rabbits: Mar 7, Rabbit Farming. Rabbit production in the big city or country

With very few exceptions, rabbit farming on a small scale, or even not-so-small, is possible no matter where you live.

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To start out rabbit farming, in the big city or in the country, your best bet is to start with just a few rabbits at first. This is in order that you can learn the needs of your rabbits and get comfortable with the whole process so that any mistakes don't result in irrecoverable losses.

Meat Rabbit Breed Choices:
Choose a rabbit breed with rapid weight gains and adaptability to your climate. New Zealand Whites, Californians and Altex are well known for their commercial potential, but some strains of Silver Fox, American rabbits and Satins compete very well. The success of a commercial rabbit production enterprise will depend on getting fryers to market by 8 to 8.5 weeks.

If you're simply raising rabbits in your backyard for your own use, your rabbit breed choices are far greater, since "all rabbits are made of meat." There are many giant, large, medium, and small breeds of rabbits to choose from, depending on your preferences and your goals.

Getting Started:

Start with a buck and two does.The does will each need TWO cages measuring 36 inches by 30 inches. One cage will house the doe, and her litter up until 6 weeks of age. At this point the cage will be getting crowded, and the doe will be glad if you move her to the second cage. The kits will remain in the first cage until market day.Butcher when the kits reach 4.75 to 6 pounds -- 8-12 weeks of age, depending on breed and quality of feed.Down the road, when it’s time to think about replacing your brood does, you will want a couple more cages. These can be the same size as the buck’s cage. You’ll select a couple large and healthy young females out of your litters, and grow them to 6 months. At this point you can retire the older doe, and put the new doe into service.When these cages are not in use growing out replacement does, you can use one of them for a replacement buck. Hopefully you won’t need to replace the buck for several years.

Get inspiration from examples of rabbit farms here

Rabbit Housing

Simple and clean is best for your rabbits and their health. Consider building your own detachable rabbit cages and rabbit hutch frames. We offer a few free plans; or you can purchase our full collection of enhanced and illustrated plans:

Rabbit Hutch Building Plans

World of Raising Rabbits

Building your own rabbit cages allows you to increase your rabbit farming project at your own rate. When you run out of rabbit housing space, just build more.

Rabbit Health

Foundational ways to achieve and maintain rabbit health.

Right: This Mini Lop buck has a very wet nose.

Excellent husbandry practices are the best way to keep your rabbits healthy, to kindle a large number of kits, to minimize losses, and to maximize the number of fryers going to market. Raising-Rabbits.com is here to provide you with these excellent animal practices and all the info you need to succeed at rabbit farming.

Utilize the navigation bar at left or the search box at the top to find the info you need.

Rabbit Diseases

Understand and manage the most frequently encountered rabbit diseases, parasites, infections, and non-infectious challenges to rabbit health.

FLY CONTROL

Rabbits are quiet, timid, and unobtrusive. In other words, easy on the neighbors, as long as you keep the flies under control.

Keep the droppings raked up and tilled into the garden or moved to a covered compost heap

Set up worm beds under your cages

Keep a few chickens, ducks or both, to snap the flies out of the air and to devour the fly maggots and other insects before their numbers get out of hand. There's a huge benefit to this last suggestion - "free" eggs!

Fly Predators are a fabulous and very effective way to wipe out your fly population. It's safe, non-poisonous, and completely natural. Plus, Fly Predators CAN be used successfully in conjunction with chickens to nearly eradicate flies.

Click on the banner to get started on freedom-from-flies today!

Learn more at our Fly Predators page.

CONTROL AMMONIA LEVELS

Ammonia smell in animal urine can be dangerous to your animals, so eliminating ammonia odors is essential. And all the better if it's easy to do. With Spalding Labs’ Bye Bye Odor, rabbit farming is that much easier - just ‘spritz spritz spritz.’ Voila, odors minimized.

Learn more at Ammonia Levels, or...

Go straight to Spalding Labs and get the straight scoop.

Rabbit Manure Collection

Rabbit farming results in lots of manure. Some outdoor systems allow the rabbit manure to fall to the ground, where it can be shoveled before the piles grow too large.

But, we wanted to bring your attention to an ingenious manure collection system that our friend Lisa in Connecticut set up. Maybe something like this could simplify your life, too?

Do not for a minute underestimate the capability, brute strength, and determination of raccoons, coyotes, foxes, weasels, bears, eagles, hawks, mountain lions, snakes, rats, and other predators to rip a flimsy rabbit hutch to pieces and help themselves to the rabbit(s) inside the hutch.

Rabbit farming is not a "Get Rich Quick" scheme. But the more products that your rabbit farm can market, the more likely it is that you may be able to someday make your hobby a profitable one, or to quit your day job.

Note that there may be state and federal regulations that apply to your enterprise. Please be sure to do your due diligence and educate yourself as to these laws and regulations.

You Can Sell...

Fryer rabbits. Market fryers are sold live by weight to a meat processor
Meat. Sell whole or cut up, frozen or fresh. Meat can be sold by the unit or by the pound, and prices vary by area. Breeding Stock. Other breeders or individuals new to rabbit farming may be looking for high quality pedigreed and healthy rabbits that are excellent representatives of their breed.
Homemade Pet Food. Cats are considered obligate carnivores with digestive systems that rely solely on raw meat. Dogs are very nearly so. Feed them a species-appropriate diet, and their health improves, sometimes dramatically. See Whole Food 4 Pets.Rabbit pelts. Rex pelts are in high demand in the USA and in Europe. The big name furriers need "bundles" of at least 40 matching pelts in order to craft their fine garments.

Rex is not the only breed that is sought after. Black, chinchilla and wild agouti pelts of various breeds are also desirable.

The most valuable pelts are the senior primes, harvested between October and March (in the Northern Hemisphere) when the adult winter coats are fully prime (no sign of molt).

Sell 'green' (preserved but not tanned) pelts Sell your professionally tanned pelts to a furrier Tan your own rabbit pelts (or have the professionals do it) and utilize them yourself by making and marketing the garments, mocs, blankets, pet toys (and more)
Wool (fiber). Angora wool can be sheared or plucked every few months. Sell the loose wool, or spin it and sell the fiber. Or, create your own angora products such as shawls, sweaters, socks and blankets for sale. For more info on wooled breeds, see Angora Rabbits.Manure/fertilizer/mulch. There's a plethora of uses for the brown gold that accumulates (rapidly!) under the rabbit cages. Sell it by the pick-up load - gardeners LOVE it. Sell it by the used feed bag. Sell it composted or fresh. Offer a low "U-Shovel" rate to your gardening buddies.
Fresh Vegetables. If you have a vegetable garden on which you've spread copious amounts of rabbit manure, you're likely to reap an abundance of veggies. You can sell your surplus fresh vegetables at the local Farmer's Market or to friends and neighbors.
Worms. Several species of worms can inhabit rabbit droppings. Large, well-fed earthworms and red wrigglers (and whatever other name they go by in your area) are valuable to fishermen and to others wishing to populate their own worm bin projects.

CHECK OUT THE RABBIT REVOLUTION,
a blog centered around raising your own meat (namely rabbits) as a way to be free of the 'evil' meat industry.

For thousands of years, folks have raised their own meat. It is only in the industrial age that we've forgotten what innards look like.

Maybe it's time that we decentralize our food supply by raising our own meat and tending our own gardens!

Our Rabbit Supplies Store comes with Amazon.com's full A-Z guarantee. Buy with confidence...

Subscribe to Yahoo! MeatRabbits Group

There's nothing like having at your fingertips a group of friends who are all good at rabbit farming, and who have all encountered various problems and solved them.

Take advantage of their expertise! Join the Yahoo! MeatRabbits Group.

Then, when you feel capable, be sure to pay it forward, and help other newbies with their questions.

Are you of the opinion that butchering rabbits is cruel or that humans don't need meat? That we're herbivores by nature?

Consider this about herbivores:

Cud-chewing herbivores, such as cows, regurgitate their food back into their mouths so they can keep chewing it into smaller pieces. These animals also have four stomachs and have the ability through bacterial action to digest cellulose (humans cannot).Other herbivores, such as rabbits, digest their food not in their stomach but down in their cecum. Rabbits also practice coprophagy. That is, instead of regurgitating their cud into their mouths, they eat it directly from the rectum/anus.

There is not a single human being that has four stomachs. No (normal) human being either chews the cud or practices coprophagy.

History demonstrates unequivocally that humans have been meat-eaters throughout the entire time frame of recorded human history. Our digestive systems are still a meat-eater's digestive system, and we're healthiest for the long term when we eat at least some part of our diet in (grass-fed) animal protein and animal-based fats on a regular basis.

It cannot be considered cruel
to butcher and eat meat when consumption of animal protein is a requirement of the human body for long-term health.

"But," some vegans say, "we have evolved beyond the point where we need to kill in order to eat. We're intelligent enough to find other ways to eat that don't involve killing another animal."

Apparently there are no other options...

The fact that dietary vitamin supplements are essential for vegans to eat in order to remain healthy is stark proof that the vegan diet is inadequate for long-term health.

You can certainly try it for yourself, though... Certified Holistic Health Counselor Alex Jamieson did...

http://alexandrajamieson.com/im-not-vegan-anymore/

Ms. Jamieson's conclusion:
"I believe there is a middle way. There is no ONE way that everyone should live or eat. People can still love animals and care about protecting the environment AND honor their own animal bodies and consume the foods that they need."

We're omnivores. There is no shame in accepting the truth.

Learn more about animal rights, animal welfare, and human health here

Need Any rabbit supplies?

Please Visit our Amazon Rabbit Supplies Store

for many of your needed rabbit supplies, cages, equipment, even rabbit food.

(The shears pictured at right are excellent for butchering and cutting up a rabbit carcass.)

Find more resources here.

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