I think I'm going to make the switch from kibble to raw foods with our dogs. I've read differing points of view on how to feed a rabbit to a dog, and I just want to know how some of you may do it (or, if you sell rabbits to other people as pet food, how they do it)

Some folks say they just give the dog a whole rabbit, with head, fur, guts, everything. I would want to skin them, so I can process the pelts.

I don't know how much they should be getting in raw food a day. I have two german shepherds, 90lbs and 70lbs. My other concern is that the dogs are white... how do you get blood stains off of a dog? I don't want people thinking my dogs just murdered the entire family when they come over. LOL

If you bleed out the rabbit like you would processing for humans, it will be less messy. Also my dog just gets the heads and parts we don't eat, and they are messy--but he is not. He is a yellow lab mix and he cleans himself up very well, you couldn't tell. Others feed the carcass still frozen, which also contains the mess.

general rule is you feed 2-3% of their body weight. It all depends on how active they are. Feed more if skinny less if overwight. I would remove the fur, I would also remove the head but that is just me. Seeing our dogs munching on a head would be too much for me I would love to raise rabbits and chickens for my dogs but I just cant seem to get passed the killing part and I dont know anyone that would do it for me.

__________ Thu Aug 04, 2011 11:47 am __________

general rule is you feed 2-3% of their body weight. It all depends on how active they are. Feed more if skinny less if overwight. I would remove the fur, I would also remove the head but that is just me. Seeing our dogs munching on a head would be too much for me I would love to raise rabbits and chickens for my dogs but I just cant seem to get passed the killing part and I dont know anyone that would do it for me.

Oh, I admit I don't really watch the head munching, lol. I send him to the yard, and do it early in the morning before the neighbors are up! But he likes them and gets them as an occasional treat rather than a full time feed. Mostly he is a kibble dog, but when we have something else he gets that--he is blessed with an iron constitution that handles any change in diet well.

We feed our dogs quartered rabbit, but just the meat and bones.

My dogs are about that size, maybe a little smaller. They're shepherd crosses. I feed three meals a day, but only one of those is raw meat. For breakfast and lunch they get a cooked vegetable concoction I developed for them.

For dinner, they get rabbit or chicken, more or less at random. The chicken is store bought chicken leg quarters, which average between 1/2 lb and 1 lb. I'm not too picky about exact weights. For the rabbits, I culls youngsters at about 1 lb 12 oz and freeze them whole. Each day I thaw one rabbit enough to make it easy to cut in half with a steak knife, but not so much the insides can squish out. I feed half a rabbit per dog, and alternate who gets the head end. 1 lb 12 averages about the same weight per dog as the chicken legs.

Over time, I monitor their condition and weight and adjust the food intake to compensate if they start getting too heavy or too skinny.

My dogs are not white, but they leave no trace of blood anywhere, even when I accidentally let the rabbit thaw too much and become squishy. Dinner is their absolute favorite meal of the day. They wait in anticipation all day long for it.

For your dogs, you could try washing their muzzles with a damp cloth after they eat if they don't take care of it themselves.

I wholely recommend switching to a homemade diet. I switched my dogs over about 4 years ago. They are healthy, beautiful, happy and highly active, whereas other dogs I've had tend to get sedentary, dull-coated (in comparison) and bored over the years.

But before you switch, make sure you have the time and resources to commit to feeding your dogs. I spend about 3 hours a week preparing food for my two, plus shopping for ingredients and caring for the bunnies. And I have to watch them eat dinner to make sure whoever finishes first doesn't try to steal the other one's meal. I don't think I could maintain the work if I had to go to a full time job as well.

-- Jue

Just curious JueLee, but why do you feed veggies to your dogs? THey do not need veggies as they are not omnivores they are carnivors. Do you see some sort of benifit from giving veggies? I feed prey model raw. here is a good website explaning the benifits of prey model vs barf. http://rawfed.com/myths/feedraw.html

Jessica-- Cooked veggies are pretty comparable to what a wild canid gets by eating the stomach and upper intestine contents of their herbivore prey. A canids digestive system was designed to handle some 'processed" vegetation, but yes, ideally, most of the calories and nutrition come from meat and organ sources (well, the intestine IS an organ)

there are SO many different ways to feed a dog that getting into disagreements about how to feed is pointless. The thing is to keep your animals healthy. So if person a wants to feed veggies.. so be it, if person b says eh... I'll just feed meat. So be it. it can take as long or as little as you like.

When we had dogs fed raw. Every 6-8 weeks I'd spend one afternoon preparing their meals. i did a mix of rice/veggies/organ meat/ with some bone in meals, and some with no bone. Rabbit heads were an extra. Some days they didn't rice/veggies.. but most days.. it was a general mix of meat, kept relatively the same which served our older dog well.

The general rule of thumb is to feed 2-3% of their body weight.. OVER TIME! So feed with or without the fur. Feed entire or part it out. Feed veggies or not. Doesn't really matter over time. Just keep your dog/cat companions healthy and it will all work out.

I am not trying to start any arguments I was truely just curious (still learning something new everyday), as studies have shown that wolves will eat the stomach of smaller pray such as rabbits but with larger prey like deer the stomach is ripped open and contents are shaken out. But I do know people that feed veggies occasionally. Actually most people disagree with me because I dont feed raw full time unless you talk to my vet who thinks you should feed science diet With 5 dogs its hard to keep up with the price of that much meat. Guess thats why I need to get over my fear of killing and start raising rabbits and chickens

No hard feelings I hope!

__________ Fri Aug 05, 2011 1:03 pm __________

I am not trying to start any arguments I was truely just curious (still learning something new everyday), as studies have shown that wolves will eat the stomach of smaller pray such as rabbits but with larger prey like deer the stomach is ripped open and contents are shaken out. But I do know people that feed veggies occasionally. Actually most people disagree with me because I dont feed raw full time unless you talk to my vet who thinks you should feed science diet With 5 dogs its hard to keep up with the price of that much meat. Guess thats why I need to get over my fear of killing and start raising rabbits and chickens

No hard feelings I hope!

Hi Jessica,

When I first switched, I didn't have rabbits, so only store bought meat was available. That was expensive and doesn't include the highly nutritious organ meat, head, etc. From my research at the time, I just couldn't satisfy myself that store bought meat would be adequate. But I could satisfy myself that a proper assortment of veggies would make up the difference.

As for whether dogs need vegetables or not, I won't argue, but I know that my dogs enjoy them a great deal. Not as much as the meat, of course, but they never hesitate to scarf down their food. Paige, my slightly smaller dog, spends several minutes after they are done licking both dishes just to make sure she didn't miss anything. This is not out of hunger. If I feed her just a little extra, she puts on weight quickly -- and still licks the bowls.

-- Jue

After bleeding out the rabbit, you can also slice it into several pieces then give the pieces to your dog

We process our buns just as we would for ourselves - that is they have no internal organs, head, feet or skin. Hubby just cuts the carcuss in half with meat cleaver and they get half each. I would say it would have to depend on breed of dog and rabbit, up until now I have only had holland lops so they don't supply a lot of raw feed for the dogs but they have acess to dry kibble.

__________ 21 Jan 2012, 00:43 __________

Oh I should add that my cat gets the heart, liver & kidney.

I have 3 dogs that i feed raw to. Just when you start feeding raw rabbit go slow. I have a dog that gets a swollen face when she eats rabbit. So now no more for her.She loves rabbit.So go slow when you introduce new meat or veggies.THere is nothing wrong feeding veggies to a dog. It is still better than the crappy kibble full of chemicals ect. WHich i will not get into.

Just want to comment that it is nice to see that we, as a group, can disagree politely! You don't see that everywhere...Good Job, fellow RT maniacs!