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CynthiaG

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Hello everyone, I jewelry set purchased some Californian rabbits for meat and was wondering what was the best age to butcher them and or at what weight for when I bought my adults the kid gave me a 8week old male for free and he really wasn't that big. Still haven't gotten a scale but I wouldn't consider him eating size. (Maybe I'm going off of chicken standards lol) I also wanted to know. Would it be more beneficial to have New Zealand Californian crosses or pure NZ and pure Cali. I'm not looking to butcher a whole bunch but I do want to fill up my freezer in a short amount of time. I don't want to be feeding the ones for meat more than say 4/5 months. Thanks in advance!!!
 
CynthiaG":2rpdlu9i said:
Hello everyone, I jewelry set purchased some Californian rabbits for meat and was wondering what was the best age to butcher them and or at what weight for when I bought my adults the kid gave me a 8week old male for free and he really wasn't that big. Still haven't gotten a scale but I wouldn't consider him eating size. (Maybe I'm going off of chicken standards lol) I also wanted to know. Would it be more beneficial to have New Zealand Californian crosses or pure NZ and pure Cali. I'm not looking to butcher a whole bunch but I do want to fill up my freezer in a short amount of time. I don't want to be feeding the ones for meat more than say 4/5 months. Thanks in advance!!!

A few different questions there. I have pure bred New Zealand and they are the only breed I am familiar with. Most say the target weight is 5lbs and usually reached around week 10. Depending on your blood line, they may get to that weight a little sooner or later. I don't feed them longer than that long unless they are the breeding stock. There are a lot of good post concerning your questions. Check some of them out as well. Hope this helps!
 
Any of the meat breeds (and more than a few of the fancy ones) should be able to give you a decently full freezer by 3 months old.

Unfortunately, not all "meat breeds" are really from any kind of meat bloodlines these days.
I was once sold a "NZ" that I'm positive had dwarf genes. :roll:

Since there is a learning curve to rabbit raising though, I suggest breeding whatever you have for now. It's not usually a good idea to start with top dollar buns. It's just too easy to lose them.

Once you get into the swing of things, you could start looking for some really good stock.

Cali/NZ crosses used to be a staple for hybrid vigor, but, it seems like NZ and cali lines now days often share enough blood to neutralize that effect.
(I've seen crossed litters for sale, with the pointed kits being called cali, and the rews being called NZ.)

If you really want hybrid vigor, using very unrelated breeds seems to work best these days.
 
Yes I've been reading all those other posts but Im a rather slow reader lol so I figured I'd make it easier on my self and put in one post. Thank you for taking halls time to respond.

Now my new question zags is what do you mean by hybrid vigor?

And ya my plan is to work with what I have for about a year and if I can keep ,y rabbits alive and their kits then I'll start adding new rabbits or trying new breeds, I just like getting all the information ahead of time so I can take the time coming up with a plan for the future and look into possible breeders to buy from. Plus it's bunny talk in general which is always fun :D :bunnyhop:
 
CynthiaG":2161a88p said:
Yes I've been reading all those other posts but Im a rather slow reader lol so I figured I'd make it easier on my self and put in one post. Thank you for taking halls time to respond.

Now my new question zags is what do you mean by hybrid vigor?

And ya my plan is to work with what I have for about a year and if I can keep ,y rabbits alive and their kits then I'll start adding new rabbits or trying new breeds, I just like getting all the information ahead of time so I can take the time coming up with a plan for the future and look into possible breeders to buy from. Plus it's bunny talk in general which is always fun :D :bunnyhop:

Here is an good article about hybrid vigor with a lot of scientific explanation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterosis

The condensed version is: rabbits and almost every organism gets half of its genetic makeup from the female and half from the male; and different breeds of an animal can have attributes which are better than other breeds. Hybrid vigor happens when genetics hit that right combination and the offspring of two different breeds get the best traits from each breed.

So for example purebred Californians are nice compact "meatbricks" but are a little smaller than a purebred New Zealands. New Zealands are a little bigger but less compact. The hope in crossing the breeds is that you would get kits which are bigger like a New Zealand and compact like a Californian thus creating a super-rabbit.

While this is the best case scenario for crossing rabbits, it doesn't always turn out this way. You could get the worst of each breed, or the initial rabbits might not have good traits worth passing down. There are also other traits you'd have to worry about like temperament, litter size, milk producing, etc. Also, the beneficial combos might only last for a generation or two, which is what happens when people talk about loosing that hybrid vigor.

All of this is why you will see some people rave about crossing Californians and NZ's and others will say it doesn't work.

Edit:
Here is a good working example of hybrid vigor with the ALTEX rabbit. It highlights the pros and cons or crossbreeding rabbits. I think it probably explains things better than I can.
http://www.raising-rabbits.com/altex-rabbits.html
 
I assumed that when you asked about the NZ/cali crosses, you were referring to the hybrid vigor that can sometimes be obtained by crossing the two breeds.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/hybrid+vigor

hybrid vigor
n.
Increased vigor or other superior qualities arising from the crossbreeding of genetically different plants or animals. Also called heterosis.

In meat rabbits, hybrids often grow much faster than purebreds, BUT the stipulation is that there has to be genetic diversity to obtain the result.

I've gotten my best hybrid results from a V-lop/meat mutt cross, and Silver fox/Lilac pairings.
This vigor is probably part of why our breeds are often so mucked up though.
After seeing the superior qualities of the hybrid, people often want to breed those crosses back to the purebreds in an attempt to improve their line, not realizing that the vigor effect is not a permanent part of their genetics. In the end, lines can be harmed more than helped by this.

Hybrid vigor is best used as a terminal cross, which allows a breeder to benefit from the fast growth, while still maintaining genetic integrity of the breeds being used. Thus allowing the vigor effect to work for consecutive generations.
 
Zass":2qiefjhj said:
I've gotten my best hybrid results from a V-lop/meat mutt cross, and Silver fox/Lilac pairings.

Ooooo that sounds like an interesting looking rabbit. :)

What did the kits look like?
 
Oh ok ya I know essentially what that is I've never heard/read wondered like that before. We do the same thing with our coonhounds to try and breed a hunting dog to suit our needs but staying within the breed not so much mixing breeds.

So with that said essentially I could breed with only California just breeding the rabbits that have my desired traits and developing my own line like that pretty much right?
 
CynthiaG":19zs6h28 said:
So with that said essentially I could breed with only California just breeding the rabbits that have my desired traits and developing my own line like that pretty much right?

Exactly! The important thing is pairing two good rabbits that have qualities that you want to pass on. There are plenty of posts regarding rabbit husbandry on this site (and elsewhere too); I found it very helpful to just read as many as you can. There's always something new to learn!

As the old saying goes around here... Breed/Keep the very good ones and eat the remaining rabbits.... or something like that. :lol:

__________ Tue Jul 19, 2016 4:26 pm __________


Zass":19zs6h28 said:
They all looked like mutts. :lol:
Lol good one!
 
KenoshaRabbits":3o15a3d3 said:
As the old saying goes around here... Breed/Keep the very good ones and eat the remaining rabbits.... or something like that. :lol:

Breed the Best, Eat the Rest

They have a really cool shirt on Pinterest, but as crazy as the world has gotten, I would be afraid someone would shoot me if I actually wore it somewhere :x

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/557531628848343402/
 
heritage":dgj1xlni said:
Breed the Best, Eat the Rest

They have a really cool shirt on Pinterest, but as crazy as the world has gotten, I would be afraid someone would shoot me if I actually wore it somewhere :x

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/557531628848343402/

I LOVE IT!!! I would so wear that!

KenoshaRabbits":dgj1xlni said:
Exactly! The important thing is pairing two good rabbits that have qualities that you want to pass on. There are plenty of posts regarding rabbit husbandry on this site (and elsewhere too); I found it very helpful to just read as many as you can. There's always something new to learn!

As the old saying goes around here... Breed/Keep the very good ones and eat the remaining rabbits.... or something like that

Then I guess I better hop to it :bunnyhop:

I had to lol :lol: thanks y'all!!
 

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