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Does anyone have experience of breeding rabbits for meat? Is it worth it or should i just try the wild ones that eat my veg garden?!

I'm raising rabbits for meat, but only because here in Germany, I'd have to go through too much bureaucracy to shoot the wild ones, and there are not many wild rabbits here in the area anyway.

If you can, it is easier and a lot less work to simply shoot wild ones, rather than breeding, feeding, and cleaning cages of the domestic variety.

What breed do you have? I've heard that with domestic rabbits because you can stave them for 24 hours before culling it makes the gutting a much more pleasent job? Plus the wilds ones around here look rather small

Our rabbits are mixed breed rabbits, bred for meat. I've just started with them. We have two in kit does, the first due in about a week, the other about 5 days after that.

I hadn't really thought about starving them at all. Most of teh rabbits I've gutted so far have been wild rabbits I shot back in the homeland. Rabbits aren't particularly messy to gut, in my experience. Fish are much worse.

We have been raising rabbits for meat for about 5 years now, Standard Rexes, which have a god meat to bone ratio, and there's the added bonus of their lovely pelts (the REAL Velveteen Rabbits!). Very easy and clean to gut, even with a full stomach. Takes about half the time of a chicken from kill to pot.

Cheers
Andrea
NZ

Do you hang the meat for any length of time or can you eat it straight away if you wanted to?

We've found that if you cook the meat before rigor mortis setsin , then it's fine, otherwise we put it in the fridge for a day or two before it gets cooked or frozen.

Cheers
Andrea
NZ

hi, we breed meat rabbits (in Australia), Californian and Flemish crosses at the moment. Not sure about your wild rabbits but here the wild ones are very gamey tasting whereas the domestic meat rabbits are more like chicken.

They really are an incredible source of constant meat for the small holder - easy to keep, feed - oh and of course breed prolifically :D The pelts are really useful as well. As already said, faster to the table than chickens and really easy to do. Good luck!

i'd imagine in the UK - if you have the option to catch rabbit (i.e permission from land owner etc) then it would seem like false economy to breed them, when there are so many wild ones out there that could be caught and eaten. - i could be wrong though.

Andrea what do you feed your rabbits on, we're really interested in keeping rabbits for the table too.

My parents used to breed rabbits in our back garden when I was a little girl, I useds to love them, the other day a friend of ours brought us a rabbit home and we had it for dinner last week my 4yr old thought it was amazing to eat rabbit and took it to school in sandwiches the next day just to freak her friends out

Sky, get yourself a .22 air rifle, you don't need a license and as long as you get a high powered one you will kill bunies with one shot, you are bound to have loads. You could also go shooting possums as well, nice meat from them.

We feed ours on rabbits pellets from Westons (in Rangiora), and grass, herbs, and trees, hay available at all times for roughage. About 1/3 of their diet is the pellets year round, with a bit more when the kits really start to grow. We have heaps of things to wild-gather for them, so we do, and they love it.

Cheers
Andrea
NZ

possum wrote:Sky, get yourself a .22 air rifle, you don't need a license and as long as you get a high powered one you will kill bunies with one shot, you are bound to have loads. You could also go shooting possums as well, nice meat from them.

I'm a rubbish shot and so it seems is the hubby as he's never managed to hit one yet.
I was thinking if we bred our own they'd be free of parasites etc too and I'd feel better about serving them up to the family.

farmerdrea wrote:We feed ours on rabbits pellets from Westons (in Rangiora), and grass, herbs, and trees, hay available at all times for roughage. About 1/3 of their diet is the pellets year round, with a bit more when the kits really start to grow. We have heaps of things to wild-gather for them, so we do, and they love it.

Cheers
Andrea
NZ

Thanks for the info Andrea :-)