Meat Rabbits

When you first consider what livestock to keep on a smallholding there are a few usual suspects that always make an appearance but don't forget about the unusual ones too. Cows, pigs, chickens, sheep and goats are at the forefront of most peoples minds but there is an alternative option that requires only a couple of square meters grazing, if any at all. Even people in an urban environment can consider raising meat rabbits for the table.

The wild rabbit was first utilised for meat by the Romans who realised a single pair could produce an impressive 90kg of meat a year. Originally they were fenced into large areas, fed bundles of fodder and culled when required.  It didn't take long for rabbits to be housed in urban hutches for meat production. There still seems to be a strong tradition of keeping rabbits domestically for meat in Wales and much of the US. When I was a child I clearly remember skinned rabbits being sold on Moore's Street  in Dublin and my mother would often make a delicious rabbit stew. In France rabbit is still sold in the markets and even supermarkets alongside chicken and pork.

Consider the advantages; on a couple of meters you can keep a breeding pair with two enclosures. A female rabbit (doe) is capable of giving birth every thirty days but realistically she shouldn't be allowed to do this or she will lose condition. A good doe can have approximately nine kits at a time and they are ready to eat at three or four months of age. Tthe doe ovulates in response to the buck's presence. If there is plenty of food she will give birth to all the kits.  If food is scarce she can reabsorb some or all of the kits and give birth to the appropriate number to match available resources.  Outdoors she will breed during spring and summer but if housed indoors she can breed throughout the year by extending daylight hours with lighting. The disadvantages are that you will need to confidently cull rabbits yourself. There are some excellent books which talk you through various methods including Basic Butchering of Livestock & Game, by J. Mettler. 

There are a few excellent large breed meat rabbits that grow quickly. The most popular is the stocky New Zealand White, followed by the beautiful Californian. Sourcing a breeding pair or trio is relatively easy in the UK, just read the adverts at the back of any smallholders magazine. In Ireland it's possible to source them via an excellent poultry breeder in Co Leitrim.

I've been researching meat rabbits for about a year now and I've found it very difficult indeed gathering the necessary information. I hope to publish another EBooklet 'Breeding Meat Rabbits for the Table, A Beginner's Guide' very shortly which ought to save those new to this idea hours of research!

Comments

[Thriftcriminal]

According to QI rabbits have no beneficial content beyond their protein. So if you eat ONLY rabbits you get no vitamins and eventually die, some trappers had this happen to them in the frontier days in the US. Interesting, but rabbits still look like a good bet for grub, just add veg to avoid death :-)

[Jean]

Maybe that's why our dogs (three of them!) never bother to catch any...they don't realise they should eat the lettuce and carrots as well!

[Kathy]

Mmmmm... roast rabbit! I have had many, many meals were rabbit was the meat of choice - usually roasts or stews. I think the variety we had was the English Spot. Yummy, but not as tasty as Rex rabbits, which grow more slowly and have more flavour :)

[Maddy]

My Mum recalls often how her Dad had meat rabbits down the garden when she was a girl. The kids would all name one each and then not eat when their rabbit was dinner. I'm not sure I could butcher a rabbit, here they are eaten but most of them are pets.

The statistics you quoted are amazing on how much meat you can get from one good breading pair. Perhaps countries like Africa should look at this as a way to feed the millions of starving children.

[Péitseoga]

We used to keep rabbits for meat. we had a guy come over to slaughter them twice a year, some for dinner, some for relations, some for the freezer. i remember watching them being skinned. it was our job, the kids', to go feed and water them and clean out the hutches. we'd go out and get dandelions for the rabbits, we had an old pearing (pairing?) knife and we'd dig them out of the lawn (they liked the roots and my mum appreciated them being out of the lawn), or we'd get our bikes and find a good roadside patch and cut long fresh grass and dandelions for them. we had names for most of them and got sentimental when their time came, but it was just part of where food comes from, if you want meat you have to kill an animal. and my mum and granny made great casseroles and pot roasts!

not sure about the afrika suggestion, maddy, remember what happened in australia! also, you need a lot of feed for the rabbits to produce meat...

[Péitseoga]

PS, i wouldn't worry too much about the research into breeding rabbits, it's fairly easy, my 10 year old brother was basically doing it, swapping and occasionally buying a male. they were all tasty, even though he didn't pay any heed to particular breeds, selecting on the basis of what was available from the neighbours and friends. the one important thing i remember is to seperate the young quite early from each other, they reach sexual maturity while they are still quite small and if you're not careful you might find a 3rd generation in the making before you know it!
when i was little we kept the rabbits in hutches, when i was a little older and my cousin and brother were dabbling in rabbits (before interest in mopeds took over) they had an area fenced in for them (you have to dig the fence at least a foot, if not more, into the ground or they will dig their way out, and they built a little wooden shelter for them, a house with a removable roof for easy cleaning. after some initial losses to birds of prey they added a chicken wire roof to the area. i think they solved the gender problem by keeping half the rabbits at my cousins house and the other half at ours!

[richard o d]

thank you guys for all the great info. i look foward to the e-book on rabbits mentioned in the leeding article. keep up the good work.

[Donna]

Hey there, I live in New Zealand and was wondering if you could lemme know when that book of urs is ready? LOL I'm interested in breeding them in the backyard, but info is REALLY hard to find!

All the things you can feed them, when to seperate the young, when to swap or get new males etc. How to keep them healthy and what diseases or bugs can they catch etc.

Also how to properly and quickly break their necks. I have a lot of respect for the animal you're going to eat, so if they need to die, I can only handle it if it's really quick and done correctly.

Skinning techniques also handy, as well as how (if possible), to keep and use their furrs.

Thx for reading my huge comment. LOL Please e-mail me when ur book is ready. ^_^

-Donna

[Rabbitbreeder]

Have a look here for a great free guide how to keep meat rabbits:
http://www.rudolphsrabbitranch.com/rrr.htm

This tells you almost all you need to know about meat rabbits and here is a nifty mailing list where you don't have to mix with pet rabbit keepers (who can be quite rabid and mad at times, so beware whom you tell about your hobby, it's worse than joining the KKK in some people's swivel eyed view):
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/Meatrabbits/

@thriftcriminal: you're wrong there, have a look here:
"Compared with the meat of other species, rabbit meat is richer in proteins and certain vitamins and minerals. However, it has less fat, as shown in Table 11. Rabbit fat contains less stearic and oleic acids than other species and higher proportions of the essential polyunsaturated linolenic and linoleic fatty acids (Table 12). "
http://www.fao.org/docrep/x5082e/X5082E04.htm

--
I breed californian does with a NZ/Papillion cross buck, the does are huge girls who move about quite vigorously, and who have 9-12 kits 4 times per year.

Another thing: put proper loos in the cages, that is, cut out the corners (leave one standing, rabbits like to back into a corner) of stackable plastic boxes. Fill with woodchips and a little rabbit pee soaked woodchips (so they get the idea) and keep the floor free of junk, they won't pee on a bare floor, only on things that lie there already. Mine start to use the loos at 4 weeks of age, I place loos in every corner and keep the floor clean, and very soon they all have the hang of it. It's a lot less work, your cages last forever (and don't reek but are pleaseant places) and the rabbits love sitting on their loos eating hay (hang the rack over the loo, of stuff the hay inbetween wall and loo).

And give them proper hutches with solid wooden floors and proper space -- 4ftx3ft for does and litter, 4ftx2ft for does and bucks, and 4ftx2ft for 2-3 fryers after weaning. I also have a laboratory cage made of stainless steel with hygenic floors -- handy if your rabbits get sick and things get very messy and smelly (and it will happen, trust me).

Letting the fryers run on the grass is very good for the taste, but one week before slaughter, only feed pellets, grass makes the flesh slightly bitter! I have a 4mx2m cage made from 2x2 wood with mesh nailed on it (stronger mesh than on the picture, you need foxproof stuff!) on a 5cm^2 mesh on the floor (to thwart the fox from digging in and the does from digging out...) that I move every week on the grass to prevent infections and overuse. I train my rabbits to come running to me (they do anything for banana...) so catching them when it's cage time is very easy.

Have fun and enjoy your cuddly and nutritious pets!

[richard]

thank you for all the info.

[Craig]

Any update on the mentioned e-book on rabbit farming?