Effect of controlled nursing with one-day fasting on rabbit doe performance.

This work studied whether the expected better subsequent reproduction for permanent controlled nursing versus free nursing could be further improved by a caloric biostimulation with temporary fasting and re-feeding of does before artificial insemination (AI) and how it influences the development of current litters. A total of 240 females were randomly assigned at first day of lactation to one of three groups each with 80 does in a balanced manner according to the number of kits, litter weight, newborn kit weight after adjusting to 8 rabbits per litter, doe body weight and parity. Rabbits in the control group (C) were fed ad libitum and nursed freely up to weaning at 35 days of age. In the g…