rabbits under the mother), to receive about 8.25 centners of meat per year.
8. An important condition is full and abundant feeding, with each subsequent five-day period, the nutritional value of feed rations is increased.
9. In summer, the nutrient concentrates were at least 40%, and in winter at least 50%.
10. The bottom line is how much the rabbit should weigh at three months and after fattening.

Broiler rabbits of specialized breeding such as Hikol, Hiplus (which are sold for fattening) are absent in Russia, for example, in the poultry industry, day-old chickens are imported by air from Germany (we cannot do it ourselves). There are no similar examples in rabbit breeding, see crossing different breeds of rabbits.

When broiler rabbits are not suitable for fattening

1. Rabbits of medium-sized broiler breeds of New Zealand, California, as well as rabbits of giant meat and meat-skin breeds (White giant, Gray giant, Soviet chinchilla, Black-brown and others) are not entirely suitable for keeping in pits. It has been noticed that they do not dig holes well due to the peculiarities of the structure of the skeleton. Rabbits of these breeds seem massive, but their skeleton is light, not strong enough.
2. Rabbits for meat: New Zealand white and Californian breeds have a common drawback - they are demanding on feeding conditions and quality of feed. Without high-quality compound feed, with possible violations of the feeding regime and keeping on the farm, the advantages of meat breeds (NZB, Californian) are not obvious.

Broiler-type rabbits are intended for feeding on mechanized farms with a controlled climate and balanced feeding

Do not chase for broiler rabbits to improve feeding if your home farm is feeding the type you find in the garden and in the field. It is better and more reliable to grow and feed rabbits, not whimsical breeds, for example, Gray and White giants, Black and white.

Fattening rabbits in Russia, features of different technologies

In the world, it is customary to divide rabbit farms according to the number of rabbits kept in cages on the farm, the following types are distinguished:

1. Miniature farms, number of breeding females up to 20 heads, breeding males 3-5 heads. This is the so-called subsidiary farm, when they are engaged in rabbit breeding, along the way to the main activity, for themselves. See rabbit breeding at home.
2. Medium rabbit farms, from 20 to 200 breeding females, the number of breeding males is approximately one in 6-10 females. On these farms, rabbits are raised, for the purpose of sale, a business on rabbits is organized by individual entrepreneurs, less often as one of the directions in a peasant farm. Commercial breeding and feeding involves a more serious approach to feed and selection of rabbits. See rabbit breeding for business start-ups IE, KFH
3. Large rabbit farms - more than 200 females; artificial insemination of rabbits is practiced. These are large enterprises specializing in meat rabbits. At such enterprises, as a rule, there are workshops for the production of complete specialized feed recipes for certain age groups. To increase the efficiency of fattening, complex crossing schemes (factory, variable) are often used, using early ripening mestizo rabbits in fattening. Heterosis technology in rabbit fattening makes sense only in conditions of intensive rabbit breeding.

On medium and large farms, professional rabbit breeders work, they use complex technological feeding schemes that cannot be described in one article. You just take the norms of technological design and implement them in your production.

Feeding rabbits for meat at home

The cultivation scheme for yourself has some peculiarities. They are associated with low feeding rates. Raising rabbits for meat at home for themselves is carried out on small farms, personal plots. People who usually do not have a special education feed rabbits on such farms. Practitioners get it all on their mistakes or successes. On such farms, it is impossible to organize more than 2-3 round-ups per year (no knowledge, no decent feed for fattening). Usually for the winter, rabbits are slaughtered or not mated. There is enough meat after fattening of rabbits for personal consumption of the family, the results of fattening, as a rule, are not realized. Such farms in Russia are called personal subsidiary plots.

Bunnies kept in a personal backyard, for their own needs in meat, are mated two or three times a year, approximate schemes:

1. First mating of rabbits (all March) → Okrol (all April) → Weaning of rabbits (May-June) → Fattening of rabbits (June-October). Total 5-6 months from birth to slaughter.
2. Second mating (May-June). → Okrol (July-August) → Weaning (September-October) → Fattening (September-January next year). Total: 5-6 months.
3. Third mating (August-September). → Okrol (all September). → Weaning (October-November) → Feeding (November-February next year). Total: 5-6 months.

Mating of rabbits during the milk period is a physiological feature of fertile rabbits. Unfortunately, this scheme does not always work in practice. On miniature farms, a high percentage of empty rabbits (infertility) is not human fault. The basis of feeding is not expensive grain, but more often, green mass (in summer), hay (out of season), vegetables from the backyard and branch feed.That is, feeding of this type is called extensive. It does not allow hoping for a high return on fattening, the results of fattening are not very high.

Feeding rabbits before slaughter

Fattening rabbits on a home farm. Small business family farms with the right to sell rabbits and rabbit meat, this is the most common type of feeding. Approximately 50-70% of the world's rabbit meat is fed on these farms. In Russia, such farms are organized by individual entrepreneurs or heads of peasant farms. Unfortunately, we have few people willing to plunge into the tax burden. Meanwhile, with a conscientious approach to business, you can get up to 4-5 okrols per year. Post-fattening meat production and gross income are generally comparable to those of other animals fed meat.

The cost of fattening rabbits is significantly lower than the cost of fattening cattle, with comparable results (income minus expense).

Fattening is carried out on a diet consisting of non-specialized compound feed, for example, compound feed intended for pigs, green mass (in summer), silage (in winter), hay (in winter). Use a mash of crushed barley, corn, oats, if possible, oilcake. However, in order to increase the weight gain for fattening, it is necessary to use vitamin and mineral supplements (chalk, salt), premixes containing a set of nutrients and useful substances, as well as trace elements.

The technology of raising rabbits for meat as a business

Currently, there are practically no specialized rabbit breeding complexes in the country, although earlier they raised meat rabbits and carried out intensive fattening. In the world of such farms, about 5% of all livestock facilities of this profile. On the basis of a business plan, such farms receive up to 5-6 okrols.

The profitability of fattening is comparable to similar indicators in poultry and pig breeding in terms of the indicator (income-expense).

Fattening is carried out on specialized compound feeds developed for separate sex and age groups of rabbits. See also broiler rabbit farming.