How many?

[LilRedRiding]

Hi Everyone!
I'm new here and just getting ready to start out with some meat rabbits. I am not raising the rabbits for my family, but instead as a way to feed RAW to my 3 dogs. I have done lots and lots of research and this is what I have so far:
My dogs weigh: 65, 55, and 8 lbs
3% of their body weight combined: 3.84 lbs per day that my dogs will need on this diet.
A yearly total of about: 1400 lbs of meat/bone/ organ for all three dogs!!
Breaking that down to about 8lbs per rabbit (New Zealand White) to lowball: 175 rabbits for one year.

So from that math, if I want to have a set breeding stock (meaning a group of rabbits that wont be butchered but will continue to be used as breeders until their litter sizes go down) how many should I keep in order to produce 175 rabbits a year?

I don't want to necessarily breed my rabbits to death because I know a doe can get pregnant within a matter of days of giving birth. So assuming I space them to 3 breedings a year per doe what would that leave me needing for my breeding stock?

 

[Farmin' Girl]

Well to start off, hello and .

Second, I am going to tell you it is best not to breed in the 3 hottest months of the year, otherwise, your pregnant rabbits will overheat and die like my brother's doe did.
It is just best to give them a break during this time, so in order to have enough meat to feed your dogs, you will want to have enough meat already butchered for that time span.
Rabbit litters can range anywhere from 1 to 12 rabbits per litter, and it will almost always vary, unless you just happen to have a really good breeder who does well for you.
I can't help you much with the math calculations for your dog's feeding amounts per lb., but I can tell you that at 3 breedings per year, you will get anywhere from 3 to 36 babies per female breeder.
I will also tell you that even though your doe just might give birth to 12 babies, they may not all survive, because the mom only has 8 teats. My doe just had a batch of 11, only 7 of which lived.
Now you can rebreed a doe about 2-4 weeks after kindling, provided she is looking healthy. If you rebreed when the babies are two weeks old though, that will put the doe at having a second litter just as the first litter is weaned off at 6 weeks, which doesn't give the doe much of a break inbetween. So I would recommend rebreeding 4 weeks after the first kindling, which should give the doe approx. 2 weeks for a break from nursing.
It takes about 4 weeks from breeding to kindling.
You CAN push it up to 4 breedings a year per rabbit, provided you space it out right, and are giving the mom a bit of a break between litters, and are trying your best not to breed in the hottest months.

I hope this helps you in some way, and now that you know a little about how many babies per kindling, I hope this will better help you to decide how many breeders you need to provide enough meat for your dogs.

Again, hello and welcome, and I hope you enjoy this sight as much as we all do!

 

[M.L. McKnight]

I don't mean to rain on your parade but you could buy two old milk cows that will be culls from a dairy, have them processed into ground beef and have all of the meat you want for your dogs with a boat load of bones for them to gnaw on. That'd cost a lot less than feeding and managing enough rabbits to feed them.
I process my own but even if you had to pay a processor I still think you'd come out ahead.

 

[Bossroo]

Price out the cost of rabbit at the store or internet. You will find it to be the most expensive meat meal the dogs will consume . Then price out cull cow and one will come to realize that the cow is much cheeper not to mention your time , labor, housing , and price of rabbit feed in raising and processing rabbits.

 

[SA Farm]

It's doable, but like the others said, expensive. You may want to consider having a few extra does to sell the kits to help cover costs...
Provided you start off with good, reliable stock with good milk and solid numbers, you should average 8 kits per litter meaning you'll have to have about 20 litters per year to have enough meat. If you breed March and May in the spring and September and November in the fall, you would need 4 really good does to have enough. To be safe and to be able to sell off your extras, you should really go with 6.
That's a lot of rabbits to start off with for a newbie breeder. Most breeders will recommend starting off with a trio. That way you'll have time to get to know the rabbits, the process, and figure out the best way to house and work everything so you won't be overwhelmed by kits and the work. Also, if you change your mind after having them for a while, you won't have as much cost sunk into them to recoup.
My personal recommendation if you really want to go with rabbits, is to follow the advice above. Get yourself a cow to process and freeze, then get a trio of rabbits and go from there. The cow will give you some breathing room while you sort the rabbits out and get started

 

[Farmin' Girl]

It's doable, but like the others said, expensive. You may want to consider having a few extra does to sell the kits to help cover costs...
Provided you start off with good, reliable stock with good milk and solid numbers, you should average 8 kits per litter meaning you'll have to have about 20 litters per year to have enough meat. If you breed March and May in the spring and September and November in the fall, you would need 4 really good does to have enough. To be safe and to be able to sell off your extras, you should really go with 6.
That's a lot of rabbits to start off with for a newbie breeder. Most breeders will recommend starting off with a trio. That way you'll have time to get to know the rabbits, the process, and figure out the best way to house and work everything so you won't be overwhelmed by kits and the work. Also, if you change your mind after having them for a while, you won't have as much cost sunk into them to recoup.
My personal recommendation if you really want to go with rabbits, is to follow the advice above. Get yourself a cow to process and freeze, then get a trio of rabbits and go from there. The cow will give you some breathing room while you sort the rabbits out and get started

Good point SA Farm!

 

[LilRedRiding]

Thanks for the help guys! I should have mentioned that I have bred rabbits in the past as merely hobby pets, just never as income or as a meat source.

I honestly never thought about a cow as I figured the price of a whole cow would be WAY out there especially compared to rabbits. I will have to see what a cow would cost and see my own calculations for it. I know I would have to plan a little better as I would have an much higher upfront cost for the cow then if I raised the rabbits. I really appreciate this advice!!!

And thanks for all the Warm Welcomes!!!