Meat rabbits: choosing a breed

[Holachicka]

I want to get meat rabbits (as soon as I can convince dh!) I was wondering what breed choices everyone has and why? I really would like a large rabbit so that I can get more meat per butchering, but worry about the food conversions and if that is worth it. Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

[miss_thenorth]

Best choices around here are New Zeaalnd whites and Californians. I had a few cali's and a few cali/NZ/flemish giant crosses. Flemish giants are huge, but their FCR is slow, and they are very big boned, so not the best choice for meat. But if you can get a cross that has some FG in it, you can get the size, but have the good FCR and fast growth.

 

[lwheelr]

In comparison studies, New Zealand produced the fastest growth and highest butcher weights for the amount of food eaten... but...

Calfornians grew more slowly, achieved a minimally lower butcher weight at the same age, on the same amount of food, BUT, they produced a higher amount of MEAT, by a minimal amount. The dressed weight was about the same, the boned weight was higher.

This was shown over several different methods of comparison, including cross breeding, where anything bred to a Californian also carried those traits in comparison to the other parent. Trials were done using Californian, New Zealand, and Flemish Giants.

We opted for crossbreeds - Flemish/Californian and Flemish/New Zealand crosses. We are working toward a blending of the best traits of all of them.

We find that the NZ crosses carry the NZ traits - rounded body of the NZ instead of mandolin shape of the Flemish, but lacking the high muscular shoulders of the Cal. The size is in between the NZ and Flemish.

The Cal crosses have that distinctive rounded muscular shoulder of the Cal, though less pronounced, instead of the mandolin shape of the Flemish. Size is slightly smaller than the NZ crosses, but may end up having the same result as the studies showed.

Californians, especially mature bucks, show a lot of round muscle on them. NZs tend to just be round but not particularly muscular looking. Both have the classic round bunny shape to the back. Flemish have a mandolin shape - higher in the rump, lower in the shoulders. That means generally they do not carry as much weight in the shoulders by proportion as the NZs and Cals do.

Californians have the best dressed weight to live weight ratio, and the best meat to bone ratio. Statistically, they also have the best food to meat conversion rate.

Now, some things about meat rabbits...

All of these comparisons assume that you are butchering between 9 and 12 weeks of age - that is "fryer" age. This is the point at which you get the most meat for the least food. Keeping up with that means you breed and butcher on a demanding schedule though.

Fryer age rabbits assumes an industry standard of 2 to 2 1/2 lbs dressed weight. Both NZs and Cals were bred for the commercial meat industry, where they wanted a standard dressed weight comparable to your average dressed fryer chicken. So if you go with that kind of standard, you butcher one rabbit, for about 1 1/2 lbs of actual meat.

There is a fair bit of difference in weight between a 9 week rabbit, and a 12 week rabbit also. But then, there's three extra weeks of feed also, and the growth rate usually starts a gradual decline around 9-10 weeks.

If you go a little longer, those ratios can change. At that point you get into "roaster" rabbits. Beyond the fryer stage, rabbit growth rates change by breed - and that variance increases over time. This is why we chose Flemish as a cross. Flemish keep growing at a fairly strong rate until they are about a year and a half old, sometimes longer (well into the "stewing" stage). The older they are, the slower the growth rate, but usually by that time we are getting breeding out of them.

That means that the feed for them will continue to convert to meat, though at a slower rate, if we neglect butchering, or if we butcher unsatisfactory or unneeded breeding stock.

Our NZ and Cal bucks and our Satin/Flemish cross buck, have all pretty much stopped growing, and they are around a year old. So their food just gets consumed, not converted to any additional meat at all, should we decide that we don't need one of them.

Things often interfere with a butchering schedule. We hauled eight bunnies with us that should have been dispatched prior to our move, simply because we could not find the time to do it before we moved, and they were not ready soon enough to plan ahead on that job.

I don't know if there is a conclusion from this - at least, not the SAME conclusion for every person. You really have to just decide what your priorities are, get the facts, and then make a choice based on those priorities.

What is right for us isn't best for everyone.

 

[lwheelr]

One other note.

Our Flemish Giant doe does not eat more per day than the smaller bucks, unless she is pregnant or nursing. And she only eats a tiny bit more when pregnant.

They all eat about 1 cup of pellets per day. We are gradually transitioning to a more natural diet, and we do notice they eat less pellet when given fresh greens.

 

[Sunny]

Im also trying to convince DH on rabbits. Right now there is Satins and not registered Silver Fox. I also found 2 other places within 100 miles that also have Silver Fox for sale. Ive also been thinking about American Blue or White. But the rarer breeds its hard to not find related stock, expecially when you dont have the money to travel to get them.

Still researching. But might just get a mix of breeds to start with. Or total mutts. Thats the easiest to get around here.

Still thinking, more thinking.. Oh I have no idea. I used to have pet netherland dwarfs.

ETA. In our area. Pure stock with the largest chance of not getting related stock. Is NZ, Californian, and Satin.. I like to have different colors, easier to tell them apart. So I may go with Satin..

 

[lwheelr]

Satins are good meat rabbits, and very cold hardy. They have very fine, soft fur, so if you intend to tan the hides, that would be a plus. They are, on average, just a little smaller than Californians.

Silver Fox are one of the rarest breeds in the US. If you have pure stock, they can sell for a fairly high price. They are on our long term acquisition list.

 

[savingdogs]

We are raising meat rabbits, and we went with Creme D' Argents. They are an old, rare heritage breed. We liked the color of the fur and had access to buy two unrelated breeding pairs at an excellent price, some of which could be considered "show" rabbits. So it seemed like a good compromise between raising meat rabbits and also keeping a rare old breed alive. We are still newbie at this but I've already got my first three kits up for sale and they are spoken for, which should repay us for the original investment we made in the rabbits. If I sell a few more from the next breeding, I can recoup the expenses we paid out to feed them. After that, we will be getting free meat from the ones that don't sell as pet/show type rabbits.

It will be a while before we have enough rabbits here to supply most of our meat needs, but with the sale of each bunny I can buy quite a bit of meat from the store or supplies for my livestock, however you want to look at it.

I don't have everything down to a science, lwheelr is much more expert, but I have not found learning about rabbits or their care to be very difficult or expensive. My husband did build our hutches himself and we got a great deal on our first four rabbits, but if you search around you might find a local deal that is attractive to you. I found my breeder at Backyardherds.com.

 

[Holachicka]

Wow! Thanks so much for the help! I really like the idea of mixed breeds, because I'm tring to keep my initial investment to a minimum, and get the best bang for my buck(pun intended) . I have a three story hutch we built for quail (not my fav meat) that I am planning to use for the rabbits. Each cage is 3'x7'x20".

I don't know how you feel about this or if it's a bad idea, but I find LOTS of young rabbits listed for free in my area, and my initial breeding stock will be pets for my kids so I won't be deluding the original owners. Are there any huge problems with this? I'm trying to formulate a well thought out plan so that I can run with it when I wear DH down!

Thanks for the great responses so far!

~Sarah

 

[lwheelr]

Just know what you are getting. Don't take just ANY rabbit free.

A good meat rabbit will be fairly good sized, and if it has Californian blood, you'll see a definite crease between the shoulders - sometimes down the spine too on a fully mature male. In any other breed, that crease down the center of the spine means they are fat. But not with a Cali.

Find out as much as you can about them.

Actually, NZs and Cals are two breeds that are often given away. But so are a lot of mutts.

We have one doe, we aren't sure of her lineage, but I am fairly certain she is at least half Californian, because of the shape of her shoulders. She's a decent size, and we'll use her for breeding and see what she throws (in fact, she's due to be bred this weekend). If she breeds well, she'll be kept in the pool. If she doesn't she'll probably be served with mayonnaise and lettuce, between two slices of bread.

 

[Holachicka]

That's good advice!I'll definately pay attention to the crease. Most of the freebies I'm seeing are california, newzealand or flemish giant of some sort of cross of those three. Not all are free, there are quite a few at $10.

Is there any way to tell by feel if it is fat or muscle?