BACKYARD RABBIT PRODUCTION IN ZARIA

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.