What are the features of the gray giant rabbit breed

For ordinary people, far from livestock, rabbits are cute creatures of small sizes that can be easily picked up and to pat. But in real life, these animals are completely different: from decorative pets to giant rabbits. For example, a rabbit Gray Giant in some cases can weigh more than 8 kg. How do you like this fluffy?

Gray Giant Rabbit

The breed was bred at the Petrovsky state farm ( Ukraine). The Gray Giant rabbit is the result of a successful merger of the flanders and the rabbit of unknown origin. ali weighty body, large size and color. In addition, giants around the world are famous for their excellent fecundity and unpretentiousness. They are able to adapt to any climate. The first article about this breed of rodents made a splash among fur farms.

External features of the breed

Coloring may vary, individuals are found:

• iron gray;
• gray;
• dark gray;
• white;
• black.

But there are special features in rodents Gray Great breed of rabbits, if you look at the photo, has a reddish-gray color, the inside of the hair on the legs and belly white.

Other most popular varieties of giants:

• white,
• blue,
• German,
• Belgian.

As you can see, the name of the breed indicates either the color of the rabbits or the place of their breeding. Descriptions at most moments are similar for all giants, except for one: the Belgian Giant is only similar in size to the rest of the breed.

The Belgian giant rabbit is an amazing creature. It was he who was one of the founders of the Giants. A distinctive feature of the Belgians is an interesting shape of their ears: they are not long and straight, like all the others, but spherical. These pussies are the only giants that require special care and are very picky in choosing food, and since their appetite is huge, the breeders have a hard time.

If you look at the representative of the Gray Giant breed in the photo, you can notice a number of characteristic features of his appearance. These rabbits differ in:

• strong body and massive body,
• round head of a rough shape,
• ears of impressive length and thickness with a characteristic rounding at the end,
• a broad chest and no less wide long back,
• a leather fold on the under-breast (only in females),
• long legs,
• thick coat,
• wide round croup.

Thoroughbred rabbits of the Gray Giant are immune to almost all existing diseases, the adult gray rabbit Giant reaches an average weight of 6 kg, sometimes more, with a body length of 59-65 cm and chest circumference 35-40 cm. The number of cubs from one litter is 7-8.

Qualities by which the breed of rabbits Gray Giant stands out among the rest:

• rapid maturation,
• good lethal yield,
• delicious dietary meat.

In addition, the Gray Rabbit Giant is primarily a very large skin. In some cases, its area reaches 0.3 square meters. m.

Features of breeding rabbits

Females, if it is a thoroughbred Gray rabbit Giant, have high fertility rates, and there is plenty of milk for all babies. Females of the Gray Rabbit Giant bring 7-8 cubs at a time, there were cases when 13 rabbits were born from one mother.

When preparing animals for mating, one should take into account the age, condition of the coat and weight of each individual. Giant Gray rabbit females reach puberty at six months of age. It was at this moment that they should have their first mating, a long delay in mating will lead to obesity. Males mature several months later.

Begin preparing animals for mating in advance. After about 3 weeks, you need to make sure that the individuals are completely healthy and have normal weight.If any problems are identified, measures need to be taken to correct them, for example, to begin to intensively feed thin rabbits or, conversely, to cut down on the diet of eared ears that are overweight. Giant who will be responsible for breeding. If their nipples are still poorly developed, animals should not be allowed to mate.

The setting of a schedule for mating should occur, depending on the time of sexual hunting. Rabbits are ready for this almost all year round, but still there are some periods of decline in sexual activity. If a mating is done at this time, the female will bring no more than 4 rabbits.

Before mating, you need to remove water and food from the compartment in which the male lives, and only then place the female there. It is undesirable to plant a rabbit for a rabbit, since males need time to adapt to new conditions of detention.

As soon as the first mating is completed, you can take the female out of the cage for several hours, and then return it again. If you have a lot of rabbits, you can separate them in pairs and mark each with a special label so that you don’t get confused later.

Important !!! You can not happen to the Gray Giant with a blood relative, otherwise the offspring will be weak and sick.

The weight of the newborn baby is approximately 80 g.If you immediately provide it with a semi-concentrated feed, after 2 months the size will increase significantly, and the weight will reach 1.5 kg, after another month – 2, at 4 months of age the cub will weigh 2.5 kg.

If rabbits are introduced into the diet from the first day of life, protein-rich food, growth will occur in a slightly different scenario:

• 2 months – 1.7 kg,
• 3 months – 2.3 kg,
• for slaughter – a maximum of 4-5 kg.

The Rabbit Gray Giant in the video is more like a giant rodent from films and fairy tales. If you don’t know about the existence of such a breed the first time, you can’t even believe that it is a rabbit.

How to care for rabbits

For the first time, the variety was bred in a mild climate, therefore It is under such environmental conditions that rabbits feel as comfortable as possible and breed as many times as possible. But, despite this, the breeding of giants mainly occurs in the northern regions. This once again proves that the Gray Giant rabbits adapt perfectly to any terrain and do not need special care and overly insulated living conditions.

Pets should be kept in spacious, durable, clean cages located on a sunny side. Do not forget that the Gray Giant is impressive in size and therefore the cells must be strong.It is extremely important to remember that direct rays are dangerous for rabbits, just like drafts.

Each cage must be equipped with a mother liquor. The lid of the compartment with the pussies should be located on top, so that it is more convenient to make an inspection. The floors must be covered with metal sheets so that rodents cannot enter the cage through them. We must not forget to provide rabbits with food and drinkers.

Hygiene is of great importance for the harmonious growth of rabbits. When carrying out the maintenance, it is necessary to remember that the giants always need clean drinking water in the public domain, in addition, every centimeter of the cell must be ideally cleaned and disinfected. Only under these conditions, breeding will be successful.

Disinfection methods:

• firing with a blowtorch;
• wall decoration with freshly slaked lime;
• washing the room with a ten percent chlorine solution.

Cells should be especially carefully treated when:

• newcomers are planned to be shared;
• an early okrol is expected;
• animals got a dangerous infection.

How to care for rabbits

The first thing to think about when buying a giant baby is about the conditions in which he will live rabbit.You should choose convenient large cages so that an animal that has already matured can move freely there and, if necessary, have the opportunity to stand on its hind legs (Giants love to spend time like this).

There must be some kind of filler on the cage floor. For these purposes, straw or sawdust is most often chosen. The main requirement for the filler is a natural composition. To care for rabbits, you will need a brush to scratch the wool, and scissors to trim the claws.

Giants should be fed from large ceramic dishes. Rabbits always gnaw at something, it is this activity that brings them joy, so it is extremely important to give the pet such an opportunity, for example, to put a few twigs in his house, preferably from some fruit tree.

Feeding

When compiling a diet for Giants, we must not forget that overfeeding negatively affects breeding as it is underfeeding. Practice shows that fat males are reluctant to go incidentally, this leads to “idling of the females.”

To ensure the rabbits are correct but a balanced diet, in carrying out their maintenance, it is important to adhere to the following rules:

1. Giant’s gastrointestinal tract has its own peculiarity: each new portion of food frees the intestines from previously and already processed foods, therefore irregular, improperly selected nutrition will lead to serious problems in the digestive system.
2. The characteristics of nutrition should be varied. This is the only way to provide the rabbit body with all the necessary vitamins and minerals. The uniformity of the assortment leads to a decrease in productivity, a decrease in immunity, and, consequently, to the occurrence of diseases. Particular attention should be paid to the quality of products; rotten vegetables and moldy grains are unsuitable.If the diet consists mainly of dry food, make sure that the drinker is always filled with fresh water.
3. The feeding schedule must be observed. Gray Giants are unpretentious animals, they can adapt to any diet, but rabbits should be fed at the same time every day.
4. Pregnant and lactating females of the Gray Giant rabbit breed need more attention, just like , as well as males. Mineral additives must be present in their diet.
5. It is best to mix fresh food with hay, to harvest food immediately in large quantities.
6. Vegetables Giants can be given absolutely any. The main thing is that there should be no rot and dirt on them.
7. If you plan to give the rabbits grain, you must first crush it and prepare a mash. Most readily, animals eat germinated grains.
8. Switch to a different diet in the spring and autumn periods should be gradual. Little by little, replacing a small portion of the old feed with a new one. Continue until the menu is completely transformed. The whole process should take no more than a week.
9. There are ready-made mixed feeds on sale, but if there are a lot of rabbits on the farm, it is economically more profitable to produce them yourself using an ordinary grain grinder. The characteristic of home mixes is in no way inferior to purchased ones.

Advantages and disadvantages of the breed

The Gray Giant rabbits have many advantages, thanks to which they quickly gained worldwide popularity. The Gray Giant breed is characterized by the following features:

1. Increased fertility and a large amount of milk in females. It is worth noting that the Giants are very devoted to their mothers, they do not leave their babies without attention.
2. Quick adaptation to any living conditions. If the cells are well insulated, then the animals are able to give a strong and healthy offspring, even if their content is carried out at an outdoor temperature of minus 30 ° С. Provided that the roof will not pass drafts.
3. Unpretentious attitude in food. The only thing that affects the composition of the feed is the speed of weight gain.
4. Very strong nerves and a calm disposition.
5. Increased immunity to many diseases.
6. Large size skins .

But before deciding what the Gray Giant rabbit is right for you, read the description of the main disadvantages of this breed:

1. From time to time rabbits with incorrectly developed limbs (thin , crooked, weak).
2. Due to the large size of the adult and very slow precocity, rabbits need a lot of food to gain weight.
3. Compared to other large meat species of rabbits, Giants have a very low lethal yield.
4. Despite the fact that the skin has a large area, its quality leaves much to be desired.

Because of these significant shortcomings, some livestock farmers leave negative feedback about such puffies, consider that the Gray Giants is a relic of the past, which has already been replaced by breeds of larger sizes, for example, Flanders or Accelerate, so raising the rabbits in question is not economically profitable. Despite this opinion, many farmers still successfully breed Giants and do not plan to write them off.