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.

Goat-Sheep Become the New Idol

Beyond the controversial topic of goat–sheep export to Malaysia due to its indigenous species, Malaysia market is still open widely for Indonesia. For the last few years, Indonesia has succeeded in entering Malaysia market. Directorate General of Livestock noted that the quantity of Indonesia's goat-sheep exported to Malaysia has been increasing. From 400 goat-sheep exported to Malaysia in 2004, the following years achieving 1.225, then increased to 6.020 in 2006. In 2007, Indonesia was able to export 31.535 goat-sheep to Malaysia. The opportunity of export market not only comes from Malaysia, but also comes from Saudi Arabia and Brunei Darussalam. The Director of Ruminant Livestock-Directorate General Livestock, Fauzi Luthan said, “Arab always orders at least 2,5 million goat-sheep from outside of the country.” Unfortunately, Indonesian could not able to fulfill the demand. “Even in a small number, our goat-sheep has never succeeded in entering Saudi Arabia,” said Secretary General of Indonesia Goat-Sheep Breeders Association, Abdul Jabbar Zulkifli. In the local market, the consumption of goat-sheep showed an increasing trend, even though the total meat consumption has decreased. Statistical data from Directorate General Livestock (DGLS) in 2007 noted that the meat consumption per capita per year of Indonesian people in 2006 has decreased from 5, 18 kg in 2005 to 4, 13 kg.
DGLS also noted that in 2006, the consumption of goat-sheep meat has contributed 41,93% (0,26 kg) of the ruminant meat consumption, whereas it is only 15,01% contribution to the total meat consumption (0.62 kg).