Breeding skills of Rabbit selection

The selection of rabbits is to select excellent male and female rabbits with good growth and development, high production performance and genetic stability in the process of rabbit breeding, so as to eliminate the male and female rabbits that do not meet the requirements of breeding, so as to make the excellent characters of the whole rabbit herd. According to the requirements of breeding, it will be inherited and consolidated in the direction needed by human beings. There are many methods for seed selection, but no matter which method it is, it should be selected by combining various factors.

Family selection method

Family selection mainly includes sibling, half-sib, progeny determination and pedigree identification. Sibling and half-sib assays are widely used in rabbit breeding. Because the number of years that can be used by rabbits is very short, it is necessary to wait a long time for progeny determination after giving birth. By using sibling and half-sib determination, the results can be obtained in a short time and the breeding work can be accelerated. Sibling and half-sib testing is often used to determine traits with low heritability, such as fecundity, ability to secrete milk, survival rate and so on. when determining, more siblings and half-sibs are needed for those traits with low heritability.

1. Progeny determination: the identification of the quality of offspring can be used to identify the breeding value of male and female rabbits. The body weight gain, health status, meat production performance and wool production performance of male and female rabbits at the age of 1 month and 4 months were identified.

2. Pedigree identification: pedigree identification is mostly used for the selection of young rabbits.

Individual selection method

The selection was made according to the performance of the rabbit itself, that is, physical features and production performance. This method is very simple and especially suitable for the selection with high heritability, because the traits with high heritability vary significantly among individuals in the rabbit population. Individual selection should have different requirements for rabbits with different uses. In addition to fecundity, meat rabbits are mainly evaluated for their size. The slaughtering rate is 53%, and the ratio of feed reward to meat is 3. 5 ∶ 1 is the best. Skin rabbit, mainly depends on the fur quality, body size, requires the chest circumference, hip circumference is the best. The wool rabbit mainly depends on its wool yield and rabbit hair quality. The dual-use rabbit mainly depends on the special body shape of both meat and leather, that is, it is necessary to evaluate the size, growth rate, rabbit meat quality, meat production performance and fur quality. From this point of view, individual selection is the choice of physical characteristics and production performance of breeding rabbits.

Comprehensive identification method

The comprehensive identification method was used to identify the individual quality, pedigree selection and progeny selection of breeding rabbits. You can choose in stages:

1. To choose breeding rabbits, we must choose from the offspring of excellent female rabbits.

2. Choose from the offspring of the fifth nest. Pedigree identification should be given priority to, combined with the growth and development uniformity of siblings in the same nest. It is usually carried out when the child rabbit leaves breastfeeding.

3. For meat rabbits, it was carried out at the age of 3 months. For wool rabbits, it was carried out during the first shearing, and the weight during shearing was emphasized from 50 days old to 65 days old.

4. At the age of 5 months, for meat rabbits, check the growth and development again, and for hair, in addition to eliminating the inspection of growth and development, focus on the body weight and the amount of shearing during the second shearing.

From 6 months to 7 months old, the growth and development of rabbits were mature, and the medium-sized breeds had participated in reproduction, which mainly depended on their pregnancy rate, mating ability, fecundity rate and survival rate of offspring. For the wool rabbit, the third shearing amount can be multiplied by 4 to predict the annual wool yield of the rabbit.

Observation and screening method

When selecting a breeding rabbit, you must be meticulous and patient, and carefully observe the external morphological characteristics of the rabbit, such as physique, figure, eye color, coat color, whether there is a flesh beard, ear shape, feeding characteristics, walking characteristics, and so on. Those who do not meet the standards of appearance characteristics must not be selected for breeding, and those with various deformities or physiological defects, whether congenital or acquired, cannot be selected for breeding.

1. Drooping ear: drooping ear means that the rabbit ear is drooping, which is an inherent characteristic of some breeds, such as British drooping rabbit, French drooping rabbit, Dutch drooping rabbit. However, for most breeds, both ears of rabbits should be upright, and one or two ears droop due to genetic or acquired reasons, which belongs to physiological defects and is not suitable for breeding. If it is caused by the acquired, such as catching only two ears when catching a rabbit, and destroying the ear cartilage due to too much weight, it is best not to choose it as a seed.

2. Excessively long incisors: overlong incisors are also called mandibular process deformities. Some rabbits' lower incisors are long and protruding upward oblique, like inverted ivory, while the upper incisors grow to the mouth and become long and curved, just like sheep horns, seriously affecting rabbit feeding. In particular, it is more difficult to feed on long grass, and it is also easy to pierce the upper jaw and gingiva, causing inflammation and seriously affecting the growth and development of rabbits.

3. Rump: rump refers to the buttocks of rabbits. The buttocks of some rabbits are too oblique, although the meat production performance of such rabbits is not necessarily poor, but breeding is very inconvenient, and the appearance is not beautiful, it is not suitable to be reserved for breeding.

4. Figure-eight legs: also known as water-skiing legs. Two legs extend forward oblique, showing a figure of eight, making it difficult for the rabbit to walk. The figure-shaped legs are congenital, and some are gradually formed. It's congenital and heritable. Acquired is due to nutritional imbalance, the proportion of calcium and phosphorus is not appropriate; improper management, such as living in the too smooth bottom net since childhood, the body center of gravity shift, resulting in leg bone deformities and so on. Whether it is congenital or acquired, it must be removed and cannot be selected for seed use.

5. Reproductive diseases: rabbits with single testes, cryptorchidism or microtesticular deformities, difficult to distinguish between male and female, and too few nipples should not be selected for breeding.