Goats vs. Rabbits

[Vadard]

Assuming you have enough room for goats, are they more complicated & expensive to raise than rabbits? I know a goat costs more than a rabbit...thinking more about housing, heat tolerance, daily chores, and stuff like that. Just curious, as I am figuring out how much it will cost me to build a climate-controlled rabbit hutch/barn to keep my rabbits alive thru our hot summers.....Makes me wonder if goats might be a better option, as we have room for them. Seems like the trade off is more on feed & fences, less on fancy accommodations?

Thanks!
Vadard

 

[Ninjasquirrel]

Assuming you have enough room for goats, are they more complicated & expensive to raise than rabbits? I know a goat costs more than a rabbit...thinking more about housing, heat tolerance, daily chores, and stuff like that. Just curious, as I am figuring out how much it will cost me to build a climate-controlled rabbit hutch/barn to keep my rabbits alive thru our hot summers.....Makes me wonder if goats might be a better option, as we have room for them. Seems like the trade off is more on feed & fences, less on fancy accommodations?

Thanks!
Vadard

My two cents: rabbits are easier all the way. For instance if you only want one breeding buck for goats you need to keep him very far away from your home. They smell horrible because they literally piss all over themselves to mate. If you have the space I say it depends on what your family wants to produce and you ability to sell. You wont have that issue with rabbits but breeding young bucks possibly. In addition if you want to keep young bucks until they are of age for meat you will have to castrate and remove horns for protection. Castration is fairly simple in explanation but doing so can be difficult resulting in failure of the goat. My best advice is to do your research and decide what works best for your family. Ours personally will be going with rabbits but once we have the space goats as well for milk.

 

[RiverOtter]

LOTS on fences, LOTS AND LOTS. Goats are ridiculously hard on fence.

For goats, you will need a shed that keeps them dry and (where you are) cool. Goats are very heat tolerant, when I lived in AR, I would see my ladies sunbathing when it was 110, but when they need shade, they need it. You are going to need room not only for the goats, but for hay storage, as they'll need supplemented, as bermuda grass and it's relatives aren't quite enough. They will need a good quality loose mineral with 1500ppm copper. No, a brown salt lick is not the same.

You'll want to get a microscope (a $50 one will do fine) and learn to do fecals, and do them monthly. It will save you a lot of $$ in wormer and vet bills

As far as daily chores, meat goats are easy. Walk the fenceline, check on everyone, feed and water, trim hooves as needed*, touch up clean the barn.
Weekly, do a deeper clean, make sure the mineral is topped up.
Monthly, make your feed and hay run, scrub your water tanks and buckets, run those fecals.
Kidding season is a subject unto itself. It mostly goes smoothly, but be ready for it to not.


Milk goats? WAY more work.

*I hate making a big production out of hoof trimming, so if I see someone needs it, I will trim one hoof. The next day, a second hoof, etc. Easier on the goats and easier on my back than the 2x a year rodeo of the "get it all at once" persuasion.

 

[Weeg]

Goats eat way more, there area is bigger, which requires more money toward fencing. You don't have to shovel got poop, but you do have to put time towards making sure there area is mud free, which depending on your climate, and your area, may require money towards gravel. And, depending on the personality of the goat, and the breed, they can be really hard to keep in a fence. Our Pigme is a master escape artist. Goats are defiantly more work, money, but they are way more socailbel then rabbits, and can even pull carts! I am looking into buying a pulling harness for our pigme! Lol!

What do you want them for? Goats for milk? Rabbits for meat? Or just pets? I think goats easily make better pets. 100%. Rabbits are ver social, and don't do much more then run around a pen, lol! Maybe I am biased against rabbits, since the only rabbit like creature we know is a guinea pig, and he is pretty boring. Lol! It really depends what you want them for. I can defiantly agree though, both are very cute, and silly!

 

[Ninjasquirrel]

LOTS on fences, LOTS AND LOTS. Goats are ridiculously hard on fence.

For goats, you will need a shed that keeps them dry and (where you are) cool. Goats are very heat tolerant, when I lived in AR, I would see my ladies sunbathing when it was 110, but when they need shade, they need it. You are going to need room not only for the goats, but for hay storage, as they'll need supplemented, as bermuda grass and it's relatives aren't quite enough. They will need a good quality loose mineral with 1500ppm copper. No, a brown salt lick is not the same.

You'll want to get a microscope (a $50 one will do fine) and learn to do fecals, and do them monthly. It will save you a lot of $$ in wormer and vet bills

As far as daily chores, meat goats are easy. Walk the fenceline, check on everyone, feed and water, trim hooves as needed*, touch up clean the barn.
Weekly, do a deeper clean, make sure the mineral is topped up.
Monthly, make your feed and hay run, scrub your water tanks and buckets, run those fecals.
Kidding season is a subject unto itself. It mostly goes smoothly, but be ready for it to not.


Milk goats? WAY more work.

*I hate making a big production out of hoof trimming, so if I see someone needs it, I will trim one hoof. The next day, a second hoof, etc. Easier on the goats and easier on my back than the 2x a year rodeo of the "get it all at once" persuasion.

It should also be mentioned that goats can contract tuberculosis and it can be spread to humans. That being said as far as a food source and not purely dairy rabbits raised off the ground are better

 

[Cinnamon Roll]

If you raise your rabbits in a colony, the heat will be less of an issue. They can go down into their burrows to keep cool, or you can wet the ground around them. That said, you would have to keep the buck separated from the does when it’s too hot for kits. Late winter/early spring kindling works well for me. I have lost kits when my does kindled in July.

With the experience of seeing how active and happy my rabbits are in a colony, I think raising them alone in cages is cruel. If that’s the way you would raise them, do them a favor and go with goats instead.

 

[Weeg]

Goats, are WAY more expensive, and take way more work. Rabbits on the other hand, IMO, aren't nearly as exciting. So it really depends on what you are interested in. If your ready to put the work and money in for a possibly more exciting pet then that will be super fun! Otherwise, if you don't are as much, and are cool with putting the less money, and time forward to the possibly less exciting pet, then that will be fun to. It depends on what you are looking for, and able to commit to.

 

[chickengr]

If you raise your rabbits in a colony, the heat will be less of an issue. They can go down into their burrows to keep cool, or you can wet the ground around them. That said, you would have to keep the buck separated from the does when it’s too hot for kits. Late winter/early spring kindling works well for me. I have lost kits when my does kindled in July.

With the experience of seeing how active and happy my rabbits are in a colony, I think raising them alone in cages is cruel. If that’s the way you would raise them, do them a favor and go with goats instead.

can you, please, post some pics of your rabbit's colony? I plan to raise rabbits but know nothing about them exept I will never ever keep them in cages.

 

[chickengr]

I plan to raise maybe 2 goats for milk and a few rabbits for meat. I guess that does not require neither a lot of space nor work. but that would be for personal use only.

 

[Vadard]

Ya’ll are awesome, and I appreciate all the replies. And you talked me out of goats, for now. Chance of TB and having to put goat crap under a microscope monthly is not something I’m down for this year!

I’m really just in it for the meat. Seems like rabbits are the better choice for meat, at least for our family right now.

Thanks all!