Facts about raising rabbit

1) The best rabbits for meat production are the New Zealand or the Californian breeds.

2) Rabbit books always talk about using 1 buck for up to 10 does, this is great if you are breeding to place meat on your own table. When you go commercial and need to mate 50 does on the same day you need 50 bucks. (Bucks are like men useful about once a day to be effective)

3) Rabbit books say you can feed rabbits any table vegetable scraps, and this makes them cheap to raise only if you are raising rabbits for your own use.

4) Lettuce and cabbage leave are bad for rabbits.

5) If you feed only greens and no concentrated pellets, you need to be feeding a large quantity and a large variety.

6) If rabbits older than 10 weeks are mixed together in a colony they will fight a lot and tear the flesh off each other until the packing order is achieved.

7) The average gestation (pregnancy) period for the above breeds of rabbits is around 31 Days.

8) Weaning (removing the kits from the Doe) can be done from 28 days to 56 days after kindling (birth), depending on your breeding cycle.

9) Meat rabbits are slaughtered at 10 weeks old, they are about 2.2 – 2.4kgs live weight and dress out at around 1.2 – 1.3kgs.

10) Rabbits kept for breeding stock should be separated from each other at 10 weeks, this mainly applies to bucks as they start fighting at this age.