This link is Shaun, one of our shooters speaking with Radio New Zealand about rabbits.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/countrylife/audio/2018641577/the-return-of-the-rabbits
This link is me speaking with RNZ about using ferrets for rabbiting.
https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/countrylife/audio/2018641574/kill-that-rabbit
So the pup has been picked, it’s now home, where to from here? First things first, a feed and water for pup then playtime!
Generally one of the first questions I’m asked is how to toilet train the new pup which is actually quite straight forward. As soon as the new pup wakes outside with it, not in a few minutes but straight away. Very quickly pup will learn that is the deal and will start dropping hints it needs to go to the toilet, it’s up to you to learn those hints. Whether it’s the pup goes to a curtain spot, a corner or door there will be a hint. Accidents will happen but there is no reason to growl, in fact you are the one that should be growled at for not reading pup properly.
Next on the list is feeding pup, that should start the way you intend it to be fed for it’s whole life. I always get a bag of very good quality pup food to start them off but this gets mixed up with any food scraps and/or good quality dogroll. There is nothing worse than a dog that is fussy about what it will eat so much much easier to get them used to all the food right at the beginning.
Remember here as well, pup needs to be wormed every two weeks till it’s 14 weeks old.
The big thing right now though is handle that pup, spend as much time as you can playing as this is great handling and makes for a much more sociable and trainable pup later on.
Hopefully it hasn’t taken long to name the pup so call it by it’s name often.
When everyone is interacting with pup they need to use it’s name. When someone comes up they will call it something else, a genital correction here will make pup learning its name quicker and easier. A simple pups name is “here” can you please call it that, when they first meet, the faster pups name is learned the better.
Now go play with that pup!
So the 29th is the day for Evalynn, a whoppingly old 18. If you run into her ask her what it’s like being that old. Start with “Hey you old
cowchook”….
HAPPY BIRTHDAY princess cowchook
And here’s a pic of Princess cowchook today, rabbit blood and all…
This is one of those thing’s, no matter the size of your property rubbish piles are a rabbits friend and the same thing goes for big patches of cover. Rabbits just love living in them, even under compost heaps!
Another favourite spot is decks, it really does pay to rabbit proof them, ideally done at the design stage.
Of course the ferrets just love it when we do jobs like these….
Pups, kids and rabbits everywhere!
The dogs aren’t the only ones that put a winter coat on, and yes, it does make a big difference! Shorts all winter, long shorts would’ve been nice one day, -23 degrees Celsius at Wedderburn. The rabbiting dogs have noted spring has sprung, the birds are singing, lambs all over the place, daylight saving has kicked in, the extra hair has all come off. And there is young rabbits all over the place. The best thing to see those young rabbits? The dogs! There is nothing, and I mean NOTHING they love more than ratting those little rabbits out because they are a very tasty wee treat for the dogs. I call them snackpacks just because well, that’s what they are, two mouths full for the dogs and they are gone.
The rabbits are all pregnant, and most of them are on their second litter. In some areas I’d take a calculated guess and say they are on their third litter which isn’t bad considering we are at the end of September, of course the “isn’t bad” depends on how you look at it. All the rumours are true about them, they are eating rooting machines.
The ferrets are away on Monday for a week or two as a mate has a lot of that work to do and is a bit short on ferrets at the moment himself, so between mine and his he’ll have a nice wee squad.
There is certain areas that benefit greatly from using ferrets, areas where you’ve got numbers down via other methods and use them as a type of mop up tool or areas were you can’t use some methods, like built up areas or lifestyle farms where there is houses all over the place.
Shooting and poisoning around those places is often not possible or is frowned upon, then the ferrets really come into their own…
The last resort for rabbit control is using poison, whether Pindone or 1080 is to be used. Poison operations are expensive with the final costs not really being known as loss of production and other related issues are never accounted for in the initial price. 1080 particularly is becoming more and more frowned upon as there is a lot of questions being raised about it’s use as well as court proceedings involving 1080. Basically it’s days are numbered.
I have heard of lambing issues directly related to land that has been poisoned with 1080 causing a drop of over 10% of lambs surviving caused by it’s use. All time periods were adhered to yet lambing rates still dropped. It seems scientists haven’t done much research on this which is yet another issue, and one that needs serious attention.
On bigger properties another issue that can arise after poisoning is the need to do weed control. With the land not being grazed for such a long time the weeds can get away to a point were stock will not bring it back under control, so follow up weed control can be required. This is a direct cost associated with the 1080 operations.
Even our own EPA (Environment Protection Agency) isn’t sure about the rules and what can be used as can be seen here “1080 is the only toxin that is able to be applied aerially throughout mainland New Zealand.” from http://www.epa.govt.nz/search-databases/HSNO%20Application%20Register%20Documents/HRE05002-019.pdf
In fact Pindone is also able to be applied the same way…. While not perfect it is better than 1080.
The main reason poison ends up being used is because it is a last ditch effort when nothing else has been done or people have had a few mates, the boy/farm worker doing a bit of shooting. This is NOT a pest management plan but a bit of fun, there seems to be some confusion where this is concerned. This should not happen if a proper management plan is in place. Normally rabbits get out of control because of a failed pest management plan or no plan at all.
Ergo the need no matter the size of the property to have some kind of plan in place.
Ferrets, and more so rabbits, are cropping up a lot more in the Otago Daily Times of late. One can only assume it’s because there is a lot more of the later appearing in the last few years. Reporter Mark Price got in touch a few days ago wanting to do a piece on using ferrets as a form of rabbit control, so out we went with all the gear plus a photographer from the ODT Craig Baxter.
http://www.odt.co.nz/video/regions/central-otago/346417/rabbiter-puts-ferrets-work
A very effective tool in a spot like this is getting ferrets into the warrens. Open paddocks with a lot of rabbit warrens had ferrety boys on a killing rampage underground while pushing a lot out for me and the brothers, Bolt and Tom (on the left) to keep us busy.
Kill That Rabbit 