Any aspiring rabbit breeder expects the natural ability of rabbits to reproduce with high fertility will be pleasing to the eye and generate income or provide dietary meat in the diet. However, rabbits are quite capricious in their care, especially if you choose a hybrid breed of broilers: flanders or giants. They are more sensitive to infections, drafts, especially for newborn rabbits.
Rabbit breeds
The positive side of breeding rabbits is that they are prolific and clean, so by organizing the right care, it is quite possible to avoid problems. However, if you have opted for a large breed of rabbit, you should know about some of the nuances of their breeding.
Breeds of rabbits are large broiler (in rare cases they even reach 18-20 kg in weight), medium (up to 6-7 kg) and decorative (these babies are often kept as an apartment animal, because there is not much space is required to accommodate the cage, and the size of the queen cell for the rabbit is also very compact). They areare classified according to the color and quality of the fur, the amount of attainable weight, some specific breed specific features.
Mother liquor for a decorative rabbit
If you keep a small decorative rabbit (more precisely, a rabbit) in an apartment or house and are going to get offspring from her, you must consider her complete safety and the security of her brood from other pets. In order for future rabbits not to fall through the bars of the cage when they are born, it is necessary to provide a special room where the rabbit can give birth to them and leave them for the time she needs to leave. This room is called a rabbit nursery, its dimensions should not be large, this is not necessary, however, the comfort of such a dwelling for the coming weeks for rabbits should be observed.
Raising broiler rabbits
The most popular among rabbit breeders are meat and fur breeds, many prefer to raise rabbits for meat, so they take a large meat breed.
Among the most popular large meat types:
- Belgian giant (Flandre) - at the mature age, this breed is distinguished by males up to 6-8 kg, females up to 4-6 kg.
- Gray Giant - This breed weighs 5-7 kg on average in live weight (adult).
- White giant - 4-6 kg (adult rabbit).
Things to consider when breeding large breed rabbits
Large rabbits are characterized by such signs asphlegmatic character, relatively low fertility, late maturity. It should be noted that such rabbits need large cages, respectively, and the size of the queen cell for rabbits of large breeds should be larger. In addition, the diet of rabbits that are bred for meat should include proteins in order for them to gain weight more intensively, they are quite demanding on the purity of the cells. Usually, the dimensions of the rabbit stool, the drawings of which illustrate a conventional box with a convenient entrance, depend on whether it is planned to nurse all year round or only in the warm season. On the one hand, it is advisable to create conditions for the appearance of offspring in the warm season for the reasons that it is easier to feed both the mother, who feeds babies with milk for up to two months, and the grown offspring. Often, rabbits that drink mother's milk are slaughtered for meat at the age of two months. Leaving the growth of a young rabbit, which fed on the rabbit's milk longer, is possible in the winter, it has strong immunity. On the other hand, if space permits, and okrol is planned year-round, the size of the mother liquor for the rabbit should also take into account the cold season. Such a mother liquor should have good walls with insulation.
Summer mother liquor
If you make queen cells for rabbits with your own hands, their sizes vary depending on the breed and, first of all, on the size of the rabbit. On average, they have the following parameters: side walls 350 mm by 400 mm, front and rear walls 500 mm by 300 mm. Bottom and top cover toowill be 500mm by 300mm in size. It will not be difficult to build a box, the only thing to consider is to make a hole large enough in the front wall so that on one side the rabbit enters the queen cell and falls into the nest, and on the other side there are rabbits in this nest. If it is difficult to make the entrance round, like a hole, then it is quite possible to make it rectangular: the main thing is to provide a side in the design of the queen cell so that the little rabbits do not fall out of the queen cell, accidentally falling out of the nest.
Rules for caring for newborn rabbits
Rabbits are born, like all mammals, blind and practically without hair, so their body is weak and prone to infections and drafts. This is what should be avoided in the first days: do not touch the rabbits with your hands so that the mother does not refuse them because of someone else's smell, do not open the mother liquor without urgent need and prevent cold and drafts from entering the nest. The rabbit will remove those who did not survive in the litter herself. As for what sizes of queen cells for rabbits should be for year-round birth, there are some subtleties.
How to insulate the walls of the mother liquor
If you use the classic rectangular box design, the lid can be placed on top across the entire width, or you can do it on the side, in front. The winter mother liquor for rabbits is larger in size, respectively, due to the insulation that runs along the perimeter of the cage and the bottom in a separate layer. Small sawdust, wood shavings are used as a heater. Sawduststuffed very tightly between two pieces of plywood that make up one wall. You can also use foam, and replace the outer part of the plywood with another, cheaper option. The dimensions of the queen cell for the rabbit on the inside will be 2-3 cm larger in width, only all the details will need to be cut out in double quantity, two details will go to each of the walls and the floor. The outer side will be equipped with additional slats that fasten the walls, each pair of parts will be fastened together with 2-3 cm thick bars, depending on the width you choose for the insulation.
Standard sizes of queen cells for rabbits, drawings, recommendations
Usually use a rectangular queen cell with a side entrance for the rabbit, which is installed directly in the cage. The mother liquor is subsequently removed from it, and the rabbit with the brood remains and feeds the babies, who are already quite adapted to independent life.
If a rabbit breeder is simultaneously waiting for replenishment in a rabbit family with several females, it is advisable to place the queen cells in such a way that the side walls are in contact, and the entrance to them is in front, while the nest is located under the back wall. It is very practical to use full wall heating during particularly cold months. And you can make it with the help of a light bulb brought into the niche of each queen cell, formed by an unfilled cavity for insulation, between two plywood walls. It turns out that the nest will be warm, and the rabbits will survive even in the cold. What size shouldbe a mother liquor for rabbits if you use a light bulb as a heater? Taking as a basis the dimensions of the queen cell for the rabbit that you are making for the summer period, you need to add 7 cm to its length, using this place for the cavity for the light bulb. The only concern will be to check regularly to see if the light bulb has burnt out from the 24/7 heating.
Fibreboard is not suitable for the material, the rabbit, being on the eve of the birth, can gnaw through all thin sheets, so it is recommended to make them from plywood: this material is good to use.
