By Herbert Musoke and Joshua Kato
Rabbit meat market is growing in Uganda and abroad every day, but the challenge most rabbit farmers in Uganda face is looking for a market for live animals.
“Many rabbit farmers sell live rabbits even to those who are looking for rabbit meat. We need to understand that the meat market we want to enter consumers are not interested in seeing a live animal. Customers need to know whether it’s; rabbit or chicken but not your live animal,” explains Dr Beatrice Luzobe a rabbitry farmer at Kisasi, Kawempe municipality-Kampala.
Mahawiyah Mukasa, the director of Kapeeka Agro and Livestock farm, explains that by 5-6 months a doe will be mature and ready to be served. ” Unlike in other animals, bucks don’t go on heat but when they are put next to the buck, they are stimulated to ovulate and will conceive when they mate.
It’s advisable to start with six rabbits inclusive of one buck. These will cost sh360,000 since each exotic breeds like Chinchilla, Newland white, Dutch, California and Giants are sold at sh60,000 if you want to have meat.
With six rabbits, you will have over 40 rabbits within three months assuming each doe produces five kittens, although some does can produce up to 12 kittens. The first month is very critical for the kittens. Thus, give a doe 20 days before serving it again such that it cares for the kittens until they are weaned as well as to relax before giving birth again.
With rabbit meat, consider meat to bone ratio. A good rabbit should weigh at least 3kg of live weight to get about 1.5kgs of carcass weight. Hence, one should choose breeds that have good weight when it is both a live or as a carcass.
Apart from meat, everything about the rabbit is useful right from dropping, urine, fur, skin etc. For example, dropping and urine is used as fertiliser and pesticides, skins are used for making fancy jackets, shoes and bags, the heads after slaughtering are used to make dogs meat and the intestines are used to feed the fish (catfish).
