American Blue. Rabbit good for meat, fur and show. With good care, the American can be a long-lived and strong animal.
Summary
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- 1 Origin
- 1 Features
- 2 Food
- 3 Playback
- 2 sources
Source
The American Blue originally comes from Pasadena , California , developed and introduced by Lewis H. Salisbury in 1917. The American rabbit breed is a combination of different blood mixtures to become a new breed. At least 3 different breeds were used. The White variety of Americano was introduced in 1925.
To discover the origin of the name of the species as well as of its common name, one must go back to a few centuries before Christ . The rabbit was an animal unknown to the ancient Greeks and Romans who visited the Iberian Peninsula .
We can see the heritage of this rabbit when we look at it, we can see the Giant of Flanders, the Vienna and the Imperial in the form of the American. This unique shape is shared by the Giant of Flanders and the Beveren. Before World War I, the American Blue was known as the German Blue, but was renamed after the war.
American Blue
Characteristic
He was born as a rabbit for meat and skin, the American standard says that his weight is 4 kg for males and 4.5 kg for females at his adult weight. Long-bodied, low in males, the topline rising above the hindquarters and down again. The color of the American Blue, it is supposed to be the bluest of all the blue rabbits.
Since the development of the compact commercial type of rabbit, such as the New Zealand and Californians, the American breed has lost its position as a leader and is now completely ignored by the commercial market. There are currently a small number of hopeful breeders keeping this breed alive.
For the standards of the Breed Conservation (American Livestock Breeds Conservancy) if it were a breed of meat or hair, it would be considered an endangered breed. The Imperial Blue is already extinct. The Vienna Blue is extinct in the United States and is rare in Germany .
Feeding
The abundance of the species is based, in addition to its reproductive capacity, on its condition as a phytophagous with double digestion, resembling ruminants. Indeed, the rabbit practices cecotrophy, so that the soft faeces (cecotrophs), rich in bacteria and proteins, are re-ingested for a second digestive transit. These droppings are more frequent in the morning, when the animals are at rest. Like other lagomorphs, the rabbit has long been considered a ruminant, with which it has no relation; This is based on the observation of the behavior of the rabbit, which spends long hours moving its jaws from right to left.
Actually, these movements are not explained by rumination but by feeding in two stages. First, the rabbit digests the grass it ate; the cellulose is digested by Anaerobacter bacteria to volatile fatty acids that serve as nutrients. The result of this are the cecotrophs, olive green, soft and shiny droppings that the rabbit takes out of the anus and ingests again. The final droppings of the rabbit are dark brown, thicker (7 to 12 mm in diameter) and hard.
In general, they select composite plants, legumes and perennial grasses of small size and with a tendency to form lawns. In winter its diet consists of stems and bark of shrubs. It can dig the earth to find roots, seeds, and bulbs; it is also capable of climbing bushes and thickets to eat the youngest shoots.
An adult consumes 200 to 500 grams of plants per day. When rabbits are present in high density, their impact on the environment is significant: they hinder the reproduction of certain plant species but also, consequently, of animals.
Reproduction
They are fertile throughout the year but the largest number of births occur during the first half of the year. The gestation period lasts 32 days and litters normally range between 4-12 individuals. They can have several litters a year, although abortions and reabsorption of embryos are common, possibly due to the stress to which this species is always subjected.
The hatchlings, called kits, are born hairless and blind. The mother only visits them a few minutes a day to care for them and feed them with her rich milk. The young are weaned at four weeks of age and both males and females reach sexual maturity around 8 months of age. Although they can live for 10 years, 90% of the specimens do not exceed the first year of life.
