'Dowry event wooed me to rabbit business'

Three years ago, Kennedy Anzanzwa accompanied his brother to Meru County to pay dowry for his wife.

Mr Anzanzwa was gobsmacked when the meals were served and he could not spot gizzards in the chicken stew.

After the feast, he called his sister-in-law aside and inquired why gizzards were missing yet it’s taboo in the Luhya community to serve your husband-to-be and his people chicken stew without the delicacy.

“She told me they prepared rabbit for us. I later discovered that one of the brothers was a prolific rabbit farmer and had 800 bunnies,” says Mr Anzanzwa.

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He was gifted three young rabbits and advice on how to replicate the idea back home in Khwisero in Kakamega County. The rest is history.

Slowly, he increased the numbers and now has 72 rabbits of different breeds namely Flemish giant, Chinchilla, California White, American Chinchilla, English Angora, French Earlope and New Zealand white.

When the animals matured, initially, he had no market since neighbours thought he was keeping them for leisure.

Anzanzwa resorted to online marketing and used social media platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp and slowly orders started trickling in from as far as Mombasa and Nairobi.

Along the way, he was happy to learn that rabbits breed fast and that means more animals for sale within a short period.

“California White is good for meat and fur. It starts to give birth when it is four months old and weights between 4-5 kilos. In a year, it gives birth at least six times between 4-5 kits (baby rabbit),” says Anzanzwa.

The New Zealand White, he says, is good for breeding since it gives birth over eight times per year between 8 – 10 kits.

Chinchilla rabbits that originated from France are reared for meat and fur and give birth eight times a year between 8-10 kits. On the other hand, the American Chinchilla gives birth eight times to more than 60 kits and is also good for meat.

“The English Angora rabbits is bred for the long fibers of its coat, known as Angora wool gathered through shearing, combing and plucking. It gives birth to 10 times a year to over 100 kits. It’s profitable if you get it right,” says Anzanzwa.

He sells a young rabbit at Sh850 and Sh1,500 for a two-month old rabbit.

When he slaughters them, he sells a kilo of meat at Sh450 and when fried, it costs Sh750. For the last two years, he claims to have sold more than 1,000 rabbits and slaughtered at least 47  in December.

He also collects the urine and uses it as pesticide on his maize farm.

“For top dressing, I take cow dung and the rabbit droppings and put them in a sack and mix them with Mexico sunflower (Amatwele/Amaua Amalulu) and immerse it in a mixture of urine and water mixed to the ratio of 1:2 a litre for 21 days,” says Anzanzwa.

He sells a 20 litre jerrican of rabbit urine at Sh500 and droppings at Sh650 per 50-kilo sack. Every day, he collects 50 litres of urine and three sacks of rabbit droppings. For maximum returns, he houses his rabbits in well ventilated structure.

“A rabbit house should have a maternity wing, labour ward, service area (mating area), urinal pit and a place where droppings are collected. I make sure the structures are clean and dry to keep diseases at bay,” he says.

Having kept the rabbits for a while, he has studied their behavioural habits that affect breeding.

Peculiar creatures

“When a male and female rabbit stays together, the female will not conceive because there will be no mating. They consider themselves brother and a sister and that is why we have a service area. The male and the female rabbits also stay separately and only come to contact when you want them to mate,” he explains.

He says one male rabbit can serve up to eight rabbits a day.

Rabbits are particularly sensitive to smells and for that reason, when cleaning the rabbit house, the kits must not be touched if your hand smells of perfume. If that happens, the mother will reject them and they may die.

If you must touch the young rabbits, the best way to go about it is to first touch the mother so that when you touch the kits, it’s mama’s smell that dominates the air.

The animals should also be handled with care after birth.

“In case two rabbits give birth at the same time and one of them dies, separate the mother from her kits for three hours and then mix them. That time, the rabbit will want to empty the excess milk and will feed all of them. But when you mix them immediately after birth, she will kill all of them,” says Anzanzwa.

To avoid inbreeding, a framer should keep records to avoid matting rabbits from the same lineage. He feeds his rabbits on rabbit pellets, black jack, Sukuma wiki, cabbages, carrots, ripe bananas, spinach and plenty of water.

He has a word of caution.

“Don’t feed your rabbits on tomato, arrow root, Irish potatoes and cassava leaves. They are poisonous. A rabbit can die in less than 10 minutes after eating them,” Anzanzwa adds.

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