Practical Techniques for Shortening the Fattening Period of Meat Rabbits
1. Select and raise meat rabbit breeds with fast early growth. Among the meat rabbit breeds currently raised, the main ones are: Belgian Rabbit, French Lop Rabbit, German Giant Rabbit, New Zealand White Rabbit, Japanese White Rabbit, American Californian Rabbit, and Danish White Rabbit. These meat rabbits have large body weights and can be marketed before 90 days of age, so they can be selected for raising.
2. Make full use of hybrid vigor to breed excellent young rabbits. Young rabbits are the foundation of meat rabbit farming. To breed excellent young rabbits, it is necessary to select good male and female parent breeding rabbits. Therefore, male parent breeding rabbits are required to have good meat quality, fast early weight gain, high feed conversion rate, and high slaughter rate; female parent breeding rabbits are required to have large litters, good maternal instincts, high milk yield, strong nursing ability, and high survival rate and uniform development of young rabbits. Using such rabbits for crossbreeding basically produces excellent young rabbits.
3. Maintain suitable temperature and humidity in the rabbit house. The temperature and humidity in the rabbit house have a certain influence on the weight gain of fattening rabbits. Under intensive feeding conditions, the optimal temperature for fattening young rabbits is 24°C; at 42-46 days of age, when the digestive enzyme system of young rabbits is completely formed, the suitable temperature is 24-30°C; from 60-80 days of age, 18-24°C is preferable. As for the humidity of the rabbit house, meat rabbits like dryness and fear dampness, but they also do not like excessive dryness. Therefore, the suitable humidity for the rabbit house is 60%-65%, with 60% being optimal, and it should not be lower than 40% at minimum or higher than 75% at maximum. Otherwise, it is unfavorable for meat rabbit fattening.
4. Always pay attention to ventilation and air permeability in the rabbit house. If harmful gases accumulate in the rabbit house, they will not only affect the growth and development of meat rabbits, but also cause them to become ill. The ventilation and air permeability conditions of the rabbit house should be good, so as to keep the air in the rabbit house clean and fresh.
5. Minimize light as much as possible. Under the condition of feeding fattening meat rabbits a complete-price feed, except for the time needed for adding water, adding feed, cleaning sanitation, and observing health, the rabbit house is kept completely dark. In this way, electricity can be saved, and it is also beneficial to the weight gain of fattening rabbits.
6. Market and slaughter at the proper time. For fattening rabbits, in terms of days of age, it is generally best to market and slaughter at 60-90 days of age; in terms of body weight, it is suitable to market and slaughter at a live weight of 2.25-3 kg. If the days of age or live weight are too small, it will affect returns; if too large, it will increase feeding costs, and both are very uneconomical.