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Breeding rabbits attracts opportunityobtaining fast offspring, quick weight gain and good quality fur skins. The breeds of rabbits existing today are conventionally divided into meat, fur or fur and decorative.
By weight, domestic rabbits can be:
- large, the weight of an adult male passes for 6 kg;
- medium, the weight of such animals is mainly in the range of 3 to 6 kg;
- are small, these are animals, weighing from 2 to 3 kg;
- dwarf, weighing from 1 to 2 kg.
Rabbits vary in length and quality of wool, color, growth rate and number of rabbits in the offspring. After studying the description of the breeds of rabbits, photos of the best representatives of the breeding characteristics, you can get an idea of the choice you have and find the best animals for your farmstead.
In the backyard farm, rabbit meat breeds are most often bred. Such animals quickly build up muscle mass and have a good yield of dietary meat during slaughter. Part of the animals is allocated a truly gigantic size.
Rabbit White Giant
Among rabbits of giants, the most famous breed comes from Germany and Belgium, where rabbit breeders even before the last century managed to breed animals that stand out not only with absolutely white dense fur, but also with extra large sizes. Breed of rabbits the White giant has long got on the territory of Russia and over the past decades has been adapted to growing in more severe conditions than in Western Europe.
An adult individual is gaining a live weight of up to 7 kg, while the livestock is grown not only for meat, but also for the sake of high-quality skins.
After cutting the carcass, the breeder receives about 3–4 kg of dietary lean meat. At the farmstead, this breed of rabbits breeds well. Usually, there are up to 11 young rabbits, who are ready to go for meat after 2-4 months after birth.
Flandr Rabbit or Belgian Giant
If one old, but not lost, and today the breed of rabbits - Flandr or Belgian giant. Although animals stand out with a powerful build, and the breed itself belongs to meat animals, but thanks to the friendly nature of the animals, these rabbits of giants are often kept in the house as a companion and pet.
The history of the Flandre rabbit depicted in the photograph has more than four centuries. And it is impossible to name precisely the ancestors of these animals. But over the past centuries, the work of unknown breeders from Flanders has not been lost and has not disappeared, but is actively used in Europe, the USA and Russia. In modern large farms and on private farms, several lines of Belgian rabbit giants are grown.
The “smallest” are animals that grow up to 6 kg, and truly gigantic representatives of the breed can weigh up to 10–12 kg.
Breed animals may have a different color, but the wool is always of good quality, thick, with a pile up to 30 mm in length.
Rabbits of the Riesen Breed
Giant rabbits from Belgium were famous and bred throughout Europe, but at the end of the 19th century breeders in Germany were able to talk about the appearance of their own giant rabbits. Thus was created the breed of rabbits Risen, which means “giant”.
This is the largest animal in existence today. The weight of a male can reach 12 kg and more, while not only meat is appreciated, but also thick short fur of different colors. Breed small animals have large ears, wide paws and a massive body. Because of their weight, rabbits of the Risen breed are rather cumbersome, but good-natured and intelligent.
Rabbits of the Gray Giant breed
The rabbits of the Belgian Giant, which appeared in the USSR after the war, gave rise to new breed lines of domestic breeding. The local livestock was used to obtain unpretentious, hardy and numerous offspring, and the overseas guest gave the size and weight to the little rabbit. As a result, one more breed of rabbits, the Gray Giant, was registered. This happened in 1952, and since then the rabbit breeders of Russia have been actively using the achievements of scientists.
A decent breeding animal of this breed has a massive elongated body, strong legs and a large head. On average, an adult rabbit weighs from 4 to 7 kg.
Pile can not be called thick, so this breed of rabbits is not used for fur production. The color is gray, darker on the back than on the stomach.
Rabbits of the Californian breed
Californian rabbits belong to the old time-tested breeds. Obtained in the southern United States at the beginning of the last century, they still show good results and are bred both on an industrial scale and on private farmsteads. Fur rabbit meat breed was bred on the basis of a complex cross between chinchillas, white rabbits from New Zealand and Russian ermine breed. A new breed of rabbits stood out not only with a bright white color with contrasting spots on the ears, face, legs and tail, but also with an excellent weight gain, fecundity and fatness. With a short torso and harmonious bones, the average weight of a California-style rabbit reaches 4.5–5 kg.
White New Zealand rabbit
The history of the breed of white New Zealand rabbits has more than a hundred years. For pure white meat animals, representatives of the White giants and local albino animals were used. The breed, even with a relatively small weight of animals growing up to only 4.5 kg, still retains its popularity due to the high quality of lean meat, unpretentiousness, early development and a large number of rabbits in broods. The breed features of the white New Zealand rabbit include: snow-white, without a hint of fur spots, a perfect bite, wide paws and back, silver undercoat and red eyes.
New Zealand Red Rabbit
In addition to the white New Zealand rabbits, there is a red variety, also used for fur and meat. The weight of strong, well-fed animals up to half a meter in length does not exceed 4.5 kg, but the comparatively low weight of the carcass is compensated by high taste, fertility and endurance of the breed.
The peculiarity of this meat breed of rabbits is a bright unusual color, which can vary from a brick-red shade to a rich red.
Fine fur, pawed pubescence, compact build - all this makes it possible to grow red New Zealand rabbits outdoors even in fairly harsh conditions.
Rabbit Butterfly
The Russian rabbit breeders have known the rabbit with its original color, which gave the breed its name, for more than two hundred years. It was in our country with the selection work that the best results were achieved. Today, rabbits weigh not three kilograms, but almost twice as much as at the time of arrival from Britain. In addition, they are better adapted to local content.
If you look at the muzzle of the animal, you can see a large dark spot, resembling a moth with spread wings. This spot is depicted in the photo breed of rabbits owes its name. Other spots, already of arbitrary shape, can be seen on the body, around the sockets, and on the ears. There is also a dark line along the spine. Claws and tail light. The spots on the rabbit butterfly can be different shades from black to cream.
Rabbit French sheep
The appearance of the rabbit breed ram people are obliged to spontaneous mutation, as a result of which the ears lost their usual upright position and sagged, making the animals look like sheep. A change in appearance was noted and fixed by selection. And today, lop-eared rabbits are popular not only as agricultural meat animals, but also as pets.
The ancestors of modern breeds of rabbits with drooping ears became English lop-eared. The first copies of the rabbits of the French sheep were shown in the middle of the nineteenth century in France. Unusual large animals first spread as a curiosity in their homeland, and then migrated to neighboring countries. A great influence on the breed was made by the selectionists of Germany, who as a result of a long selection received really productive fast-growing farm animals. The average weight of an adult male passes for five kilograms, while females are only slightly lighter.
In addition to the remarkable build and excellent fatness, lop-eared rabbits demonstrate high quality fur, and the color palette is wide enough, which only increases interest in the ram breed, and lop-eared rabbits can be seen in an increasing number of farms.
The only feature that should be known to owners of such unusual animals is the negative impact of mutations on the backbone of rabbits. The same gene that causes the ears to descend leads to coarsening and ossification of the cartilage tissue throughout the skeleton. As a result, females after one-year-olds often cannot produce offspring, in adult animals problems with joints are possible.
Angora rabbit
In addition to meat breeds of rabbits, animals with thick, long or short fur, bred for down or skins are popular. Angora rabbits belong to the down. The animals have a thick thin pile from 15 to 25 cm, and this record length is preserved almost throughout the body, therefore between the toes on the paws there are often long bunches of hair, and there are brushes on the large rabbit ears. Coloring rabbits may be different. Due to the abundance of honey, the animal appears to be large, in fact, the Angora rabbit rarely weighs more than 3.5 kg, to which it grows already in seven months of life.
The first information about an unusual breed reached the Europeans at the beginning of the eighteenth century. The birthplace of long-haired animals is Turkey, from where strange rabbits came first to the Old World, and then to America. If the Angora rabbits originally depicted in the photograph were a rare pet, today their down is widely used for the production of warm yarn, fabrics from it and ready-made clothes.
White Down Rabbit
Another down breed of rabbits was born in the USSR in the middle of the last century. Thanks to the interbreeding of the French Angora and local animals, the universal breed White Downy appeared. Rabbits of this breed are bred for meat and for obtaining soft silky fur.
Today, breeding continues, and at the disposal of the rabbit breeders animals have appeared not only of white color, but also blue, black, and smoky animals. The animals became more enduring, adapted to growing outdoors, and the weight increased to 4 kg. If earlier the long pile of the Angora rabbits was very capricious and easily fell down, losing quality, then in today's animals the fur is much more elastic and practically does not change its appearance in any conditions of detention.
Rex Rabbit
The old German breed of Rex rabbits is distinguished by extremely thick short fur, leaving the impression of plush or sheared high-quality sheepskin. In the USSR, the history of the breed began about a century ago. Rabbits Rex, despite the ban by the German authorities, were secretly taken out of the country, were grown and gave birth to offspring in the USSR.
Rabbits, famous for their soft, velvety fur, give excellent meat. An adult grows up to 4–5 kg. And with a fairly light thin bones, the output of low-fat dietary meat is significant.
The breed traits of Rex rabbits include a large elongated body, small rounded ears, short mustache, bent down. Today, there are many monochromatic and spotty colors, diversifying fur skins obtained from rabbits.
Rabbit Chinchilla Breed
The Chinchilla breed presented in the photo was named after a small animal with surprisingly soft fur of original coloring. As a result of breeding in domestic rabbits, it was possible to repeat the appearance of this fur, getting a dense silver-gray nap with a dark base, a light, almost white stripe in the middle of the hair or a black tip.
Breed of rabbits Soviet chinchilla, obtained in the USSR in the last century, inherited valuable fur from the ancestors of French blood, but became heavier, unpretentious and prolific.
Rabbit consistently brings up to 8 rabbits, while the adult animal weighs up to 5 kg. These are strong large animals with good health and fast weight gain.
Decorative rabbits
In recent years, decorative rabbits, differing from those that are bred for meat and fur, are becoming more popular, smaller in size, friendliness, and emphasized by their attractive appearance. That is why in many animals the sweet "childish" type of face and the body structure inherent in the little rabbit remain throughout life.
Domestic rabbits are conditionally divided according to coat length, size and color. Today, in urban apartments, one can meet both ordinary large animals, for example, a ram rabbit or a representative of the Angora breed, as well as miniature or dwarf animals.
From Belgium, dwarf rabbits came to our country, because of their peculiar manes they deserve the name of a lion-headed. An elongated soft nap is present on the neck, crown, chest, and cheeks, and sometimes on the hind legs, forming fluffy “pants.”The animals have a dense build, weight not exceeding 1.7 kg and perfectly suitable for keeping a character in a room.
Dwarf Rex rabbits differ from large counterparts only in size and weight. Miniature animals are covered with a short, softest fur, small curved mustache and weighing no more than one and a half kilograms. At home, decorative rabbits are easy to learn, intelligent and learnable. Dwarf Rex rabbits can both monophonic and variegated.
The unusual appearance of dwarf ram rabbits became the reason for their incredible popularity among pet lovers. The animals retain the original shape of the ears and firmly brought down the backbone, but it is much smaller than the usual representatives of the breed French sheep. Cute lop-eared rabbits have a calm character, do not exceed 30 cm in length and weigh about 1.5 kg. Newborn baby rabbits have upright ears, but they begin to change shape only after a couple of weeks. Among the colors of the dwarf rabbit: chinchilla, white with blue or red eyes, blue, spotted.
