Raising our New Zealand Meat Rabbits *Start to finish - Birth to processing* Possible Graphic pics*

[Angelicisi]

I have gotten calls on both ends, snake people and irrate people warning me to get the rabbits fixed so they don't end up as snake food.
Lol gotta love craigslist.

I don't want to show them I'm busy making sire they all live happy lives...til we eat them lol

If anyone wants to...be my guest. Want to eat them, they're dang yummy and meaty! Need to feed them to somethin else? They bought then to eat so be it. As long as people aren't collecting then to release into the wild or somethin dumb like that lol its their creature once it leaves my care.

Years ago, I ran an ad in the local paper about some young rabbits I had for sale. I was used to getting a variety of responses, but one message on my answering machine sticks in my mind after all these years. No name, no number, just a woman's voice dripping venom, "Do you realize people feed those things to SNAKES??!" 

Then there was a friend of mine who bred commercial rabbits, who sold some young stock to the owner of a small zoo. The understanding was that they would be used to produce rabbits to be fed to some large snakes in the zoo. When the rabbit breeder learned that her rabbits had instead been fed to the snakes, she was livid. She was perfectly fine with people eating her rabbits, but not snakes.

I sell a lot of rabbits as pets, and over the years, I've learned to use the term "commercial breeds" rather than "meat rabbits" because some people really take exception to the idea of eating rabbits. To them, rabbits are "friends, not food"   

But as far as showing before breeding, know that doing well in a show room is not at all the same thing as being a good, productive commercial animal. Lots of commercial breeders never take an animal to a show, and lots of show rabbits really don't make it as producers. It's not quite as bad as what some say about Quarter Horses - animals that win in conformation classes aren't good for anything else - but there are certain details where not conforming to the standard actually makes a commercial rabbit better at the job of making meat.  

 

[Angelicisi]

Well I weighed this trio today. I suppose I should have waaaaay before them lol but my scale didn't go the high

Doe #1

Doe#2

Buck #1

 

[Angelicisi]

A processing size 3 month old (breeder we held back but at the age we would process)

 

[Angelicisi]

And Doe #1's kits are all within a few ounces of each other.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

I only ever advertise my rabbits in Farm and Garden. I once made the mistake of posting in pets specifically for them as raw dog food or snake food... Never again. The only good that came out of that was teaching, of all things, a Netherlands Dwarf breeder how to prepare her culls in such a way that her Shi Tzu could eat them as a raw diet! Lol! Never thought someone with dwarf bunnies and a ShiTzu would wanna chop up her fluffy critters and grind them into bits for an all natural animal diet! It takes all types... These days I only go through Farm and Garden because legal sales of livestock is allowed there... And I never EVER contact people "rehoming" their rabbit no matter where they post!

 

[Angelicisi]

Friday I'll be weaning Doe#2's kits. They'll be 4 weeks old and all have been eating and drinking she's ready for then to be in the grow out pen lol

Built the babies from doe #1 a temp cage. Waiting on j clips to finish boy and girl grow out areas.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

At six weeks, all of Kibbles kits are very even in weight too! They are all RIGHT at 2lbs, give or take an ounce or two. They're pretty much on totally solids at this point even sticking in with mom, but I'm still pulling them out a few at a time. Three, then two days later three more, then the two. I'm a little late weaning these ones!

 

[Angelicisi]

yay! I like that the babies are growing well so close in weight is neat too. Happy bunnies make more happy bunnies lol

...

At six weeks, all of Kibbles kits are very even in weight too! They are all RIGHT at 2lbs, give or take an ounce or two. They're pretty much on totally solids at this point even sticking in with mom, but I'm still pulling them out a few at a time. Three, then two days later three more, then the two. I'm a little late weaning these ones!
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[Angelicisi]

 

[Mahlzeit]

They look great. Getting so big!