Rabbits are small mammals that belong to the Leporidae family which Hares also belong. Rabbits are also called Bunnies and have distinctive long ears and fluffy short tails. There are more than 30 species and 300 breeds of rabbits in existence.
Although a lot of Rabbits exist in the wild, many are kept by humans as pets and for meat. In fact, humans have domesticated Rabbits for thousands of years.
Here are six reasons you should keep rabbits as an organic farmer:
Rabbits are inexpensive to feed
Rabbits eat vegetables that you will typically find in your environment, so you don’t have to spend much on commercial feeds. They also eat things like nuts, fruits, plant peels, bark, and many other plants. In fact, the more diverse the food is, the better its growth.
They help in controlling the weeds in your environment because they eat all types of weeds. You may supplement the weeds with commercial feed to help supply other nutrients that might be missing from the vegetable diet. The commercial feeds should make up less than 20% of their daily meals, so you don’t spend much.
Rabbits are easy to take care of
Rabbits are one of the easiest animals to take care of. Rabbit daily maintenance is not labor or time-intensive, especially for subsistent farmers. Your daily task is just to give them food and water and cage cleaning. There is an endless supply of food around you as they eat mostly weeds.
For proper hygiene, you should clean out their cages at least every other day and this doesn’t consume much time or require much labor. Rabbit poop is pellets and not smelly and easy to clean out.
As long as your feed them properly and maintain clean cages, rabbits rarely fall ill.
Rabbits Reproduce quickly
Rabbits have induced ovulation, which means that they can get pregnant at any time and the mating success rate is very high. They can even become pregnant again, just hours after putting to birth.
They also have a gestation period of 30 days and a weaning period of 40 – 50 days, therefore a single Doe can give birth more than 3 times in a year.
Rabbits are one of the highest reproducing animals, giving birth to 2 – 12 liters a pop, this means that you could start with a buck and a Doe and within a space of one year have more than 30 new rabbits.
Rabbits make very cute pets
Rabbits are beautiful, graceful, and elegant creatures and make very cute pets. They are a pet favorite for a lot of people especially children.
They are very playful; they jump and bounce around bringing life to your environment. They make the safest pets for children because they are not aggressive and don’t bite.
Rabbit waste is an organic farming gold
Rabbit droppings and urine are the richest organic manure available. Rabbit droppings contain high nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus and are richer than poultry droppings, and cow and goat manures. It is also a cold manure, and thus can be applied directly to your plant root without composting. Rabbit dropping is slow-releasing manure that is good for plants. The nutrients are released slowly into the soil and thus have a long-lasting fertility effect on your soil.
Rabbit urine is equally very rich in Nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus, even more than the droppings. It is so concentrated with nutrients that if it is used directly on the plants, it will kill the plants. Urine is diluted and applied to plants as manure.
Rabbit urine is one of the few organic pesticides and insecticides available today. It does not kill the insect, like chemical insecticides but deters the insects. However, just like when used as fertilizer, the rabbit urine should be diluted appropriately before use.
Rabbit dropping and urine are one of the best worm feeds and very cheap nutrients for your vermicompost.
Healthy meat
Rabbit meat is one of the healthiest meats in the world. It is lean, white, and sweet meat.