Detailed Guide to the Feeding and Management of Breeding Male Hares

The quality of the feeding and management of breeding male hares plays a vital role in the offspring. Therefore, scientific feeding and management of breeding male hares is essential: during the non-breeding season, a moderate nutritional level should be maintained for the male hares; they must not be too fat or too thin, as both overfattening and excessive thinness will weaken breeding performance or even cause loss of breeding ability. The quality of the semen of breeding male hares depends on the nutrition in the feed, so comprehensive nutrition must be ensured. The protein content in the diet is 12% during the non-breeding season and 14%-15% during the breeding season, with appropriate supplementation of animal protein feeds such as fish meal, silkworm pupa meal, eggs or blood meal.

Each kilogram of diet should contain 0.8% calcium, 0.4% phosphorus, 0.85-0.9 mg carotene, and 4-100 mg vitamin E. One month before breeding, breeding male hares should be supplement-fed with carrots, malt, soybeans or multivitamins. During the breeding season, the feed amount for breeding male hares should be increased. Because it takes 20 days for the effect of increased nutrients to become visible in the semen, the breeding-season diet should be increased starting 1 month before breeding. When breeding twice a day, the feed amount must be increased by 25%, and the concentrate feed increased by 30%-50%. At the same time, providing grain-type acidic feed can strengthen the sexual reflex and sperm formation of male hares.

The feed for breeding male hares should have high nutritional value, be easy to digest, and have good palatability. If bulky, hard-to-digest feed is given, it will inevitably increase the burden on the digestive tract, cause indigestion, and thereby inhibit the sexual activity of breeding male hares. If nutrition is insufficient, it will cause weakness in breeding male hares and reduce sperm vitality. At the same time, exercise should be strengthened to make them vigorous in sexual desire and improve semen quality.