Raising Meat Rabbits

[CertifiedChaser]

thank you Bunnylady, i will keep an eye on my rabbits, i still have a month at the earliest or 2 months.

I have another Q. is there any foods to feed the meat rabbits so their meat taste good? thanks again

I don't know if this is an answer you're looking for but I've heard that in Ancient Rome they would feed acorns, oysters, and wine to their animals to make the meat sweeter. At the least you could try acorns but I'm not sure if they're safe for rabbits or if rabbits even like them. Maybe leach the tannins first and try?

 

[CyndiD]

@Bunnylady yes, i was meaning that i have 1-2 months until they are old enough to breed; at the age that they can breed. when i acquired the rabbits the previous owners told me that the kits were about 1month old. since i have never had rabbits, i have to take them at their word that they paid attention the the age of the rabbits.
i have had the rabbits for 5.5 weeks now. my dh thinks they were closer to 2 mo when we got them, so that would make them about 3.5 mo and the 3 does about 4.5 mo. so their time is actually closer to breeding age. the 3 does are ready any day and the kits about 1m.

your 5 buck story & your "best friends" does was scary. and i read a thread on here about rabbits chewing on ducks and chickens... too scary and sad and gross to me. i watch youtube video channel of a guy who has his rabbits on the ground ina natural setting, where they burrow and live in a community and get along. i think the space has a lot to do with animals getting along or not. just like us if we lived in a cell, it is hard to be happy, kwim?

 

[CyndiD]

thank you Bunnylady, i will keep an eye on my rabbits, i still have a month at the earliest or 2 months.

I have another Q. is there any foods to feed the meat rabbits so their meat taste good? thanks again

I don't know if this is an answer you're looking for but I've heard that in Ancient Rome they would feed acorns, oysters, and wine to their animals to make the meat sweeter. At the least you could try acorns but I'm not sure if they're safe for rabbits or if rabbits even like them. Maybe leach the tannins first and try?

i need to find an acorn tree; dont drink wine, maybe grape juice or apple juice? or homemade apple sauce? oysters i could get.
do these foods have to be given together?? just curious. i will google it. thanks for your reply.

 

[CertifiedChaser]

Acorn trees shouldn't be too hard to find. Almost every oak tree in fall will drop a ton of them. As for the other ingredients from what I've gathered they were generally fed over a course of a few days. It was mostly to pigs so I imagine they mixed it all together no problem. I only recommend the acorns due to safety reasons for the rabbit but it's your choice. I'm personally curious about it myself. Oysters I just assume would be too pricey to even bother with unless you know a way of getting them cheap other than catching/raising your own. And from the sound of it Marsala wine was the general wine they fed the pigs because back then alcohol was pretty cheap and common and almost everyone drank it. It seems to be a sweet wine (I don't drink wine either) so I suppose grape juice could be a good substitute but I know grapes are poisonous for dogs so you may want to check if that'd be safe for your rabbits if you intend on trying it.

 

[Bunnylady]

@Bunnylady yes, i was meaning that i have 1-2 months until they are old enough to breed; at the age that they can breed. when i acquired the rabbits the previous owners told me that the kits were about 1month old. since i have never had rabbits, i have to take them at their word that they paid attention the the age of the rabbits.
i have had the rabbits for 5.5 weeks now. my dh thinks they were closer to 2 mo when we got them, so that would make them about 3.5 mo and the 3 does about 4.5 mo. so their time is actually closer to breeding age. the 3 does are ready any day and the kits about 1m.

your 5 buck story & your "best friends" does was scary. and i read a thread on here about rabbits chewing on ducks and chickens... too scary and sad and gross to me. i watch youtube video channel of a guy who has his rabbits on the ground ina natural setting, where they burrow and live in a community and get along. i think the space has a lot to do with animals getting along or not. just like us if we lived in a cell, it is hard to be happy, kwim?

I think space has a lot to do with it. Many years ago, I read an article by some researchers who had been observing wild rabbits in their natural settings. European rabbits are often found in groups, called warrens, and people have assumed from that that they are basically social. What these folks observed made them think otherwise. The strongest, nastiest rabbits lived at the center of the warren, and the most subordinate animals lived at the outer edges, where they and their offspring were most at risk of predation. Some of the lowest-ranking animals spent a lot of time just getting out of the way of the dominant animals. They saw no kinds of cooperative behavior, no mutual grooming; no evidence of "friendships" at all. Each tunnel was the sole property of the rabbit that dug it, and any other rabbit that entered that burrow would be attacked. From what they observed, the researchers concluded the the rabbits were living together because there just wasn't any other good place for them to live, and not because they preferred the company of other rabbits. We breed our domestic pets to be friendlier, more outgoing, but even the house rabbit folks will tell you that some rabbits cannot live peacefully with other rabbits, even if they have an entire human house to roam in.

 

[CertifiedChaser]

I think space has a lot to do with it. Many years ago, I read an article by some researchers who had been observing wild rabbits in their natural settings. European rabbits are often found in groups, called warrens, and people have assumed from that that they are basically social. What these folks observed made them think otherwise. The strongest, nastiest rabbits lived at the center of the warren, and the most subordinate animals lived at the outer edges, where they and their offspring were most at risk of predation. Some of the lowest-ranking animals spent a lot of time just getting out of the way of the dominant animals. They saw no kinds of cooperative behavior, no mutual grooming; no evidence of "friendships" at all. Each tunnel was the sole property of the rabbit that dug it, and any other rabbit that entered that burrow would be attacked. From what they observed, the researchers concluded the the rabbits were living together because there just wasn't any other good place for them to live, and not because they preferred the company of other rabbits. We breed our domestic pets to be friendlier, more outgoing, but even the house rabbit folks will tell you that some rabbits cannot live peacefully with other rabbits, even if they have an entire human house to roam in.

Wow, that's news to me. Every rabbit I've ever owned I felt as though they could be paired up and just as friendly as they were to me. I've always pictured hundreds of bunnies just tunneling together like those meerkats on animal planet. Whoda thunk it.

 

[Bunnylady]

It really shouldn't be that surprising - every other kind of rabbit in the world is solitary in nature. But just as we have modified dogs' behavior to suit our needs, we are changing rabbits, too. Lots of rabbits are cuddly, snuggly, friendly animals; I have had some that shared cage space for years (especially breeders that were living out their retirements). But knowing what the essential rabbit is, I don't take an amiable nature for granted - I've seen things go horridly wrong too often.

 

[CertifiedChaser]

When you breed rabbits do you usually use pairs or is the buck mated to several does? I've been wanting a buck and two does and was planning on housing them together split between a hutch and a run that they'd have almost 24/7 access too but now I'm thinking maybe I should only go with one doe (though I don't want to inbreed).

 

[Bunnylady]

A rabbit doe becomes fertile immediately after kindling; if she is kept with a buck, she will get bred again right away. This means that the doe has back-to-back litters about once per month until her body is so drained that it starts absorbing the kits or she dies. Most people who do colony breeding don't just turn a buck loose with some does and walk away, they control the process in some way. Some keep the does together in a large pen and only put the buck in when they want kits. Some remove does that are obviously heavily pregnant from the colony so they can raise their litters without disturbance from other rabbits.

Obviously, the larger the space in which you keep rabbits, the more security becomes an issue. Predators can get in, rabbits manage to get out. Weather becomes a greater factor - I had a friend who tried colony raising for a while, and she lost whole litters in rain-flooded burrows during summer downpours. In addition to the greater losses to predators and forces of nature, one of the biggest downsides of raising rabbits in colonies is that they get basically no handling, and tend to fight like tigers when you do get your hands on them. There are probably as many ways of keeping rabbits as there are people that keep them; all have their drawbacks, you just have to figure out what works best for you.

 

[CertifiedChaser]

Well, now I get why most meat rabbits are raised in individual cages and not left to roam freely too often. I suppose aside from a hutch and run I'd have to also include a separate nesting area for each doe. Guess that answers my post on the rabbit hutch/run design thread, lol. Thanks so much for your help!