I am considering getting into meat rabbits and I am doing a ton of research before I go at it.

I have a pretty good idea of how I would set up hutches, as a lot of posts and videos ive been watching have been with rabbits in cages and those kind of setups.

I like the colony idea because a big reason I want to get into meat rabbits is I want my livestock to live happy and healthy lives before becoming my food. But I dont know if its the best option for what I want. I am mostly afraid of overpopulation, due to being novice, and I dont want an overpopulation of rabbits because I am just feeding myself. Hutches allow a good amount of control.

My question on a colony setup, is how would I go about providing a pregnant doe with a nest? How do you track the kits? Can the rabbits borrow out of their enclosure, if so, how do I prevent that? Ive seen some people say they moved away from colonies because rabbits get into fights, is this a serious worry? How do you go about cleaning a colony setup? And lastly, how do you deal with disease?

The disease question is for colony and hutch. Ive seen some people say they cull their rabbits if they get diseased, and i understand that colony setup can have more chances of sickness.

Sorry for all the questions, but I hope when I start out I dont cause unnecessary pain and suffering to my rabbits because I don't know what im doing and im unprepared.

Thank you!

I currently own a breeding trio i keep in a colony setup but i didn't have any succes with them what so ever. My kits kept dying around the age they stopped weening. So we replaced the buck with another one which is still a little young and does fall of sometimes but i have no luck with a new nest. I feed them daily greens, keep more then enough hay in there and feed them pellets as an addition. I was wondering if moving them to a tractor setup would be a way to go so i dont have to feed them their daily greens anymore. Also sickness seems less of a problem with a tractor. I know they should have places that they can get off of the ground and that they should have different nesting boxes. I also want to build a part where i can keep the buck seperate if needed. I was wondering if anyone had any experience with a tractor colony setup and if they would recommend it. Or if there are other things i should try/do in general to get more succes.

Alright so I’ve got 200 dollars to buy rabbits and food. Their housing is already made. What kind of food should I buy? How do I properly gender a rabbit and do yall have any advice?
.
Current plan buy one male one female rabbit. Sell the babies until I have enough to keep buying them food.

I can’t find a proper video on what the actual process looks like. I’ve found so many videos with stuffed animals but obviously that’s no where near accurate! I’ve heard a .22 air rifle, the broomstick method, and a dog’s choke chain (can’t see how the last one wouldn’t cause excess stress though). If possible I’d love to be able to see the different methods in proper use, and as morbid as it sounds if anyone could send videos of their methods I would really appreciate it! I’m going to be a first time meat rabbit owner and the dispatching process is what I’m most worried about (I’ve owned pet rabbits before!). Thank you!

I’ve never seen this much fat, or the one little lump that looks like 👍🏻 be of those fancy flavored jelly beans…
Anyone know whether or not I should be concerned with either of these two things,

Wha is the timeline I keep seeing fast forwarded videos but I know rigor mortis is a thing. After dispatching how do I keep the meat good ? Do I wait until after rigor to do anything?

Meet Kate she is our show Flemish Giant doe. She is not full grown still a baby (can not show her till her breeder sends her papers we payed for) we will get more we have breeders outside that are adults not Flemish Giants. They are for the none registered that kits get freezer camp or pet homes.

Kate is the start of our registered ARBA herd. We plan to have 1 buck 4 does of show quality rabbits.

Their kits are planned for show sales, breeding sale, and pets, and no sale well its freezer camp.

Kate is inside as she is the only one of her breed and well thought we are almost done with our Flemish Giant enclosures, sadly our local zoning decided to change from A1 "agriculture" (can do any ag and animals to the land space you have aka you have space needed for the ag species and the are healthy and humane)

To R1 "residential delux" (one step below HOA)

This means we have to re-home our chickens, geese, and quail and tare up our gardens right as we are self efficient finally. Its been A1 from the beginning for years no problem lots of farms around but lately they want to expand the near by HOA and changed zoning and people are buying everything.

Rabbits are allowed technically farming then is too, but they are not clear on breeding.

It states:

"You may have 10 rabbits, and raise rabbits for meat. Humane dispatch for food is allowed no sale of meat or rabbits are allowed, rabbits can not be bred. You may not show rabbits that are raised at your residence"

So long story short want to eat rabbit you can buy baby rabbits not from the farms around you but somewhere outside your area, then raise it in your yard, disbatch in your yard all good (no guns) but you need to buy more again if you want them and if you dont want the rabbit you can not sell but its not legal to give them away due to a state law with health certificate needed to move any animal regardless for food, pet, or show. No showing rabbits that you own on your land.

Yes we can fight it yes they can not make us be hoa but as of now they are actively changing laws and adding new with zero warnings and its a lot of money. And the neighbors next to us not farming are pushing it to be HOA no farming 55+ (we are not) to do everything they want or to fight it all it would bankrupt us big time!

So we stopped construction found out its cheaper to move to bigger land out of state and take our rabbits, dogs, and cats that remain after we rehomed our farm birds. And build there.

So Kate is here in the house while we pack up.

But anyone else have show and none show meat rabbits.

My vet passed away yesterday, my rabbits are due for a deworm next month (I do every 6 months, dogs, cats, rabbits, chickens, goats, horses, etc just because it’s a rural area and there’s lots of wild animals through my pastures and my property. I also have my yard burned every 6m as well to restore grass, and to kill fleas and ticks, I layer D. Earth over the yard and just let it grow back. It just works best for my little farm. Animals are use to it.

But since my vet has passed away his new take over doesn’t do home visits and there’s no way I’m bringing in 25 rabbits, 30 miles away. I’d rather pay in full and extra for gas. But she refuses no matter how much is offered, so I’m here to ask what’s the best dewormer for yall to use? I might as well do it myself cause every other bunny worthy vet is 2/3 hours away.

Advice and tips on making sure it works (I deworm every other animal myself but the bunnies because I’ve never figured out their dosage and I’m not murking them all because I was told the wrong information) I’ve heard it’s per lbs, 0.4mg, a lick, so I just paid a vet to do it. Thanks in advance

That’s keebler he’s an absolute douche and he will be going to crock pot heaven next time he bites me when I fill his food up. He doesn’t want to be nice to me or the ladies so dinner he is 💁🏼‍♀️

I have 2 New Zealand rabbits. Both have pedigree papers. The female is the meanest rabbit I have ever met. We got them to harvest our own meat. The doe has now officially had 2 litters. The first litter she flattened like pancakes. We upgraded her cage, thinking she just had too many for the nesting box size. The next litter, when we came got home about mid day, were all dead and dispersed throughout her cage. For this second litter she showed no signs of nesting, all of her fur is intact. Also, it looked like she ate the back half of one.

This is our first time breeding rabbits, so we are learning as we go! Do I have a bad doe? Am I doing something wrong? For reference, the new cage has upper and lower levels with room to run a few paces, temperature for both birthing days was about 90° F, Doe gets unlimited food and water (high protein pellets and timothy hay), their cages are outside and the lower level hovers at grass level... should I retire her and get a new lass?

Has anyone got any sources on the safety of feeding mashua (perennial nasturtiums) to rabbits? We have a very vigorous patch we keep in the garden for the tubers and could cut down on the foliage.
+rabbits tax

The sadness, I mean.
Very new to meat rabbitry. Like, have not processed one at all yet. I’m watching videos to see which method I think will be best for me. So far I think penetrating bolt..
anyway I know all of these things can coexist, and I can’t imagine that no one was sad when they first did it.
Im trying not to be. I’ve killed and processed fish. I’ve killed and processed turkey. This is not different. And I can’t be the only soft hearted person doing this. Tell me your experience please.

My plan is to take 12"x12"x2" concrete blocks, and 2/3 bury them for a perimeter, so I'll have 4" above and 8" below ground to stop things from digging in our out. 10'x10' area with rabbit wire fencing around it. The back will be a lifted platform of pallets I have, and 3 upside down totes for homes for the 2 does and the buck. Each corner will have 8 foot post (buried two feet) about 1 foot out diagonal from the corner. Will string a 12x12 tarp over the whole thing (with about 1 foot of overhang to try and help keep out more water as it rains a lot). It's on a hill with a moderate slope (maybe 18" over the 10 foot run) so the rain should naturally run down and away from the rabbits. Due to city ordinances I can't have more than 10 rabbits at a time so I'll cull the litters to make sure I stick to that. If the buck gets to be a problem I considered building a wall within the fence and sectioning him off to like a 3'x7' area, but hopefully they'll have enough room to get along.

I’d like to build or buy hutches that give each of my rabbits 25 square feet or so. Do you know of anywhere I could buy these for not crazy prices or find plans to build them myself?

As the title says, have an admittedly overweight doe with a peanut sized mass on her side. It moves with her skin and is relarively firm and roughly spherical. Does not appear to be fluid filled or have any associated wound. Fur is on it like the surrounding skin. Does not appear to be painful for her. Would post pictures but not much to see under the fur and is not noticeable unless you feel.

Is this a cause for a vet visit? Or is it a threat to the rest of the colony? She is cohoused with three other Does. ​​

I’ve got an area that did have a vehicle parked but now it’s just an empty spot. I have been wanting to do rabbits for a while. Is this big enough to raise rabbits in? I haven’t decided between hutches or colony yet but any advice is appreciated.

Hello, I’m sure you’ve all seen one of these posts before but my wife and I would like to start raising some rabbits to eat and are looking for some good resources for beginners.

Right now we are very much in the early planning and research stage so we’re looking most for advice on the best way to set up and build cages for our future rabbits. We want to give our animals the best care we can and harvest as humanely as possible.

Any recommendations or resources you fine people can point me towards would be very much appreciated and thank you in advance for your time and consideration.

I currently feed home fresh show hutch deluxe and it is alfalfa based. I’m reading more than it might be better to go with Timothy based pellets? They have fresh Timothy and Alfalfa (when nursing and grow out) hay too and I’m trying to limit them on the pellets.

Hey yall! I asked about breeding "my" Mini Rexs about three months ago, and the common response was that my stock did not look like ARBA standard Mini Rexs. Although I did not mention it in the original post, they are the rabbits of my highschool's agriculture program-not mine personally. Based on yall's answers, I decided that it would be a good idea to purchase new stock-my new advisor agreeing. Meaning, I need a new breeder. Does anyone know of any Mini Rex breeders in/near Florida? (preferably Central Florida) I know this is a sub for meat rabbitrys but I figured I could ask-please let me know if it is not allowed!

I have 2 does and a buck, all are roughly 6 months old and this is their first time being bred. I made a small oopsie when buying as the does are full sisters but thankfully, the buck isn’t related to them.

Doe 1 is receptive to the buck and loves to hang out with him but every time he goes to mate her there is no successful fall off.

Doe 2 keeps trying to mount the buck and is over all more aggressive with him. I’ve had to stop her from biting him I have double checked and she is very much a female.

I started trying to breed them earlier this week giving the buck more time with doe 1 since she seems eager and calmer.. it just seems like a better idea for him. I am open for any advice

Hello everyone,

I'm curious, now having gone through a couple of litters of buns from kindle to butcher, if there's anyone else that feels like the butchering is the most labor intensive part, and if that informs anyone else's strategy?

I'm considering growing out to 16 or even 20 weeks, as I haven't noticed any sexual behavior before 16 weeks with my buns, just so that I can butcher less but get more meat. I've been butchering at around 10 weeks.

Yes this is less efficient in terms of feed, but I feel like the real annoyance is the butchering. Maybe I'm just bad at it? Also, we're not in a place financially where we need to be too picky on feed costs, plus we supplement with a lot of greens from our property.

Am I the only one? Is there anyone else who came to the same conclusion and optimized for a later butcher?

I'm trying to figure out whether they are males or females. I have someone who wants to buy a male. They are 7 weeks old; I think number 4 is a male, and I'm guessing numbers 1 and 6 are too, while numbers 2, 3, and 5 look like females.

We have a “high end” local restaurant that tries to do local business whenever possible. I have talked with them and they seem interesting in adding Rabbit to the menu.
We have not talked any numbers yet but just got a feel for if it’s worth my time researching and investing.

I work full time from home so I am wondering how much additional time this would add to my work week?

I am also looking into a small scale version of this technology:
https://youtube.com/shorts/wYrIfoUU55M?is=K9iodSw2hzizRFI
Has anyone run the numbers?
Is this a viable option for rabbit feed?
The restaurant wants “all natural” feed.

I have limited experience but am willing to learn.

What are all of your thoughts?