Breeding rabbits is not as difficult as it seems at first glance. Contrary to all prejudices, these animals are distinguished by a developed intellect and even lend themselves to training. The health of the cats and the beauty of their fur are directly dependent on the right approach to their content. One of the most important issues breeders face is how to care for rabbits.
- Content Features
- Home improvement
- Material for the manufacture of houses
- Feed selection
- Females and their offspring
- graft
- Causes of infection
- Generalization <
Proper rabbit care
Content Features
In order for the pet to develop correctly, it is necessary to create conditions for his comfortable living, as close as possible to estes Almost all breeds of rabbits are highly active creatures, therefore, enclosures or cages for them should be quite spacious. Ideally, the pet house should be 4 times the size of the animal itself. Keeping rabbits at home is based on several basic principles:
- cleanliness of cells, drinkers and feeders;
- balanced diet;
- adherence to the vaccination schedule.
Rabbits and their offspring need special care. Females during pregnancy should receive all the necessary vitamins and minerals so that their offspring are born healthy. Babies are born not adapted to environmental conditions, so in the first 2 weeks it is especially important to ensure that the rabbit does not lose milk.
Home improvement
The first thing to do before buying rabbits is to arrange a place to stay. A decorative rabbit can freely move around the apartment, but for sleep and to cope with the need, it is necessary to put a cage equipped with everything necessary. If it is not possible to provide the rabbit with free movement around the apartment, you can build an aviary for him, in which he will be constantly or just walking. If you plan to raise rabbits for meat and fur, there are several options for keeping:
- closed rabbitry with 2-tier cages;
- aviary breeding;
- equipping the territory with street cages.
Beginner rabbit breeders can watch training videos on keeping rabbits and arranging cages.
When kept indoors, it is necessary to ensure optimal ventilation, avoiding drafts, to protect the home from penetration of rodents and other animals into it. Cells are placed in such a way as to be able to quickly clean them from waste products. Rabbits do not shit anywhere, but defecate in one place, closer to the end of the cage. To do this, the floor in the houses is made of wood, and closer to the end of the cage, a net is laid.
Aviary content can cause many difficulties for beginners in rabbit breeding. In fact, an aviary is a fenced area equipped with feeders, drinking bowls and houses for wintering.Contrary to all prejudices, rabbits can be kept in enclosures in the winter. To do this, strengthen the floor, make an embankment of biomaterials. Wood shavings and straw or hay are great.
Furnishing houses
The litter is constantly refilled and changed once a year in the spring. Rabbits with pleasure make holes in the litter in the winter for protection against frost, and at night go into cages. The whole charm of aviary content is that caring for rabbits is greatly simplified compared to cellular. In the pen you can keep up to 25 rabbits with a rabbit. Young animals can stay with their mother for as long as possible, which helps to increase immunity and rapid mass gain.
The construction of cell systems on the street is suitable only for keeping rabbits in the warm period. For the winter, they should be transferred to a warm room. There is Mikhailov’s cage, which is a whole mini-farm equipped with heating, an automatic system for clearing feces, ventilation and everything necessary. However, this design is suitable only for those who are not afraid of the high cost of electricity. This system allows you to grow the largest possible individuals.
Material for the manufacture of houses
For the manufacture of outdoor cell systems should not be used chipboard. This material absorbs moisture and begins to crumble under unstable temperature conditions.Inside the protrusions of the tree should be beaten with galvanized stripes so that the rabbits could not gnaw them. When making a wooden floor from slats, it is necessary to make gaps between them so that the feces can fall into the pallet, and the paws of the pets are not injured.
The flooring of the cage can also be made of mesh, but this floor is suitable only for certain breeds rabbits. In most rabbits, feet become inflamed from contact with the net. If litter of biomaterial is laid on the floor in cells, it should be changed regularly to prevent the spread of infection.
Feeders and drinking bowls should be made of material that can be disinfected and easy to clean. It is necessary to make removable structures that are well attached to the walls of the cage so that rabbits cannot turn them over or contaminate food and water. A sufficient amount of clean drinking water is the key to pet health.
Feed Selection
In European countries, all farms have long switched to feeding granular feed. This compound feed allows you to reduce the cost of additional vitamins, because it is completely balanced and provides the body with everything necessary. If it is not possible to buy expensive feed, they can be replaced with succulent grass in the summer and all kinds of grain mixtures. In winter, to make up for the missing vitamins, sushi from rowan, coniferous or other branches, hay are introduced.
Root crops and mixes of boiled potatoes and bran are introduced into the diet. The number of such mixes is determined by the characteristics of the breed. Some rabbit species are prone to obesity, so the consumption of boiled potatoes and corn feed should be minimized. Excessive obesity spoils the quality of meat.
Nutrition of the rabbit
Chalk and bone meal are added to food to supplement calcium deficiency. Fish oil is great for improving appetite. When giving rabbits grass, you need to make sure that it is not wet or rotted. Do not feed the animals with the same type of grass all the time, otherwise they will suffer from vitamin deficiency.
The most important aspect of successful rabbit breeding at home is to provide pets with free access to clean water.
The animal’s body is arranged in such a way that their stomach cannot push food into the intestines on their own, so the animals must constantly chew something. It is best to design bunker feeding systems in which the feed will last for several days. This move will help reduce feed costs because the systems are automatic and feed itself enters the receiver when it is finished. It is also possible to provide rabbits with the required amount of feed.
Females and their offspring
Sacral females are kept separately from other rabbits, with the exception of the aviary breeding method, in which several rabbits can be kept in the pen. It is important to monitor the quality of food for rabbits. Before the round, about a week later, the female begins to tear out the fur on her chest and equip the nest. If there is not enough fluff in the nest or the female birthright was confused and did not equip him at all, it is necessary to report cotton wool and hay to it independently. It is important not to forget that the pregnant rabbit needs more water.
After the offspring appears, appropriate care must be taken for the little rabbits. Immediately after birth, the offspring is checked for the presence of dead individuals and removed from the cage. Rabbits should be taken with gloves in hand so that the female, smelling the human smell, does not refuse them. a bunny on her own, because other females will most likely not accept someone else’s child due to differences in smell. In open-air cages, other females take care of the abandoned rabbit because the smell mixes, and then they do not distinguish between their and other offspring.
Do not vaccinate rabbits during pregnancy.The best option to protect the female from the risks of infection is to get vaccinated a couple of weeks before mating, so that the body has time to recover after receiving the vaccine. All individuals before vaccination should receive prophylaxis against worms. In the presence of parasites in the body of the eared ears, the vaccine simply does not work. To date, a huge amount of non-toxic anthelmintic preparations is presented in veterinary pharmacies.
Vaccination
When breeding rabbits at home, it is necessary to increase their immunity on their own. The first immunity they receive with breast milk, but when rabbits are weaned, the protective functions of the body are sharply reduced. To maintain rabbit health, it is important to follow the vaccination schedule. Revaccination is carried out every six months.
Vaccination for rabbits
Many diseases that other animals are not afraid of are fatal for rabbits. Opinions about the relationship between the type of content and the incidence rate differ. For example, with an open-air cage, rabbits can be breastfed for as long as possible, which contributes to the development of immunity plus sufficient walking in the fresh air.On the other hand, if one individual falls ill, the rest will immediately become infected, and it will not be possible to save the entire livestock, while with cell keeping, taking the necessary measures in time, there is every chance of saving the rabbits from neighboring cells.
Causes of infection
Caring for rabbits is quite simple if you know the basics of the correct content. An animal can catch an infection from a newly purchased individual that has not passed the appropriate quarantine. In other cases, this is the omission of the owner. Food poisoning is caused by poor-quality food, dirty water, high salt content in the diet and feeding by poisonous plants.
You can’t introduce bean tops, cabbage, poorly processed and unwashed root vegetables into the rabbit’s diet. Such food provokes bloating. If the room is not well protected from drafts, rabbits begin to get colds. Inflammations on the soles appear from the mesh floors in the cells and with inadequate room hygiene.
If you decide to start a lop-eared breed rabbit as a pet, you must constantly examine its ears. This structure significantly reduces the hearing of rabbits, and with inadequate hygiene and inadequate care can provoke various ear diseases, including complete hearing loss. The pet’s nails should be trimmed regularly so that it cannot comb its ears before wounds.
Long-haired rabbits require special care.The fur should be combed regularly, wash rabbits. It is also important to ensure that fleas do not start and to cut hair as necessary. Particular attention should be paid to ensure that the hair does not fall into the eyes and does not interfere with the eyesight of the pet. necessary knowledge and skillfully apply them in practice. Before buying a rabbit, you should purchase a cage or build it yourself. Next, you should conduct a full examination of individuals for the presence of various diseases, carry out the prevention of helminthiasis and take appropriate vaccinations.
Females and males are kept separately. Young animals are planted in different cages as early as 3 months to avoid closely related mating in individuals with fast puberty. Particular attention should be paid give walkie-talkie Well, food. Rabbits need constant access to clean water. It’s much easier to keep a rabbit in the apartment. All that is needed is keeping a vaccination schedule and arranging a resting place.
The female puppies are kept separately. a couple of weeks after birth, needs special care and heating, because it is born completely helpless. The longer the offspring will be breastfed, the better they will have immunity and faster weight gain. For more information, see the topic video.
