How To Make Rabbit Pellet In Uganda
Most domestic rabbits are given a pelleted feed that provides essential nutrients. Rabbit pellets consist mostly of ingredients from plants, primarily alfalfa meal and wheat middlings. Easy to feed and store, pelleted rabbit feeds are available from many companies and at most local feed stores.
How To Make Rabbit Pellet In Uganda
The shelter
When you decide to start rabbit rearing, you need to construct a house that is conducive for the rabbits. They need a house that is well protected from the heat, clean and well ventilated.
The rabbit house should be built in a way that it is protected from bad weather, predators like dogs and thieves.
The farm should have cages for the rabbit that measure 2.5 feet both in width and height and in length it should be 3 feet. They should also be readily accessible by the farmer to avoid accidents.
And during kindling, you need to prepare 12 by 16 inches square of nestling box with good furnishing. It should be 16 inches high and one entry where the doe will pass.
The feeding process
The food given to the rabbits depends on the size, age and breed type. An adult rabbit should eat greenery vegetables like grass, carrots, spinach and vegetable wastes. although they can be fed other things in the right amounts like 17% to 18% proteins, 14% fiber and 2700 kilograms of metabolic energy.
You can also feed the rabbits with poultry feeds and give them enough supply of clean water all the time.
The methods used in rabbit farming
There are very many methods that are used when it comes to rearing rabbis and these include the following:
The cage method
If you are into commercial farming, this is the best method for rabbit rearing. This method is good as it leads to the rearing of a wide number of rabbits and the female rabbits are kept in separate cages away from the male ones although during breeding they are all kept in one cage.
Every cage has a maximum number of rabbits that are kept but this all depends on the size of the cages. These cages are made from iron plates or wires sold in the market.
The deep litter method
This method is mostly done if you are going to rear few rabbits and this is best done if the floor is concrete. You should separate the female rabbits from the male ones and 30 rabbits can be kept in each room. The floor is littered with wood shavings, straws and husks of about 4 to 5 inches deep for comfortable sleeping of the rabbits.
This system is good if you are short on money but there is easy spread of diseases since they are confined in one place and management also becomes difficult in this method.
The breeding process
Rabbits are one of the animals that reproduce at a faster rate and they normally start breeding at the age of 5 to 6 months though this is not the case with the male rabbits as they start breeding at one year.
The gestation period of the rabbits takes 28 to 31 days and they can give birth to two or eight kids per period.
Benefits of rearing rabbits
Rabbits multiply at a faster rate when it comes to producing which increases the size of the farm and brings in more income after sale.
There is a growing demand for rabbit meat on the market, so if you are planning on earning extra income rabbit farming is the way to go.
It is easy to start up a rabbit farm that is it does not require a lot of startup capital.
Rabbits provide manure for farms especially vegetable farms in form of their urine and poop.
The rabbit droppings once dried can also act as food for fish mostly for those who do fish farming.
In conclusion, this is a very lucrative business and easy to start. You can either rear them for meat production or keep them as pets at home.
What are the ingredients of rabbit pellets?
Rabbit pellets consist mostly of ingredients from plants, primarily alfalfa meal and wheat middlings.
Rations for pregnant and nursing does should contain:
- 16 to 20 percent crude protein.
- 3 to 5.5 percent fat.
- 15 to 20 percent fiber.
- 44 to 50 percent nitrogen-free extract.
- 4.5 to 6.5 percent ash or mineral.