L, quiet during the day, eat well at night. The living habits of rabbits are close to those of mice. Lying quietly in a cage during the day, being active at night and eating a lot. It is observed that the intake at night accounts for more than 70% of the whole day. Under certain conditions, meat rabbits are easy to fall into drowsiness or sleep, and then their feelings weaken or even disappear. For example, if a rabbit is lying on its side, or the glue is "U" shaped upward, it will fall asleep in a minute or two by gently stroking its hair or pressing its temples.
2, timid. Rabbit is a timid animal. Strangers and strange animals, such as cats and dogs, will be frightened by sudden noise. In the management of feeding, we should try to avoid the noise that causes rabbits to panic, and at the same time prohibit strangers, cats and dogs from entering the rabbit house.
3, hate hot and humid, like a dry environment. The sweat glands of rabbits are underdeveloped and mainly rely on breathing to dissipate heat, so long-term exposure to high temperature (above 35℃) and humid environment will lead to a large number of deaths. The experiment shows that the ideal ambient temperature of adult rabbits is 14-20℃, and the temperature in the nest of newborn rabbits is 30-32℃. Drying and cleaning are very beneficial to the health of rabbits. Rabbits are also very hygienic. They often "wash their faces", eat, shit, urinate and spit with their front paws. When the rabbit's anus, mouth and nose are not clean, it means that it is ill. Need to find out the reason as soon as possible, symptomatic treatment.
4, unsociable, good living alone. Under natural conditions, rabbits all burrow and live alone. Only during mating season. Male and female rabbits and same-sex rabbits often fight together, causing trauma, such as biting off ears or testicles. Therefore, rabbits should be fed in a cage.
5, delicious. Rabbit's front teeth are permanent and often grow. If soft materials are often fed, rabbits will naturally chew on wooden cages and other things to maintain proper tooth length. So put some branches in the rabbit cage. When making a rabbit cage, try not to leave edges and corners so that rabbits can't bite, which can prolong the service life of the rabbit cage.
Feeding management of meat rabbits
Feeding and management of long and short rabbits. Rabbits from birth to weaning are called young rabbits. The growth and development of young rabbits are not yet complete, and their adjustment function to the external environment is poor. Therefore, nursing work must focus on the following two periods.
(l) Sleep period The time from birth to heel opening of a good rabbit is called sleep period. During this period, the young rabbits are sleeping all the time except breastfeeding. The mother rabbit is only fed once a day for five minutes. Therefore, it is necessary to check whether the young rabbits have enough milk every day. Baby rabbits with milk feet have ruddy and shiny skin and a round stomach. For example, the young rabbit is uneasy, its head jumps up, sometimes it squeaks, its abdomen is flat or small, its skin is dark and dull, and there are many wrinkles, indicating that the milk of the young rabbit is not full. For rabbits that are not full, foster care or artificial breastfeeding can be adopted.
The tool for artificial lactation can be composed of an injection bottle or an eye drop bottle and a small piece of rubber tube connected to the mouth. The feeding temperature should be hot enough to drip comfortably on the back of the hand (37-38℃). Eating at human speed. The specific method is: within five days of birth, 200 ml of fresh milk, 3 ml of cod liver oil, 2 g of salt and a fresh egg are mixed and fed; After 5 days, feed with milk or goat milk, soybean milk, etc. 10 day or so, rinse 50 ml of condensed milk, 50 ml of a spoonful of corn syrup and an egg yolk with boiling water, and then feed.
(2) Eye-opening period: Newborn rabbits open their eyes about 12 days after birth, which is called eye-opening period. The time when young rabbits open their eyes is closely related to their development, and well-developed rabbits open their eyes early. If the rabbit's eyes are stuck with chewing gum, it can be washed off slowly with absorbent cotton dipped in water. Young rabbits in this period have to go through a transition process from breastfeeding to eating plant feed. If the change is too sudden, it often leads to death. Therefore, the focus of feeding should be on the feeding and weaning of young rabbits.
Meat rabbits can start to give a small amount of digestible and nutritious feed, such as soybean milk, tofu or chopped grass, cabbage leaves and so on, when they are born 16 days old. After 22 days of age, a small amount of minerals, antibiotics, furacilin, onions, dead leaves and other anti-inflammatory, bactericidal and stomach-invigorating drugs can be mixed into the feed to enhance physical fitness and reduce diseases. Eat less and eat more. Feed it 5-6 times a day on the principle of gradual increase. 30 years old, mainly feeding, supplemented by breast milk.
2. Feeding of young rabbits and young rabbits. Rabbits three months after weaning are called young rabbits. Rabbits at this stage grow fast, but their disease resistance is poor, so special attention should be paid to nursing, otherwise they will be stunted and easily get sick and die.
Weaned rabbits must be kept in a warm, clean and dry place, preferably in a cage. Feed should be clean, fresh and nutritious. Grass with mud must be washed and dried before feeding. Feed green feed three times a day, concentrate feed twice a day, mineral feed, a small amount of fish meal, bean cake and so on. When feeding, master the principle of eating full in the morning, eating more in the afternoon and eating less at night. Drink plenty of water, cold water in summer, warm water in winter and a little salt. Grass is the main food in summer, and wheat bran, corn, sorghum and other concentrate are also fed. Green feed contains a lot of water, so it should be dried to reduce the water. This can effectively control the diarrhea and swelling of young rabbits. In addition, pay attention to often add some green onions or green onion leaves, garlic leaves and so on. Disinfect tableware with potassium permanganate solution once every 3-5 days, which can avoid coccidiosis cysts polluting bedding and tableware.
Weaned rabbits should increase their exercise, and they can be placed in a sports field surrounded by barbed wire for 2-3 hours every day. Those with weak constitution can be raised separately. Rabbits 3-6 months old are called young rabbits. At this stage, the rabbit has already begun to estrus. In order to prevent premature mating, male and female rabbits must be kept open.
3. Breeding and management of breeding rabbits
(l) breeding male rabbits. The management of breeding male rabbits should pay attention to several aspects: ① Strengthen seed selection. The meat yield, wool yield and reproductive performance of breeding male rabbits can be inherited, and it is necessary to constantly select the ones with good productive performance as seeds. After three years of utilization, good breeding rabbits began to be eliminated. ② Timely breeding. Meat rabbits are generally bred for about 7 months (weighing more than 3 kg) and 8 months. Usually twice a day, two days off. If you don't breed for a long time, you should breed regularly. ② Reasonable feeding. Male rabbits can't fatten, and obese male rabbits have low fertility. Therefore, it is necessary to master the proportion of each component in the feed. Protein content is slightly higher, sugar feed is less, and high-quality green feed of more than 0.5 kg is supplied every day. Feed 1/4 fresh eggs and 2 cod liver oil pills every day from 3 weeks before the breeding season. In the breeding season, feed some animal feed, such as fish meal and silkworm pupa powder. In addition, attention should also be paid to the supply of phosphorus and calcium. Concentrate should be mixed with 2-3% bone meal and shell meal and 0.5- 1% salt to ensure comprehensive nutrition and strong appetite.
(2) Breeding female rabbits. According to the feeding stage, it can be divided into ① empty pregnant female rabbits. The empty pregnant period of a female rabbit refers to the period from weaning to the next pregnancy. This period is mainly to prevent the normal development of the mother and improve the pregnancy rate. In management, it is necessary to formulate feed reasonably and maintain the appropriate fatness of maternal immunity. For obese female rabbits, it is necessary to reduce concentrate and strengthen exercise; For emaciated female rabbits, the amount of concentrated feed should be increased to restore their normal physical condition. For female rabbits who are not estrus for a long time, heterosexual induction or hormone estrus can be used. The guiding induction method is to put the female rabbit into the male rabbit cage once a day, and promote the female rabbit's brain droop to produce follicle hormone to cause estrus through the chasing and climbing stimulation of the male rabbit. Generally, the purpose of estrus can be achieved by 2-3 times of climbing stimulation to male rabbits.
② Pregnant female rabbits. Pregnant female rabbits are mainly high-quality green feed. After 0/5 days of pregnancy/kloc-,we should feed more fresh grass, protein and minerals, but not too much concentrate, especially 7 days before delivery, so as to avoid the death, constipation and mastitis of the mother rabbit.
The pregnant period of female rabbits is very short, with an average of 3 1 day. It is easy to miscarry within 0/5-20 days after pregnancy, and more attention should be paid to management. 3-4 days before labor, clean and disinfect the delivery box, cage plate, food plate and utensils. Spread the sun-dried and softened straw in the delivery room, and then concentrate the mother rabbit in the delivery room to get familiar with the environment. If the pregnant female rabbit's food intake is greatly reduced, and the feces are rotten and not granular, pulling off the hair on the chest and abdomen with her mouth and putting it into the delivery box is a sign of the mother rabbit's delivery, so she should be prepared for delivery.
The parturition time of female rabbits is very short, usually 20 minutes to 1 hour. The primiparous female rabbits need artificial care to prevent the female rabbits from dystocia or crushing and biting the young rabbits. Mother rabbits should be fed with water and fresh green feed (or warm rice soup with a little salt) in time after delivery, otherwise they will be thirsty and eat young rabbits by mistake because of licking dry saliva. When the mother rabbit jumps out of the box after giving birth, she should carefully take the box out of the cage, count the young rabbits, take out the wet grass, wool and stillbirth together, spread clean straw, spread a layer of rabbit hair or old cotton wool on the grass, and then put the young rabbits back in the box and cover them with a layer of rabbit hair. If the female rabbit is found to have no hair, it is necessary to pull out the hair around the nipple of the female rabbit. This can stimulate breast lactation as soon as possible, which is convenient for young rabbits to suck milk.
③ Lactating female rabbits. Lactating female rabbits consume a lot of nutrients every day in order to maintain life activities and secrete milk. Therefore, lactating female rabbits must increase the amount of feed and feed them with protein, vitamins and minerals, such as bean cake, wheat bran, bean dregs, salt, bone meal and turquoise feed. After the mother rabbits give birth, most of them will be fed by young rabbits. For a few mothers who can't breastfeed, it is necessary to force breastfeeding manually. The practice is: take out the delivery box, take the mother rabbit out of the cage and lie in the nest box on time. The young rabbit will find nipples to suck milk twice a day. Generally, after 3-5 days of training, the mother rabbit will automatically feed. If the mother rabbit lacks milk, it can be artificially breastfed. Appropriate addition of concentrated feed to feed.
4. The fattening effect of meat rabbits is the best after the completion of bone growth and development. There are two ways:
(1) Fattening method for young rabbits. That is, the young rabbits are fattened immediately after weaning, and they are slaughtered after L-L.5 months, weighing 2-2.5 kg. The specific way is to gather the fattening rabbits together and graze them in the enclosure, so that the young rabbits have sufficient exercise opportunities and promote the full growth and development of skeletal muscle. In the last half month to one and a half months, cage culture will be carried out to limit exercise. The nutritional requirements of fattening feed are: crude protein 20%, fiber 16%, polar fat 2.5%, mineral L 1%, water 13%, and daily feeding 100-200g. Fattening begins with green feed, supplemented by concentrate, then gradually added concentrate, and finally completely fed concentrate 1-2 weeks. If the appetite drops, you can feed some green feed. Suitable feeds for fattening are: corn, brown rice, barley, rice bran, bean cake, peanut cake, sweet potato and potato (the latter two are best cooked before feeding).
(2) Adult rabbit fattening method. Refers to breeding rabbits and young rabbits that have been eliminated in the process of reproduction, production and development. The fattening period is generally 15-35 days, and the fattened ones can gain L- 1.5 kg.
During the fattening period, some mushrooms, celery leaves, dandelion and plantain can be added appropriately. After 20 days of fattening, if you find that your appetite has increased greatly, it means that fattening has been completed, and you should shape or slaughter it in the morning.
Male rabbits should be castrated to reduce feed consumption and improve meat production capacity. The castration method is to select 90- 100-day-old male rabbits. One person puts the rabbits on the stage and firmly holds their hind limbs. The other person touches the testicles and squeezes them into the scrotum from the abdominal cavity. The testicles are fixed with thumb, food and middle finger, disinfected with iodine, and the castration knife is held in the right hand, with an opening of about 1 cm. At this time, the left hand will forcibly squeeze out the testis, and then the right hand will gently pull out the testis to remove the vas deferens ligament.
Prevention and treatment of diseases in meat rabbits
1, rabbit plague. It is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease, which mainly infects young rabbits and adult rabbits with high morbidity and mortality. Symptoms: Acute sudden death (mostly at night). Some screamed a few times and their nostrils bled to death. Before they die, their anus often excretes dung balls with yellow colloidal mucus. Chronic patients' body temperature rises 1- 1.5℃, 1-2 days later, but it can cause other susceptible rabbits to die.
The prevention method is: inject one milliliter of rabbit plague vaccine regularly every year. Can also be injected before the onset season, adult rabbits intramuscular injection of 2 ml. The weaned rabbits are injected with 1 ml intramuscular injection, and the suckling rabbits can be inoculated a few days before weaning, and they will develop immunity 4-5 days after inoculation.
2, infectious rhinitis. Mostly in spring and autumn, the incidence rate is 20-70%. It spreads quickly and has a high mortality rate. Mainly temperature changes and colds. Sneezing and runny nose at the beginning of the onset, then turning into mucus or thick nose, forming scabs on the external nostrils. Dyspnea, accompanied by nasal congestion. When he was seriously ill, he lost his appetite and died of emaciation. If sick rabbits are found, streptomycin and gentamicin should be injected immediately. Mild, use penicillin nasal drops, 1, twice a day, about 3 drops each time; Or mashing garlic and soaking it in water for half a day, taking the immersion liquid and washing the nose, 2-3 times a day.
3, diarrhea. Diarrhea is one of the common diseases in rabbits. Rabbits eat spoiled feed or drink water with too much water content or too cold. The rabbit house is cold and damp, which leads to abdominal cold, premature weaning of young rabbits, poor adaptability to feed, and bacterial or parasitic infection can all cause diarrhea.
Treatment: ① Take orally 10- 15 ml vegetable oil to remove toxic feces in the intestine. After 8- 10 hour, stir-fry a bowl of strong tea and feed the tea several times. ② Garlic or garlic juice should be taken orally. ③ Sulfanilamide pus, 0. 1-0.2g per kg body weight, 2-3 times a day. ④ Oral berberine tablets, 0.0 1g per kg body weight, 3 times a day for 2-3 days. ⑤ Take compound mycin or oxytetracycline and tetracycline orally, 0. 1-0.2g per kilogram of body weight, 2-3 times a day. ⑥ Oral ciprofloxacin or furazolidone, 0.05-0. 1g/kg body weight, 2-3 times a day for 2-3 days. ⑥ intramuscular injection of 0. 1g twice a day.
4. Rabbit dysentery. The disease is an infectious disease caused by Shigella dysenteriae, which mostly occurs in summer and autumn. Rabbits are prone to this disease if they eat moldy food and drink unclean water, or if the climate changes suddenly and the rabbit house is wet. Sick rabbits have thin feces, sometimes bloody, runny mucus, cold ears, loose hair, loss of appetite or abandonment, severe diarrhea and dehydration, and die every day.
Treatment: ① Take garlic 1-2 petals, break them, peel them, soak them in water, and take them once with garlic. (2) Decoct 2-3g of green tea with100ml of water into 40-50ml, 4-5 times a day. ③ Add honey 30g, Polygonum Multiflori Radix 15g, Radix et Rhizoma Rhei 6g, Radix Glycyrrhizae 6g, and water 200 ml to boil 100 ml, and pour l-2ml each time. ④ Zhili Tablet 0.5-L, with the same amount of baking soda, twice a day. ⑤ If the symptoms are serious, sulfadiazine L tablets and chlorhexidine L tablets should be taken twice a day for 3 days.
5, rabbit scabies. Scabies is a chronic infectious skin disease caused by mites. The disease is contact infection, rainy weather, wet rabbit house or intensive feeding. According to the species and parasitic parts of parasitic mites, it can be divided into three types: scabies, tinea auricularis and tinea pedis.
Treatment: ① 20g realgar, soybean oil 100ml. After the soybean oil is boiled, add realgar and mix well to form ointment. Apply it to the affected area every other day 1 time, 2-3 times in total. ② 25 parts of sulfur and 0/00 part of lard/kloc were made into sulfur ointment, and the affected area was rubbed once a week. (3) Put 500 grams of rice vinegar and 50 grams of yellow tobacco into an iron pot and cook for 10 minute, and then cool the affected part once a day 1 time for 5-6 days. ④ Burning Sophora alopecuroides bark into charcoal, grinding it into powder, and rubbing it with lard or vaseline. ⑤ Mimiejing (pyrethroid) is an ideal drug for treating rabbit mites at present. Reliable insecticidal effect, no side effect and no recurrence after cure. Usage: Take 20% Mimejing L ml, add 2.5-5 kg warm water at 65438 02℃ and rub it on the affected area. The diluted liquid medicine should be bottled and stored away from light, and its efficacy will not change within one month. However, it should not be used with alkaline substances.
6. Inflation. This disease is more common in young rabbits aged 2-6 months, and often occurs because of feeding too much indigestible or rotten feed and insufficient exercise. The sick rabbit has poor appetite, swollen abdomen and a lot of food and gas in its stomach. Dyspnea, purple mucous membrane, often crouching still.
Treatment: ① Stop feeding moldy and deteriorated feed immediately. ② Use vegetable oil 15- 18 ml to add the same amount of boiling water, and take it after cooling. ③ 6 grams of Acorus gramineus, 6 grams of Aristolochia root, 6 grams of wild hawthorn, 6 grams of dried tangerine peel 10, and medicated leaven 1 tablet are decocted in water, and each dose is given to 2 rabbits 1 time. (4) rhubarb soda tablets, l tablets each time, and the young rabbits are halved. ⑤ Ginger tincture 2 ml, rhubarb tincture 1 ml, warm water. ⑥ 0.5ml Lysol,10-20ml water. All landowners garlic tincture 2 ml, add appropriate amount of water. 8 6 grams of garlic, vinegar 15-30 ml, once.