Effect of Weaning and Slaughter Ages upon Rabbit Meat Production. I. Body Weight, Feed Efficiency and Mortality1

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Abstract
Two-hundred-seventy young New Zealand White rabbits were used in 32 factorial arrangement of treatments to study the influence of weaning at 4, 6 and 8 weeks and of slaughtering at 8, 12 and 16 weeks of age on rabbit production. Average live weights (grams) of rabbits ranged from 1,388 to 2,117 at 8 weeks, 2,129 to 2,825 at 12 weeks and 2,634 to 3,284 at 16 weeks of age. As expected, slaughter age influenced (P<.05) the live weight, whereas, weaning age showed no effect. Feed efficiency (feed/gain) ranged from 2.29 to 3.72 for various weaning and slaughter age group combinations. Slaughter age significantly influenced feed efficiency while weaning age had no effect. The average feed efficiency of rabbits weaned at different ages but slaughtered at 8 weeks was 2.34. Values for feeding economics (live rabbit price/feed price) ranged from 1.41 to 2.25 and treatment effect was the same as on feed efficiency. Mortality (%) was 17.8, 23.8 and 20.7 at 4, 6 and 8 weeks of weaning age, respectively. Mortality rate declined with increasing age and was mostly due to diarrhea and respiratory ailments. Since early weaning can return the doe for mating for accelerated breeding, it seems that weaning at 4 weeks and slaughtering at 8 weeks is most economical for rabbit production. Copyright © 1978. American Society of Animal Science . Copyright 1978 by American Society of Animal Science.