A survey was conducted in Nigeria to ascertain the purpose, trend, man
agement and productivity of backyard rabbits. Fifty households were ra
ndomly selected and interviewed. The average number of rabbits per hou
sehold was 10.6+/-3.84. Rabbits were mainly of New Zealand White, Chin
chilla, Dutch and Simonaire. Majority of owners kept for both meat and
sales (16.2+/-10.06) purpose. Very fea rabbits were found in househol
ds for sales only (2.5+/-0.29) and for meat due to its medicinal value
(2.5+/-0.33). Backyard rabbit production in Zaria started gaining pop
ularity from about 12 years ago: and majority of the households (25) c
urrently on the business are not in it for more than 3 years. Cage, op
en house with concrete floor, and underground, management systems were
predominantly practiced. The underground system was the most producti
ve in terms of maximum litter size (11.3+/-1.28), low mortality of bot
h kittens (4.2%) and adults (2.6%), lower disease incidence (45.5%) an
d less lobour input. Age and litter size at first kindling was 5.1+/-1
.71 months and 3.9+/-1.79, respectively. Litter size increased with in
creasing parity and reached maximum (8.3+/-2.17) mostly around fourth
and fifth parities. Kindling frequency was 9.1+/-3.04/year. Generally,
mortality was higher for kittens (23.2%) than for adults (13.2%). Can
ker (64%) was the most common disease.