23 Jan 2019

What started as a gesture of love has turned into a money spinner for Mr Tshwarelo Senthufhe.

 He founded a company dubbed Keith Rabbit Empire founded in 2014 after he bought two rabbits for his son to keep as pets.

After the rabbits bred, some people showed interest to buy them, hence starting a business entity that he named after his son.

His 250 rabbits included Chinchilla, New Zealand Black, New Zealand White and New Zealand Red and Dutch as well as other cross breeds.

In addition, he said the breeds differed in body structure, quantity of meat and fat citing all New Zealands breeds were kept for meat. Other breeds were kept for their fur or as pets.

The graduate of Oxbridge Academy in South Africa said rabbits were sold at six weeks hence production costs being relatively lower.

The slaughter weight, he said, should be 2.2kg at around four months.

The rabbits breed should be six weeks and producing between two and 12 kits.

Rabbits could be bred immediately after giving birth and their gestation period was 28-38 days.

The farmer said the ovulation of rabbits was induced by the males hence the heat cycle not being controllable.

Therefore, the management included separating the males and females so that they would not breed continuously.

“At least let them mate after two weeks if you want to do more production,” Mr Senthufhe said.

He advised farmers to ensure that the female regained its weight and be able to use its fur to cover the young ones, so if it mated every month, the fur will not have grown.

The other disadvantage of continuous breeding was that it could affect the health of the rabbits and drastically lead to reduction in the number of off springs..

Mr Senthufhe said he sold rabbit meat either raw or cooked and usually explained to his clients why they needed to include the meat on their diet.

He said people might understand the benefits of rabbit meat but would find it difficult to prepare it, hence taking the responsibility to cook for some for clients.

He advertised the dishes on Facebook as well as delivering around Gaborone.

“Rabbit meat falls under category of white meat and it is not vaccinated hence organic. It is also the cleanest meat since rabbits fed on grass and pellets made of grass” he said.

Mr Senthufhe is one of the founding members of Botswana Rabbits Farmers Association registered in 2015.

Its mission, he said, was to familiarise Batswana with the rabbit meat, attract aspiring farmers by explaining to them the importance of rearing rabbits.

Moreover, he said the feeds were expensive, so members would  collectively voice challenges to influence the market price.

Mr Senthufhe said at one point they took their meat to National Food Technology Research Centre where it met the required nutritional standards.

As part of the benchmarking mission, the association also went to Coniglio Rabbit Meat Farm at Klerksdorp which is the biggest rabbit farm in South Africa.

He said they relied on exhibition for exchanging of ideas. ENDS