Biological and Economic Performance of Rabbits in Kiambu County, Kenya

Abstract

Rabbit rearing has in the past received minimal attention, but due to reduction in individual land holdings and increasing awareness of the advantages of the rabbit as a food animal, interest in its farming for income generation has increased. However, despite the increased interest, there is a lack of information about both on-farm performance and cost of production which are important in determining profitability of the enterprise.The current study aimed at assessing these 2 parameters in selected farms in Kiambu County. A cross-sectional survey was undertaken where data on current rabbit management practices was collected through a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire in 45 farms. Thereafter, 6 of the 45 farms were selected based on the availability of weaner rabbits and data recording ability for the longitudinal study. In each of the 6 farms, 40 weaner rabbits were randomly selected and their weekly feed intake and weight monitored from weaning at 8 weeks of age to a target body weight of 2 kg. The results showed that 66.6% and 46.6% of the respondents kept rabbits for income generation and as a source of family food respectively. Rabbit keepers depended on locally accessible resources for feeding the rabbits (Green vegetables-66.7%; grasses-57.8% and local weeds-53.3%). The majority (82.2%) fed rabbits a mixture of forages and concentrate. Treatment of sick rabbits was by the farmers (60.5%) and animal health experts (28.9 %) while the main source of information on animal health was from non-professionals (62.7%) while 53.3 % used traditional disease treatment methods. The most prevalent breeds kept by the respondents were New Zealand White (82.2%), California white (75.6%) and crossbreeds (71.6%). The total number of rabbits recorded was 1665 with a mean of 37±19.1. The majority of the respondents (57.8%) kept more than 10 does. The majority of respondents (71.1%) weaned the kits at 8 weeks of age while does were rebred at 9 weeks after kindling on 68.9% of the farms. Constraints identified by respondents included poor quality (22.2%) and high cost (88.9%) of feeds, diseases (84.4%) and lack of markets for rabbits and rabbit products (71.1%). Results from the longitudinal study showed that the quality and amounts of feeds offered to the grower rabbits did not meet the nutrients requirements for optimal performance. The mean digestible energy and crude protein contents for the forages which were the main feeds were 1892.7kcal/kg and 10.3% respectively which was lower than the recommended 2500 kcal/kg and 15-16% respectively. Although the nutrient content of concentrate feeds (average 3240.6 kcal/kg

and 18.3%) were above the recommended values, the limited amounts availed to rabbits (maximum, 100g/day) limited their ability to support optimum growth. The time required to produce a 2 kg liveweight fryer rabbit under farm conditions averaged 18 weeks. The feed conversion ratio differed between the farms with mean of 6.3±0.71, range 5.6-7.0.The cost per kilogram weight gain also varied between farms and ranged from KES 233.1 to 331.2 with a mean of KES 280.2±33.7. This study concluded that rabbit farming in Kiambu County is practiced on small scale characterized by limited resource allocation and small flock sizes which may not support a sustainable off-take rate to meet the intended purpose of income generation. Additionally, rabbits at farm level did not receive the required amount of energy and protein resulting in low growth rates and high cost per kilogram live weight gain making the enterprise unprofitable.