safe rabbits

[ZombieGranny]

Before Off Topic contributors and their posts are "burned to the ground" as stated by 'The Powers That Be', I have decided to take action and remove the 6,747 unwelcome posts contributed by me in the past 7 years.

My apologies to forum members for any inconvenience this may cause. This is the 4th time it's been threatened and I'm too old and tired to fight it again.
Bless you.

[bingo 7]

You do need to keep your doe breeding. If she is not she will actually become sterile. Also if she gets too fat she won't be able to git-r-done. One important tip. Always put the doe in with the buck in his cage or a neutral cage. The buck always has sex on his mind. But the doe can be a little finicky. They are mean too. You can have your buck castrated if you do it wrong.

[HarriHiker]

For those interested in the butchering check out this site:
http://geekfarmlife.com/2007/11/18/barn ... n-roundup/
This is the website of one of my favorite podcasts. In the video the host of the show actually takes a rabbit that he just killed and runs through the butchering process.
This is just his way of doing it, I'm sure he isn't an expert but it seems to work out well...

[DocOutlands]

Thanks, HH! I've been shown how to butcher, but is was prolly close to a year ago. I'm sure this video will help me out a LOT!

(I can see carrying the laptop - w/ video - down to the rabbit cages, along w/ my thumper, skinner, and water buckets and following the guy, hitting pause as I encounter difficulties and so on... blood spatters on the keys and screen... yeesh! )

[Moana Drifter]

I was inspired so I started feed large amounts or grass and weeds to my rabbits. I did not give up on pellets but fed mostly hay and weeds. The rabbits were the healthest they had ever been. My feed cost went down considerably.

I'm interested in your hay feeding. I've been wanting to do rabbits for a while now, but every time I ran the numbers, with the feed cost it didn't pay for itself. I've got the Countryside issue you referenced, but was concerned that the high-performance rabbits in the US like NZ whites wouldn't handle the diet as well as the Croatian rabbits that had been on it for probably dozens of generations. Are you feeding them free choice hay and pellets, or restricting the pellets to encourage the grass consumption?

[bingo 7]

Rabbits eat hay for fun. I rationed the pellets. Every day I would harvest all the dandelions, clover and any other weed I found. The rabbits did great. I was able butcher every single litter by 12 weeks and most by the 8th week. Some by the 6th week, I prefer the meal size rabbit. The lastest are usually in the summer months. Even if you feed pellets I was able to less than $15 on pellets from pregnancy to butcher for the doe and her litter. I averaged 10 to a litter. That is pretty cheap meat. I get my pellets from the local feed store. The ones that are pellet feed will have fatty tissue in their gallbladder. The weeds and hay rabbits have a beautiful clear gallbladder.

[meancoyote]

I feed the bucks and waiting does 1 cup of pellets a day, and all the hay they want, pregnant does or does with a litter get all the pellets and hay they want, rabbits in the grow out pen get only hay, whatever is in the garden, and salt wheels.

[bonanacrom]

I got a few poins for ya.Almost nothing you do is going to make them perfectly safe .All you cane do is create enough deterrents so it's not worth the effort to try.Also a little known fact is that most of the time the biggest animal you need to watch for is the skunk.It's part of the weasle family and they kill more chickens and other pultery every year than any other animal.For all of the dog family there is a plant,I think it's a weed that you can plant around your property that will keep them away.The way it works is it blocks a canines abilaty to smell. Now since thats how they get most of there info it freaks them out.Wild canines will never go near any area wear this plant grow.(I'll try to find were I have the name of this plant and post it later)I spent 20 years solving other peoples animal probles,As an animal control specialist,you got a question I got the answer,just give me a pm.

[bonanacrom]

Why raise rabbits, they got no nutritional value unless you eat the guts and the bones as well. there to lean.Now ginnypigs (I got know idea how to spell that)have a good nutritional value,there about the same size,and eat the same foods.In south america there an expensive dish,and they have been eaten since the incas.I am planing on getting some.

[bingo 7]

Why raise rabbits, they got no nutritional value unless you eat the guts and the bones as well. there to lean.Now ginnypigs (I got know idea how to spell that)have a good nutritional value,there about the same size,and eat the same foods.In south america there an expensive dish,and they have been eaten since the incas.I am planing on getting some.

I think you may be confusing wild rabbits with raised rabbits. Raised rabbits are not as lean as wild rabbits. They are a great source of protein. If you are in a position to raise rabbits I expect you have the resources to get somewhat of the other nutrients you need including some additional fat. If you are on the run in the wild, just eating wild game, you will have a good chance of running into protein poisoning.

[bonanacrom]

You do get better pelts off rabbits.But I think the other rodant I metioned (the one I cant spell)have one or two more litters a year than rabbits

[meancoyote]

[bingo 7]

Great set up. Looks like Fort Knox. How much of a gap is there from the bottom of the fence and the ground? What kind of material is the "ground"?

[ZombieGranny]

...

[meancoyote]

The gap is about 2" at the most. The ground is packed roadbase.

[El_Dickman]

Your setup is great. Much better than the ones I had. We had wood cages and stapled the wire on the inside giving the rabbits very little to chew on. Worked fine for us. Biggest problem we ran across was heat. I don't remember ever loosing a rabbit to heat but they obviously were uncomfortable when the temps went up.

What are you doing with the pelts? I was lucky enough to be involved with an art cooperative where the cured pelts were in high demand. But I can see them getting out of hand if you are raising a lot of rabbits.

As for Guinea Pigs, they do make for a tasty meal. They are really, really fatty too. The Peruvian way of cooking them reminds me of "flat iron" steaks. But I suspect you can cook them any way you like.

[meancoyote]

I use misters and shadecloth to control heat. I plan to put the misters on a thermostat with a valve to automate the cooling a bit. Most of the pelts go with the guts as fertilizer for the trees. How much meat is on a Guinea Pig?

[El_Dickman]

I don't have the experience with raising and butchering the guinea pigs. Only eating them. The meals I had in Peru were 8-10 ounces of meat if I remember right. Depending on the rabbits you are raising I'd guess the guinea pigs would be 1/2 to 3/4 the size.

[meancoyote]

My rabbits dress out at about 3 pounds at 8 - 10 weeks.

[meancoyote]

No more filling water bottles,

[Fenris]

Necro-bump!

-Fenris-

[USMCSergeant]

Great read through this thread, glad it was bumped. Looking at getting some rabbits next year. To the bones aspect when it comes to dogs. A dog can eat any bone, as long as it is uncooked. Once cooked they may become brittle, snap into sharp pieces and get stuck in the throat, or damage the stomach.

[Cheapshot]

Great info here. Lots of ideas for me now.

[Tank Woman]

A dog can eat any bone, as long as it is uncooked. Once cooked they may become brittle, snap into sharp pieces and get stuck in the throat, or damage the stomach.

I have done a bunch of research about this, and have found it to be true. We dont use the fully raw diet for our dog, but have been supplementing her feed with raw meat and bones for about a year and have had no ill issues. And of course she love love loves it.

And back on topic, I have raised rabbits several times in the past both for pets and meat. In my own experience they were the easiest, quietest, least amount of trouble of all the stock we raised. We do plan on adding them to our farm here as well.