Posted: 1/22/2009 2:01:01 AM EDT
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Hello all,
I am thinking of getting some rabbits to raise for the meat. I have never raised rabbits and to be honest with you I dont know much about raising/breeding them other then what I have read on the net. I have an outdoor shed that isn't huge that i am thinking would work for cages. I think that i would only want to start with 1 male and 3 or females to start with. I am strickly wanting to do this for the meat purposes. What breeds do you guys suggest. I live in kansas if that helps with the weather conditions. Also if anyone raises rabbits and could take some pictures of homemade cages that would be great too. I am sure this topic has been beat to death so I appologize ahead of time. Any input or info would be great. I live in the city, which is why i dont want chickens... |
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Raising them is easy, so is feeding them. Can't help with winter shelter, doesn't get cold here. A run with nesting boxes also works well.
They breed like rabbits (sorry, couldn't help myself). You'll soon have more meat than freezer room. There is no fat and little protein in rabbit meat, it is natures best diet food. This is good in anything but a survival situation. They taste damned good, any idiot can cook rabbit meat. Tons of internet sites about rabbit rearing for meat and many companies selling supplies, Google is your friend. |
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Quoted:
There is no fat and little protein in rabbit meat, it is natures best diet food. This is good in anything but a survival situation. Make sure you have other food to suplement, in early america people were known to get "rabbit starvation" they ate rabbit all the time but like stated above due to low fat and protein they wernt getting the proper nutrition. |
| Raising them is easy .Did it as a kid started with a buck and 3 does.in no time we were at 70 rabbits, sold many. As far a winter they have fur and will grow the fur to what they need . Never had any that froze unless we put them in the freezer after butchering. Good Luck |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
There is no fat and little protein in rabbit meat, it is natures best diet food. This is good in anything but a survival situation. Make sure you have other food to suplement, in early america people were known to get "rabbit starvation" they ate rabbit all the time but like stated above due to low fat and protein they wernt getting the proper nutrition. +1 I've seen it stated that they "ate themselves to death". |
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New Zealands are a great breed to start with. Pretty good temperaments. I can't stand the white ones. Their beady little pink eyes remind me of freaking rats. I almost got them just because my wife didn't like them and I was worried about her getting attached to the food.
You say, "just for meat," but it's worth factoring in other criteria now. We went with black new zealands. I liked their fur better. Might as well try my hand at tanning so long as the hides are along for the ride. When you're deciding which kits are going to become breeders, these secondary characteristics will break the ties. "They've both got good body types for meat, but she has better fur ...." Most folks say, "breed to the standard," when making these decisions. Our rabbits are pedigreed, but that was happenstance. I haven't any interest in going to rabbit shows. So, the standard means nothing. You also have to get pragmatic about killing cute furry stuff. I don't like to doctor the rabbits. If they're not robust, their genes don't belong in the herd. "Blow snot and die," is a common phrase in rabbitries. On that subject, you need good breed stock. It's all important. Getting healthy and good producing rabbits is worth time, travel, and expense, because everything else is wasted if you get sickly buns. Prepare the space now, do some shopping, and get the rabbits in the spring. That way their coats can come in prior to next winter. If you want to start breeding them right away, you're looking for rabbits that are 5 months old or better. They gestate about 32 days. You butcher between 8 and 10 weeks old. They'll be between 3.5 and 4.5 lbs by this time. As you approach 12 weeks they become mature and the hormones makes the meat gamey. Plus, they start to compete and fight, so they need separate cages ... too much trouble and space. If your cages are big enough, you can leave them in with their mother right up until butchering day. This is also the point of maximum feed to meat conversion. Beyond 8-10 weeks you start feeding more for less meat return. Some folks breed their does at the same time, so they can transfer kits from a big litter to a small litter if need be. I prefer to stagger the breedings to keep the meat supply slow and steady. Average is 8 kits per litter. Some will die. I breed the does every 72 days. This is considered a very relaxed cycle and easy on the rabbits. http://www.klubertanz.com/ is good for supplies whether you're buying everything prefabbed or making your own. Stacked cages turn into a mess in no time flat. I'm not a fan of cage tiers at all. If you plan on keeping the cages up against the wall, then you need urine guards and trays. Some folks suspend rows of cages in open areas. They just shovel up the turds and hose away the urine. Rabbit manure isn't chemically "hot" so it doesn't need to compost. It can go right in the soil and won't "burn" anything. They will take up more space than you estimate. You'll end up laying in a bunch of bags of feed, and some nest boxes, and bedding material, and some squares of hay, and you'll pick up extra cages and stuff whenever it's a good deal ... It just happens. Plan on using half of your shed for the cages. The other half will magically fill up with shit. What ever you have in there now will need a new home. Most folks with dogs decide to add on a few cages for dog feed. They feed the dogs raw double ground rabbit. It's meat for the price of pelleted feed. Remove head, feet, and hide. Remove all entrails south of the diaphragm. The rest goes in the grinder; bones, organ meat and all. The dogs are super healthy. It's not a complete diet for either species, so supplement. That's enough for one post. |
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Thanks Rudolf, saved me a LOT of typing!
We have New Zealands, Californians, anda few foo-foo breeds the kids sell for pets. We hang our cages and shovel out droppings 2 or 3 times per year for the gardens. And if I hear the "no protien or fat" thing again I'LL SCREAM! We eat 100+ a year,usually more. Rabbits are the absolute BEST critter for folks to start out with, as far as learning animal husbandry, butchering,etc Small, quiet, almost odorless, and prolific.Easy to handle /butcher.And come in convenient, meal sized packages (although we eat 2 or 3 at a sitting) No reason that about everyone doesn't have a buck and a fewdoes. I suggest waiting until fall and hit the local county fairs. Sit in on judging, esp. of meat rabbits, and see what the judges are looking for.Ask questions. And a GREAT place to buy your breeding stock. If you can't wait, contact your local 4H extension office and ask for some local rabbit folks. |
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I suggest waiting until fall and hit the local county fairs. Sit in on judging, esp. of meat rabbits, and see what the judges are looking for.Ask questions. And a GREAT place to buy your breeding stock. That's a pretty good idea, because you have lots of folks bringing their rabbits to you instead of you driving all over to look at a couple. At the end of the show/fair many folks sell their rabbits off, by weight, for pet food. You can get some darned good feeder breeding stock for a reasonable price if you aren't interested in winning ribbons and trophies. A caveat is that the rabbits are likely to get sick from being housed with a ton of other rabbits. I think that's why a lot of people sell them off cheaply. They don't want the quarantine headaches associated with bringing them back home. If you have a rabbitry, you must quarantine the new buns for a while or risk wiping out your herd. If you're looking to startup with three or four rabbits that you pick out from a fair, you probably don't have any way to do that. You just bring 'em all home and hope for the best. It's a tough call. The benefit of being able to peruse lots of genetic material is strong, but not having a smooth launch could be a deal breaker for a beginner. I suggested Spring so that he could get through the cycle a time or two before it got cold. New does sometimes don't know what they're doing, and don't nest well enough to keep the kits alive in winter. Kindling on the wire would equal dead kits for sure. If someone had asked me, I would have reflexively said that good genetics were the top priority. Now that I reflect on it a bit, I think that having a successful first run is most important for a newbie, so long as genetics aren't terribly neglected. It's worth mentioning that even small scale husbandry requires you to run a mini eugenics program and there are repercussions for being squeamish about it. If you don't cull out the sick, you can lose everything, have to disinfect every darned thing, and start over. If you don't cull runts while they're bouncy and happy, you get to watch them suffer and waste away as they're out competed for chow. If you try to cater to the sickly and the runts, then you've surrendered the operation to non producing pets. My wife had a hard time over runts. She wanted to root for the cute little underdogs. She had to see them decline a couple of times to understand that we're doing them a favor my culling them early. I bring it up so newbies can start the mental preparation early; for themselves as well as family members. That's enough for a second post. |
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Some more good points rudolf!
We've been very lucky in that we have never had a disease outbreak. Wife and kids have picked up rabbits from all over the place, and put them in close proximity to existing ones. Drives me NUTS. And since they enter them in 4+ fairs a year, plus some showing, I KNOW it's only a matter of time. As soon as I get a few more phone poles, I'm adding onto a barn and moving all the meat rabbits out there. They can keep all their show stock, pet grade, etc stuff inside and away from the eaters. Folks just getting in, check Craigslist,etc for cages. Also hit your local humane societies/shelters,etc Lots of folks give everything to them when they drop off an animal that is no longer wanted. We picked up a bunch of 6 cage units last fall for very little$$$. Many were free! (commercial rabbitry closing up and a former rabbit lady had a bunch she no longer wanted) They are well made, with single piece of wire between each individual cage.That way ,you only use a bit more than 1/2 of the side panels. Saves money and weight. All the freebies came with waterers and feed hoppers, so even those that weren't in the best of shape were worth the time and effort to pick them all up. We outfitted a ton of 4H kids with cages and equipment and STILL wound up with 30-40 good, serviceable cages, to add to what we had already. Plus, have a lot of wire waiting to be turned into more cages if we need them. Kluberaantz makes the best,heaviest wire. Pricey, but it will last MUCH ,onger than lighter gauge stuff. |
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Great stuff guys.
Is there a source for free standing hutch specs available? I have been considering raising some meat rabbits for a while. I have some dog pens that I want to house the hutch in. Also turn one into a hen house/yard. TIA M Sine I posted this, I've been cruising google reading up on meat rabbits, and trying to find some good hutch plans. The plans are either way to larger (barns/sheds etc, or too small. I do like the old wooden free standing pens, but the general consensus is to not use wood? TIA M |
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I like all wire, because the urine will rot the wood over time.
But plenty of folks have been using wood for decades. TI picked up some FREE wood/wire/roofed, free-standing hutches, and am using them, under cover. Even the foller wire (1/2"X1") will rust out over time, as feces/urine/hair make a lump that just sits there. (might take 10 years) When I clean twice a year, I scrape it out, and have even pressure washed a few from time to time. Best thing to do is not let it get that bad. MDS- You can never have enough dog kennel panels! I bought a BUNCH from a guy who HAD to get rid of them right then. I paid $200 and had enough to make a 12'X72' kennel, hen yard, small goat pen, and just used a bunch more on my pig pen, and STILL have some panels left! Also got about 1,000' of 6' chain link free some years back. I've read about folks raising rabbits on the ground in pens, but you'd need to trench the wire, and maybe cover the top if hawks/owls etc. are a problem. I used simple chicken wire over my hens. TJ- I'll send an IM |
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Here is a chart to show how rabbit meat compares to other animals meat. The benefits of rabbit meat is clear and the meat tastes great. Pet rabbits are enjoyable to raise and the health benefits are obvious.
Source: USDA Department of Agriculture Meat Type Protein % % of Fat Calories Rabbit 20.8 10.2 795 Chicken 20.0 11.0 810 Veal ( med fat ) 18.8 14.0 910 Turkey 20.1 22.2 1190 Lamb ( med fat ) 15.7 27.7 1420 Beef 16.3 28.0 1440 Pork ( med fat ) 11.9 45.0 2050 http://www.mybunnyfarm.com/rabbitprotein/ |