ok so whats the deal with raising & eating rabbits?

[dillpickle]

cant get enough of this forum!

So how many rabbits do I need to be breading to produce...one nice size rabbit Rabbit a week to eat lol

 

[Wannabefree]

To produce one nice size eating rabbit once a week.....you'd need probably a trio of rabbits, and a freezer. Rabbits can produce and raise a litter every 75 days. Average litter size is 6, so 6x2 is 12 +/- every 75 days, and approximately 5 litters per doe per year equals about 60 +/- meat rabbits per year. There are 52 weeks in a year, so you will likely have either some backup producers, or extra meat, or you may lose a few. I think you could pretty easily do it with two does and a buck though. They're easy keepers so long as you have good dry hutches.

 

[AZ Rabbits]

We raise a lot of rabbits (just look at our name) and recommend a little different setup than most for self reliance and sustainability. For that, we recommend 2 unrelated bucks (in case something happens to one and also to keep offspring diverse for breeding stock replacement) and 3 or more unrelated does (minimum 3). You might produce a little more than you eat, but you can find people to barter with you for rabbit meat, buy rabbits, etc. This will allow you to produce rabbit meat for the rest of your life without ever having to purchase another rabbit. Or you can start small, but run the risk of something happening and losing your buck or one of your stock and having to find new stock. And with 1 buck, you'll run into inbreeding issues eventually as you replace your stock. Then you'll need 2 extra cages for "grow out" cages where the young grow to butchering age/size while your does have new litters.

For the optimal breeding program, you'll breed your rabbits (when they're about 5 months old) and 2 weeks later you'll palpate to make sure they're pregnant (takes practice). If not, rebreed and save a couple lost weeks. Then at 4 weeks you put your nest box in the cage. Around day 31 they have their litter. If you get a good quality meat rabbit like New Zealand White, American Blue, Californian, Palomino, etc, then you should have an average of 8 to 10 bunnies per litter. Two weeks after they kindle, you rebreed your doe. Two weeks after that you start to wean the kits over a 1 weeks span (between 4 to 5 weeks old) starting with the biggest and then at the end finish weaning with the smallest. This gives a jump start for the smaller bunnies of the litter to get extra nutrients and also helps dry up the doe's milk to prevent any problems for her. The doe then has 1 week alone and then kindles her next litter. With this system, you can get 8 litters a year, or an average of 64 to 80 bunnies from each doe per year (optimally). There have been some great studies with this exact breeding program and results have shown the rabbits are healthier with this breeding program than breeding 3 or 4 times a year.

At 8 to 10 weeks of age, you butcher your rabbits. They will fill up a person faster than the same amount of chicken. They are extremely healthy. They are great bottled as well. Cook the same way you'd cook chicken.

To see what I've done with my rabbitry, feel free to visit my site at: AZRabbits.com

Good luck!
AZ Rabbits

 

[the funny farm6]

I agree with a trio. And if you like them and want more or decide to raise extra to sell, you can add more later.

And I might suggest... I don't know if you have researched breeds yet but I like my new zeland and new zeland mixes. They are nice size and good mothers. I didn't like the flemish giants- they were so big that we had to build special hutches for them and they seemed to eat 2X as much.

 

[dillpickle]

wow thank you so much guys for the wealth of info!

az I have bookmakred your website. Its a great resource!


So after 2 months butcher them? How much can I expect them to weigh at this age?

 

[lorihadams]

depends on the breed you go with....probably will end up with 4-6 lbs.

 

[AZ Rabbits]

The actual meat weight also depends on the breed. If you get a large boned rabbit like a Flemish Giant, your meat % will be much lower than a tiny boned rabbit like NZW, Americans, Californians, Palominos, etc.

Also, at 8 to 10 weeks you're first impression will be that they're not big enough. But that is the point in which the feed to meat conversion ratio starts to decrease, making it more expensive to produce less meat.

 

[Wannabefree]

AZ is right about the 2 bucks. My suggestion was more to just get your feet wet and see if you like them. Nobody I know that likes rabbit meat stops at a trio Eventually you'll want to get more, and probably eat it more than once a week even. A trio will produce enogh for once a week, but you can have more bucks and does to cycle to keep from inbreeding your replacement stock. I currently keep several bucks and does as well.

 

[AZ Rabbits]

My suggestion was more to just get your feet wet and see if you like them.

Great advice! Start with just a trio with a goal for more. You WILL make mistakes. With a trio, your mistakes are small. If you jump in with a bunch of rabbits, those same mistakes will be big. Learn what you need to learn, make your mistakes, then add more rabbits.

Nobody I know that likes rabbit meat stops at a trio

Ain't that the truth! It's as bad as raising chickens.... gotta get one of those, and those, and those... and HAVE to keep this one, and that one...

 

[Beekissed]

Wow, AZ...LOVE your site and your setup. Very clean, professional and impressive! If you haven't already, it sure would be nice if you could show that site and your setup to some folks on our sister site, Backyard Herds(link found at the bottom of the page here). A lot of rabbit questions asked over there, particularly about meat breeds and their raising but primarily seem to be show breeders over there of smaller, pet breeds answering the questions.