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If you want to start your New Year with colour, celebration, and pure energy, there is only one place to be on 1st January, Winneba . While everybody is still sleeping after 31st Night, Winneba is already awake. Drums, brass band, costumes, masks. This is the Winneba Masquerade Festival, locally called Fancy Dress. It is the first major festival in Ghana every year. And it is the second biggest festival in Winneba after Aboakyer. There is a morning in Winneba that does not feel like any other morning in Ghana. By 7am, you can hear it. The brass band far away. The drum, shouting and the crowd. If you are in Winneba on that day, you cannot stay in your room. The sound will drag you out. I remember the first time I followed the sound. I thought something had happened. I thought maybe there was a funeral. But when I reached the road, I saw something I had never seen before. Men wearing masks. Big, colourful, scary, beautiful masks. Some looked like animals. Some looked like old white men ...
RABBIT BREEDING MADE SIMPLE
Rabbit production is one of the means is one of producing tasty meat and improving income at limited cost. "Rabbit farming has significant potential of improving food security and nutrition in developing countries."-- United Nations (FOA 1981).
Rabbits are easy to handle in terms of feeding, housing, and disease and pest control. Rabbits are the best farm animals as they can use a wider range of feed stuffs compared to other domestic farm animals. The only suitable management system recommended for raising rabbits is the intensive system. This involves a housing system (the hutch) where the rabbits are kept in groups or on their own.
Breeding
The selection of rabbits for breeding is based on their fertility, growth rate, mothering ability and disease resistance.
The buck (male rabbit) should have a sound scrotum with two well-developed testicle.
The doe (female rabbit) should show good mothering ability in being capable of raising a large litter. It must also posses good body shape that conforms to a desired breed.
Both buck and doe should have no deformities on their reproductive organs.
The preferred age for first mating of doe (female rabbit) should be between 6-8 months and the buck (male rabbit) 7-9 months.
One buck is capable of mating (serving) 10 -20 does in a breeding program. To start raising rabbits it is best to keep two pregnant does.
Under good management practice a kindling box of 40cm X 40cm X 30cm, lined with grass material should be placed in the doe's hutch about one week before the date of kindling.
Beginning Rabbit Production
Obtain the breeding stock from a reputable rabbitry.
Construct a hutch using wood, wire mesh, chicken net and roofing sheet.
Construct or purchase a nest box, feed and water troughs ( an earthenware bowl can be used for feeding and drinking troughs).
Make sure you construct a hutch which protects rabbits from predators example, dog, cat snake. Etc
The preferred length for doe hutch should be 100cm, Breadth= 60cm and height=64cm.
Management and Sanitation
Undertake daily cleaning of cages and washing of water trough.
Develop individual identification system.
Accurate records in rabbit management are important therefore, records keeping for routine management activities such as mating, kindling, etc
Handling of rabbits should be done gently. Never lift the adult by the ears as it causes pain. The correct way of lifting an adult rabbit is to hold the loose skin at the back of the neck and support it underneath with one hand.
Rabbits should not be handled often and children should not be allowed to handle them frequently.
Feeds and feeding
Rabbits are non-ruminant herbivores whose main feeds are:
Grasses: guinea grass, elephant grass
Legumes: centrosema, stylo
Kitchen leftovers: vegetable trimmings, root and tuber peels.
Rabbits should receive 100-150g of supplementary feed a day.
Disease and Pest Control
Rabbits raised in a clean environment may stay without disease and pest. It is therefore necessary to keep the hutch clean. The hutch has to be cleaned daily to avoid accumulation of feces in and under the hutch. Some common diseases which may attack rabbits including:
1.Diarrhea
This is a common disease in rabbit-keeping and may occur as a deviation from the normal pellet forms of feces discharged by rabbits to a watery sticky discharge.
2.Coccidiosis
This is a disease caused by a protozoan called coccidia. It occurs in dirty and overcrowded hutches. The affected rabbit lose weight.
3.Ear Canker
The disease is caused by mites which infest the ears of the rabbit. The mites usually burrow into the skin and cause injury and irritation to the tissues. The skin may develop a crust which is a hardening of the serum (fluid) from the skin as a result of the tissue destruction by the mites.
4.Pest
Pests like lice, fleas, ticks, tapeworms and mites may attack rabbits and recommended pesticides can be used to control these pests. The best form of preventive measure is cleanliness.
Conclusion
i have tried to provide you with simple tips that will help you to start a successful breeding program, but if you have any other query you can ask in the comment below. Also, don't forget to subscribe and share with your friends.
