Rabbit meat, anyone?

SNOW-WHITE young rabbits were nibbling rabbit chow, gnawing coconut husks and lazily hopping around their cages when I went to the Mack family home in Las Lomas No 1 on April 15 with Verna Heath, president of the 4H Leaders Council, and the Rabbit Management Team to visit young Viresh and his aunt Devindra Mack to see how their part of the Rabbit Meat Production project was progressing. Space and the light reflected from the shiny-new wire cages meant I couldn’t take a long shot of all the young rabbits born in the Mack rabbitry since the project was launched on March 2, but meat production is proceeding as expected — even though the Mack family do not, themselves, eat meat. (Incidentally, a check on the Internet for information on rearing rabbits for meat was headed by a site from The Hindu on the growing popularity of raising rabbits for meat in India.)

Although it’s relatively easy, rearing rabbits for meat is a serious business for the young 4H-ers. There’s more to raising rabbits than the daily tasks of filling the feeder with chow, the bowls with water, scooping up the droppings falling through the wire mesh, keeping the cages and surroundings clean, and renewing the coconut husks when needed. Rearing rabbits for meat is a small business and, as every successful small entrepreneur knows, that means keeping records. It’s an introduction to animal husbandry. Young Viresh and his fellow 4H-ers, with help from parents, aunts and uncles, are learning the basics, gaining valuable experience in the routines of looking after animals, keeping records, learning to take responsibility, how to stick to a job — and see results.

Rabbits breed so fast, and (when properly cared for) grow so fast that young people don?t have to wait what seems forever to see the results — and, we hope, make some much-needed money for all their work. Four weeks (give or take another three to four days) is all it takes from mating for a doe to give birth to a litter of four to six or more kits. Two to two-and-a-half months later the young rabbits are ready for sale or, for those families who eat meat, for the family cooking pot. I watched while Martin O’Brien, president of the Rabbit Breeders  Association, helped young Viresh to set out and fill in records to show which doe was mated, when she gave birth, how many kits she had and how many survived. With those records to remind them, Devindra and Viresh will know when to take the young rabbits away from the doe so that she can be mated again to produce more young.

The young 4H-ers use the scales that are part of the equipment supplied through funds from the FAO’s Tele Food programme to each 4H rabbitry, to record how much weight each young rabbit has gained every week. Martin O’Brien also gave Viresh and his aunt a short biology lesson on how to tell a young doe from a buck and, much to their surprise (but not mine) advised them to give the rabbits some grass — which is what rabbits eat right down to the root in the wild (much to the fury of Australian cattle and sheep farmers), along with lettuce and carrot tops, salad leaves, maybe some celery and, perhaps, cabbage leaves — hence the expression “rabbit food” for green salads. However, I’d advise Devindra, Viresh and the other three 4H rabbitries to check with the management team before giving their rabbits a taste of celery and/or cabbage leaves.

The Mack family already has some experience in rearing rabbits. It was Chaitram Mack who started the family rabbitry, yet he was not averse to picking up a few tips from the experts of the management team on hand to advise the 4H-ers. The 4H project rabbitry is kept separate from the family’s rabbits; all the 4H rabbits are New Zealand White and are the sole responsibility of Viresh and Devindra to feed, keep clean, breed and keep records that are the key to success in any business, big or small. By starting young (Viresh is in primary school) these young people acquire habits that should stand them in good stead when they are older. People wishes Viresh, Devindra — and all the other young people working and learning with the 4H/FAO Tele Food Rabbit Meat Production project — success in this promising cottage industry.