RABBITS IN INDONESIA

A university teacher in Malang (Indonesia) started to keep rabbits that he purchased from the market. They carried diseases (mainly internal and external parasites) but, after treating them for a few months, the teacher managed to bring the animals back to health and, by keeping them in cages with wire floors or on bamboo slats, he and his wife were able to start a breeding nucleus with clean animals. The family then started to make a small side income by curing other people's animals (using medicines against parasites) and for some time rabbit keeping became popular, also because other groups started this type of business

Straw, dry leaves and even newspapers can be used to absorb the urine and must be changed when they become wet. Animals must be provided with water and fresh grass, leaves or kitchen wastes every day, and care should be taken not to throw the feed on to the litter - more than 15 percent is spoiled in this way. A small rack is sufficient to avoid feed spoilage and to improve hygiene. Disease incidence and mortality are very low but, at the first suspicion of sickness, as with rabbits, the animals must be slaughtered and can be eaten if they are large enough. Raising rabbits, particularly in towns, can be difficult because of lack of space, insufficient feed availability, insufficient resources for buying or constructing cages and nests and the complexity of managing the animals' reproduction efficiently. In these respects, guinea pigs may be a suitable alternative because they are smaller and easier to keep.