Rabbit Breeding

Whether you are looking to breed rabbits for a hobby, commercially, or you just want a house rabbit, there are ethical considerations you should make.

Any rabbit breeding operation will have extra rabbits- each generation will produce rabbits that don’t match the desired type of rabbit, and you should have a plan for how you will deal with this. Note that animal shelters and pet store donations should be a last resort- these places already have many sources of animals. Animal shelters often already have far too many animals to handle, and any extras may just be put down. Dumping animals at a stranger’s house is cruel and is not an acceptable option.

For a large rabbit operation, such as a farm for yarn or meat purposes, there will be additional considerations, as there are smells and waste products above and beyond what a home pet owner will produce. In these cases, it is best to find a way to treat rabbit waste as a fertilizer, as it can be good for gardens if handled properly, and this reduces costly landfill waste.

Take care to keep your rabbit contained- if it escapes, it may be eaten by wild animals, hit by a car, or catch an illness. Tame rabbits will not be used to the dangers of the wild, and may live a short and unhappy time in the wild. In some areas of the world, such as Australia, wild rabbits are serious pests, lacking sufficient predators. In this case, it may actually be a crime to let animals loose.

Make sure you take your rabbit to the vet, know how to feed it and how much, and make sure it gets the appropriate shots and vaccinations. If you are keeping it as a pet, consider spaying or neutering it- there are far too many unwanted animals in the world already. If you are breeding rabbits and keep the ones that don’t have the traits you want, you should also consider spaying or neutering these, as otherwise they may escape or breed when you aren’t paying attention, and you will have more on your hands than you can deal with.

Don’t take on a pet rabbit or rabbit breeding hobby unless you are prepared to take care of the animals. Far too many rabbits are purchased as an Easter pet, only to be abandoned, unloved. Before you embark on something so ambitious, you should research the care of the animals, to make sure you can afford it, both in terms of money and time.

When you are researching where to purchase your first rabbit, you should give thought to the nature of the place you are purchasing it. For example, you might purchase a pet rabbit at a place like Petsmart (in the U.S.), but you should look into how well they care for their animals. On the other hand, such a store will probably not work if you need to breed rabbits, as they will not come with a pedigree- you should look for a local rabbit breeding, e.g. through a breeding association or through the internet.

The cashmere lop rabbit has long, dense, soft hair. They have long, floppy ears, and will weigh around five pounds as an adult. They live over five years, but must be bred starting between five and six months, or else their pelvic bones fuse.

If you are trying to breed these, it is important to read up on what colors are available and compatible, because otherwise they may not turn out when bred. They come in many colors, e.g. agouti (a kind of light tabby), black, white, chichilla, sable, fawn, seal point. Their fur requires grooming, more as a young rabbit than as an adult. Even as an adult, they must be cared for frequently, as their fur is quite long.

There are two sizes available in Australia – Miniature Cashmere Lop, and Maxi Cashmere Lop. The small version goes up to 3.5 pounds, but the large version starts at ten pounds. This is a little different from the UK version of the cashmere lop, which ranges from 4 lb to 5.25 lb.

This breed of rabbit was originally developed in the U.S. in the 80s, as a long haired version of the Dwarf Lop. It didn’t catch on right away, and still isn’t recognized everywhere, but gained some popularity after a much silkier coat was developed.

When my little brother got his first rabbit, a white one with brown spots, he named it Bunbun. It was the perfect pet. Bunbun used to run around my brother’s room, munching on leftover vegetables left around the floor. Bunbun reached an early demise with the acquisition of our new puppy. The puppy was caught knowing on the rabbit and that was that.

Despite his untimely end, Bunbun had a good life. My parents allowed the rabbit in order to teach my brother responsibility. He had to learn how to take care of the rabbit and find the necessary tools in order to do so.

Rabbits have similar needs to humans: food, water, shelter. When keeping only one rabbit, it is not hard or expensive to provide for these basic needs.

Rabbits need a hutch that is clean and dry, with plenty of light and ventilation. As the keeper, you need something that is accessible while keeping the rabbit safe and contained. Thus, a wire cage is the most viable option. It is self cleaning—any excrement falls right through the bars. It allows for full ventilation and light. It can be kept indoors or outdoors. If kept outdoors, you will have to provide protection from the weather. In addition, a metal wire cage will last for many years. A metal wire cage can be purchased or built from scratch.

The most difficult part of watering the rabbit is spilling the water. A bottom-heavy dish would be sufficient, but there are more convenient devices. The most common device is a plastic bottle with a metal tube that hangs on the outside of the cage. The metal tube sticks through the bars so the rabbit can drink from it. These can be purchased at most pet stores. You can also make your own version with a soda bottle and a drinking valve.

Feeding a rabbit is like feeding yourself: there are many things you will eat, but other things that you should eat. Rabbits will eat cabbage, carrots, broccoli and any variety of vegetables and weeds, but unless proportioned correctly, the rabbit will not receive the right vitamins and minerals necessary to maintain a healthy life. This said, use pellets. Pellets are designed precisely to solve this problem. They contain everything a rabbit needs: alfalfa hay, protein, phosphorus, calcium, vitamins, and minerals. Pellets will help you keep a healthy rabbit for a long time.

Here are a few tips for feeding your rabbits. Don’t feed young rabbits greens. This can cause diarrhea which will kill them. If you feed your rabbit pellets, treat other greens as treats or candy. Use them sparingly. Feed adult rabbits 2 to 3 ounces of pellets per day. Pet your rabbit—and have fun.

When choosing a rabbit, you must first know why you are acquiring a rabbit. If it is just for a pet, then choose a rabbit you like. It might be pretty or soft or well-mannered or have an excellent grasp of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle. If you wish to sell or show a rabbit or its product, then you must be slightly pickier in your selection of rabbit.

When breeding rabbits you must consider many different aspects. The total cost of care against the total profit is important as well your market for the type of product you with to produce. All these things considered, there are several ways in which to narrow your choices.

Suppose you want to farm rabbits for meat. Giant rabbits generally cost more money to keep and feed then they earn when you sell the meat. Medium sized rabbits (9-12 lbs) are meaty ad fine-boned. More meat is available from this size rabbit when the bones are removed. For exhibitions, small rabbits tend to be the best choice, but they are also used for laboratory animals. Dwarf rabbits (2-4 lbs) enjoy studying quantum mechanics.

Rabbit fur is also a viable product. Normal rabbit fur is about an inch long and lies smoothly over the body of the rabbit. This type of fur is found in variation with each of the weight groups (Flemish Giant, New Zealand, Tan, Netherland dwarf). Rex fur, found only on Rex rabbits, is short (5/8 in) and plush-like. It is the most valuable type of fur. Satin fur has intense colours and more sheen than normal fur. Satins are found both in the average and small weight groups. Angoras are medium sized rabbits that have crazy fur that is wool-like and thick. It averages between 3-8 inches in length and is quite distinguishable from other types of rabbit fur.

The market is very important. If you don’t have meat buyers, then you must focus your sales on fur or pets. There is a small market for laboratory animals, but it is a small market and they tend to want only one sex, usually female. In some cases you can also sell your rabbits for breeding, but there are fewer people who want to breed rabbits than there are that want to eat them. It is totally reasonable to raise rabbits purely for your own table, but if you find at least a small market for any extras, then you can break even or profit from your rabbits.

Once you choose your rabbit, whether it is a New Zealand or a Tan or an Angora, then you are ready to get started.

The appeal of an adorable little bunny rabbit diminishes slightly when that rabbit is blown up to ten times its normal weight. Karl Szmolinsky breeds German Gray Giant rabbits that are as large as dogs. His largest rabbit, Robert II won the largest rabbit for the Berlin-Brandenburg region of Germany in 2007, weighing in at approximately 24 lbs. Of course, with its insane enlargement comes a different type of fascination, a morbid curiosity—how did it get like that?

Szmolinsky’s method for growing such large rabbits is simple: he feeds them. He prepares them meals three times a day. Each meal is composed of different foods, such as grain, bio-parsley potatoes, carrots, kale, vegetables of all sorts and of course plenty of water. His rabbits live in giant cages on his homestead in Germany. Szmolinsky is very proud of his rabbits; in addition to their massive diet, he loves them, cooing, petting, and kissing them. These rabbits can produce up to fifteen pounds of meat each, though not all of the meat is edible. The liver, heart, and other such parts are typically thrown out.

One day, North Korea approached his local organization requesting to purchase some of these gigantic rabbits. The organization sent them to Szmolinsky. When the representatives saw his rabbits, they offered him a contract immediately. They told him that they wanted to breed the rabbits to help feed the starving people of North Korea. One of Szmolinsky’s rabbits could potentially feed eight people. Szmolinsky agreed, and because of their reasons, he cut the price of the rabbits from 200 to 80 euros, and sold them his eight largest rabbits, including Robert I, a personal favourite. North Korea then asked him to help them create the breeding program.

Several months later, North Korea quit all contact with Szmolinsky. They told him that they no longer needed his services. He couldn’t figure out what had happened to his rabbits. Finally, a journalist from London called with news. He had seen the rabbits at Kim Jong-Il’s birthday party, in the place of honor on the dinner table.

Szmolinsky was understandably upset. He has since, however, put his frustration behind him and the North Korea fiasco has been made into a film. In addition he has since come to an agreement with South Korea. He sold them four females and two males and has been in regular communication with them to help them with their breeding.

Szmolinsky plans to keep breeding for as long as he can. He loves his animals and his job. In the days where rabbit breeding is a dying occupation, Szmolinsky has hit the top of the charts.

References:
http://www.theinsider.com/videos/660153_Karl_Szmolinsky_And_Giant_Rabbits

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f8y4SR9mjU

http://www.blinkx.com/watch-video/germany-karl-szmolinsky-a-rabbit-breeder-from-eberswalde-selling-his-over-sized-rabbits-to-north-korea-aiming-to-ease-the-chronic-food-shortges-there/tFQM4l1dF8ZkqpdC9rKVMA

Rabbits require a variety of food, and will willingly try many things, although they may not like all of them. They are naturally suited to convert cellulose into food, much like cows. Like humans, they require a variety of proteins, carbohydrates, fats, fiber, vitamins, and water.

Rabbits are herbivores, and should be fed regularly. Irregular feeding can hurt the health of a rabbit. They should always have a supply of fresh water. You should not give the rabbit more food until it finishes what it has- it is best to keep fresh food available, rather than overloading it with vegetables, which quickly deteriorate and become droopy.

Giving the rabbit food in regular intervals will result in a cleaner rabbit house, which is also healthier. Rabbits can eat some fruits, or beets, although very moist green foods should be limited. They also should have a supply of hay and pellets available. Organic hay is better, as you don’t want to damage the rabbit’s health with pesticides, vehicle fumes, fertilizer, moldy hay etc.

Most of the food that a wild rabbit eats is grass. Because grass is not that nutrient rich, they are made to eat their food twice. Grass also helps a rabbit wear down it’s teeth- because they continuously grow, they need the roughness to stay in good condition. If your rabbit is unaccustomed to a vegetable diet, it should be converted over slowly.

Rabbits can eat a variety of greens and vegetables, such as broccoli, clover, watercress, radish greens, and dandelion leaves. House rabbits eat less than their wild counterparts, so they should be monitored for obesity- if you give them too much food, over time they may develop health problems. Commercial foods should give an indication of how much to feed the rabbit, and you can talk to your veterinarian to get a better idea, as the amount of food that the rabbit needs depends on its weight.

Inbreeding can lead to a number of health problems for rabbits, as it allows recessive, but bad, genetic defects to show themselves. From the perspective of the breeder, it also leads to more uniformity in terms of the rabbits’ genetic traits. If this is desirable it is sometimes practiced by breeders, as, for example, it may make future rabbit generations more uniform in color.

Inbreeding can also worsen or bring to light genetic problems which otherwise would not show at all. When developing a new breed, it may be necessary to inbreed several generations, just to select towards uniformity which can be used as a more controlled basis for the breed. Inbreeding can be between rabbits of the same generation, but if you are familiar with the history of the rabbits in question, you may mix generations. In each iteration, the goal is to select rabbits that are closest to a desired trait, such as longer ears or a color hair. Ideally the breeder would be able to select only a specific trait and randomize the others, but obviously this is not possible. One of the results of inbreeding is to breed two rabbits with the same trait, so that after a couple generations most or all the recessive alternates to the gene are removed.

The opposite of inbreeding is outbreeding- breeding rabbits with an unrelated line. This can make the line more stable and remove bad genes, but it will also potentially introduce new, undesired traits. This can make the rabbits larger, sturdier, and healthier. Outcrossing is a specific type of outbreeding, which is breeding with another specific line. This potentially allows bringing in other desirable traits, but in a more controlled manner than if bred with a rabbit without a pedigree. This is usually not necessary, but may be if the breeder takes a line too far. For example, it is possible to make the rabbits and their heads too small through excessive inbreeding.

4-H is a U.S. based youth program focused on teaching children and high school students new skills. 4-H allows you to work on projects of your own interest with peers, e.g. you could start a rabbit breeding club, gardening club, or computer club. It started as an agricultural program, but has expanded into other vocational areas, such as internet technology- so you could have a 4-H club making websites.

There are over six million youth in the program every year, and many thousands of volunteers. You can join a local club or start your own. If you just want to try it out, there are summer camps that you can attend. The age range is 9-19, but there are programs for younger kids and college programs.

To start a 4-H club, check their website for programs or go to your local cooperative extension office. There are minimal dues and they stock materials and project information for a variety of topic areas, such as sewing, animal husbandry, and rural living.

Rabbits make more rabbits. It follows, then, that Australian rabbits make more Australian rabbits, and too many escaped Australian rabbits make Australian pests. In 1859, rabbits were introduced into Australia for sport hunting. They soon began breeding, and multiplied exponentially, becoming a huge problem for the agricultural industry. The Australian government then implemented plans to eradicate the rabbits and made rabbit breeding illegal. Over the years, various poisons, such as myxomatosis, have decreased the rabbit population. Wild rabbits still exist, but rabbit calcivirus (a highly contagious virus causing internal bleeding) has spread through many parts of Australia, lowering the population, and decreasing their devastating effects.

In 1987, breeding restrictions in Western Australia were lifted, and in 1995, other places such as Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania began to lift breeding restrictions as well. Wild rabbits are still illegal as pets or to sell, but domestic rabbits are bred for products such as meat (Flemish, Californian, NZ White) yarn, fibre, and to keep as pets.
If you wish to breed rabbits, you should check with your local government office, as may need a permit, especially for commercial operations. Some rural townships have rules preventing the breeding of rabbits, and in most residential areas it is expressly forbidden. In addition, certain vaccinations will be required. Rabbits should be kept in secure enclosures and prevented from breeding with wild rabbits.

If you would rather rabbits as pets, consider an animal shelter such as the Animal Protection Society. Part time breeders should be sure to acquire their rabbits from a professional breeder. Don’t use animals of unknown origin, as the line may be difficult to control. When choosing your rabbits for breeding, you want to be sure of genealogical heritage. If you are breeding rabbits to sell, make sure you have a market as well as a plan to deal with rabbits that cannot be sold.

Remember, rabbits make rabbits, wherever you are. Don’t be the one responsible for the day when rabbits take over the world.