I want some good book recommendations on meat rabbits.

[U_Stormcrow]

What use is a pet rabbit?

They help sell books on how to keep them???? lol.

Seriously, I don't know. We had one a long time back. My girls spent no time with him, he was a pain to care for for, and mostly took up space.

 

[NatJ]

So, are most books on show rabbits not meat rabbits?

It depends on the book. For the specific one I mentioned, there was a whole series of "Raise [animal] the Modern Way" by different authors. I imagine the publisher hired someone for each title-- and the person they hired for the rabbit book was someone interested in showing rabbits (but also did discuss meat rabbits.)

At present, I would say that most books are on pet rabbits. Show vs. meat have some differences, but books on pet rabbits tend to be much more different. For keeping rabbits as pets, advice tends to include having them neutered, having them live in your house in a large enclosure, and providing fresh vegetables every day (with details of which vegetables and how much.)

People raising rabbits for show or meat are more likely to have a bunch of rabbits in cages outdoors (but inside a fence or building to protect them from predators), the rabbits are definitely not neutered, and they do not give fresh veggies to every rabbit every day.

Some of the goals of show vs. meat rabbits are different.

The show breeder wants to breed some really great rabbits: perfect size, perfect body shape, perfect coloring, etc. They do not mind having just a few bunnies in a litter, as long as those bunnies are really nice ones. They may put up with a doe who only gets pregnant on the second or third or later try, as long as she produces good bunnies when she finally does get pregnant. They may even put up with a doe that neglects her babies or fails to produce milk, if they can arrange another doe to give birth at the same time and foster the babies.

The meat breeder wants to raise lots of rabbits that are pretty good. So they would much rather have a doe that gets pregnant every time she is bred, produces 8 bunnies, and raises them all with plenty of milk and no fuss. It doesn't matter if the toenails are the wrong color, or the spots are distributed unevenly between the right and left side of the rabbit, or the rabbit grows to be 1/2 pound larger than the "ideal" size. If there is a market for the rabbit hides, then having a good-quality hide of an acceptable color will also matter to the meat breeder.

Some people do both showing and breeding for meat. Any breeding will produce lots of rabbits. People who show tiny dwarf rabbits may re-home all the extras as pets (dwarf rabbits have small numbers of bunnies per litter, they are little and cute, and there is not much meat on them.) But people raising the bigger rabbits are more likely to eat many of the ones that are not good enough for showing (bigger individual rabbits, and they tend to have more bunnies per litter as well.) For many of the larger breeds of rabbits, the desired conformation (body shape) is exactly what people want for meat-- in fact, the standards were written with that in mind.

Talking about show rabbits just reminded me of another resource: the American Rabbit Breeders Association. They have a website, some articles about various breeds of rabbits and tips for raising and showing rabbits, and they put out some books (definitely a Standard of Perfection, but maybe some others as well.)
https://arba.net/success-with-market-rabbits/
^This is an article about raising young meat rabbits to compete in a show. It is one of the places where showing and meat overlap: those rabbits are judged specifically on their meat qualities.

https://arba.net/arba-recommendations-for-the-care-of-rabbits-and-cavies/
Ooh, found a good one: this article includes lots of recommendations for rabbits, that work well for meat rabbits. Most of the good parts in the book I recommended, are also present in a shorter form in this article. (Disregard the parts about "cavies," aka guinea pigs. ARBA covers them too.) @U_Stormcrow you may want to read it too-- I'm not sure whether it will have anything new for you or not.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

It depends on the book. For the specific one I mentioned, there was a whole series of "Raise [animal] the Modern Way" by different authors. I imagine the publisher hired someone for each title-- and the person they hired for the rabbit book was someone interested in showing rabbits (but also did discuss meat rabbits.)

At present, I would say that most books are on pet rabbits. Show vs. meat have some differences, but books on pet rabbits tend to be much more different. For keeping rabbits as pets, advice tends to include having them neutered, having them live in your house in a large enclosure, and providing fresh vegetables every day (with details of which vegetables and how much.)

People raising rabbits for show or meat are more likely to have a bunch of rabbits in cages outdoors (but inside a fence or building to protect them from predators), the rabbits are definitely not neutered, and they do not give fresh veggies to every rabbit every day.

Some of the goals of show vs. meat rabbits are different.

The show breeder wants to breed some really great rabbits: perfect size, perfect body shape, perfect coloring, etc. They do not mind having just a few bunnies in a litter, as long as those bunnies are really nice ones. They may put up with a doe who only gets pregnant on the second or third or later try, as long as she produces good bunnies when she finally does get pregnant. They may even put up with a doe that neglects her babies or fails to produce milk, if they can arrange another doe to give birth at the same time and foster the babies.

The meat breeder wants to raise lots of rabbits that are pretty good. So they would much rather have a doe that gets pregnant every time she is bred, produces 8 bunnies, and raises them all with plenty of milk and no fuss. It doesn't matter if the toenails are the wrong color, or the spots are distributed unevenly between the right and left side of the rabbit, or the rabbit grows to be 1/2 pound larger than the "ideal" size. If there is a market for the rabbit hides, then having a good-quality hide of an acceptable color will also matter to the meat breeder.

Some people do both showing and breeding for meat. Any breeding will produce lots of rabbits. People who show tiny dwarf rabbits may re-home all the extras as pets (dwarf rabbits have small numbers of bunnies per litter, they are little and cute, and there is not much meat on them.) But people raising the bigger rabbits are more likely to eat many of the ones that are not good enough for showing (bigger individual rabbits, and they tend to have more bunnies per litter as well.) For many of the larger breeds of rabbits, the desired conformation (body shape) is exactly what people want for meat-- in fact, the standards were written with that in mind.

Talking about show rabbits just reminded me of another resource: the American Rabbit Breeders Association. They have a website, some articles about various breeds of rabbits and tips for raising and showing rabbits, and they put out some books (definitely a Standard of Perfection, but maybe some others as well.)
https://arba.net/success-with-market-rabbits/
^This is an article about raising young meat rabbits to compete in a show. It is one of the places where showing and meat overlap: those rabbits are judged specifically on their meat qualities.

https://arba.net/arba-recommendations-for-the-care-of-rabbits-and-cavies/
Ooh, found a good one: this article includes lots of recommendations for rabbits, that work well for meat rabbits. Most of the good parts in the book I recommended, are also present in a shorter form in this article. (Disregard the parts about "cavies," aka guinea pigs. ARBA covers them too.) @U_Stormcrow you may want to read it too-- I'm not sure whether it will have anything new for you or not.

I did read it, thank you. Confirmed some other sources, and some things I'm learning by doing. Definitely worth the two minutes invested.

 

[cassie]

I want to raise rabbits for meat but know nothing. What are some good books/ websites? where do I start?

A really good beginner's book is Storey's Guide to Raising Rabbits by Bob Bennett. It will tell you just about everything you need to know. It covers housing, buying, feeding, butchering, and breeding. It is inexpensive. I got my copy on Amazon.

 

[NatJ]

Years ago, I read "Raising Rabbits the Modern Way" by Bob Bennett.
I think second-hand copies are still available for reasonable prices (places like ebay), but it's even better if your local library has a copy you can borrow for free! (My library doesn't.)

The author is more focused on show rabbits than meat rabbits, but he at least mentions meat rabbits, and has a lot of basic advice that works well (things like how to build a cage that rabbits do not escape but let the droppings fall through the floor for easy cleaning; how often to breed a doe, when to put the nestbox in her cage, when to wean bunnies; what & how much to feed; etc.)

I do not agree with everything that author says. For example, he gives medications regularly to try to prevent certain diseases, while I have raised rabbits with no medication at all and they were healthy too. But he does have a lot of good information in that book, and much of it is missing from the pet-focused sites that are easy to find on the internet at the present time.

A really good beginner's book is Storey's Guide to Raising Rabbits by Bob Bennett. It will tell you just about everything you need to know. It covers housing, buying, feeding, butchering, and breeding. It is inexpensive. I got my copy on Amazon.

Belated update:

It turns out those two books by Bob Bennett are basically the same book.

I found the newer one (Storey's Guide to Raising Rabbits) at my library and read it. So for anyone who wants rabbit raising books, don't waste time and effort trying to get both of them. Just go with whichever one is easier to find.