Anyone ever raise thier own rabbit meat?

“Just wondering. we are considiering it. First we thought we'd go with chickens but our neighbors would probebly throw a fit. Anyway it seems rabbits produce more and would be better then chickens anyway.”

“Who's going to kill and skin? I can't see you doing that.”

“duh. shes married to CRAZY mike. he does things like that for fun”

“SS, i know how to kill and skin. I was raised on wild game growing up. Infact I never even had farmed meat untill I was about 13 or 14 when I had my first hamberger patty!”

“anyway, this is why I'm asking....


These are wild rabbits, who started out like this a couple weeks ago:


and it's got us thinking, it would be nice to beable to raise our own lean and healthy meat (organically of course) for ourselves.
1 buck and 1 doe rabbit can produce 40-50 fryers a year.
last edited: 6/10/07 5:16:29 PM”

“look at sasha. shes all "im gonna snatch that baby wabbit outta your hand and aint nothin you gonna do about it"”

“SO where'd you get the wild rabbits?


Sass and Birch are raising rabbits now, by the way.”

“after raising your meat do you beat it (to death)?”

“Rabbit is one of the highest animals for protein output. Way Better than chickens”

“Go you chicken fat, Go!!”

“Be careful not to over do it. Rabbits are very lean and the lack of fat can lead to protein poisoning.”

“a neighbor tilled up the nest, while putting in his garden, he brought them over to us thinking we would know what to do with them since we have a big buck rabbit as a pet. Well, there were originally 5, but one didn't make it. I thought it would be harder taking care of them but I did some research and the moms only feed them once or twice a day for about 5 minutes at a time believe it or not so it wasnt as time consuming as I thought it would be.”

“I have family that raise their own rabbits. As far as I know its quite a bit easier than having chickens. A lot more quiet, generally easier to take care of, can use a smaller area, wide range of food sources can be used..
last edited: 6/10/07 7:40:40 PM”

“Bunny Killer!!!!


;-)”

“our pet rabbitt, scooter, died after living 14 years as a house bunny. i could never eat a bunny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“MMMMMmmmmm.. Tastes like chicken.”

“Ha ha, Bunny Boiler could eat them!!”

“Bunny Boiler? Hmm..”

“Oh yeah, she's evil!”

“Be careful not to over do it. Rabbits are very lean and the lack of fat can lead to protein poisoning.”
nogranola
8:22:39 PM
6/10/07


Maybe. Just maybe if all you ate was rabbit. Otherwise, go nuts!”

“Yeah.. Unless you are on some perverted form of Adkins, you should be fine.”

“perverted is good”

“PERVERT! ;)”

“free meet birch, birch meet free.

Birch had us rolling at RRG this winter with stories of growing up with rabbits taht his dad made them name "dinner"”

“wohoo! the babies ate some greens today!

They love radish greens...

I'm thinking of letting the little girl when she gets old enough breed with my gigantic meat bunny and have my own line of meat rabbits...”

“Hey Free. May I suggest this book: http://www.amazon.com/Storeys-Guide-Raising-Rabbits-Facilities/dp/1580172601/ref=sr_1_1/104-8901934-4105509?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1181573748&sr=8-1

And you may want stop feeding those babies greens until they're ten weeks old. You'll give them diarhea. Only timothy hay and pellets until then.

I have some great websites I'll email you.”

“Avoid radish and especially anything related to cabbage. It gives them diarrhea and makes them very sick. It can adversely flavor the meat too.”

“Sass, I knew that greens from the broccoli family gave rabbits runs, but I had no idea the radish tops would. I have givven them pellets and hay in their cage if they want it but they seem only interested in the radish tops. I'll take it away though. Thaks for the advice! How about dandylions?


(I jsut ordered the book, thanks sass!)
last edited: 6/11/07 10:29:05 AM”

“no way i could raise bunnies and eat them. i have no problem hunting wild game, but i get attached too easily to animals i'm around.
i couldn't even kill a woodchuck that was under our porch. after watching him for a little while i decided he was much too cute.
willard was safely relocated :)”

“Willard?!”

“Dandylion flowers are a favorite treat, great for making friends with them. But, from what I've read, any greens before age ten weeks are bad news. Our buck has had diarhea twice so far, once from too many spinach leaves and once from too many dandylion flowers. Now, until he goes a few weeks with normal stool, he's limited to the grass and clover in his play pen. And, (not sure if you know this), you have to make sure your bunnies have access to their stool, it's an important ingredient for digestion.
One of our bunnies favorite treats is apple tree branches. They love them. But never give them cherry tree branches....poison.

I dropped you an email with a great site that really has loads of good information in it.”

“Thanks sass!!! :)

My buck is always eatting greens and has never had the runs ever, but he's 2 and half years old. He gets all kinds of things to eat, sometimes even strawberries. He loves strawberries and strawberry leaves even. He is so the worst begger of food ever. Worse then the cat and dog.
Thanks for the frozzen water bottle tip, im going to do that today! Usually when he starts to get hot I bring him inside.

I guess i will jsut see if they will eat only the pellets then. How about grains? the feed I give my older rabbit has corn and some other things in it. Is that ok?





last edited: 6/11/07 11:08:56 AM”

“Willard?”

“sass, I dont know if its true or not, but I read somewhere that if your bunny has the runs, to feed them strawberry and raspberry leaves.”

“That thing is bigger than Grace!”

“Sacco brings up a point in a roundabout way. Don't name your food.

I had neighbors that raised pet rabbits growing up that would eat their rabbits when they got sick and died.”

“Yeah, I don't even know what breed he is but we bought him off of someone who was selling him as a meat rabbit. Of course he was way too sweat to be headed for the stew pot lol. He eats a lot of food every day and goes through a big bottle of water a day too SHEESH. lol”

“Any idea how much he weighs?”

“he weights just under 15 lbs.”

“Grace has 10 pounds on him”

“willard the woodchuck. duh!

like sass hinted at, bunnies have two kinds of turds- the once thru and the seconds, lots of times you'll see a color difference.

that is one cute bunny, man. no way i could eat him or his babies.”

“He loves to snuggle, hence his name, snuggles. His favorite toy is a little yellow ring he loves to pick up and run around with or play tug of war with lol”

“Me and the kids went to the fiber frolic this weekend, and saw lots of cute bunnies...there was this sweet lop eared one for sale and the kids wanted him...maybe someday when I come up with a place to put one...I wonder how they'd feel about eating them...LOL...

I made the hamster a bin cage this weekend, but didn't quite get it finished - I ran out of fasteners for the mesh top - and wouldn't you know it, the little bugger got out...I looked for her this morning, but finally had to go to work. I'm nervous because I couldn't find the cat...”

“Hamsters are the great escape artists! They spend most of their waking hours looking for a way to get out, LOL! That's we have a guinea pig now, they're are very happy in their cages, and don't usually run when you take one out to play. They also like to sit with you and cuddle, whereas hamsters just want to run around and get away from you.”

“Timothy Hay is really important too SC. It's just the green hay you buy at the feed store/pet store.

Your big guy would be a great buck for breeding meat rabbits. You don't have to eat him, but I'd consider his off spring.”

“When my mother was a kid, rabbit was the main source of meat in her house. She told me that after the kids got attached they started taking the rabbits to a butcher who would give them butchered rabbits ready for cooking. That way they wouldn't have to eat anything they'd been hugging. I think they'd trade four live ones for three cut and dressed ones or something like that. Then again, maybe my grand parents made that story up so the kids would eat their dinner.”

“Sass, I was considering using my buck as a breeder :) He has such a sweet temprement too, I bet his offspring could be sold as pets if not used for meat. The babies seem to like the hay I gave them (we buy it for Snuggles) and have been chowing down on it a lot today. They still haven't figured out the water bottle thing but I did put a fozzen bottle in with them today because it was hot outside and they were licking the condensation off of it.
last edited: 6/11/07 4:55:03 PM”

“Snuggles looks like a Rex (that's a breed) to me. If I'm correct he'll be a good parent of little freezer fillers.”

“Sass, I looked it up and you are right...He is a Rex...a broken opal rex! :) thanks! I had no idea. Sheesh looking at some of those Rex show animals, is it me or are they ginormously fat?? I mean some of them look like they have triple chins.”

“delicious...

guinea pigs are supposed to be very tasty, breed like crazy, and have modest space/food needs. if you are thinking of rabbits i would suggest thinking of this little varmint as well.”