Milk Yield and Composition in New Zealand White and Californian Rabbits and Comparison of Rabbit’s Milk with Cow’s Milk Components

Twenty non-pregnant doe rabbits, 8 months old (10 New Zealand White; NZW and 10 Californian; CAL) in the second parity of their first year of production were used in this study. After parturition, does are chosen in both the two breeds nearly equal in their litter size at birth. Milk yield from each doe was estimated by the difference in doe weight before and after nursing once a week for a period of 5 weeks. One milk sample was collected from each doe during colostrum period (1-2 days post-partium) and biweekly until weaning the kids (35 days). Results showed that milk yield and major milk components except lactose in both NZW and CAL breeds are significantly affected by nursing week. The average of milk yield was lower in first week and reached its peak in the 3rd week of nursing period. Moisture/total solids ratio was ranged from 1.76/1 in colostrum to 2.38/1 in 2nd week of nursing with overall means through the weeks of nursing period of 2.0/1. Milk energy was significantly affected by nursing week and the high values were during the 5th week due to high fat content. Milk minerals were differing significantly due to weeks of nursing. Milk yield was significantly correlated with milk fat (-0.514), milk lactose (0.746), milk ash (-0.545) and milk energy (-0.506). When comparing milk composition between milk from cows and milk from rabbits, it is interesting to observed that milk total solids in rabbits milk was 32.13% i.e. equal to 3 times of that in milk cows (11%). Rabbit’s milk fat was 13.7% i.e. 4 times of the fat percentage in cow’s milk. Similarly, the percentage of rabbit’s milk protein was 13.93% which equal to 3.5 times of the percentage of protein in milk cows. However, the opposite was true in lactose concentration, since the % of lactose in rabbits milk was 2.03 half that percentage in milk cows.

Keywords: rabbits, milk yield, milk components, minerals, milk energy.