Wow! At last am so happy to i am writing on ''Rabbit farming"
seriously this is my favourite farm animal and really am so much in
love with it.
This is the 1st animal i ever raised both for PET and
for COMMERCIAL sake, rabbit farming is a booming business in Nigeria
today and so many people are into it already and are making so much
money even though some people are still yet to discover the potential
in rabbit breeding both financially and health wise. Rabbit farming is
easy to start and there are more than enough reason why anyone should
consider rabbit farming.
WHY YOU SHOULD CONSIDER RABBIT
FARMING AS A LUCRATIVE AGRICBUSINESS --
FARMING AS A LUCRATIVE AGRICBUSINESS --
Rabbit is of great economic and health importances and some of the major importances includes:
1. Rabbit are very easy going animal and they are less stressful thus
they are easy to manage.
2. Rabbit consumes grains and green plants
majorly so you don't have to go broke buying commercial feeds to feed
your rabbit (though they have concentrate feeds purposely designed for
them but their primary feeds is green vegetables).
3. Rabbits don't make noise unlike poultry and pigs and they don't smell or
produce any offensive smells.
4. Rabbit has less cholesterol fat and as such they are often recommended for various health based issues and conditions.
5. Rabbit requires less capital to start-up its not so
capital intensive like other farm animal.
6. Rabbit are very prolific animals or they can reproduces at a very fast rate, one rabbit (doe)
can give birth to at least 8 to 16 babies (bunny).
7. Rabbit are portable animals that can serve the size of an entire family meal and
meet their animal protein requirement.
8. Rabbit droppings (feaces) are rich in essential soil nutrients and as such most farmers demand
for it and you can sell it to them and make money.
9. Rabbits grow fast and reach maturity in four to five months, they have a short
gestation period of 30 to 32 days.
10. Rabbit make good quality meat, more delicious and nutritious than that of chicken.
11. They are efficient and fast converter of wide range of vegetables matter into
meat.
12. Rabbit skin is covered with fur which can be processed and sold.
13. Rabbit are susceptible to stress and have high rate of
disease resistance.
Now that you know how useful this farm animal can
be let talk about how to get started with Rabbit farming i won't fail
to realize the fact that we have two category of people that are
rearing rabbit and the two are those who breed rabbits for "PET"
purpose and those who raise rabbit for "Business or Commercial"
purposes.
I will be writing on these two important reasons: Getting
started: before you venture into Rabbit you have to discover your
primary motive either to raise them as PET or to actually breed them
on Business basis in other to make money.
Let say you are raising them for PET purpose; Rabbit are very easy animal to handle as they are
less stubborn and stressful as such they can always make a perfect
PET' of your choice, when i was breeding RABBIt as a pet animal it was
actually my favourite PET' and due to this i understand how much it
takes to have a pleasureable experience raising rabbits has PET, i
strongly advice you to get a small bunny (baby rabbit)of let say 1
month old to breed as Pet. Some daily routine practices to carryout
in a Rabbit farm includes:
1. Cleaning of the rabbitry, changing of
water and feeds.
2. Checking the body of the rabbit for proper
functioning and for injury that might have been incured.
3. Providing neat water (not compulsory always) with fresh leafy or
vegetable green or grains, with concentrates.
4. Make the cage available inside a rabbitry for maximum protection for the bunnies.
5. A stable heat source should be made available during cold weathers
and at night because rabbits are nocturnal that is, they are move
active in the night than day.
6. Wooden materials should b made
available in the rabbit cage as rabbit are use to a practice of
gnawing their teeth for proper chewing and to hinder the overgrowing
of their incisors.
Before you start your rabbit farm, you need to
carryout a feasibility study, so that you can know how much the
business is going to grow and you can track the profit and loss.
Rabbit are used basically for four important reasons and these
includes:
1. Meat purpose
2. Rabbit skin or pelt
3. Rabbit Manure
4. For research purpose
and why most of people breed them so when you realize why you are
raising them it will be easier for you to make profit.
Their meat is the major purpose for rearing them as their mat is very nutritious,
palatable and having more health benefits than chicken and the rest
because they contain a very low cholesterol fat and that is why
Doctors recommend rabbit meat for cancer patients and people with high
blood pressure. Rabbit meat is alwo regarded as white meat.
Another important product gotten from rabbit is Rabbit skin or pelt,
this is a wonderful product some call it by-product but will say its
one of the main products gotten from rabbit.
I understand the fact that meat is the most important product gotten from rabbit and its one
of the major reasons why many people venture into but there are some
other important products we must consider.
The skin of a rabbit or pelt are used in making Jackets, head-gear, carpets or rugs and other
decorative households or ornamentals. Another important product gotten
from rabbits is *Manure* it as been discovered that rabbit manure is
high in Nitrogen and Phosphorus and therefore can be used to improve
the fertility of the soil.
So if you are into rabbit farming, other farmers around can consult you to buy rabbit feaces from your rabbit
farm. Some other category of people raise rabbit for Research purpose:
rabbit system is almost the same with man so as a result of this they
are often used for experimental research to discover new things in the
scientific field and verify the product validity!
A good example of products that is been tested on rabbit are Drugs, vaccines, foods and
lots more.
These are some incredible benefits of rabbit breeding in
our next post we will talk more on the housing system, breeding ofmeat rabbit and lots more on how to start and venture into rabbitfarming wealth streaming agricbusiness.
