Care and Management of Rabbits

Front matter

These Seven Youngsters Averaged Two Pounds Each at Seven Weeks.

CARE AND MANAGEMENT OF RABBITS

BY

Chapter 1

I

SOME REASONS FOR RAISING RABBITS

SOME REASONS FOR RAISING RABBITS

People have been accustomed to thinking of the domesticated rabbit as a pet for so long that they are somewhat surprised to find that they have some very decided utility advantages.

The experience of the average person with rabbits is limited to a casual acquaintance with the wild cottontail or the jack rabbit of the western prairies or, perhaps, to a few "pets" kept by some youngster in the neighborhood.

We have not, in the past, paid any particular attention to the commercial possibilities in breeding rabbits in large number for the markets or for breeding purposes, largely because we did not have to. Meat, of various kinds, was comparatively cheap and within the reach of all.

We did not acquire a taste for domesticated rabbit meat and, indeed, many of us were prejudiced against it for we naturally supposed that it was similar to the meat of the wild rabbit.

As to the possibility of the rabbit's fur being worth anything, most of us again compared the domesticated rabbit to the wild rabbit and formed the conclusion that the pelt was worthless.

Certain rabbit breeders, possibly not over a dozen in the whole country, who loved the rabbit and believed in its possibilities have spent long years of hard effort to breed their favorites up to a standard which would give them a commercial value; and when they had attained that goal, they had to spend a good many more years convincing the public that they had something worth while.

A number of years ago a great rabbit boom was staged in this country. People went crazy over night and invested large sums of money in fancy stock and equipment, only to wake up a few mornings later and discover that the bottom had dropped out of this boom. And rightly so.

The very reasons advanced by the breeders at that time for the adoption of the rabbit into our live stock family proved their undoing. They did not hesitate to misrepresent the true situation and led people to believe that there was a tremendous demand for rabbit meat all over the country; they stooped to selling diseased stock, in order to profit from the temporary high prices, and in every way possible undermined their own work of previous years.

Those few breeders who continued to keep rabbits knew that some of the faults of the stock in those days would have to be bred out, and that the rabbit would never assume its rightful place in our live stock world as an article of commerce until it really met a need and was in a position to fill that need successfully.

The present widespread adoption of the rabbit is not in any sense a boom. It is merely a growth which has been going on for several years. And the fact that it is assuming some of the aspects of a boom does not detract from the fact that it is a growth, steady and healthy, although tremendous when you stop to think of the number of rabbits that are being bred over the country today.

One of the most important reasons for this growth of rabbit breeding is the high cost of living and the fact that the rabbit, intelligently handled, offers a very potent factor in solving a part of that problem.

The domesticated rabbit as it is bred today is essentially a meat animal. Of the three most popular breeds, the Belgian Hare, the New Zealand Red and the Flemish Giant, all are essentially meat animals, and these three breeds range in weight at maturity from seven to twenty pounds.

Maturity is generally placed at seven to nine months, although the meat animals can be marketed as early as eight or nine weeks of age. The rabbit is a rapid grower and very prolific and is, in fact, the only animal known to us that reproduces its own weight so rapidly.

It is possible, even when very conservative, to produce as much as 400 pounds of rabbit meat on a space of ground only 3x6 feet in size within one year. The rabbit does not require large houses and runs or pastures as do other forms of live stock. In fact, the domesticated rabbit is a hutch rabbit and it really does better under confinement in the proper kind of a hutch than it does where it has more liberty.

Being a rapid grower and favoring certain kinds of feed which is comparatively cheap, even under high prices for all feedstuffs, it is possible to produce a pound of rabbit meat for a very small figure. One breeder, who has made quite a success of raising rabbits entirely for meat purposes, tells me that he can produce a pound of rabbit meat as cheaply as he can produce one egg from his poultry. This may not be possible to most breeders who are not so favorably situated, but it is an indication worth mentioning. Many breeders place the exact cost of producing a pound of rabbit meat at six cents under existing high prices of feed, so many in fact that it has come to be almost an accepted figure among commercial breeders.

The rabbit, unlike poultry, does not need concentrated foods which are always leading the market in price. It requires more roughage in the way of good hay than it does of grain. It does not need corn or wheat at all, oats being the staple grain in the rabbit's ration. Oats, with hay and some green vegetable matter are the principal articles of diet. Some mashes may be used which will even tend to cheapen the cost of feeding the herd.

These facts are largely responsible for the strong position which the rabbit has won in recent years. People are becoming more and more attached to rabbit raising, as they realize what is essential and correct their earlier mistakes.

Rabbit raising is essentially a live stock raising proposition. It is not a fad and cannot amount to much when conducted along that line. The man who is a good farmer, especially farmers, who know what they are about in their feeding operations and who naturally understand rabbits, are the men who are making a big success with rabbit raising.

The rabbit is on such a foundation now that it will prove a money maker to the man who is able to go into the matter as a calling.

A California breeder states over his own signature that he started a few years ago with only a few animals and a few dollars in capital. Today he does a business of more than $25,000 annually. Another man who is a farmer and breeds rabbits as a side line to his farming business states that he is making a gross income of more than $500 a month from his animals. Six does produce him an annual income of $2,000.

From a profit standpoint the money to be made is unquestionably in the sale of breeding stock, but there is a good profit in raising meat for market. In my own neighborhood rabbit meat sells for as much as 65 cents per pound dressed and it never falls below 30 cents a pound live weight. There is, of course, the necessity of building up a local demand for your meat but it is not slow in coming so long as other forms of meat continue at their high prices.

The meat of the domesticated rabbit has many things uncommon to other meat which give it good selling points. In the first place, it is of unusually fine texture, being white all over and something like the breast of a chicken, but lacking any trace of the oily substance found in fowls.

It is the most nutritious form of flesh known to science. It has been definitely established that domesticated rabbit meat is 85% pure nutrition, while beef contains only 55% nutritive value. This may be a surprise to some people, but it is another reason why people are raising rabbits.

Another factor in favor of rabbit raising everywhere, even in the cities, is that the rabbit does not create unseemly odors as some animals do, it is not noisy like poultry and certainly will not arouse the neighbors at daybreak with a wild burst of acclaim. We have heard of people offering strenuous objections to poultry, but we have yet to hear of any one objecting to the rabbit.

It is a noiseless animal. It never has anything to say and it makes no racket whatever, except to stamp its hind legs on the floor of the hutch once in a while when it thinks a stranger is near. This warning signal is promptly obeyed by the clan and they all scamper to their nest boxes and remain in hiding until the identity of the stranger has been established.

The hutches in which the rabbit is kept need not be unsightly to any place, even in the most fashionable districts. If they are properly built, they will be neat and attractive anywhere and if the fancier so desires he can make them as ornamental as possible. Good, neat hutches, nicely painted, will add to any place.

No great amount of room is needed. Many people are keeping large numbers of rabbits in small restricted city lots. The fact that the hutches can be placed one on top of another until as many as three tiers are occupying the same space of ground goes to show that the amount of space at one's disposal is really only a small factor in raising rabbits, while it might be a serious factor if other kinds of stock were to be kept.

Where the hutches are built properly and they are cleaned out as they should be, there will be no need to worry about odors. The droppings from the rabbit come in a pellet form that is dry and easy to handle. The only disagreeable feature is the water, and if the hutches are properly constructed and bedded this will not amount to much. The droppings make an ideal lawn or garden fertilizer, even being better than sheep manure for this purpose.

Rabbits do not require a great deal of time and attention where they are properly housed and the details as to their care have been properly worked out and systematized. They need to be fed only twice a day and many breeders feed only once a day. That can be arranged by the attendant to suit his own convenience. Where hay racks are used and large feed dishes, it is not necessary to feed more than once a day.

A few minutes' time daily will keep the rabbits in fine shape and the attendant can devote the rest of his day to something else. But the rabbits cannot be neglected and expected to thrive. They can be made a source of nuisance and disgrace to yourself and the neighborhood. They can be kept in dirty hutches and fed diseased food and you will soon be burying them by the dozen.

Where rabbits are properly kept, they will provide a means of recreation and profit to any man, regardless of where he may live or what he may do. They will be the center of interest of your neighbors, whether you live on a farm or in a village or a large city. Most people love them, and so will you.

Chapter 2

II

POSSIBILITIES IN RABBITS

POSSIBILITIES IN RABBITS

The acquaintance of the average individual with the rabbit family extends to the observation of the wild cotton tail or to a few domesticated "pets" for children.

It is hardly fair to judge the modern domesticated rabbit by these standards. He is an entirely different animal from the wild rabbit. He is built different, he grows different and he achieves a different purpose entirely. The wild cotton tail rarely attains a weight of more than five pounds, while a New Zealand Red doe will weigh ten pounds at the age of one year. Flemish Giants have been produced weighing as much as twenty-four pounds when matured.

The modern domesticated rabbit is a hutch bred rabbit. He is born and raised in close confinement. He would not know what to do in a park or under wild conditions. Hence, he is better contented and a better producer in a small space. This makes it possible to house more rabbits in a given space than any other animal.

Since they are kept in small hutches, one may be placed above the other and the capacity of the ground available doubled or trebled as the case may be. A small corner near the fence, for instance, which is only five feet by six feet, will easily take care of eight hutches along a modified Sanderson plan. These eight hutches filled with good breeding stock should produce as much as eight hundred pounds of rabbit meat within the space of one year after commencing operations.

For the benefit of those who are anxious to have some figures on the possibilities of rabbits, and who belong to that class who cannot enthuse unless they see some real possibilities in the form of a good profit, I am going to suggest a few "figures" which the reader can follow to their logical conclusion.

In the first place, as an industry the rabbit business in America is still in its infancy. Some breeders have made a great deal of money in an occupation which originally was nothing but a hobby with them. This, as has been suggested before, is due largely to their business ability.

I happen to know one breeder who started about six years ago with $18 in capital and 10 breeding rabbits, as he himself states. He has at the present writing a business which brings in more than $25,000 annually. He is not the biggest breeder in the country, either. I could name half a dozen more who have a larger business. But this man is an expert in all lines of the mail order business and I think this has had a great deal to do with his success.

Rabbit breeding is a branch of the live stock business, and most of us know that the most profitable occupation on earth for the lover of the soil is live stock farmiag. One man may succeed with horses, another with beef cattle, another with dairy animals, and still another may fail at all these and win out with sheep. And the man who couldn't raise farm animals might be a big success with rabbits. It's only a question of ability and business training.

I have already hinted at some of the possibilities of rabbit raising from a commercial standpoint. I do not think I have overstated the matter. Of course, there are dishonest dealers and breeders who are constantly advertising the fact that $3,500 can be made from a single pair in a year and other such absurd claims. But if the reader will not go off on a tangent and start building pipe dreams, he can generally catch these crooks at their own game.

Because the rabbit is a prolific and quick breeder these men have taken the chance to deceive people with false claims as to the real facts. Most of us knew little or nothing about the rabbit when we started out. So we believed these things until hard experience taught us the error of our ways.

The rabbit will breed five times in one year, if permitted to do so. One can even breed them faster than that, but the oftener the rabbits are bred in the space of twelve months, the poorer the offspring. This should appeal to all thinking people as being reasonable. It is a severe drain on any animal to reproduce its kind and the oftener the strain the harder it will be on both parent and offspring.

The average litters run from five to thirteen little rabbits. The rabbit is a nursing animal and because of the inability of the mother doe to properly nurse a whole litter it is necessary to either kill off the poorest of the litter or else use nurse does. It is seldom advisable to allow a mother doe to nurse more than six youngsters and five is even better. For fine breeding stock cut each doe down to three youngsters.

This limitation means that the possibilities of the herd will be considerably less than the claims made by some advertisers who are anxious to deceive the public. It is true that litters run up to thirteen and fifteen at a time, but it is also a fact that it is impossible for the doe to raise this many youngsters. Get that fact in mind now and keep it uppermost when you are thinking about the rabbit business.

Breeding animals that are properly raised and of pedigreed or reigistered parents should be worth an average of ten dollars each. If you have two litters of such stock or possibly three litters in a year, one can see that it is possible to have a cash income of about $100 per year from each breeding doe. This is, I think, a very conservative estimate and one that I have made in my own experience. If one is an especially good "hand" at the business and has exceptional stock, he can do even better.

Where the rabbits are to be produced for meat and can be fed liberally on milk until they are marketed or used on the table, litters of five and six can be raised at a time, which will increase the production of each doe, but the cash income will be cut down because an animal sold by weight for eating purposes will not bring anything like an average of ten dollars each.

The rabbit industry is today in its infancy. I do think, however, that the possibilities will become greater and greater as time goes on and it assumes a commercial aspect. One of the large packers announced more than a year ago that as soon as the production of rabbits reached a scale where it would be possible to warrant the attempt, a market would be established and rabbit meat would be sold over the meat counters of the country along with that of other animals.

Canneries of rabbit meat have been established in two or three centers and furriers have entered the market for rabbit skins. During the season of 1918-19 one fur house with a national reputation advertised that they would pay $1 per pound for prime rabbit pelts, and stated that they could use one million pounds more than they had received the previous season.

I might state that in the parlance of the fur trade the rabbit is known as "coney." If you have been offered coney fur at any time, you may know that it was rabbit fur. The fur is made into hats, muffs, gloves and mittens, decorations for dresses, coats, and collars, and used in lining coats. In short, rabbit fur is rapidly taking the place of more expensive pelts as the other fur-bearing animals have disappeared from our forests and streams.

The man who is raising rabbits for meat can, in the proper season, market the pelt and have an additional income. During the summer the skin can be saved and sold to dealers who in turn sell it to tanneries where it is tanned and used for gloves, or to glue manufacturers who use it in manufacturing glue.

In this connection it is well to remember that the pelt of the domesticated rabbit is entirely different from that of the wild cotton tail. The wild rabbit has a pelt that is very thin and tears easily. It has practically no commercial value whatever. The pelt of the domesticated rabbit, however, is heavy and tough, largely because the domesticated rabbit has been bred expressly for a good pelt.

In fact, Flemish Giant pelts have been used for lap robes and fur rugs. If they are a success for such rough usage one may gather an idea as to just how heavy and desirable the pelt of the domesticated rabbit really is.

But the main thought in these remarks is to warn the beginner in the rabbit business as to the advertising claims made by certain dishonest dealers and hucksters, most of whom do not breed rabbits themselves, but merely handle them for the money that is in them. To be led astray by these claims is to discourage and disappoint many of the people who might otherwise be happy with a few hutches. And it is a rank injustice to the rabbit industry.

The rabbit is a noble animal and one that will perform in wonderful fashion for any lover of them. And because of this very fact, advantage is taken of them to "bleed the suckers," as the expression goes.

Chapter 3

III

THE DOMESTICATED RABBIT

THE DOMESTICATED RABBIT

The domesticated rabbit has been bred for more than one hundred years in an extensive fashion. It has centered largely in Belgium and other Continental countries of Europe. Germany produced a variety of large rabbits having a white pelt dotted with black spots. This rabbit was an offshoot from the old Belgian giant.

It seems that most of the breeds coming from Europe have originated from the Belgian hare which, in fact, is not a hare at all but a rabbit. It takes its name from the fact that the breeders in England attempted and partially succeeded in breeding the Belgian rabbit to such a state that it closely resembled the wild English hare. Hence the name.

About thirty years ago there was a tremendous craze over the Belgian hare in this country. It swept the nation like a forest fire. People everywhere invested large sums of money in breeding stock, all expecting to get rich overnight.

But it soon fell down. People discovered that the Belgian hare of those days was a very delicate animal and that it was subject to many diseases. It had been inbred so long in order to produce show animals that its vitality was nearly gone. Then, again, ignorance as to the manner in which it should be cared for led many breeders to disaster.

In the meantime those who naturally loved rabbits and kept a few for hobby sake, persisted in raising them. They managed to market a few for pets for children.

Others breeds were from time to time discovered by fanciers. From Asia we got the Himalayan rabbit, a little fellow of pure white with black ears and nose. He was so small that he did not make a strong commercial appeal, but he was quite a rabbit for fancy purposes and for fur.

From Holland came the Dutch family. There are about three varieties of these fellows due to the laws of breeding and they are divided entirely according to color.

But the most important development in the history of the domesticated rabbit came with the introduction in 1912 of the New Zealand Red to the fanciers of this country. This rabbit was brought to the Pacific Coast by sailors who had gotten them in New Zealand. They were the natural wild rabbit of that country and had been so desirable from a commercial standpoint that breeders in that country had taken them up for commercial purposes.

Our breeders soon saw the possibilities of the breed and took them up with the idea of increasing the size a trifle and in improving the color. That this has been accomplished is evidenced by the fact that the New Zealand Red is probably the most popular rabbit in existence today.

In size it is about half way between the trim little Belgian hare and the large and imposing Flemish Giant. It has a standard weight of nine and ten pounds at maturity, which is twelve months. It is a rapid grower, breeds true to color, has a reddish buff color, which is always popular with fanciers.

The important thing to note about the domesticated rabbit is that it is a decidedly different animal from the wild cotton tail or the jack rabbit, which most of us are more or less familiar with.

It is a made rabbit in many respects. The New Zealand Red is probably the only rabbit extensively bred at the present time, both for commercial purposes and for show purposes, that breeds exactly true to color and shape. This is because it is not the result of breeding as is the case of the Flemish Giants and the Belgian hares.

The domesticated rabbit, being an entirely different animal from all other rabbits with which most of us are familiar, naturally requires different attention and care. And unless this fact is kept in mind and it is handled intelligently there is slight chance of success.

The domesticated rabbit compares well with sheep as to its likes and dislikes. It eats about the same ration, loves quiet and freedom from disturbance. It does not, however, require a large run or pasturage, and the green element in the ration should be considerably less than generally supposed. In fact, most successful breeders feed very sparingly of green food and give it only as a sort of tonic to the heavy grain and hay ration.

The domesticated rabbit is a very clean animal, if given the opportunity to express its natural desires. It does not thrive in filth and likes to have a clean hutch, sweet air to breathe and good clean food to eat.

It is not the puny animal that many people suppose. It is subject to many diseases, all of which are traced either to poor housing conditions or to improper feeding. I do not know of a single other disease that can be traced to any other quarter. The domesticated rabbit is naturally a hardy fellow if he is bred right. It will thrive equally well in the coldest climate. I have kept rabbits during the winter in open hutches and not had the slightest trouble with them. It isn't the coldness of the atmosphere that causes the trouble; it is the dampness.

The hutch rabbit must be kept free from dampness and if you can keep the hutches clean and dry you have won more than half of the battle. The other part consists in feeding intelligently and wisely.

The domesticated rabbit likes a ration of clover or alfalfa hay, whole oats, hard bread and milk occasionally, root crops such as carrots, lettuce and green food, loves dandelions and chicory or ordinary grass clippings. That is about the extent of the variety of feed it requires.

By feeding mashes and special combinations as recommended in a later chapter, the cost of feeding the rabbit can be materially reduced and it is in this sort of feeding that the rabbit makes its greatest gains.

It needs and demands thorough and systematic care. It should not only be fed prop , but it should be fed with regularity. It is regularity that gives it the greatest gains. Haphazard feeding at irregular intervals will not produce any exceptional success. But since the rabbit, like the horse, will eat at all hours of the night, the busy business man can feed them when he comes home from work, even if it happens to be after dark.

Only two feedings a day are required, morning and night and since any man can care for two dozen rabbits in about fifteen minutes morning and night, there is no reason why the business man or woman should hesitate to breed rabbits because of lack of time to take care of them.

It isn't the time spent on them that counts so much as it is the thoroughness and the promptness of the care given. But where they are only half taken care of, more time is necessary in the end than if the work was done properly from the start.

The hutches should be cleaned out every morning, if they have solid floors and sawdust sprinkled over the floor to absorb the moisture. Once a week the inside of the hutches should be sprayed with a good rabbit disinfectant to kill such germs as may be lurking there. This could be done Saturday afternoons or Sunday mornings.

The domesticated rabbit, once he is understood, should appeal to all busy people as the one animal that can be kept with the minimum of effort and attention, provided the details are correct as to housing and feeding in the beginning.

And because he is a profitable animal and a clean animal, a thing of beauty as well as of commercial value, is the large reason he has won more than 900,000 friends in the past two years, for the recent statistics of a breeding association shows that more than that number of people are now breeding the domesticated rabbit.

Chapter 4

IV

THE COMMERCIAL BREEDS

THE COMMERCIAL BREEDS

While there are many breeds of the domesticated rabbit there are only three which have a distinct commercial appeal. These are the Flemish Giant, the New Zealand Red and the Belgian hare. They are named in the order of their size, the Flemish Giant being the largest at maturity.

The Flemish Giant originally came from a large rabbit known as the Patagonian giant. This rabbit was a giant in every sense of the word in his native state, but being bred down for various purposes, the Flemish has sacrificed something in size and weight. The natural Flemish is a sandy gray color, while the fancy breeds which have sprung up from it are known as Steel Gray, Dark Steel Gray and Black. There are many shades and colors in one litter. Oftentimes they come pure white. This failure to breed true to color is due to the fact that many breeds have been crossed with the sandy giant in order to work out color combinations for various show purposes.