Fall Rabbit Care: Essential Tips for Healthy Hares

Ensuring a Healthy and Fertile Fall for Rabbits: Key Strategies to Follow

As the autumn season approaches, it's crucial to take proactive measures to keep your rabbits healthy and boost their fertility. Here are six essential steps to consider:

1. Strengthening the Breeding Rabbits

To ensure that rabbits are in prime condition for breeding during the fall, start preparing at least a month in advance. Adult male rabbits often suffer from decreased sperm quality due to the summer heat, so it's important to begin a regimen of enhanced care and nutrition one month prior to breeding. This includes providing additional feedings twice a day, ensuring ample nighttime forage, and feeding highquality hay. Increase their diet with proteinrich and vitaminenriched foods, and consider adding a small amount of fish meal and methionine for extra nutrition. Some farmers also find success by feeding each rabbit 50 cooked soybeans daily, which can help restore their condition in about three weeks.

2. Selecting and Updating Breeding Rabbits

Before autumn arrives, carefully select your breeding rabbits, reserving the best individuals for breeding and providing them with special care.淘汰 those that are unsuitable for breeding. Ideal breeding rabbits should exhibit strong health, robustness, and high reproductive performance. Typically, male rabbits are used for 34 years, while females are bred for 23 years. Once this period has elapsed, replace older, weaker rabbits with younger ones to maintain a healthy breeding stock.

3. Artificially Stimulating Estrus in Rabbits

Some does may not cycle regularly, and in such cases, consider artificial estrus stimulation. There are several methods, including sexual stimulation by placing noncycling or resistant does with cycling bucks, information stimulation by swapping cages, manual stimulation through gentle massage, and pharmacological stimulation using medications like iodine tincture or vitamin E supplements. Traditional Chinese herbs like Epimedium can also be used to stimulate estrus.

4. Timing Breeding Appropriately

Given that temperatures can be high during the midday in autumn, it's best to schedule breeding sessions in the morning or evening. To increase the chances of successful breeding, consider using double or repeat breeding techniques.

5. Implementing Effective Biosecurity Measures

Regularly clean and disinfect rabbit enclosures, maintain good ventilation and dryness in the shed, and restrict access to nonessential personnel. Vaccinate rabbits against diseases such as rabbit hemorrhagic disease, pasteurellosis, and clostridial infections by the middle of September. Be cautious with feed to avoid moldy or pesticidecontaminated food.

6. Increasing Light Exposure

During the breeding season, ensure rabbits receive at least 10 hours of light daily. If natural light is insufficient, supplement with artificial lighting.

These strategies, summarized by Oxygen Pet Doctor, are designed to help rabbits breed effectively during the fall. We hope these tips will contribute to the health and fertility of your rabbit population.