Rabbit Record Keeping and Analysis

October 18, 2023December 13, 2023 Agric4Profits

Rabbit record keeping is not just about paperwork; it’s a strategic tool for enhancing the health, productivity, and overall management of your rabbitry.

By investing time in maintaining accurate and comprehensive records, you empower yourself to make informed decisions that can positively impact the well-being of your rabbits and the success of your agricultural venture.

A rabbit keeper with one or two rabbits recording may seem unnecessary, but rabbit record keeping is necessary as the number increases. Below are the two most important types of records that are required in rabbit production and their uses.

Importance and Benefits of Rabbit Record Keeping

In the world of rabbit farming, keeping detailed records might seem like an extra task, but it’s a valuable practice that can significantly impact the success and efficiency of your rabbitry. Let’s explore the importance and benefits of rabbit record keeping in a straightforward manner:

1. Monitoring Health and Productivity: Recording key health indicators such as weight, vaccinations, and any signs of illness allows you to track the overall well-being of your rabbits.

Regular monitoring helps detect potential health issues early, enabling timely intervention and preventing the spread of diseases within the rabbitry.

Additionally, keeping records of breeding dates and litter sizes allows you to assess the productivity of individual rabbits and make informed decisions about breeding pairs.

2. Efficient Breeding Management: Rabbit record keeping plays a crucial role in managing breeding activities. By documenting mating dates, expected kindling dates, and the number of kits born, you can plan for the care of pregnant does and be prepared for the arrival of new litters.

This information is invaluable for optimizing breeding schedules, ensuring the health of both does and kits, and managing the growth and development of the young rabbits.

3. Pedigree and Lineage Tracking: Maintaining pedigrees and lineage records is essential for rabbit breeders aiming to improve specific traits or adhere to breed standards.

Detailed records of parentage, genetics, and performance allow you to make informed decisions in selecting breeding pairs to achieve desired traits and maintain the quality of your rabbitry stock.

4. Financial Management: Rabbit record keeping extends to financial aspects, including costs associated with feed, veterinary care, and other inputs. By tracking expenses and income related to your rabbitry, you gain insights into the economic viability of your operation.

This information is valuable for making informed decisions about resource allocation, pricing, and overall financial sustainability.

5. Compliance and Traceability: Keeping accurate records is often a requirement for regulatory compliance, particularly if you are selling rabbits or their products.

Detailed records facilitate traceability, allowing you to provide information about the origin, health history, and breeding details of your rabbits if required by authorities or customers.

6. Learning and Improvement: Record keeping serves as a valuable learning tool. Analyzing historical data helps you identify trends, patterns, and areas for improvement in your rabbitry management practices.

Continuous refinement based on past experiences contributes to the overall efficiency and success of your operation.

Types of Rabbit Record Keeping

Two types of records are required;

Financial records
Animal records

1. Financial Records

Financial records can be kept in a small notebook. With label on one page “Expenditure” and another page “Income”.

All the money spent on the rabbit is to be entered under expenditure and all the money earn from them under income. If you eat a rabbit then enter the equivalent of its cost in the market under income but be honest.

2. Animal record

Table: An example of a doe record card;

Date mated	Buck used	Date kindled	No. born alive/dead	Date weaned	Number weaned	Notes

The column for ‘notes’ is for recording any health and husbandry details e.g. total litter weight at weaning.

Another animal record can be constructed for growing litters to monitor their live weight gain, or how often they have been used for mating, etc.

3. First aid

Occasionally rabbits may suffer from injuries caused by fighting or by sharp edges on wire floors or on feeders. It is important to treat these injuries as soon as possible, to prevent them from becoming more serious.

First aid involves several steps as follows:

Cleaning the injury with an antiseptic solution; dying;
Treating with antiseptic cream;
Protecting from further injury and infection.

It can be helpful to have a first aid box. This could include the following items:

A bowl for holding antiseptic solution; a clean cloth;
Antiseptic concentrate; antiseptic cream; cotton wool;
Scissor or razor blade; bandage
A syringe for dosing medicine

In conclusion, skills needed for a successful rabbit operation, therefore, include Observation, examination, record keeping, hutch design, building and siting, food identification, selection, production and storage, and good management.

Observation is a skill that comes with practice but can be developed with the help of questions to be used each time you visit the rabbit unit.

Rabbit examination is required after a new rabbit is being bought or rabbits are being checked prior to selection for breeding.

Weighing is done to check on their growth and their general condition. Nail trimming, rabbits’ nails need to be trimmed from time to time.

Identification: This is a way and means of recognizing one’s animals (rabbits) and differentiating between one’s animals (rabbits) from another farmer’s own and differentiating between individual animals (rabbits).

There are several methods employed to achieve this. Writing in the ear, Labels, Ear-notching

Record keeping and analysis: It is necessary to keep records as the number increases. Two types of records are required. Financial records and Animal records.