191 1.] Rabbit Breeding for Small Holders. 985 



born, for the more milk and the richer milk the doe gives 

 her litter, the larger will the youngsters be when they are 

 turned out of the nest about 16 or 20 days later. At this 

 period they will start eating when the doe's food is placed in 

 the pen. Nothing should therefore be given that is in any 

 way likely to affect them adversely, such as damp greenstuff, 

 whole grain, &c, but the actual fattening foods may be 

 practically the same from this time till the day when the 

 rabbits are fit to kill. 



The following are among the most useful foods : — 

 Sharps or coarse middlings, long bran or pollard, ground 

 oats or barley meal, and chaffed clover hay and long meadow 

 hay. The mash should be a crumbly mass and not wet or 

 sloppy. A good suggestive dietary for fattening stock would 

 be as follows : — * 



Morning. — Chaffed clover hay, mixed with warm boiled 

 potato parings, and a few handfuls of sharps or pollard. 



Mid-day. — Sliced or pulped roots (swedes, mangolds, &c), 

 with chaffed hay or meal. 



Evening. — A mixture of pollard or long bran with Sussex 

 ground oats, and a small allowance of oil cake added. 



Well-dried greenstuff may be added, so long as care is 

 taken to exclude wet and frosted or decayed leaves, &c. 

 Cabbage leaves of all sorts, together with the thinnings and 

 outside leaves of all garden produce may be used, and in 

 season the many forms of wild green weeds, such as dande- 

 lions, plantains, hogweed, chickweed, dock, and so on. 

 Mashes may always be served warm, but not too hot, and 

 rabbits should always have fresh water to drink. 



Marketing. — The time taken to fit a rabbit for the market 

 cannot be definitely stated, as even in a litter of five rabbits, 

 two or three nearly always do better than the others, and 

 are up to the required weight at, perhaps, 10 or 12 weeks, 

 while the others will go 14 or 15 weeks before being up to 

 standard. With regard to weight, the small holder should 

 study local conditions. It is safe to assert that carcasses 

 weighing 8 lb., such as are sometimes found in the 

 Ostend consignments, are practically unsaleable. The 

 writer has found from his own experience that a rabbit 

 weighing alive from 4 to 5 lb. is the most satisfactory size. 



4 A . 



