Editing Rabbit housing
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Domesticated rabbits descend from European wild rabbits. European wild rabbits live in groups depending upon resources available. The more resources that are available, the less tightly they group, and actually prefer quite a bit of distance from the other rabbits. A literature review concluded that wild rabbits are either dominant or subordinate and the subordinate animals live in a constant state of stress and fear when in a group setting. Dominant animals require submission from subordinate daily, and if not performed, leads to violent fighting. | Domesticated rabbits descend from European wild rabbits. European wild rabbits live in groups depending upon resources available. The more resources that are available, the less tightly they group, and actually prefer quite a bit of distance from the other rabbits. A literature review concluded that wild rabbits are either dominant or subordinate and the subordinate animals live in a constant state of stress and fear when in a group setting. Dominant animals require submission from subordinate daily, and if not performed, leads to violent fighting. | ||
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"In contrast, all adult animals demonstrated aggressive behavior toward one another, with no difference in frequency of aggressive behavior patterns between males and females in a large fenced-in area.36" | "In contrast, all adult animals demonstrated aggressive behavior toward one another, with no difference in frequency of aggressive behavior patterns between males and females in a large fenced-in area.36" | ||
*~Stephanie Hughes- quoting "The Social Nature of European Rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus)" | *~Stephanie Hughes- quoting "The Social Nature of European Rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus)" | ||
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reference behaviors | |||
The preference of growing rabbits for different housing systems has also been studied. A big problem for growing rabbits, particularly at the practical farm level, is the quantity and quality of available space and the possibility for rabbits to show “normal” locomotory behaviour (Stauffacher,1992) and development (Drescher, 1992). According to Lehman (1991) in the rabbits reared two per cage, the ability to perform hopping as well as bone integrity were impaired. Bessei and Rivaletti (1997) used operant conditioning (pressing a bar) to verify the preferences and motivation of weaned rabbits to gain feed and to choose the amount of available space: from 545 to 3150 cm (214.5 sqin to 1240.157sqin) | |||
2 | |||
. The animals learned quickly to open a feeder through bar pressing, although they found it easier in a reduced space than in a larger one. Thus the rabbits worked actively to reduce the floor space. However the frequency of bar pressing to reduce floor space was lower than that to increase the floor space. The author concludes that the preferred space may be somewhere in between the two extremes of the test situations. | |||
[https://www.academia.edu/27578695/New_perspectives_in_rearing_systems_for_rabbit_does?email_work_card=title pg 92, | |||
RECENT ADVANCES IN RABBIT SCIENCES] | |||
2.6. Behaviour of growing rabbits Marina VERGA , Fabio LUZI , Zsolt SZENDRÖ | |||
Istituto di Zootecnica, Facoltà di Medicina Veterinaria, Via Celoria 1020133 Milano, Italy | |||
University of Kaposvár, Faculty of Animal Science, Guba Sándor Str. 407400 Kaposvár, Hungary | |||
Matics | |||
et al. | |||
(2004) recorded the choices of different groups of rabbits with different group sizes(18 to 30 and 8 to 24) and space allowance (12 to 20rabbits/m sq | |||
and 5.3 to 16 rabbits/m sq | |||
) from weaning(at three weeks) until ten weeks of age. They used a free choice design with cages of different sizes (500x 300 - 600 - 900 - 1200 mm) with swing doors between them. <b> Rabbits preferred one of the smallest cages, with a space allowance of 60 - 70 rabbits/m sq and only a few of them chose the largest cage.</b> After5 - 6 weeks of age they began to spread into all of the cages, however the smallest cages received a significantly higher preference until the end of the study period. <b> Princz et al. (2005) observed the preference of young growing rabbits housed in cage-blocks of 2msq divided into 4 cages varying in heights of 20, 30,40 cm and an open-top.</b> Fewest rabbits (less than 17%) were observed in the open top, and rabbits chose the higher cages when they were active and the lower ones when they were resting, regardless of the space allowance (16 or 12 rabbits/m²). | |||
note: my cages are smallest for New Zealand 576 sq in, and our larger doe and litter are 864sqin, and 900 sqin. |