Chinchilla rabbits: description

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Chinchilla rabbits are the most popular and widespread in Russia. Almost every rabbit breeder started with this breed. Probably not in vain. Those who are just thinking about breeding rabbits should first of all learn everything about this breed.

Chinchilla rabbits: breed description

The full name of the breed is the Soviet chinchilla. As the name suggests, it was bred in the Soviet Union. The breed was registered in 1967. Also from its name you can understand that something connects it with animals with valuable fur, chinchillas. If you look at photographs of rabbits, you can see that their color is very similar to the fur of a chinchilla animal. A light smoky undercoat and a blue awn with black tips make the rabbit's skin very beautiful. It seems that the rabbit casts silver. The undercoat is very dense and soft. Therefore, rabbits can be kept in winter in cold cages right on the street, they are not afraid of frost. The eyes are dark brown, and around them are light "glasses". The coat on the belly is light.

The rabbit's body is powerful. Especially if you compare it with Californian rabbits, which, compared to the Soviet chinchilla, look simply elegant. Broad back, rounded back due to well developed hind leg muscles.

Productivity of the breed

The characteristic of chinchilla rabbits is that these individuals are highly productive. The breed belongs to the meat-skin type, which indicates its versatility. Rabbits are large, adults weighing 6-8 kg. You can slaughter for meat as soon as the skin is ripe, which is about 5 months. From such a rabbit you can get a carcass of about 3 kg in weight and a beautiful skin.

Chinchilla rabbits are unpretentious in food and have very high immunity. They are resistant to many adverse natural phenomena, very rarely get sick. There are farms that raise rabbits for laboratory research and experiments. Such individuals cannot be vaccinated for the purity of experiments. So, on such farms, the livestock of experimental animals is exclusively chinchilla rabbits. And for good reason, all this is due to their vitality and good appetite, as well as high fertility.

Chinchilla rabbits: breeding

Rabbits of this breed can be mated from 6 months old. By this age, the females have already gained the desired body weight and are ready to bear full-fledged offspring. For a year, a female can be mated 6 or more times. For one round, a rabbit gives birth to an average of 10 rabbits. Soviet chinchillas are good mothers, they have a highly developed maternalinstinct. They have a balanced calm character and therefore rarely scatter and eat rabbits. If this happens, it is mainly the fault of the owner. Most likely, the rabbit breeder did something wrong. I didn’t put the nest in the cage in time, I didn’t put more hay in the feeder, or there was no water in the drinker.

Rabbits always have enough milk. Therefore, even when a lot of rabbits are born, it is better not to intervene and not to transplant newborn babies to females who have few cubs.

After giving birth, it is advisable to distract the female with something, for example, let her nibble on a juicy carrot, and at this time check the newborns to remove the dead ones, if any. Before this, it is advisable to rub your hands on the mother and hay so as not to leave your smell on the rabbits.

Chinchilla rabbits

Rabbits are born naked and blind, but they are warm in the nest, which the female covers with fluff in advance. She pulls down from her fur, mainly from her chest. Chinchillas always have enough down to keep the nest warm.

Rabbits grow very fast. In a month they can be separated from their mother, they are quite independent and can already do without mother's milk, eating like adult rabbits.

At first, the rabbits are just gray, by 5 months they finish molting, and they acquire their beautiful chinchilla color, corresponding to the breed.

Soviet chinchilla and more

Of course, chinchilla-colored rabbits were bred not only in the Soviet Union, but also in other countries. There are a fewbreeds similar to our domestic one, but they are all inferior in weight, color or fertility or need more careful care.

• The breed of rabbits is the chinchilla, the smallest.
• Giant chinchilla breed, close in size to the Soviet chinchilla, but bred in America.
• Rabbit breed American Chinchilla. Medium size, also bred in America.

Also similar to the Soviet chinchilla is the gray giant breed. Gray giants often have a reddish tinge to their skin and are not as silvery blue as chinchillas. Their fur is not so beautiful, and before sewing something out of it, it is usually dyed black. The fur of the Soviet chinchilla does not need to be dyed, the hats and coats sewn from it are very beautiful. Adult gray giants have a longer body than chinchilla rabbits. True, small rabbits are difficult to distinguish, they are very similar. Therefore, if you want to purchase Soviet chinchilla rabbits, it is better to do this in specialized farms with documents.

The beauty of chinchilla rabbit fur

Chinchilla rabbits give excellent quality fur. Different shades of gray-blue with a touch of black veil are cast in silver. The abundance of gentle fluff, which makes up a thick undercoat, and soft spiny hair make the fur very pleasant to the touch. Products made from the fur of these rabbits are light, durable and very effective. Recently, they have learned to process their fur in such a way that it is difficult to distinguish it from the valuable fur of the chinchilla animal.

There is not a single rabbit breeder who does not know what they are - chinchilla rabbits. Photos of them are everywhere in large numbers. Because every rabbit breeder began to breed animals from this particular breed. No matter how many breeds there are on the farm, everyone has a Soviet chinchilla. And every rabbit breeder is grateful to her for her unpretentious maintenance and quick payback.