Description of breed: Viennese blue rabbit

Breeding rabbits is a profitable occupation not only for large farming farms, but also in conditions of household maintenance. The Vienna blue rabbit has excellent economic indicators. It refers to meat-skins direction. His breeding and cultivation is justified both for the production of skins and for the production of meat.

History

The Vienna blue rabbit (photo in the text) was bred in the nineteenth century, or rather in 1895, in Austria, in the estate of Vienna. Breeder and great lover of rabbits Johann Konstantin Schulz set himself the task of obtaining a breed of rabbits with a lot of meat and quality fur.

Reproductive crossing of two breeds - Moravian rabbits (the oldest Czech breed) of pure blue color with rabbits of large breed Flanders, the second name - the Belgian giant, gave its results. Careful selection of animals only with a blue-gray hair color, strong constitution, with a live weight of at least 4 kg allowed to bring out a new population, which received a new name - rabbits of the Viennese blue breed.

Description of animals

Breeders did not stop on the achieved results, constantly improving the breed. To date, the Viennese blue rabbit looks like this:

• Constitution - strong;
• Physique - harmonious;
• The head is light;
• Eyes - dark blue;
• Ears - straight set, medium length up to 16 cm, wide and straight;
• Torso - dense, compact;
• Back - elongated, wide;
• The chest is deep and wide enough;
• Croup - rounded and broad, same and lumbosacral department;
• Legs - straight, muscular and strong;
• Claws - bluish shade;
• Color - blue - blue.
  

Economic Characteristics

Any breed of pets will improve over time. These changes and breeds were touched by the Viennese blue rabbit. Characteristics of the modern livestock:

• Live weight of up to 5.5 kg, there are often specimens weighing 7 kg;
• Yield of meat - up to 60%;
• The index of confusion - an average of 61%;
• Length of the body reaches 60 cm;
• Chest girth - on the average 38 cm;
• Litter - 6-9 rabbits with an average weight of 72 grams;
• Quality of the skin - large enough, fluffy and soft;
• Maternal instinct - well expressed, females, as a rule, are characterized by high milkiness;
• Payment of feed - at the age of four months per 1 kg of gain is required up to 4 feed units;
• Life expectancy is about 5-7 years (individual individuals can live up to 12 years).

Initially, Soviet breeders were given the task of increasing the live weight of animals, improving the quality of fur and raising rabbits with good adaptability to different climatic conditions and a diverse food base. The latter quality, taking into account the size of the former USSR, was very relevant.

Quality of fur

The color of the hair is always uniform, very even in a blue-gray color. Variants in shades are possible - slightly darker or slightly lighter. Dark colors of skins are more appreciated. They are used both in kind and for a reliable imitation of the skins of valuable commercial fur animals.

The Vienna blue rabbit is distinguished by the quality of fur. On 1 cm ² there are more than 21 thousand hairs. Another indicator of the quality of fur: for one coat of hair there are more than 60 downy hair, better only for rabbits of the Russian ermine. The coat is even and thick. The underarm and the hair have a uniform color, to the base more light. Downy hairs are much lighter than the hairs.

Skins are distinguished by a uniform original color, have a glossy luster. On them there is no zoning, brown shade, black or gray hair.

Benefits

The blue rabbit of Vienna is profitable in breeding for a number of reasons:

• Hardy to unfavorable conditions;
• Easily acclimatized;
• You can get early winter litters;
• The safety of rabbits reaches 100%;
• Rabbit quickly grow and have the following indicators:

- at birth -70-72 grams;

- in one month - 600-650 grams;

- in two months - 1700-1800 grams;

- in three months - 2500 -2600 grams;

- in four months - 3000-3200 grams or 70% of the live weight of an adult;

- adults - up to 5000 grams;

• Calm and sociable;
• Early maturing;
• High slaughter yield;
• Good payback of feed;
• High quality of the skin;
• Well kept in sheds (in the open air) and in rabbitries.

Using

Skin of excellent quality and high yield of meat gives double profit from the slaughter of rabbits. You can even raise bunnies in the country. A short period of gestation for rabbits, only one month allows you to get from one female for 4-6 litters to 35 rabbits - it's almost 70 kg of excellent dietary meat.

The slaughter begins 70 days after the birth of the rabbits, when the weight of the carcass reaches one and a half kilograms. As practice shows, consumers prefer carcasses with a weight of approximately 2.5 kg, so it makes no sense to fatten young animals to a weight of 4.5-5 kg.

Dietary meat is always in high demand. It is with pleasure acquired by elderly people, and for the children's organism is useful. This is an excellent alternative to poultry meat, there will be no problems with the sale of meat.

The excellent quality of hides is additional profit to the household. There are craftsmen who make their own skins, sew and sell their products. If there is no possibility to make the skin yourself, it can always be delivered to procuring enterprises for further industrial processing.

I want to note the excellent acclimatization of animals to a variety of conditions. Crawl is easily adapted not only to the climate, but also to the local fodder base, which removes the problem with feed.

In many farms breed the Vienna blue rabbit. Reviews rabbit breeders confirm the excellent economic performance of animals. They are ideal for commercial rabbit breeding. Krolley of this breed is often taken just for the creation and development of business.