Colorado Newbie- Processing Questions

mountainmama

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Hi everyone,

Long time lurker, first time poster.

We are seriously considering raising meat rabbits to primarily feed our dogs, and hopefully supplement some of our diet as well.

Right now, my biggest question is: do you all process your own bunnies, or do any of you hire a butcher to do it for you? I could see it being really time consuming- but if it's not cost effective to hire someone, I'm sure we'll find the time ;)

what are you thoughts on this, and does it still saves you money if you are someone that hires a butcher. (As a reference, we spend about $1000+ per year on dog food, so anything less than that is the goal!)

Thanks!
 

Baymule

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I don't think it would be cost effective to take rabbits to a butcher. They make an excellent backyard source of meat. They are small, quiet and don't demand a lot in feed to get to butcher weight. You can get several does and stagger the breeding so you can have litters ready to butcher at various times.

What kind of dogs do you have?
 

animalmom

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Welcome to BYH and a big howdy from the Great Lone Star State!

We've been raising rabbits for going on six years and the DH has always done the butchering. I will say that the first year it seemed like it took a while for him to finish with one, but he was just being cautious. A while = 30 minutes. It took him a wee bit to decide the best way for him to kill the rabbit, having tried a few methods.

Now he can dispatch, dress and have the rabbit in the refrigerator in less than 10 minutes. I dare say if we needed to do a whole lot of rabbits in one afternoon then we'd set up an assembly line processing.

The whole process gets easier the more you do it, and you can feed a whole lot of the rabbit to your dogs. Ours line up around the area where my man is dressing the rabbit and get feet, guts and the head to tide them over, and keep them from being underfoot. You can decide if you want to tan the hide or let the dogs have it. Warning if you give it to the dogs expect to see bits of rabbit fur all over your yard... it's the dogs' way.

Killing and processing a rabbit is quite do-able. I won't poo-poo your concerns/nervousness about taking the animal's life, but you will be able to handle that in your own way. You provide the best life you can for your rabbits and you benefit from knowing you are giving your family and your dogs a better meat as you know how it was raised.

We got into rabbits for meat for our table and the dogs naturally benefit from that process. Got to be honest with you that since we've been enjoying the meat I'd be out there fighting with the dogs to get my fair share. Tasty critter that rabbit. If you want to raise them just for your dogs you may end up adding a couple of does just so you can have some for your table.
 

animalmom

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Welcome to BYH and a big howdy from the Great Lone Star State!

We've been raising rabbits for going on six years and the DH has always done the butchering. I will say that the first year it seemed like it took a while for him to finish with one, but he was just being cautious. A while = 30 minutes. It took him a wee bit to decide the best way for him to kill the rabbit, having tried a few methods.

Now he can dispatch, dress and have the rabbit in the refrigerator in less than 10 minutes. I dare say if we needed to do a whole lot of rabbits in one afternoon then we'd set up an assembly line processing.

The whole process gets easier the more you do it, and you can feed a whole lot of the rabbit to your dogs. Ours line up around the area where my man is dressing the rabbit and get feet, guts and the head to tide them over, and keep them from being underfoot. You can decide if you want to tan the hide or let the dogs have it. Warning if you give it to the dogs expect to see bits of rabbit fur all over your yard... it's the dogs' way.

Killing and processing a rabbit is quite do-able. I won't poo-poo your concerns/nervousness about taking the animal's life, but you will be able to handle that in your own way. You provide the best life you can for your rabbits and you benefit from knowing you are giving your family and your dogs a better meat as you know how it was raised.

We got into rabbits for meat for our table and the dogs naturally benefit from that process. Got to be honest with you that since we've been enjoying the meat I'd be out there fighting with the dogs to get my fair share. Tasty critter that rabbit. If you want to raise them just for your dogs you may end up adding a couple of does just so you can have some for your table.
 

frustratedearthmother

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It's not really all that time consuming to do a rabbit. I haven't done them in quite a while, but it's faster than processing a chicken in my opinion. Just pop the neck, skin 'em, gut 'em... done! There are a lot of youtube videos...

But if you're going to feed them to the dogs why go to all that work? Wring the rabbits neck and let the dogs do the rest of the work! Like animal mom said - you might find a lot of fur and various 'parts' laying around. Or you can even dispatch them and freeze them whole - just wrap 'em up real good.

I feed whole quail to my dogs and they've become very good at plucking those feathers all by themselves! Less work for me - more natural for them.
 
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