As a plant enthusiast, I have always said I don’t have a gift for animal husbandry; and the few times I tried rearing animals when I was younger, it didn’t go so well. So, for about 20 years, I have stuck to plant cultivation, and I seem to have a magic finger for those.
My children however like cuddly things, and recently we visited an extended family where they rear rabbits. The children did what kids do, and we ended up with a baby rabbit a week or two later; barely having enough time to build a cage.
All I asked for was a cage with two rooms, because another bunny was promised to the second child in another week or two. My carpenter however ended up constructing a coop big enough to house a few chickens (which ended up being fabulous later).
From the very beginning, I gave my fair warning: I would help set things up, but I would not be a part of the cleaning or rearing; as i believed I did not have the magic finger for it. The children agreed to be the ones to nurture it, and one of their uncle-figures agreed to handle the cleaning.
The same night we got the bunny home, it disappeared. Till this day, we have no explanation for the disappearance but the most feasible one would be that our dog ate it. We made the mistake of simply latching it, but without a padlock.
The children were so devastated, went to school with a foul mood and failed to concentrate. When I picked them up, they had only one question: “did you find the bunny?”. There were tears when I gave them a negative response; apparently they had bragged to their friends about their new pet; but a mistake had been made, their most favorite thing ever was gone, the new cage was now useless etc.
And so, what was supposed to just be a simple short lived experience with a cute pet (hoping they would outgrow the cuddly need and we would move on), turned into 4 adults scrambling to get a replacement rabbit to cheer the children up, and eventually deciding to buy a male and a female, to compensate for only one going missing etc.
The children were elated the day they returned from school and saw these two furry things. It was an exciting experience, even for me. But kids would be kids; my daughter showed so much disappointment at not having a baby rabbit and the attitude became quite annoying that we had to reset her brain the African way (no beating involved). I threatened to give the rabbits out (since she gave an attitude of not wanting it), her brother cried some, she felt bad; and by evening, the only question they bugged me with was “mummy can we please bring the rabbits out to play?”
The following day, we tried to mate the rabbits, as advised by the seller, but the female was so ferocious that I had to request for her to be returned to her cage. I briefly wondered if she acted that way because she had already mated; i asked but got a negative response, so I suggested we allow her rest for a few more days.
We returned from Church 4 days later, asked the children to go feed the rabbits, and my son ran over screaming, “we have babies”.
I was not ready for this at all! And I lowkey hoped he was just confused.
He was not confused.
There were 4 hairless, tiny, very red baby bunnies rolling helplessly upside down.
I was a novice who had absolutely no idea how to care for these babies; I barely scaled through the animal husbandry compulsory courses in school…my belief of not being blessed with the grace to rear them go that much way back!
But maternal instinct kicked in, along with the little knowledge I managed to retain from Agric school.
First, I got a carton, lined it with a soft cloth and grabbed the babies with another fabric (taking care to not touch them directly). One of them was a runt.
Then I returned the babies to their mom, for nature to do its thing. It was a rainy period, so I also put down a tarp. The doe had removed some of her fur, but being a first time mom, it was just a small pull, and it was already entangled with grass and some dirt that came from the birth, so I cleaned all that out, hoping the fabric would suffice.
I also noticed that she had passed some whitish stuff that smelled like moimoi. The cage was a very good one with rabbit mesh underneath, so all the waste and every liquid she expelled didn’t stay in the cage. I cleaned as much of that out as possible, so as not to attract predators (she kept expelling for almost 48 hours).
From my experience with dog birth, I know she would have licked it all up anyway. Natural maternal instincts tell animals to keep the cage and the litter clean.
The doe did not go near the litter while we were there, but i trusted that she would do the right thing and nurture them well. She did. The children caught glimpses of her feeding them, and they would scream and analyze excitedly; buy i never got to see that.
We kept the mom well fed and with lots of water. We discovered rabbits like ewuro (bitter leaf), and since it is medicinal, we introduced it to the mom, hoping it would help her heal.
A week later, the rabbits had such big bellies but mostly still laid on their side, rolling blindly (their eyes hadn’t opened)
A day or two later, the runt unfortunately died, but from what I know in agriculture, you can not always rule out mortality, moreso with me being new to this.
We, however, later realized the carton i used was too tall, and the doe had been trying to gnaw at it with her teeth (very sharp teeth by the way…she cuts through small iron rods).
So we disposed the rabbit that was no more, changed the carton to a fairly bigger one, and cut it in half so the mom could have better access to her kit. It worked.
By now, they had a faint layer of hair, but mostly veins and very reddish skin, with pot bellies.
A few more days went by (about 2 weeks total), and their eyes opened up, and they had a beautiful fur. We randomly brought them out of the carton to see how they would fare in the main cage, and it was a good move. Initially, they huddled together in one spot close to the back, but they moved around a bit before we returned them to the carton.
By the following day, they stayed longer outside the carton and even played with the children. That same day, they started hopping out of the carton by themselves.
Less than a week later, they had full fur, long ears and looked like they were at least 5 weeks old. They were very fast and active. They also could play outside the cage, and the doe looked like she was thankful for the break.
At this stage also, they started nibbling at their mom’s feed but not so much. They survived mostly on milk.
By week 3, they were very active and alert. They did look independent, like they were ready to be weaned but I decided to let them stay longer with their mom, even though at this stage, we already made an extra cage, ready to separate them at any time.
What started as a fancy pet for the children now seem to have become a potential profitable business or, at the very least, regular source of protein in our pots of soup.
Around week 3, my son left the cages unhooked, and all four rabbits hatched a failed ‘prison break’. And though we were lucky to get them all back, it was a heck of a run around the compound, hunting these fast and furious rabbits down. They outwitted and outsmarted us with ease, especially because there were two cars parked side by side, which the male bunny smartly quickly figured we couldn’t readily access. We eventually caught all four and gave a strict warning to double check locks moving forward.
Accidental knowledge
After safely returning all the rabbits, we realized the doe was quite restless, scurrying away from her kits. We randomly thought to introduce her to the male, and before we could rethink that choice, she laid calmly for a mating session, which initially failed. But after giving them some privacy for about an hour, there was a fierce fight in the cage, similar to how the doe behaved when we first attempted a mate, which led me to assume the mating process was successful. And even if it wasn’t, at this stage, I questioned the decision to mate her so early, and so we returned her to her kits.
Later reading up on this, however, I realized it is safe to introduce her for mating from the 3rd week after delivery; though for her optimal strength, 5 weeks post delivery is the best plan. Even at 5 weeks, and a gestation period of 31-33 days; also considering the ease of rearing and minimal smell, this is a potentially highly profitable business.
ESTIMATE COSTING
Averagely you would get a full wired 12 rabbit cage for N150,000 (figure as at 2026). The one we made cost about N50,000 which is not cost effective but the large space would probably make birthing process more comfortable for the doe; so, as things progress, the plan is to use this big one for the birthing pool and ultimately a normal full battery cage for rearing.
Feed is about N1,200 per kg and should feed a grown rabbit for about 3-4 days.
Rabbit feeder is N1,000 each. You may improvise for starters , but they are restless and as such, upturn bowls easily. To mitigate this, we put stones in their water bowls. The feed bowls will be changed to the mud rabbit feeder as well.
The only medication we ever had to use was antibiotics @ N1,200 per satchet and dewormer, which is about N100 a tablet
Small padlocks @ N2500 a pair
I do hope someone finds this post helpful, and gets the push/ confidence needed to try rabbit farming.
And if you need more help, click this Link to chat on WhatsApp.
Ugwu seeds come between 2cm and 4cm in size.
damaged 25ltr keg cut in half, showing ugwu sprouts
Disposable cups, showing ugwu sprouts
Raised Wooden nurseryWhatever the method you choose to use, get some saw dust, mix with some sand and fill your container of choice. Water it lightly, and it’s ready to accomodate your seeds.
Your seed should have two blunt sides and one pointed end.
These (as seen in the pictures above) are the first stages of growth but it is usually not seen because its immersed in the soil.
Splitting occurs about 8-10 days after planting (depending on virility).Once splitting occurs, a tender leaf (or two) will find it’s way out of the seed.
About a week or two after germination (if well cared for), the seedling should become long, have ‘hairs’ and start to show signs that it’s too grown for cups.
Stakes/ sheds are essential for ugwu plants, whether cultivating it for leaves or for the fruit.
I do use spent satchet (pure water nylon) but I find it pretty uncomfortable because roots don’t tend to do well especially if the seedling will stay long in it. Also because it loiters the environment after use.
Asides the root of this plant being damaged by water, an animal nibbled the stem pretty bad.
This is one badly damaged seed. It was immersed and forgotten and by the time I realized, it had started to rot. Luckily it still had some green patch, which when exposed to the sun brought it back to life.
This particular plant was nibbled off completely by an unidentified animal. Twice. A fresh sprout emerged about 2 weeks of nurturing.
This batch got water logged. Some were already soggy, looking like the end of their lives. First thing I did was to reverse the problem (re-pot in a cup of dry sand/ sawdust) and totally remove from the sun.
This was also snapped off by an animal. You can spot the tiny new sprout about to emerge from within.
And then about 48 hours later, the color started to change. I realized that ugwu seeds create a protective layer, kind of like a cocoon when faced with adverse environment. This guards the inside of the split seed (which is where a fresh growth will emerge, as long as the seed is still viable, even if the previous one got damaged)
Removing the film exposed a fresh growth.
The last 2 pictures are of a seedling which I thought would not recover from its damage because it wasn’t just nibbled from the top, the animal chewed all the way in.
