Introduction

Introduction

1. Rabbit Farming business requires less space and it can be done anywhere at farm, backyard, on terrace or even at home.
2. The capital investment for this is very less. One unit of Rabbits contains 3 females and 2 males. And the cost of unit is just Rs. 2,500/-
3. As Rabbits are vegetarian you can feed almost anything vegetarian to the Rabbit including waste or surplus vegetables from the market, tree leaves, cattle grass or even kitchen scrap. Hence, it is very easy and affordable to feed a Rabbit.
4. No skilled labour is required for this project.
5. As per Indian Law we can not catch, kill or keep a Rabbit as Pet animal. But since 1960, the Government of India has taken initiative in importing Rabbits. Thus growing or keeping Imported Rabbits is authorized by Indian Law.
6. The reproduction capacity of Rabbits is very high. One female Rabbit delivers almost every 30 days and in the first year she delivers 6 to 8 babies per delivery and in the second year she will deliver upto 10 baby Rabbits per delivery.
7. The pregnancy and lection period is just 30 days and we keep the baby rabbits with her for 10 to 15 days. That means a female can deliver babies every 45 days, which is very fast growth of reproduction. In five years a mother Rabbit will deliver 34 times.
Introduction
In India, the production of rabbit meat had not reached any marked stage. Due to increase in the habit of eating rabbit meat, the farms growing rabbits are not the increase. In many parts of Tamil Nadu. Since last 10 year or so, the fanns are established and at present are being run in bigger way on commercial basis.
The importance of rabbit growing
The animals are being brought up for consuming the unusable botanical products and family covert themselves as a suitable for human being in the shape of meat. Next to hens, rabbits are capable of converting the botanical protein energy in to meat. The hens brought up for meat, converts protein energy out of the food consumed by them to the extent of 23%. Likewise the meat conversion in the case of rabbit worked out to be 20%, pigs 16%, catties 12%. The hens does not consume the plants consist of “fibers” but grow by consuming the pulses varieties being utilized by men. In view of this, expenditure towards the feed for hens increases. This may also pose scarcity of food to human. Only rabbit meat can be produced by using the feeds consist of excessive quantity of Fibers with lesser production cost.
Rabbits, in one time, are capable of producing 6 to 10 young rabbits. Their pregnancy period is only 30 days. As such, one female rabbit, in a span of one year, can have the capacity of yielding 30 to 35 young ones (excluding deaths) towards production of meat. Due to this, in a period of one year, we can produce more meat out of rabbits than from goats. One rabbit, in a year, produces meat 15 to 35 times of its body weight. Whereas the yield of meat in the goat calculated out to be only 0.8 times and for cows it is only 0.6 times. Like in poultry farms where the owners running behind for the chickens from the places where the hatching of eggs are done, rabbits never pose such problems to the owners in the rabbit farms. The requisite young rabbits for the farm can be obtained throughout the month rabbits available with them
Rabbits are not being affected by climate conditions or insects developing diseases like in the case of chickens. As such, other maintenance cost for growing rabbit is considerably less.
The rabbits growing procedure is quite easier when compared to that of chicken. They never create nuisance to neighbors by way of abnormal sound and bad odor.
With a limited space capacity, rabbits can be grown in cages. As such, it is quite suitable to grow rabbits in the high population prevailing township areas and in the backyard of the houses. The cholesterol content in rabbit meat is considerably less when compared with the meat of chicken and mutton. As such rabbit meat is quite suitable for the aged and the persons affected by blood pressure and heart problems. In the hospitals in foreign countries the rabbit meat is provided to those recouping from the disease, those affected by ulcer, allergy and dyspepsia.
In the rabbit meat the proportion of meat is high. Bone content will be less [5:1]. The meat yield out of rabbits with same weight will be more when compared to that of chickens. Apart from meat, the skin of rabbits will also fetch good price. The rabbit skin is used for making dress, ornaments, purse, hand gloves etc. as such, there are feasibilities of obtaining good profits by organizing rabbit farm.
The rabbit’s bowel waste can be used as good manure. Per year, 40 to 50 kgs. of manure are available through a rabbit. When compared to the stool of other animals, the rabbit’s stool increases the ventilation in the soil and has efficiency to increase the water holding capacity.
Special features of rabbit
They breed eight times in a year. Female may produce five to eight youngs which attain sexual maturity in four to six months. Life span of rabbit is about seven to eight years. Slaughter weight of rabbit is about 2 kg. which can be achieved in 12 to 15 weeks. Rabbits have got fast reproductive process and are able to remate within 24 hours of giving birth [kindling]. Their gestation period ranges to 31 days. They are prolific breeder.
The advantages of rabbit farming:-
i) Rabbits are highly prolific in nature
ii) Consume a large amount of forages from diverse origins and so can be reared on small amounts of costly concentrates.
iii) They can be reared in the kitchen garden/backyard of farmer’s house
iv) Initial investment cost is low
v) Quick returns i.e. six months after the establishment of farm
vi) Income generation at quarterly interval makes the repayment easy.
Vii) Apart from providing wool rabbits also provides income from manure etc.
viii) Residual feed, together with rabbit manure is highly suitable for vermicompost which in turn provides excellent manure for fertilising the fields.