JF RABBITS: FOREMOST RABBIT BREEDER IN NIGERIA

We’ve been living with them for as long as we can remember. From the days man hunted them for meat till now that we raise them in our backyard for meat.     Cottontail rabbit   Rabbits are a burrowing animal, which has long ears and a tail. A male rabbit is called a buck, a female rabbit is called a doe and the children are known as kittens. They are usually reared for their meat, wool, fur and even urine/manure. Their meat is considered as white meat and more suitable for special diet people.   The rabbit meat is highly touted because cholesterol and fat levels in rabbit are much lower; almost zero (nonexistent). For this reason, rabbit meat is being used and is suitable for special diets such as those for heart disease patients, diet for the aged, low sodium diet, weight reduction diet etc.   Why should you raise rabbits in your back yard? Bad economy, the huge gap between demand and supply of rabbit meat, rate of unemployment, grotesqu...

  Alfred(JF)                                         This article gives a simple and compact guide to starting a successful backyard rabbit farming business.   TERMINOLOGIES Buck - adult male Doe - adult female Kitten - young rabbit Litter - female with young ones (rabbits) born on the same day by one doe Hutches - house of rabbits or pen in which rabbits live Suckling - feeding of the young ones on the mother’s breast milk Dam - the mother of a set of young rabbits Sire - the father of a set of young rabbits Broiler - a young rabbit ready for market  

Cuniculture is the agricultural practice of breeding and raising rabbits, usually for their meat, fur, or wool. This differs from the simpler practice of keeping a single or small group of rabbits as companions, without selective breeding, reproduction, or the care of young animals. Some people, called rabbit fanciers, practice cuniculture predominantly for exhibition. The distribution of rabbit farming varies around the globe, and while it is on the decline in some nations, in others it is expanding.

    Factors affecting cuniculture in Nigeria   Cuniculture in Nigeria has not been without its setbacks, factors such as climate, disease, time and a host of others have had their turns in militating against the development of cuniculture in Nigeria. Over the years, it has been climate in one region of the country and a different factor in another. I have taken time in this post to briefly discuss the most common problems affecting rabbit production in Nigeria.  

  Starting on a sad note, it is true that the country is in recession and is not recovering well. Citizens now taste, smell and feel the recession’s unhealthy pot. It is even worse and appalling out there were a population of teeming youths are only good at designing eye catching CVs and waiting for white-collar jobs without making use of their youthful vigor and education to invent and workout positive ideas that will positively affect and turn around the economy. Such is the case with Nigeria.   In this post  I am going to share with you some financial benefits of starting a rabbit farming business and hoping you start one tomorrow and get yourself out of that job seekers zone. Or perhaps diversify your farming project, or better still make a decision to save money and your family's health by raising your own meat rabbits at home.  

soft fecal mater When a rabbit produces and consumes its soft mushy poop (cecals) it is called Caecotrophy. Cacotrophy is a normal behavior for a rabbit. A rabbit’s diet of plant is hard to digest efficiently, and it will poop out lots of undigested nutrients. By eating this soft mushy poop, it gives them a second shot in using all of the nutrition in their food. Also, a rabbit’s poop contains vitamins produced by their intestinal bacteria. Rabbits are unable to absorb the vitamins through the intestinal walls, but can absorb them by eating the poop.  

Backyard rabbit farming   Backyard rabbits now city chickens (Simple rabbit recipe) By now we all know that eating a lot of meat-especially factory-farmed meat-isn't very good for the planet. Fortunately for meat eaters, some meats are more sustainable than others. And as it turns out, rabbit is one of the healthiest, leanest, and most environmentally friendly meats you can eat.   The biggest reason, when asked ‘why rabbits’, to most backyard breeders is rabbits are herbivores and 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.   Rabbits are quiet and s...