We didn't feed our Border Collie a completely 100% homemade diet, we fed him 50% kibble and 50% rabbit or chicken, whatever we had on hand. He refused to eat it raw though...but he did love scrambled eggs!

There's nothing wrong with it there's just little point. Both vets and individuals actually suggest veggies as a meal when doing special limited diets because the dogs get so little nutrition from the veggies it does not impact the special diet or the weight loss you are aiming for while making them feel full. If you think they need veggies I would look in to tripe instead. Many use the nutrients found in the tripe from predigested veggies by the herbivore to supplement the diet in place of any type of whole or cooked veggie that the dog can't digest well. You can also feed the whole stomach and contents but they may or may not eat it and will probably make a mess dumping the contents out and not eating all of it so best not done inside.

I haven't tried raw feeding yet, but am interested in doing so. Feeding the heads worries me- if they have fur on, wont the dogs develop an unhealthy interest (from my and the bun's perspective!) in the live rabbits? It occurred to me last night that instead of shooting the brain, it would be just as easy to shoot the base of the neck, severing the spinal cord, and hopefully the jugular as well. No lead in the head to worry about for the dogs that way, either.

When we use a pellet gun, we aim at the base of the neck, below the head, pointing forwards, toward the nose. The pellet *usually* exits the mouth and they bleed out from there. But, since we don't have dogs, we don't keep the heads so I dunno how many pellets actuall stay in vs. exit.

Great minds think alike!

Really scary, isn't it? We HAVE to have some genes in common SOMEWHERE!

I feed EVERYTHING, except the gall bladder, which I TRY to cut off the liver so that it won't make everything taste bitter. The dogs love the heads and they brain is part of the 10% organs that they are to have on a raw diet[80% muscle, 10% organ, 10% bone].
I usually freeze everything I butcher before feeding to the dogs.I package in meal sized portions in zip lock bags, then I pull the bags in the morning and feed at night.
I usually include the rabbit head, feet and guts in one bag. That's about 3lbs. and my dogs are 100-130lbs. They get 3lbs, or so, a day. Then the next day they get the carcass. I don't give them the pelt because I want it myself. They are not showing any greater interest in the rabbits than they did before, but my rabbits are not "free range" or loose in anyway. they are caged and the dogs are not usually in their barn area. They are at the door in the morning as I am feeding and watering but I don't encourage them to come in.
I also feed them sheep that they are guarding in the pasture. This gets frozen for 3+days first too, to minimize any possibility of parasite transmission from sheep to dog back to the sheep from fecal contamination in the pasture. They relish the heads of any animal and it keeps them busy for along time, especially a cow head, which my pyr is chewing on right now.
The ranch slaughterer came today to do a cow, but with the rain & the slippery hillside wasn't able to get up to where the cow was. I think he felt sorry for me because he was supposed to come yesterday before the rain started & cancelled @ the last minute. So he offered me the "guts" including the feet and head, that he had from his previous slaughter this morning. I took it all. It filled 2 wash tubs & the dogs have spent the whole rainy day shewing on the lower leg joints and Ursula was the lucky one. I gave her the head. I wondered if I should have tried to cut it in half or something but she has not had any trouble with it. She DID take along nap after a few hours but as I looked out a little while ago she is back at it. I am cutting up the rest of the guts and putting in bags for the freezer. It will last a few days and the dogs will love it.

Our steer's head is in the freezer, and we are planning on deep pitting it. Apparently there is a lot more meat on it than you'd think, and it is supposed to be delicious. I find the idea of eating it rather gruesome, but am determined to suck it up and just do it. Seeing the dogs munching bunny heads probably wont bother us as much after that either!

Thanks for the in depth explanation on your storage techniques and feeding protocol. We should be knee deep in rabbits pretty soon, so I think the dogs and cats are going to have to help us eat it all.

Come on over to Cleveland, I'd gladly do the rabbits for you. I skin my rabbits because I want the pelts, which is why I'm raising Rex for meat and not one of the bigger meat breeds.

Me too! Plus I've always just loved Rex. Don't tell Hubs, His name ain't Rex!

I also want Satins. I'm thinking Mini-Satins, even. My Rabbitosis has really been flaring up lately.

Me three. Had them back in the 70s & 80s. Thought I was over it. NOT.

So glad...it's even better this time.

You will LOVE Satins! I too want Mini-Satins, but couldn't find them here. Oh well.
Color-wise, I am particularly fond of the red. That flaming scarlett is gorgeous - but so far, it doesn't seem to matter what color the rabbit is - if it has that Satin's shiny coat, it is a stunner.

I was supposed to get a satin. I contacted the breeder, and was waiting for a convenient time for both of us to pick them up, and that was 6 mos ago. Never heard from her again. Hope she's ok. I'm trying to get some Cals next week. Wondering if I can cross the Cals to eventually get a bigger, faster growing Rex?

The easiest way to get the gall bladder off is actually to "pinch" it off. You pinch at the skinny end and it will peel right off the liver.