Raising Rabbits (Page 3 of 3)
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Totally forgot to update that we adopted our little guy last week, he’s ours now! Attached File |
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Originally Posted By Harmonic_Distortion: I've come to the conclusion that for a sustainable meat source, they're good but at least in my area, as far as selling them for meat. people here don't eat rabbit like they do, say, in the South. These things eat you out of house and home, and our family doesn't eat much rabbit, si I think we are getting rid of ours. The feed cost is not justifiable for us. Very true if you don't have a market. I know that I will eat them, a few of my extended family will, and I will use some for making dog food. I would not have been interested in going back down this path if I didn't have outlets for the meat in the case of a lack of a market. |
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Originally Posted By Bubbles: Have you tried marketing yours to people who have exotic critters or who feed their dogs raw diets? Originally Posted By Bubbles: Originally Posted By Harmonic_Distortion: I've come to the conclusion that for a sustainable meat source, they're good but at least in my area, as far as selling them for meat. people here don't eat rabbit like they do, say, in the South. These things eat you out of house and home, and our family doesn't eat much rabbit, si I think we are getting rid of ours. The feed cost is not justifiable for us. Have you tried marketing yours to people who have exotic critters or who feed their dogs raw diets? That's the kind of market I didn't really want to develop until I already had a few rounds of breeding back under my belt. I like to under promise and over deliver. That said, I've been expanding my sheep flock, and had to answer the question my wife asked recently with the new lambs, and specify we had 18 sheep total. In my defense, 6 aren't staying around.  Attached File And I'm trying a new breed because I wasn't expecting the one above to be pregnant. So naturally I got both a young ram, and a yearling ewe.  Attached File |
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Originally Posted By ChicagoFoodie: Totally forgot to update that we adopted our little guy last week, he’s ours now! https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/124501/IMG_8814_jpeg-3542956.JPG You ever figure out why he was acting odd? If nothing else, may have just been the usual animal instinct thinking something strange was a foot? And no, I have not done the gravity water thing I was so sure was up and coming. Life is... Funny. Especially when you think you've got it figured out. I'm going to go sit in my corner and think about my hubris now.  Least I'm painfully/gainfully employed by people who can give me grief now! 
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Originally Posted By haveTwo: You ever figure out why he was acting odd? If nothing else, may have just been the usual animal instinct thinking something strange was a foot? And no, I have not done the gravity water thing I was so sure was up and coming. Life is... Funny. Especially when you think you've got it figured out. I'm going to go sit in my corner and think about my hubris now. Least I'm painfully/gainfully employed by people who can give me grief now! The best that we can tell is that is younger than we first thought. Which would explain why he wasn’t acting normal during his shed…maybe it was his first time shedding? Anyway, he’s totally normal now! We’re actually taking him on a road trip this weekend to our friends house just outside of Atlanta, hoping he will do ok in the truck for 5 hours but we will see. |
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Originally Posted By haveTwo: That's the kind of market I didn't really want to develop until I already had a few rounds of breeding back under my belt. I like to under promise and over deliver. I have 4-5 sources, some are online. Shipping frozen overnight w/ dry ice is expensive. My local guys just flip me their excess or the ones that aren't worth butchering out and I make a point of buying everything they want to move. |
Heller II - Challenging DC's bans on semi-automatic rifles, large-capacity ammunition feeding devices, and its onerous and expensive handgun registration process. http://www.HellerFoundation.org/
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Originally Posted By Bubbles: Have you tried marketing yours to people who have exotic critters or who feed their dogs raw diets? no, but I like that idea!! |
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Norcal LEO callsign: Hold Fast
Team Randstad
J6er (FBI#160/#BlueSteelworker)
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Originally Posted By Bubbles: I have 4-5 sources, some are online. Shipping frozen overnight w/ dry ice is expensive. My local guys just flip me their excess or the ones that aren't worth butchering out and I make a point of buying everything they want to move. Originally Posted By Bubbles: Originally Posted By haveTwo: That's the kind of market I didn't really want to develop until I already had a few rounds of breeding back under my belt. I like to under promise and over deliver. I have 4-5 sources, some are online. Shipping frozen overnight w/ dry ice is expensive. My local guys just flip me their excess or the ones that aren't worth butchering out and I make a point of buying everything they want to move. I'm certainly keeping that in mind, first step is the long, agonizingly slow wait to breed them. Should be late next month. About time to think about getting stuff like the nesting boxes, and cleaning/mounting the empty cages. |
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Originally Posted By ChicagoFoodie: We drove to our friends house with the rabbit over the weekend, 5 hours each way and he was such a good boy! That’s probably his limit for car rides. That made me laugh, because one of the rabbits started peeing on the shovel the second my wife went to retrieve the "fertilizer pellets". It's the little things that make us laugh. And the twisted things. 
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Also, here's a semi recent picture of our resident serial killer. Found two of her victims this past weekend. I said we're clearly feeding her too much if she's not eating them, and my wife said she's happy and being murderous, so reward her. Nothing new on the rabbit front, just waiting. Think I mentioned adding two new sheep, then we had twin lambs born, and might have arranged the sale of a horse we never planned on having. Attached File Attached File |
Oh, I'd already posted the lambs on the same stinking page. Here is the murder suspect playing at being a guard. Attached File |
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So long story short, found the old tubing for the drip watering setup, and put all new nipples on, as well as some new tubing. The nipples are rebuildable, but over the last few years I haven't had to replace many, so any that drip get stuffed in a bag for later. Also got a mister set up, better quality this time. Previously my wife's set up some rather cheaper ones meant for temporary use, but this time I suggested an orbit system with sharkbite type brass fittings. Zip tied them above the cages and put them on a hose timer. I could have bred them already, but need to get updated weights to nerd out on data. Don't have an easy way to do that by myself. Fortunately there's a long weekend coming up! Pictures are a bit harder now that my phone has decided to misbehave. Pulled out an old digital camera for things like sales ads now. Will be digging up some dimensions of nesting boxes soon so I can get them built when I breed the first doe. |
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He’s still here, but it appears as if he’s going to start shedding again. My wife thinks that he’s younger than we first thought, and because he lives inside it’s possible that he will shed several times a year Other than that, he’s been great! Attached File |
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Originally Posted By jb1001: https://i.imgur.com/gZz3eCk.gif Three pages? Seriously? 3 pages in and no one referenced this??? @jb1001 I have no idea what that's from... Though I did grow up under a rock. I really hope that's not from red dawn given my luck. Bred the two does last week, one seems to have taken, at least by behavior. |
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Originally Posted By haveTwo: @jb1001 I have no idea what that's from... Though I did grow up under a rock. I really hope that's not from red dawn given my luck. The Hunt for Red October movie. |
Heller II - Challenging DC's bans on semi-automatic rifles, large-capacity ammunition feeding devices, and its onerous and expensive handgun registration process. http://www.HellerFoundation.org/
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Originally Posted By Bubbles: The Hunt for Red October movie. Originally Posted By Bubbles: Originally Posted By haveTwo: @jb1001 I have no idea what that's from... Though I did grow up under a rock. I really hope that's not from red dawn given my luck. The Hunt for Red October movie. Okay, been way to long for me apparently, I've definitely seen it. |
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Originally Posted By Lowdown3: If you have an old 2 or 3 cell Maglite, or a piece of dowel rod, hold them by their hind legs head down, they will move for a few seconds then chill out. Whack them in the back of the head with it a time or three, then chop head off immediately. It's worked for me for over 30 years with rabbits. lol. It sounds like beating them to death. When you mentioned the dowel rod, I thought you were going to say that you hold their heads down with it and tug at the legs to sever the spinal cord. I have not tried that myself, but I have heard from multiple people that it is very effective. To be clear, I'm not trying to tell someone who's been doing it for 30 that he's been doing it wrong. |
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Originally Posted By abnk: lol. It sounds like beating them to death. When you mentioned the dowel rod, I thought you were going to say that you hold their heads down with it and tug at the legs to sever the spinal cord. I have not tried that myself, but I have heard from multiple people that it is very effective. To be clear, I'm not trying to tell someone who's been doing it for 30 that he's been doing it wrong. Originally Posted By abnk: Originally Posted By Lowdown3: If you have an old 2 or 3 cell Maglite, or a piece of dowel rod, hold them by their hind legs head down, they will move for a few seconds then chill out. Whack them in the back of the head with it a time or three, then chop head off immediately. It's worked for me for over 30 years with rabbits. lol. It sounds like beating them to death. When you mentioned the dowel rod, I thought you were going to say that you hold their heads down with it and tug at the legs to sever the spinal cord. I have not tried that myself, but I have heard from multiple people that it is very effective. To be clear, I'm not trying to tell someone who's been doing it for 30 that he's been doing it wrong. @abnk the method you've described is what I've done in the past, and what I will start with. Probably with rebar. I'll know in a couple weeks, because long story short, there's no way both our does aren't pregnant based on behavior. Guess I'll add getting the nesting boxes ready to my to do list tomorrow. Going with wire cloth lined with cardboard based on it being the hot desert here. |
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All wire cloth did not work. Found myself at home Depot waiting for them to open since I wasn't smart enough to write down when we bred them exactly. Pretty sure it was the Wednesday after the Fourth. Part way through a late night project. Attached File The very fine work of a finish carpenter, and certainly not just hacked together with a circular saw, drill, and staple gun. Attached File Attached File |