15 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD START RAISING RABBITS IN YOUR BACKYARD

This article to gives some reasons for small farmers, low income families, teeming youths to consider rabbit farming business which is inexpensive and stress less as a means of generating income and producing highly quality meat protein to reduce the high rate of protein deficiency in Nigeria.

With the meat situation, what it is, and the economy in a turmoil, now is a good time to consider the rabbit raising business. The best way I know to put good food on the table and a few dollars in your pocket, without a large investment, is raising rabbits. 

 

The profits can come in many ways: You can sell the urine for foliar fertilizer production, laboratory use, the manure for fertilizer or worm growing, even the feet for good luck   charms. Meat, however, is by far the most   important product.

Fifteen reasons you might want to consider getting started raising rabbits in your backyards:

• Rabbits are quiet and small, their meat is nutritious, litters (number per birth) are large with short generation intervals (meaning a quick economic return), rabbits can eat waste materials, and they are efficient at extracting protein from forage (Samkol and Lukefahr, 2008).

• Rabbit meat has great potential to feed economically disadvantaged people and could be promoted in Nigeria as a healthful, natural meat and a small farm asset.

• Because they are noiseless, rabbits can be raised in garages and servants' quarters in urban centers without infringing on the peace of the neighbors. Very little space is usually needed.

• Nigeria, in recent years, has seen a rekindled interest from people who want to raise rabbits in their backyards. “On a small scale they’re probably the easiest animal to raise, and they’re easy to process. You don’t have to pluck them, they’re easy to kill, and you can pretty much eat all of them.” 

• Rabbits do not require routine vaccination or medication for the prevention or treatment of specific diseases. This is an important factor since, in other livestock species, a lack of appropriate drugs is sometimes a major constraint to successful production. When a disease does occur in rabbit farming, local remedies can often be effectively used in treatment. One common disease condition, referred to as ear mites and caused by an external parasite, Psoroptes cuniculi, can both be prevented and treated by applying drops of an oil-kerosene solution directly inside the ear canal. Vegetable oil, red palm oil and even clean engine oil may be used. For the control of digestive disorders, diarrhea and constipation for example, various medicinal herbs and green vegetables have been observed to provide similar therapeutic results in rabbits (Lukefahr and Goldman, 1985).  

• The rabbit's basic shelter needs are modest. It is fortuitous 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, 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.

• There are few religious or other taboos on rabbit meat (except in vegetarian cultures). Islam does not prohibit eating rabbit meat, for example.

• 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 unlike chickens, rabbits compete minimally with humans for grains.

• To start a rabbit business 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.

• 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).

• The skin is valuable if there is a market for it, possibly in local handicrafts

• Rabbits do not need force to be restrained

• The manure does not smell too much

• Let's pause and sum up the gains from one male and one female rabbit: Let us look at what a male and female bunny can offer. With 30 days gestation period the rabbit is able to produce 8-10 kits in 30 days – one or two may die, an average of 50 kits in a year fits in for our projections. With each set maturing and attaining 2-3kg. weight in four months, an average of 100 kg in 17 months.  

In Nigeria, the minimum amount for a kg. of rabbit meat is N450. In 17 months, one female rabbit would have fetch you N 45,000. Multiply that by 10 if you were to start with 10 rabbits and you will not believe your eyes. Yes, it is real. That N 2,000 bunny has made you N 45,000. No other livestock can do so much.

I urge Nigerian youths to start this project. It can be done with as little as N6,000. There is no need of youths idling with the excuse that they cannot acquire a loan to start big businesses, when they can start with a small project like rabbit keeping. We fail to advice our boys to start with such small projects and so when they grow up and lack jobs, they start engaging in criminal activities, becoming a menace to the community. Such projects may keep young men occupied and at the end help them achieve their dreams in life leading to a reduction in crime rate

I urge men who are reading this to help boost consumption of rabbit meat in their homes. Men should make a point of buying at least a kilo of rabbit meat for their family in a while as the meat is classified as white meat, which is healthy and prevents various lifestyle diseases.