breed?

[seagullplayer]

When my kids where young we use to raise rabbits, NZ white and Calf. they where great rabbits and grew pretty fast. But as I recall the meat was always a bit watery and never had a lot of flavor.
A friend of mine just gave me some rabbit he had in the freezer that he raised this past summer. It was very good, perhaps the best I have ever eaten. He no longer has the rabbits, but I saw them once and they where not NZ or Calf. The buck looked mostly rex (red)to me and the does could have been anything!

I am again interested in raising rabbits for meat. But I am beginning to rethink my choice of breed. I know most consider NZ or Calf. the "gold standard" in meat production, but if my past experience serves me well, there are better "tasting" breeds out there?

Any opinions on this? I was thinking maybe Dutch?

It is just me and my wife, so I am not interested in economical high volume production.

Nice forum BTW

 

[trinityoaks]

I think that what you feed them has more to do with flavor than breed does, but I'm certainly no expert.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

I agree that feed probably plays a large part in flavor. However, I know that some Heritage breeds of large livestock supposedly have better flavor than those raised for commercial purposes. I have Standard Rex and they taste good, but I haven't yet sampled any other breeds.

 

[ottersatin]

Any breed of rabbit will make a good meat rabbit.
I believe that it is all in the seasonings you use
that make or break the end product. ALL Rabbits are
made of meat. There are more commercial type breeds
but the final choice of a breed is yours!
For a small family a Dutch might serve you well, [Snicker]
while the larger breeds will produce more meat per rabbit
they will also consume more feed to get there.
As always, JMPO.
Ottersatin. ldtimer:

 

[Cattle Cait]

Some breeds do in fact taste better then others, but there's been no formal tasting to determine it like they've done with heritage turkeys and pork. I think it'd be something to look into, but from previous experience with turkeys, pork, beef, etc and so forth, heritage breeds do tend to taste better. We prefer our American Chins to the mutts and the Palominos to the American Chins, but our English Lop X Palomino cross babies turned out the tastiest of the rabbits we've had so far!

 

[sommrluv]

I haven't tasted a lot. I'm pretty sure the ones at the farmers markets are NZ of some sort. They have a pretty fine bone structure. We have dutch-like rabbits and they taste better than the store, but that probably has a lot to do with diet.

 

[MaggieJ]

I agree that diet plays a significant role in the flavour of rabbit meat. I used to feed pellets and the meat was fine but since we've gone natural (hay, greens and grain) the flavour is even better. It's like the difference between free range farm chicken and commercial birds.

 

[pazliberty]

I think it'd be something to look into, but from previous experience with turkeys, pork, beef, etc and so forth, heritage breeds do tend to taste better.

 

[akane]

I would think some of the old meat breeds that haven't been overly bred for production like chinchilla, silver fox, palomino, champagnes and the other argents, etc... might have a different flavor. Feed is going to make a big difference though like others said. Alot of people like the grain and hay fed rabbit just like grain fed beef became popular but they grow a little slower than all pellet fed. There's even some "grassfed" type movements with outdoor colonies or large amounts of forage collected everyday for the rabbit colonies. Then there's just the difference between an animal in a small cage and an animal out exercising. It would be interesting to grab a few different breeds and put them under a lot of different circumstances and feed types to see what happens. Personally I don't eat enough of my own rabbit to run such tests. My akita prefers part rex mutt rabbits slightly freezer burnt over fresh or purebred champagne. :

 

[seagullplayer]

Well my breed issue has been solved for at least the short term!

A friend gave me the phone number of a lady not far from us that needed to sell a lot
of her stock. She has some medical issues and is looking at a procedure that will keep
her indoors for most of the winter.

She has very healthy well cared for stock, I got a mixed breed doe with her six week old kit
of five young, and a buck that I thought matched her well. All in great shape, she said this was the does third litter and she has done well with all of them!
The buck is young but she said she has used him several times.

We am very excited to be back in the rabbit business.
I will try and post some pictures maybe folks can help me figure out just what I have.
But for right now we are very pleased to have gotten what we wanted and been able to help someone else out in the process. I sure they will taste great!

 

[LilFish_JWQueen(:]

Well i dont eat rabbit myself but my boyfriend and my dad have said they dont taste any different.

 

[PulpFaction]

Personally, I'm pretty dubious that different breeds taste differently if all other factors are the same. Of course diet will dramatically effect flavor, as will age. Perhaps the perceived difference in taste is due to longer grow out periods required by heritage breeds? It's a pretty well known fact that older animals of almost all species have more developed flavor than very young ones.