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- #81
I did the exact same thing as you, I've been raising rabbits and chickens for about 25 years since I was 8 years old and usually I switched on and off at one point I was Raising Silver Fox rabbits and I build my own hutches pretty well and at one point I had six breeding does, I'm Italian and do enjoy eating rabbit meat but not every single day of the week I enjoy it on the weekends or on special occasions that's why I breed once a year and I enjoy the different colors oh, I also turned into a rabbit Mill and ended up selling off so many rabbits at such a cheap price it almost hurt me real hard and the gut to let them go at that price!!!! I have one or two females at a time at the most and I breed once a year and that's it... and one of my females gives me 7 every single time.... I shocked myself when I counted eight yesterday but it was actually 7 haha which are great numbers to me because they only have 8 teats, My Silver Fox were giving me 10 12 and even 13 at a time it was horrible because the mom couldn't keep up with the milk production and I had way too many rabbits my other female gave me eight and eight and that's perfectI am in NC but its been a cold summer. I actually need the heat and sunshine for my garden, too much cloud rain and cold this year. I want to raise Rabbits for what ever I can get out of them. I do not like Rabbit meat but I would sell or barter meat. If I like doing fur production I will take that up as a hobby as well. I know that you harvest at different times for each so if a Rabbit I raise for fur will have old meat. Edible but not really marketable. If I process a rabbit for its meat its fur will not have matured enough to have that high Rex value. I can do both if I am willing to sacrifice the quality of one over the other. I might just keep one Rex as a pet and get no more rabbits. I am not sure where I am going to go. I have had Rabbits before but I got too far ahead of myself and was turning into a rabbit mill. Of course I was raising rabbits for meat back then so over production is fine until I tasted rabbit meat and realized I wouldn't be eating rabbit again. Ended up selling all the rabbits real cheap to someone. This time I am going to slow down with production and wait until there is a demand before I make fur or meat. New Zealands are better for meat however they are not as fun to pet and hold as the Rex.