Havana Rabbit

1 Havana Rabbit Breed Overview

Havana Rabbit (details)

The Havana Rabbit is a common fur rabbit breed—called a fur rabbit because its pelt is exceptionally beautiful, so many keep it for pelts. Nowadays more people love this pretty creature and keep it as a pet.

Chinese name: Havana Rabbit

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Lagomorpha

Family: Leporidae

Genus: Oryctolagus

Species: Havana Rabbit

Distribution: Originates from the Netherlands

Adult weight: About 3 kg

Reproduction: Viviparous

2 Havana Rabbit Physical Characteristics

Havana Rabbit (details)

The Havana Rabbit is a typical human-bred variety with two coat colors—chocolate and a blue variant. Through continuous breeding it has become a fine fur rabbit, and many prefer it as a pet.

I. Appearance of the Havana Rabbit

The Havana Rabbit originates from the Netherlands; its coat resembles a Havana cigar, hence the name. The coat is dense, all chocolate with a purple sheen, gray-blue at the base. Short body, broad waist, well-developed hindquarters, short upright ears close together, large prominent eyes matching the coat color.

II. Two lines of the Havana Rabbit

The breed has chocolate and blue lines. The chocolate Havana came from a Dutch doe in 1898; this mutant was bred on and improved in weight and shape with Himalayan blood, gradually forming the new Havana breed, quickly spread to France, Germany, and Switzerland. The blue variant was developed after the Havana was imported to the US in 1916. Its coat is soft, blue and glossy, body full and solid, weight 2.3–3.2 kg.

3 Havana Rabbit Care Tips

Havana Rabbit (details)

In production, grown Havana Rabbits seldom get sick, but young ones need delicate care—they go through weaning, feed change, and cage separation—so only careful care ensures health.

I. Manage weaning well

Havana kits start eating at 16 days—small amounts of digestible tender grass and leaves. At 22 days start full feed, little and often. Wean at 28–42 days by intermittent method: nurse every other day, then no more after the second. After weaning, separate by weight and sex. Guard against heat and cold, keep hutches dry and clean. Also vaccinate after weaning and give anticoccidial medicine.

II. Manage feeding well

Newly weaned Havana kits have not formed normal gut flora and easily get digestive disease. After weaning, supplement with microecological live bacteria to form normal flora fast. Feed small-volume, digestible, high-energy, high-protein complete feed. Do not suddenly change feed type or amount; little and often, never overfeed and cause indigestion diarrhea.

III. Manage hutch hygiene

Build the hutch in a sunny, leeward, dry place. Clean daily, remove debris from troughs, check water tanks for clean water, replace leftover hay. High heat/humidity and low temp/low humidity both harm rabbits; generally 15–25°C and about 60% relative humidity are best.

IV. Strict disease control

Vaccinate young Havana Rabbits regularly. At 20–28 days inject Escherichia coli vaccine, then at about 5-day intervals (by weather and condition) Clostridium welchii, Clostridium perfringens, and pasteurella-bordetella combined vaccines; at about 45 days inject hemorrhagic disease vaccine. Coccidiosis is also a major young-rabbit disease; broadly give anticoccidial medicine, add onion, garlic, etc. to feed, or add about 0.3 g oxytetracycline and sulfa drugs.

4 Havana Rabbit Living Environment

Havana Rabbit (details)

The Havana Rabbit’s environment directly affects its health; a bad one can cause death, so know how to build a sensible environment before keeping it.

Havana Rabbit management has much know-how; improving environment directly relates to flock health, breeding, and growth. Build hutches in ventilated, dry places; underground pens for breeding bucks stay warm in winter and cool in summer, ensuring year-round balanced production. Adopt the ‘three changes, one prevention’ rabbit-raising package:

1. Change traditional brick-wood cages to cement-panel assembled cages—convenient, low cost, short build time;

2. Change manual watering to automatic drinking—reduces labor, ensures free water, lowers disease;

3. Change scattered small-scale keeping to regional, large-scale raising—eases technical guidance and market flow.

One prevention: planned immunization and drug prevention; vaccinate breeding does before mating with hemorrhagic, pasteurella, welchii combined vaccine; add robenidine, sulfa drugs, etc. to feed around weaning to prevent coccidiosis and colibacillosis, and promptly inject hemorrhagic and pasteurella-bordetella vaccines—ensuring healthy breeding and growth.

5 Havana Rabbit Feeding Guidelines

Havana Rabbit (details)

The Havana Rabbit is not demanding about food; as a pet, hay and pellets are a good combo, but as a rural economic rabbit, balance nutrition with economic return.

I. Feeding the Havana Rabbit

Prepare food and water on a fixed schedule daily, and replace promptly to keep them fresh and clean. In summer, prevent heat; in winter, keep warm. To help it grow, guide appropriate exercise to boost circulation and resistance.

II. Economic raising of the Havana Rabbit

Rural rabbit keeping often still uses the old all-grass method—feeding whatever is available, causing single feed, poor growth, low production, and low returns. Overcome this by ending single-grass feeding, using local byproducts like peanut stalk, sweet potato vine, and corn stalk, with mixed feed. By stage, gather health-boosting wild herbs like plantain, houttuynia, dandelion, mugwort, and garlic stem as feed additives to boost resistance and cut disease and cost.