Extra Rabbits

Well, I'm not sure if anyone will actually have an answer to this, but I'll ask anyway. How do you get the word out there that you have rabbits to sell?

Specifically, I have french angoras and I am hesitant to breed them because I don't want to be stuck with too many rabbits if I can't sell them. I know that I can use them for meat. But what I really want them for is the wool, and I'm new to raising rabbits and I don't know if I'm ready to butcher a rabbit that I've raised from birth yet. (I know I'm a wimp) In the future I plan to raise meat rabbits, but not right now.

I would be planning on keeping one or two to add to my herd. I would really like to make some money back to pay for feed costs too, so that is another incentive to sell the extras.

If anything maybe some words of encouragement or advise for toughening up and butchering rabbits for meat would be helpful.

(I hope I posted this in the correct forum. Now that I'm looking at what I wrote I'm not sure if it belongs in "Wool Rabbits" anymore. Sorry if I did it wrong!)

I know I want some angoras. :secret:

Most people I know in the area either sell through their website or through Craigslist.

Just to give you an idea: I opened this thread hoping that you were near me! So...maybe simply letting people here know when those "extra" bunnies are ready for homes may do the trick. Or, of course, on your own website, as RJ Schaefer has already suggested.

(But tell us first! )

I've used craigslist and have never had a problem getting rid of excess animals... Pet section and farm and garden both work awesome.

Wool rabbits can be harder to place depending where you are. If you live somewhere where there is a demand for them, they fly like hot cakes, if not, well, mine usually end up in the freezer. I do advertise by word of mouth and CL, and will try my hand at posting some of my next litter on Ravelry and hanging fliers in the feed stores and TSC, but they just don't sell well around here.

Part of that is that I don't sell to pet homes usually. In my area, that entails parents buying their young child an angora as a pet, wih that child as the sole caretaker of that rabbit. That is probably 60% of the inquiries I get. Most adults I know aren't mature enough to handle angoras, so I'd eager see them in my freezer than end up in the state I rescued some of my stock from when I began.

Also, I am very adamant about breeding of wool rabbits being done responsibly, and even lost a friend recently because I chewed her for trying to breed every doe she had (an angora any one of her Woolies)after she got a JW buck from me. She stopped talking to me and never paid me for the buck, and I'm sure she went ahead and bred like crazy anyway, but that will be her problem if she gets a bad reputation from her actions and not mine. You can't help everyone. All you can do is take responsibility for your own actions, and so I act responsibly according to my wool rabbits. I find that you end up as a more respected breeder for doing so.

Thanks for all the input! This was really helpful.

I'm on several free online breeders lists. I've posted on hoobly.com before and I have a website.

Could you post the links to the breeder's lists that you are on? Thanks!

I would suggest the following items in the order that I deem most important in my sales. Some of the information may only apply if you plan to continue to breed.

1. Craigslist. I'm in between two areas on Craigslist so I list at 2 location in both the Pet and Farm sections. I know in some areas people have problems with the ads getting pulled. I have not experienced that. Make sure to put Rabbit Rabbits Bunny and Bunnies in at least your description and preferably in the title too. You'll find different ads on Craigslist if you search for each of those 4 terms. Also a good idea if anyone is looking rabbits in their area. Put pictures in your ad that are clear and well taken if possible. If you are comfortable posting your number in the ad (something like 5six6eight19three24zerofour) so that you can get calls or texts. I sell over 75% of my rabbits through text or calls, rest from email. Make sure your ad covers as much information as you can. Don't forget your location (city, state). Include color, sex, breed, whether cross or pure, estimated weight size when grown and other such information.

2. Set up a free webpage on something like weebly.com. I never post my website in my CL ad but I will let people that are interested know. Keep your website updated. Poorly maintain breeder pages, frustrate me.

3. Post your rabbits to any local facebook pages like a trash to treasure sort of group

4. Ad your site to breeders lists or breed club pages.

5. Set up at your local poultry swap (tractor supply stores I know have these monthly). I never have rabbits ready when our store has their swap but I will soon.

Personally I think it is rather easy to cover your ongoing (not start up) costs by breeding rabbits. If you want to make more money than that you will probably have to chance getting stuck (temporarily) with some rabbits. When I started about a year ago I didn't breed on a regular basis as when I had 10-15 kits around I got real nervous. As a result I would go months were I didn't have any rabbits for sale. I recently decided to go for it on a small scale and breed someone every 2 weeks. I lost a couple or 1st time doe litters recently but in 7 weeks I'll have the first litter ready for sale and then a new one every 2 weeks. My rabbits only fetch $20-25 each so I expect to cover my operating costs and make $200 extra on top of that each month. I plan to use that extra month to buy some cages and get into english or velveteen lops.

I would expect that would have very little problem selling French Angoras.

For us we have found the best place to sell is:
1. Facebook groups for your specific breed (also groups for all breeds for sale in your area)
2. CL (both farm & garden and pets
3. Website, as said in another post you can use weebly.com, we use webs.com
4. Rabbit shows/fair (we ended up selling out of our juniors after our fair and had a waiting list)
We have not needed any other outlets for ours just yet (Lionhead). Not sure how that will work out when we start breeding any other breeds that we just are getting into though (Thrianta, Californian, Mini Lop).

I've been wanting to start a website. The only thing holding me back is that I can't decide on a name for my farm/rabbitry! I've been labouring over the name for a while, I fear I might just have to settle and pick one.

paper_crane2":1gdov3ds said:

Could you post the links to the breeder's lists that you are on?

Click to expand...

Most of the ones I am on are just for NZs or the state of Ohio.
One I am on that is for all the breeds and US is http://www.rabbitbreeders.us. When you google rabbit breeders that comes up even before the ARBA. It is where the most people have found me.
You might be able to find more that are for your breed or state. I found my by googling things like, "New Zealand Rabbits Breeders Lists (Directory)" and "Ohio Rabbits Breeders List (Directory)". Some of the ones I found were small websites, but I asked them to add me anyway.
Then there are always you state or breed groups, but those who have to get a membership like with the ARBA.
Hope I was of some help.

You call me and I put cages in the yard for you to drop them off in while I'm at work.

I'd love to give some angoras to you Cattle Cait! However I think that I am a little far away, I'm in the U.P.

I would become a Yooper for Angoras!

Beats me. CL, and Hoobly do nothing for me here. People aren't interested in Woolers, they want cute dwarfs. The dwarfs sell here, especially the Hollands. I might have to get my Hollands back.

Surf those sites first and see if there is a market before you continue. Plan for some fiber festivals, keep an eye on local shows too. I breed for myself so I don't really worry too much. I have two litters of Angoras now, If they don't get homes by 6 mos, I will shear their wool and they become feed. It's either cull them or stop breeding.