Domestic Animals - Agriculture CBC Grade 6 Notes

• Practices In Rearing Small Domestic Animals.
  • Importance Of Small Domestic Animals
  • Routine Practices In Rearing Of Small Domestic Animals.

Practices In Rearing Small Domestic Animals.

Domestic animals that are commonly reared include:

• Rabbit
• Hen
• Cat
• Dog
• Guinea pig

Importance Of Small Domestic Animals

Rabbit

• Provides meat
• Provides fur which is processed to make handbags, hats coats and pillows.

Cat

• Repel rats
• Kept as a pet

Poultry

• Source of meat and eggs
• Provide manure

Guinea pig.

• Provide meat
• Kept as pets
• Provide manure
• Research canters use them to do experiments on diseases

Dog

• Alerts when strangers or wild animals come to our homes
• Kept as a pet

Note:

• The small domestic animals can be reared in small pieces of land.
• They can also be reared in urban areas where space is limited.
• They multiply very fast therefore ensure continuous source of income.
• They require less labour to bring up compared to the large domestic animals.

Routine Practices In Rearing Of Small Domestic Animals.

• Small domestic animals should be fed with adequate and nutritious feeds every day.
• They should be provided with clean water to drink.
• The drinking equipment should be cleaned daily before putting fresh drink
• Places where the animals live should be cleaned regularly and disinfected.
• Tools and equipment used in cleaning the animal houses should also be cleaned.
• Excess animals can be sold so as to earn some income.
• Animals should be treated by a veterinarian or an animal health specialist.

Safe handling of small domestic animals.

• We may be required to restrain animals when doing some routine practices.

How to handle small domestic animals

• Visit the school farm or local farmer and find out the following:
  
  • How to approach the animals when one wants to restrain them for various
  • reasons How to hold or handle the animals when carrying out some routine
• Ask the farmer or the person in charge of the small domestic animals to allow practices you to demonstrate how to safely hold or handle the animals