Newish to meat rabbits

[verno]

Hi there,
My wife and I made a failed attempt at raising meat rabbits last year. We had quite a few kits, the ones that survived took forever to grow. Probably about 2 months before they were over 1 lb. We were feeding commercial pellets once they were weaned. We also had a terrible time with the young ones getting out of our wood nesting boxes. I have no idea what kind of rabbits they were, they were black and white.
Sooo, we figure we are going to try again this summer. We want to buy some NZW's and start over. We have checked the Woodville auction, but often they don't know what kind of rabbits they have. Are all the white ones with red eyes NZW? Anyone know where we could get some good NZW to start out again within say 1.5 hours of Toronto(we are in Durham Region)?
Should we maybe be giving some Timothy hay cubes with the pellets?
These rabbits will be used mostly for reptile food, as my wife has plenty of reptiles.

 

[Anntann]

I'm relatively new to the meat rabbit thing, but I've learned a couple of things that would apply.
1)leave the kits with the doe until she weans them. They grow a LOT faster that way.
2)feeding hay will slow down growth, but only by a couple of weeks.
3)New Zealands should be bigger than 1 lb by 8 weeks.

There are quite a few people on this board near Toronto, so I bet you get lots of replies

WELCOME TO THE BOARD!

 

[ladysown]

I raise rabbits for the pet food trade as well. I raise mini rex, holland lops, and harlequins. (polish are a bit small for the pet trade).

there are a few GOOD meat rabbit raisers around Ontario. I"m up near London and can think of two New Zealand white breeders right off that sell rabbits for breeding. Now...if you are just raising for the critters ANY rabbit will do just fine. Even mini rex, loppies, and dutch will do fine for you. (depends on how long you want to grow them out).

Harlequins, Californians, New Zealands in the various colours, Bruns, and even just good meat mutts. Always a risk buying at the auction, but you could ask around at the auctions and find out who is raising meat rabbits around you, and buy their best stock.

You can go on the ARBA website, or post a query on kijiji.ca (or even check the ads there), Don't limit yourself to just pure new zealands since for feeding critters, you just want a healthy animal. You can over time breed them to where you want them to be producing at.

 

[verno]

Thank you both for the responses. Ladysown, now that I read you posts, I think the ones we had before were Californians crossed with something else. Maybe the pellets weren't enough for them to grow at a decent rate then? We had settled on NZW only because we had read that they were really good producers and I enjoy eating rabbit as much as any snake does lol

 

[ladysown]

ah, makes sense, I just find too often people limit themselves to the familiar without learning about some of the other breeds out there.

I eat my harlequins as well...those that I don't manage to sell before it's time for them to become food. I find they do 2-3 meals for me - depending on how hungry I am.

But seriously, ask on Kijiji and see what people are around locally.
Otherwise if you are stuck, I might be able to arrange bunny transport to at least Kitchener for you from the breeders I know around here.

Rabbits should be able to do find just on pellets.
My guess is that there was something under-lying wrong with them. Did you buy them at auction? if so you don't know if they had something not quite right with them. Generally speaking, people sell their stock at auction for a reason.

1. sick and they don't want to "do the deed" themselves
2. cross bred stock
3. poor doers and they don't know why
4. no time to run them to the packers (those are the ones I'd want to buy from as long as they handled their stock well).
5. pure laziness in not finding buyers for their stock (my jaded impression)

 

[DevonW]

I have gone to the Woodville auction a couple time, and that place is sketchy at best, most of the time you get a mix of Heinz 57's that you couldn't begin to guess what was in them. The only really good thing about the auction is the rabbits always sell, even if its just to the local butchers, so if you're tight for cage space it's a good place to send culls if you don't want to deal with them yourself.

If you want, I can PM you a list of breeders in your general area that raise meat rabbits that would have great starter stock for you. There are a TON of breeders in central and southern Ontario.

Welcome to the board ! I'm Devon and I raise Argente Bruns, and Satins, for meat and show, and Mini Rex for show up in Penetanguishene (2 hours north of Toronto).

 

[verno]

Devon that would be great if you could PM me some names

 

[MaggieJ]

Hello Verno and welcome to RabbitTalk. :hi:

I strongly recommend that you buy your breeding stock privately from someone who has been been breeding rabbits for meat. Perhaps if you hang out here for awhile you will be able to connect with one of our members. I have a feeling that Truckinguy may be not too far from you.

Rabbit pellets are generally considered a "complete" diet although many people like to feed some grass or timothy hay for the benefits the extra fibre gives. Pellets are the route to fastest growth, if that is you priority. It sounds to me as though the rabbits you had may have not been full sized meat rabbits... perhaps a cross with a smaller breed. A rabbit does not have to be New Zealand White to be a good meat rabbit: there are many breeds with a good meat-type body and crosses of those breeds also work well.

 

[Devon's Mom Lauren]

Truckinguy is near Alliston which is not too far,but is on the other side of the lake lol. Devon has the names of a lot of breeders not too far from TO as well that she pm'd I think. Welcome to the board.