New To Rabbits

[King]

Well the kids convened me to get them some meat rabbits to breed & process. I finally gave in so here I am. I don't even know what kind they are yet & already made a mistake & brought sick rabbits home so I'm not of to a very good start. Well just wanted to say hi so now back to reading.

 

[Hens and Roos]

Welcome , sorry to hear you are having problems right away! are all the rabbits sick- what symptoms are you seeing with them?

 

[samssimonsays]

WELCOME! I am so sorry someone sold you that! If you look on the ARBA website (American Rabbit Breeders Association) You can google breeders in your area, and google breeds in your area as well but ARBA folks are usually very helpful and willing to help kids get started into rabbits with HEALTHY animals as well as quality. I don't know a single reputable breeder who would sell a sick animal. It does happen where they can get sick shortly after as nothing is 100% but NEVER sell any animal that could be sick at the time of purchase. I was in the same situation as you. They kept replacing my rabbits until I finally just said enough is enough and found someone else thanks to my local fair with ARBA members helping me. I've been a member and hooked ever since

 

[Ridgetop]

Welcome to the site. Everyone here is friendly and will do what they can to help you.

What is wrong with the rabbits you bought? Some illnesses are easy to treat, some diseased rabbits you have to kill and dispose of the carcasses. Post pix and we will help you decide if they are the best for meat.

You can eat any rabbit, there is nothing wrong with cross breds, but some breeds are too small to bother with butchering so you want larger breeds. Stay away from giant breeds though, they are not efficient at feed to meat conversion and grow slowly. The best breeds are around 12 lbs as adults and convert feed to meat fast. You should have 4-5 lb fryer weight by 8 weeks or so. Standard conversion is 200 lbs feed for a trio (2 does and 1 buck) to raise a litter of 8 apiece (total of 16 fryers) every 3 months. This is a generalized estimate and you can breed for better conversion once you get started. You want rabbits that are not bony on the back and butts. Ideally the best meat breeders are show stock because the show standard on meat rabbits is entirely geared to meat production and placement of muscle meat on the skeleton. Main meat breeds are New Zealands and Californians, there are a lot of other meat breeds and they all share the same standard of perfection. If there are any county fairs around, you can often buy good breeding stock cheaply from the kids who enter meat pens (3 rabbit fryers that are as identical in type and weight as possible) in the fair and are not able to auction their pens. Check sex since you can be stuck with all bucks or does. Also buy at least 2 pens from different people because the pens are usually chosen from the same litter. Choose what you want to start your rabbit adventure and butcher the rest. Also go to some rabbit shows - the show season in hot areas is mostly in the fall through spring - and look at what is available. Usually exhibitors will bring stock to the show to sell. Buying younger stock is cheaper, and easier to acclimate the rabbit to your facilities. I prefer buying stock that is about 3 to 4 months old. Rabbits are sexually mature at 6-8 months. They should be bred at that time to raise litters. A rabbit will give good litters for 2-3 years, then she will start missing or producing gradually smaller litters. This is when you should cull her. If the rabbit doesn't give you litters regularly, mother them properly, or if the amount of kits routinely number below 6, cull her. You should be raising a litter of 6-8 fryers at least every 3 months. If you buy an older show doe (over 8 months), she may refuse to breed and you may pay a lot for one with a show record. I never buy any does over 8 months old because you can have trouble getting a virgin doe of that age to breed. If you buy a doe of that age, make sure you have a buck at least 6 months old to breed her to! If you talk to the various show people they will help you with understanding what you are looking for in meat type. Don't buy anything with fancy fur since there is no market in pelts. Even if you want to tan them yourself, a good pelt must be from a mature rabbit. Baby pelts (fryer age) don't tan well. Don't get a wool breed or long haired breed since a percentage of their feed will go into growing wool instead of putting meat on the carcass and the wool is messy when you butcher.

Hope this helps. Rabbits are a fun and simple way to raise meat for your family. The meat is higher in protein, lower in fat and cholesterol than chicken, and easier to digest. It can be cooked in any way that you cook chicken except because it has no skin, you need to use methods that will prevent it from drying out.

Looking forward to your reply.

 

[Bunnylady]

Ideally the best meat breeders are show stock because the show standard on meat rabbits is entirely geared to meat production

Ummmm, this isn't entirely true. People who have lots of experience with commercial meat production will tell you that show rabbits aren't the best producers. The specific part they have a problem with is the loin area. The show rabbits tend to be shorter in this area, with a more compact body type. The does that are said to be the best producers are longer in the loin area, with a greater amount of space between the ribcage and the pelvis. On average, longer bodied does tend to have larger litters, raise more kits to slaughter age, and deal with the stresses associated with breeding better. I don't know how the dressout ratios compare, but for sheer number of rabbits to put on the table, the longer bodied does are superior to those that garner blue ribbons at shows.

 

[samssimonsays]

This is all excellent information! I will definitely be keeping this in mind when the time comes and I am ready to start a meat breed!

And I have seen in any breed, if they are excellent on the show table, they are usually horrid mothers All of my best does are awful moms! It is not always the case but when showing and raising for type it always seems to be the case. Sometimes I think meat breeds would be easier than fancy breeds. But they all have their draw backs. When we have more land I hope to raise meat not just cull my non shows for meat. Right now pet market is booming so I don't need to worry about that but it is nice to know there is a back up

 

[King]

I do believe I bought coccidia infested young rabbits. The first sign was the first one fell over dead & blotted. Then the second one hours later. I actually decided on treating for coccidia after returning to the store & found pooppy butts. My place is now in lock down. Nothing in or out right now with the only new one that is left is in quarantine until I think it is over. I have no hard feelings towards the store but the breeder that sold to them. I don't think mine came from that farm but got sick bad husbandry.

In honhonesty it is my fault since I knew better not to quarantine to start with. I let a person that had more experience talk me out of it since it was late & I was tied & didn't want to build a new cage that night. Laziness bites you in the butt. I'll post pictures when I get a chance.

 

[furandfeathers]

Welcome. I started almost the same way with Rabbits. You will be able to learn a lot here.

 

[Ridgetop]

With regard to show rabbits, I disagree. I believe in meat rabbits it is all in what the breeder is looking for and the strictness with which you cull. If today's rmeat animals are losing body length then it is because the breeders are choosing shorter bodies to compensate for poor rise - a shorter body will make the rise look higher. My husband showed for years and bred wonderful champions. Those champions produced between 8 to 12 kits and raised at least 8 - 10 per litter. I culled anything that did not raise her entire litter. If she was an older doe who routinely raised great babies, I kept her an extra year. Also I had them all on an intensive system. I bred the does back when the kits were 6 weeks old and removed the doe from the litter to another pen 2 weeks before she kindled again. Most of my breeders were sold after 2 years. I would breed them for fair meat pens and sell them cheap or give them to the 4-H kids. They usually did not want to breed more than a few times so an older experienced doe was perfect for them. We did not show any doe after 8 months which meant she had to finish her Ch. by then. By 10 months if the does were not breeding well and raising successful litters, they were culled. The does got 2 tries and if no good healthy litters were raised, gone.

Granted, this was about 20 years ago, but the principles are the same today. My husband was one of the top NZW show breeders then. We use the same principles on all our livestock since then, and have had minimal breeding or management problems with any species. Culling heavily is the answer. I will say that breeding the best animals to the best animals did not always produce the best animals. We have eaten entire litters produced by Champion parents. They taste as good as their non-champion produced relatives LOL! We also found that breeding top bloodlines from different barns did not always nick either. We bought several beautiful rabbits from a top barn but when they were bred to our top animals we had developed from other bloodlines, we got garbage. (More rabbit and dumplings!) They did produce champions for us when bred to each other but we didn't want to have 2 separate bloodlines so we sold that line and they produced very nice animals for their next owners.

My advice for newcomers is:
1. Go to shows and talk to breeders and judges (after the class) about what they look for in a meat rabbit - DON'T buy from a pet store
2. Buy the best stock you can whether you want to show or not (the standard tells you where the meat is)
3. BUY YOUNGER HEALTHY ANIMALS from known local breeders with reputations to maintain (they are usually interested in helping newbies)
4. When you butcher, check the rabbits for TYPE AND WEIGHT based on the standard (especially if you are keeping future breeding stock (often a good breeder will come over and help you cull your first few litters to show you what to look for)
5. Buy a scale and WEIGH your fryers and occasionally your breeders - too many people tend to lose size when choosing type
6. CULL HEAVILY - YOU CAN ALWAYS REPEAT THE BREEDING
7. Quarantine new animals - NEVER TAKE IN A STRAY OR "GIFT"
8. DESTROY SICK ANIMALS if they don't respond to treatment in a few days before they infect the entire barn
9. NEVER DO OUTSIDE BREEDINGS - RABBIT SYPHILIS IS HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS AND GOES DORMANT UNTIL ALL OF A SUDDEN YOUR ENTIRE BARN IS INFECTED (this happened to me when I bought a champion Holland Lop (very expensive too) from a top breeder from out of state - that is another story.)
10. CULL - CULL - CULL!!! Do it at 8 weeks and again at 3 months and again at 6 months. The secret to great breeding and show stock is heavy culling. If my husband says "this rabbit is nice but . . . " I throw it in the butcher pen. If he loves it, we check it 3 times before it stays in the barn as a breeder.

Follow these guidelines and with a lot of info from rabbit books on housing etc. you should be off to a great start. Raising meat rabbits is one of the most rewarding breeding experiences and wonderful for kids because by the time the child starts to get bored the babies are born, then it is time to breed again and another round starts. If you intersperse this with a few shows where the child can enter his or her own 3 month old home bred rabbits, it is a wonderful, inexpensive hobby for the family. Talk to the old guys and gals who have been in it for years and they will give you all kinds of great tips and info on husbandry. The retired breeders are a great resource since they like to share all the info they have learned in their many years raising rabbits. I learned so much just sitting with those older mentors and listening as they talked among themselves about problems past and present. Add to this the fact that you can supply your family with meat and it is a win-win!

Have a lot of fun - oh! and don't forget to spray the cages with bleach water before you put any new stock in them.

 

[King]

This is one of my first two



& this is the other one



This is the sick one.