Raising rabbits for food

Hey,
I've seen several people mention keeping rabbits for food. Can you provide more information on that? Where do you buy the young (obviously not a pet store at $20 a pop!) and how do you keep them? Is it more effective to buy 1 male and 1 female and let them breed, or what? Also, how do you handle space issues, since they can dig and all? Feeding? What about when it comes time to slaughter? Do you do that yourself or do you have someone do it--and if you have someine do it for you, where can you find them?

I'm interested in the idea of keeping rabbits for food and fur use (I intend to make rabbit fur hats, gloves, house slippers and stolls this year for X-mas gifts) but I'm not sure about the costs involved, or how to do it. I'm also not exactly excited about killing the rabbits.

Thoughts? If you do it, can I get some pictures of your setup?

 

Thanks for all the replies!

Been doing some research and I've also talked with my grandparents. My grandpa has said that he would do the killing for me. I can handle skinning, butchering, and freezing them; that's no issue. I just don't want to end their furry little lives myself (call me girly, whatever, lol, I get enough of killing small fuzzy animals when I feed my snakes), but he said he would, and I'll give him meat in exchange.

I want to start tanning the hides. I read about a European way of raising them that apparently works well, where they're kept together in a large enclosure.

I thought that sounded good, and would save in housing costs, except the male would, I think, have a hutch to himself, to prevent unplanned pregnancies.

What I've thought about was a 10'x'10' pen with very thin 3' tall mesh along the bottom of the walls and a solid bottom or chain links a few inches underground, with several little huts for the rabbits to live in. There'd be maybe 2, 3 does and a hutch for the male, and a smaller enclosure for keeping weaned but not-ready-for-slaughter males, while the larger pen would be for the females, babies, and weaned females not ready for slaughter. I think that having pens like that would reduce time spent cleaning (not dealing with a cage for every animal) and would also allow for plenty space for them to move around.

 

Haha, yeah, I know. I just wanted to ask to get other peoples' experiences on raising rabbits, is all. People keeping them as pets versus for meat production would have different experiences to relate, I think.

I think I like standard rexes, as for a breed. Not the largest out there, but they seem to have many promising qualities (litters of 9+) and are good mommies. I also like their fur--they're apparently also called "velveteen" rabbits. They're not huge--8-10lbs--but still...they seem good.

For those of you who keep, do you keep any particular breed, or just whatever rabbit you find?

 

That's what I thought too! Where did you find them? I can find mini rexes left, right and center, but they're too darn small! I'm having trouble finding standard rexes near me. (At least, ones listed online.)

 

Thanks SO MUCH for this!!! I had thought about it, and had sat down and figured much of it out. My intention is to buy used, metal cages. I don't want to raise them in tiny hutches alone, since most of what I've found says that they do better in groups. I intend to keep males firmly separated from females unless they're being bred or are not weaned yet; all weaned males will be separated to a different area until they are ready to be weaned.

At a maximum, in 1 year with 2 females I will produce 90 rabbits. 40 will be sufficient to provide meat for my family and my grandparents' family twice weekly (though, it probably wouldn't be that often) for a full year. The remaining 50 do not have to be killed; they can be traded at my local feed store as suggested above (they sell rabbits when they can get them) for food for the rabbits, or I can sell them as pets (which factored into my decision to hunt down Rexes, since they're cute and cuddly also).

As for kids...well, I have no kids. The only kid that lives in the house is 2, and he wouldn't know the difference (or be allowed to handle the rabbits!) anyways.

As for supplementing the rabbits' diet...my plans for their cages include being able to move the cages, and include the cages being on the ground with wire mesh directly on top of the grass, so that they can nibble that all they want. I also plan to grow a good amount of greens such as mustard greens, collards, kale, etc. for the purpose of feeding the rabbits, since we found out the hard way last year that for whatever reason, those things grow like wildfire in our yard. Even after three harvests and weeks of below-freezing weather, we still have about thirty lettuce plants that WILL NOT DIE. I know people tell you not to feed them greenery, but that's ridiculous, because that's what rabbits eat in the wild. Wild rabbits loved our garden and our grass, and they had solid stools (I should know, I step on them sometimes).

I know I want to make things with the hides. I'm not sure what I want to make, but I've sewn rabbit hides before, and it's not that hard.

However, I AM concerned about making the cages predator proof. We have lots of stray dogs and cats around here, and I've seen coyotes, foxes, raccoons, possums, hawks, eagles, and bears within just a mile of our house. Any suggestions on animal-proofing? Also...snakes. I don't THINK they'll be an issue. Generally speaking, snakes aren't interested in larger prey than they can consume, but at the same time, I don't want to come out and find a rattlesnake in my rabbit cages, either. I'm just not sure how you can prevent some predators from getting in. The hawks and eagles will be foiled with just a tarp cover, but I think the dogs, cats, coons, etc. will need something more heavy-duty.

Not to mention neighborhood children who might want to "play with the bunnies".


Hmm. This gets more complicated the more I think about it.

 

Cool! Let us know how it goes, eh?

I picked up a pair the other day, also. They're not standard rexes (those things are impossible to find. I couldn't find a pair within a 100 mile radius being offered for sale. ) However, these are new zealands. I wanted to step into it a bit slowly. They're about 2 months old, so I'll be used to raising the rabbits themselves before they breed. I've got them in a fairly small cage for right now, but I'm working on a bigger dog run-style cage. I'm wanting it to be about 5x10 feet. We're fairly sure both rabbits are females, but at this age we had a hard time telling. If not--oh, well. If so--great!

I'm still going to get my rexes, since I want to try crossbreeding later on for a larger breed of Rexes, so they'll be better meat producers but still have the nice rex fur.

So far, I'm finding that they're easy to care for, and they get along well with the cat, with whom they share the screened porch. He's actually a bit bewildered by them, and the rabbits like following him around and stepping on him, which is pretty humorous.

In any case...they poop. A LOT. Like, a lot more than I expected. WAY more than rats or dogs or cats or snakes poop. I've just been cleaning out the cage on a daily basis and spreading the poo on the garden for fertilizer. Yeah. A lot of poop. They're really not that difficult, though, and I've been giving them time outside the cage for exercise, which they really seem to like.

 

Question! Do they ALL poop that much? Because it really is a lot of poop.