Anyone have trouble feeding their rabbits to dogs?

[GBov]

My two litters that were the grand culmination of my breeding project have totally stalled out. They are only about 3 pounds at 10 weeks of age and no signs of anything better from them.

It totally upsets my mum but I have been giving them to the dogs - my dog and hers spend the day together in my 20 ft by 10ft pen - fresh killed about twice a week but its so good for my young dog and hers really wants her rabbit too. After all, why should HE get a fluffy treat and not her, says Chopper :roll: so my only way of making sure she doesnt snatch his off him is to give her one too, :lol:

The thing that gets me is she is alright with US eating them, just has fits with the dogs eating them raw.

I do KILL them, after all, its not like they are running them down or anything but she just has this HUGE mental block on this issue.

Thought she was going to loose her mind when she found out I feed still born kits to the pigs, says its just not right to do something like that. And I have to check really good to be sure all scraps like feet are gone so she doesnt see them or it starts all over again.

Family eh? Ya gotta love em!

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Nope, no trouble here. :roll:

The dogs LOVE rabbit. On butchering day, I have a circle of six dogs patiently awaiting being given feet, heads, and any pelts that I don't want to keep. They also get the guts.

I also sometimes feed them the meat itself, especially when we start running low on dog food. I find the oldest frozen carcasses in the freezer and they get that.

The only time things get a little gross is if I find a dead rabbit in a cage and give it to them whole, unskinned. They seem to prefer to "age it" for a couple of days, meanwhile nibbling on the feet and ears. In that case, I just don't look.

 

[TMTex]

I guess my problems with feeding rabbits to my dogs are along the same lines as yours, GBov. I feel like it's better to feed the dogs than to let a life go wasted.

My wife doesn't like seeing anything that looks like a rabbit being eaten. I process mine in a semi-hidden area and feed the parts we won't eat to our dogs.

I have to make sure nobody runs back inside through the doggy door with their prize though. One of the dogs went back inside with a rabbit head and it didn't go over very well.

My wife also doesn't like seeing the legs, since they remind her of little feet. I have to debone the meat before she sees it.

Still, we make it work.

 

[akane]

I got the rabbits specifically to feed the dogs. Feeding people is secondary. I have to butcher down in the woods and carefully pick up all extra parts (mine don't eat feet, heads, or pelts) because my stepdad is completely against butchering the rabbits despite the fact he used to hunt wild rabbits and my mom isn't thrilled seeing parts around. My dogs leave the excess parts alone but their dog takes them up to the house and they blame him getting sick once on eating rabbit parts. I also got in trouble for killing a litter I just didn't want. I'm trying to sell all my netherlands and I separated the buck but there are still pregnant does and I both don't need more to try to find homes for and the people taking them don't want to wait or take a litter with.

 

[Secuono]

My past doberman would only eat the meaty spines and only if I held it for him, wouldn't eat any other bit unless cooked.
Mutt and the LGD both burry and waste it.
Bulldog gets freshly killed rabbits whole. She skins them, eats everything, only leaving behind the main hide.
New puppy doesn't get anything raw, everything makes his tummy upset and that's no good for a growing pup. But he does try to chew on the live rabbits when I move them around. He is fine with all the other animals, chickens, too. All the dogs love rabbits [not the LGD] to chase them, must be too natural of a prey...lol

 

[skysthelimit]

I too got the rabbit to feed the dogs as well. They leave nothing behind, not a single scrap. At first it was a bit.. not disgusting, maybe primeval? to watch them rip apart the flesh. But now I like to watch them eat, they seems so satisfied, like it was what they were meant to do.

Though the other day, I bopped a bunny and thought it was dead, only to come back and see it sitting next to the dog, looking at me...

 

[PSFAngoras]

I haven't tried the whole rabbit to the dog thing, but when it's skinned, processed out, and raw, my lab mix will eat them. I'm not convinced she would do it if they were whole, she tends to treat the bunnies like her puppies, so whole would probably depress her.

 

[akane]

Mine just pull the fur off a tiny bit at a time. Like they destuff stuffed toys and it looks like someone exploded it in the middle of the room so I skin mine, remove the head because I shoot them in the head and a pellet may be left in there, and generally take off the feet. On a big rabbit my new shears are too small to cut through the bone to remove the back feet so the dogs end up leaving them behind on the floor and I have to clean them up later. I also remove stomach and intestines because I can just imagine the mess of them ripping it open all over their blankets. Then we freeze the rabbit. It makes it cleaner to eat since the blood is frozen and congeals in place as it thaws instead of running out, it makes it take longer for them to eat and requires more jaw strength which is good for them, and my akita refuses fresh meat. She likes her meat freezer burnt if possible but at least frozen for a few days.

 

[wolfsnaps]

I actually also began breeding rabbits to feed the dogs. Out of curiosity, I tried rabbit myself. I tried it grilled, fried, and in a stew. I think its psychological, I just can't eat it anymore. But that is ok because I really intended it to be for my dogs anyways. They eat a raw diet and I thought rabbit would be a nice thing to add for variety. And who knows, maybe I will eat it again someday.


IN my opinion, raw meat is better than any kibble out there. I mean, what would you prefer? Steak, or cereal? LOL.


And pigs are omnivores so they are supposed to eat veggies AND meat. No sense throwing dead kits away! Your family should be proud that you don't want to waste anything.

 

[squidpop]

I started getting interested in rabbits in the first place because I wanted to have them as meat for my dogs- I researched it and looked at ways of culling- rabbit ringers and bolt guns etc... and then I got the rabbits and totally wimped out. I just can't stand for them to be killed, so now I have them and have to spend all my time pet homing them because I just can't kill them.

 

[Zass]

My dogs LOVE rabbit, even my vegetarian friends allow their peekapoo to eat raw rabbit while she's here. I never give the dogs the best parts though, those are for us! And I usually feed them frozen, because it is cleaner, and because the dogs chew the bones more slowly that way.

 

[Desert Rose Rabbits]

I got into rabbits for my dog and cats. We were supposed to be secondary, but then my husband lost his job too, so we became primary. However, I do hold onto the carcass (stuff you'd use for soup) and give that to the dog for raw meaty bones when I'm running low on food. She also gets heads and organs when they're available.

 

[mystang89]

I have trouble keeping the dog from eating the rabbits. Were we talking about dead or alive? He doesn't seem to distinguish the two.

 

[GBov]

I have trouble keeping the dog from eating the rabbits. Were we talking about dead or alive? He doesn't seem to distinguish the two.

:lol:

My dog would eat them alive if I gave him the chance but I meant dead.

Having processed 10 rabbits yesterday all the heads and squiggly bits are frozen in three pound packages for the dogs. He prefers entire rabbits but my fryers finally came up to weight so they are for us.