Happy holidays to all. My DH and I just finished moving all the rabbit cages we bought yesterday[see thread rabbit business] We had to move the cages in the back of the truck with the rabbitts in them. I covered them with a blanket and all seemed to do allright, even the does with kits. These cages and rabbits came from an Amish farm and lets just say his idea of clean and mine are not the same. Some of the nest boxes[with kits in them] are extremely dirty. Can I use clean boxes if i put some of the fur in them? Will this upset the does? Does anyone have suggestions for keeping the cages clean? They are all wire. I thought maybe using a shop vac might work but am concerned about the noise. Also if anyone can suggest a good breeding schedule to use. I eventually want to get up to a 100 weanlings being able to market weekly. I am thinking if I breed 15 does per week this will work. Right now I have 38 breeding does but will keep adding to my stock.Market weight has been acheived at 10 weeks. Also should i wait a week or so before I start breeding to give them time to settle in? I know sometimes you can have problems breeding if you wait to long, especially this time of year. I have them under lights, 16 hours per day. Anything I am forgetting? Thanks all.

-- tracy (murfette@stargate.net), December 20, 2001

Answers

The does may get upset and eat the kits. I would not try to clean the nests and cages until after the kits are weaned and separated. Some people clean after the weaning and rotate the doe to another cage and clean the old cage. Wash them with hot water and a good disinfectant. Wash the cages the same way. A small hand held torch can be used to burn the hair off the cages. Check these sites out for breeding, nutrition, etc. They are great, especially the one from Miss. State.

Miss. State has a Great Rabbit Site. http://www.msstate.edu/dept/poultry/rabbits.htm This site has some Good Alt. Agr. Brochures including Rabbits. http://agalternatives.aers.psu.edu/

-- Bart (Dominickwb@dot.state.sc.us), December 20, 2001.

You might want to go to the Older Messages (by category) (archives) and reread the report I did on how my cousin in Croatia raises rabbits using no, repeat no, purchased feeds other than perhaps dried ears of corn and stale bread. Since you cannot control your buyer's price, if you are going to make money on this enterprise it will only be through controlling your costs. Is it better to produce 50 rabbits a week and net out $2.00 each or 100 each to net out $1.00 each? Alojz indicated his average litter size was about 12, which would be fine for an excellent commercial producer as far as I know.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), December 20, 2001.

I have read everything in the archives and will try raising them the croation way with my weanlings. Probably try some that way and the recommended way and compare results. I have done numerous searches on google. I have read, read and read some more. I still am not able to find some answers, though. Nothing I have found addresses moving rabbits and starting a breeding schedule. I have found something usefull as far as labelling your does with the alphabet, ie 8 does would be letter a and the first year are bred to buck a. Any replacement stock from that group would be a. The next year doe a would be bred with buck f, etc etc. The european production breeds back at 14 days after kindling. Better conseption rate then waiting for the standard 4 weeks. More litters per year. I am really intersted in talking with people who have been able to do this as a succesful business. I take great pride in all my animals and want to do what is best. Some of the rabbits have ear mites and I am treating the entire herd. I dont want to start breeding till I am sure they are all in peak condition but dont want to wait to long and have problems with a poor conception rate. I am also supplementing everyone with calf manna at one teaspoon per day plus offering free choice hay. They are presently on commercial rabbit feed but eventual I want to try to change over to a 16% utility feed supplemented with the calf manna. If this feed works it will cut the cost in half. Alot of rabbit breeders say you have to use commercial rabbit pellets but I dont neccesarily believe that. I guess time will tell.

-- tracy (murfette@stargate.net), December 20, 2001.

Tracy, If the kits have eyes open go ahead and change the bedding. I routinely change bedding when ever it gets damp. I just save the dry hair and dry straw to put back in the nest. ( Your moms might be a bit unsettled due to the move but if kits eyes are open should be okay) I have used a shop vac to clean the hair off the cages, but it bothers some of the rabbits. ( Some don't mind) So I usually take the cages out of the barn to vacumn them. Please use caution with burning hair off them. Take the cage out of the barn to do this! Yes I have known of people who burned the barn down, just burning some hair off the cages! I also keep a brush with a long handle on to help brush of hair and cobwebbs as soon as I see them, easier then waiting for it to build up. If you see the droppings hangling on to the cages with hair increase your rabbits fiber with hay or straw. If you brush off the "clingons" daily its a lot easier. Good Luck Denise

-- Denise K. (Rabbitmom2@webbworks.com), December 20, 2001.

My mother-in-law raised rabbits for her own use. She always put her fattening stock on pure grain to bring them along more quickly. I have no idea how long she kept them on grain before slaughter, though. Knowing her, she may have just taken the bunnies out as she wanted to eat them.

-- Terri (hooperterri@prodigy.net), December 20, 2001.

Tracy:

You might consider what are called "range cubes" in this area. Intended to livestock, they are an extruded product about as round as a nickel and broken off into lengths about 2" long. A feed store can tell you all they include, likely things like ground oats and corn binded with molasses. My cattle go crazy over them, so I call them "deranged cubes." Cost is about $7.50 for a 50-pound bag or about $.15 per pound. One nice aspect for rabbits is they are hard and would require chewing, helping their teeth. You might consider them as a daily treat.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), December 21, 2001.

Tracy:

Also go to www.half.com and search books under rabbit*. You will get about 15 pages of listings. Generally the higher priced ones are recent editions and comprehensive. For example, Rabbit Production by Cheeke (and others) is $5.95 for a 1987 edition and $34.95 for a 1996 edition. (Ceeke also is one of the editors of Rabbit Feeding and Nutrition.) Both of these are out of Interstate Press, the publishing company started by M.E. Ensiminger. Many of their books are considered to be bibles in the industry, such as Swine Science, Beef Cattle Science, Dairy Science and Sheep & Goat Science. New editions are expensive.

Go through all the listings and copy down the title and author of those which sound interesting. Then take the list to your local library to see many they can obtain through inter-library loan for you to review.

Don't forget to contact your local ag agent. They can arrange for someone from the university extension service to visit and provide advice and assistance.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), December 21, 2001.

Tracy:

Since I needed a bag of range cubes anyway, got one on my way past the Co-op. For comparison to other feeds: CO-OP Range Cubes, For Weaned Beef Cattle on Pasture, Guaranteed Analysis:

Crude protein (min) - 20% (this includes not more than 10%(?) - tag ripped at this point), crude fat (min) - 2.0%, Crude Fiber (max) - 20%, Calcium (Min) 2.5% (Max) 3.5%, Phosphorus (min) - .5%, Salt (min).8% (max) 1.30%, Potassium (min) - .8% and Vitamin A (min) 5,000 IU/lb.

Ingredients: Processed grain by-products, roughage products, grain products, calcium carbonate, urea, molasses products, Ligrin(?) Sulfonate, salt, animal fat and vegetable oil with ethoxyquin (a preservative), magnesium sulfate, potassium sulfate, dicalcium phosphate, zinc oxide, manganous oxide, ferrous sulfate, magnesium oxide, copper sulfate, cobalt carbonate, ethylenediamine(?) dithdiodide, calcium iodate, sodium, selenite, Vitamin A acetate, Vitamin D-3 supplement, Vitamin E supplement and mineral oil.

Plus, I had the price wrong. It is $5.10 for a 50-pound bag, so 10.2 cents per pounds.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), December 21, 2001.