Those of you with Rabbits for meat... *Pics Page 4*

[MissPrissy]

Quote:
The concept of raising rabbits for meat does not bother me. However, if the rabbits are only going to be kept for 12-14 weeks, they are spending the entirety of their lives in cramped uncomfortable cages that do not allow them to express natural behaviours or even get the chance to run. The species is irrelevant to me, any animal raised for human consumption should be treated as humanely as possible. It makes no sense to free-range one speciesout of kindness and condemn another to a lifetime in a cage where it barely ever sees daylight.

Rabbits like to dig. That is the main reason the meat rabbits are kept off the ground. The second reason is no different when keeping turkey poults off the ground - susceptibility to worms and cocci. Cocci can and will kill baby bunnies.

My Rabbits are raised in 36x30 pens and are taken out with time to roam - but not on the ground. I raise pure bred registered rabbits and I am not willing to loose my investment in them so they can play on the dirt. They live a good life and are very well fed.

Can you come up with a better way to keep them safe and disease free? Do you think a rabbit can be free ranged on a pasture?

Please tell me how to do this and I will gladly open my pens. I won't however let them out to forage and dig and run off into the wild to be killed by the local wildlife.

These rabbits are not pets. They won't live longer than 3 - 4 month at best.

If they were to become diseased and medicated would you be willing to then feed the meat to your husband and children?

 

[BantyHugger]

Congrats on the Girls! Turns out my friends own Grand Champion Stock and are willing to breed some just for me! I'll send you pics as soon as the come home!

 

[2manyhats]

Quote:
Everyone is allowed their own opinion. I take good care of my breeding does and bucks. They get a lot of attention and are fed well. We are omnivorous and have to get our meat from somewhere. I prefer to know where it comes from. I respect the animal and treat it well while it's alive. We also make its passing as painless as possible. Sorry if this offends.

 

[Cara]

Quote:
The concept of raising rabbits for meat does not bother me. However, if the rabbits are only going to be kept for 12-14 weeks, they are spending the entirety of their lives in cramped uncomfortable cages that do not allow them to express natural behaviours or even get the chance to run. The species is irrelevant to me, any animal raised for human consumption should be treated as humanely as possible. It makes no sense to free-range one species out of kindness and condemn another to a lifetime in a cage where it barely ever sees daylight.

Rabbits like to dig. That is the main reason the meat rabbits are kept off the ground. The second reason is no different when keeping turkey poults off the ground - susceptibility to worms and cocci. Cocci can and will kill baby bunnies.

My Rabbits are raised in 36x30 pens and are taken out with time to roam - but not on the ground. I raise pure bred registered rabbits and I am not willing to loose my investment in them so they can play on the dirt. They live a good life and are very well fed.

Can you come up with a better way to keep them safe and disease free? Do you think a rabbit can be free ranged on a pasture?

Please tell me how to do this and I will gladly open my pens. I won't however let them out to forage and dig and run off into the wild to be killed by the local wildlife.

These rabbits are not pets. They won't live longer than 3 - 4 month at best.

If they were to become diseased and medicated would you be willing to then feed the meat to your husband and children?

Yes, I do have a better way. I raise mine in a 30' x 20' barn with a concrete floor covered with shavings then hay. It is cleaned out weekly. They have several large diameter tubes for hiding in if they wish. Haven't had an escapee or an incident of sickness yet. I would not feed any infected animal to my husband, nor any factory farmed meat. Our meat animals, horses and pets are all treated with the same degree of respect.

 

[Dinos_rock]

I never thought about eating rabbits. What do they taste like?

Would it be worth it to take them to a butcher? (I don't think I could do it myself...)

 

[PineBurrowPeeps]

I just wanted to say that I'm glad that everyone is able to shoot their own opinions around and still keep it civil

Good for us! We can learn from eachother.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Quote:
Rabbits like to dig. That is the main reason the meat rabbits are kept off the ground. The second reason is no different when keeping turkey poults off the ground - susceptibility to worms and cocci. Cocci can and will kill baby bunnies.

My Rabbits are raised in 36x30 pens and are taken out with time to roam - but not on the ground. I raise pure bred registered rabbits and I am not willing to loose my investment in them so they can play on the dirt. They live a good life and are very well fed.

Can you come up with a better way to keep them safe and disease free? Do you think a rabbit can be free ranged on a pasture?

Please tell me how to do this and I will gladly open my pens. I won't however let them out to forage and dig and run off into the wild to be killed by the local wildlife.

These rabbits are not pets. They won't live longer than 3 - 4 month at best.

If they were to become diseased and medicated would you be willing to then feed the meat to your husband and children?

Yes, I do have a better way. I raise mine in a 30' x 20' barn with a concrete floor covered with shavings then hay. It is cleaned out weekly. They have several large diameter tubes for hiding in if they wish. Haven't had an escapee or an incident of sickness yet. I would not feed any infected animal to my husband, nor any factory farmed meat. Our meat animals, horses and pets are all treated with the same degree of respect.

That sounds quite different. Post some pictures please!

Did you create the barn for the rabbits? How many rabbits do you have in that space?(Your signature line only says 1, but a space that big I would imagine more). How do you control breeding in this environment?

Thanks!
-Kim

 

[MissPrissy]

My barn area for rabbits is 25 x 25. They have roaming time and they have cage time.

A concrete floor in a closed barn is not at all free ranging on the ground.

Do all of your rabbits live freely in your barn at all times? How do you manage breeding and proper record keeping of pure bred rabbits?

 

[Cara]

Kim I'll get some pictures of it tomorrow. It was built as a large workshop/barn, and we converted it. It is a metal framed structure covered with tin sheeting on the outside.

MissPrissy, I never claimed to free range my rabbits; equally I don't free range my birds other than the geese due to the risk of predation here. Both have large runs and houses. My point was that many who have posted here complain about battery farming chickens and are proud that their own birds do not have to live this way, but keep their own rabbits in the same conditions.

My rabbits have free run of the barn; we added pipe fencing and a gate covered with chicken wire, so that the exterior door can be left open unless the weather is bad. I do not breed rabbits, other than one buck they are fixed. However I believe that this idea could easily be adapted by someone willing to take the extra time in return for allowing their rabbits more space. I'm sorry but the defense that 'it doesn't matter because they won't live long' strikes me as a poor excuse and an admission that it is not up to par to keep an animal that way.

 

[MissPrissy]

With pure bred rabbits I cannot let them out to range at will. They all have cage time and range time. They do have a cage to sleep in and the does have a large breeding pen. They are not kept battery style in my rabbitry. I have gone to big extremes to make sure they have big roomy cages for their cage time. I don't know any way to let a doe kindle and care for buns without using an very large cage for her and the babies to share until they are weaned. It is very eay to point a finger at a photo of cages and assume every person raising meat rabbits uses a battery cage style housing set up. For the record - I don't.