well I did it first butcher

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Harelady

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So I had been playing with the idea of butchering cull rabbits but was not sure if I could do it. Well I got my answer today when I found a 9 week old kit with severe malocclusion. I feel bad for not finding it earlier since I normally check teeth around 6-7 weeks when I tattoo. But life has gotten in the way and I have not tattooed yet. The dispatch when well and I think I did an OK job on the butcher though there is not much meat on a 9 week old Belgian Hare. But it will make an good dog treat for the pack. So I completed my first dispatch and butcher and survived just fine. I am proud of myself and sad at the same time. So mixed emotions right now.
 
Your mixed feelings are natural, Harelady. Taking an animal's life is never easy and nor should it be. It's a bit easier when you know a certain rabbit does not have a good future, as in this case. And it does get easier with time, as your confidence grows.

Well done getting through it! :goodjob:
 
Good for you.
You did the right thing and the best thing for that rabbit

It is supposed to get easier.... I've only done it once with mentor supervision.
But I would say the process is much easier than Poultry. Physically, not emotionally.
 
I still dread butcher day :( . It's not a fun process, but it's a necessary part of why we are doing what we're doing (I raise primarily for meat). And in cases of illness or extreme injury, it's more merciful to cull than to let it suffer. You did well doing what you needed to do...
 
Thanks everyone. I am proud of myself for being able to handle it. But am unsure how to proceed. Both mentor breeders say malocclusion is extremely rare in this breed. So I am unsure if selling or breeding the siblings is a good idea. Since the teeth issue is more than likely genetic. I do not want to be the reason that malocclusion becomes more common in the breed.
 
Harelady":1j4467n2 said:
Thanks everyone. I am proud of myself for being able to handle it. But am unsure how to proceed. Both mentor breeders say malocclusion is extremely rare in this breed. So I am unsure if selling or breeding the siblings is a good idea. Since the teeth issue is more than likely genetic. I do not want to be the reason that malocclusion becomes more common in the breed.

Malocclusion isn't strictly genetic. It can also be caused by trauma. If they were my rabbits, I'd breed the same two buns together again and see if it pops up again. If the kit suffered unknown trauma (who knows, mama could have stomped on it as a kit or it could have gotten it's teeth messed up while chewing at cage wire, etc.) then it could be an isolated incident. If malocclusion hasn't appeared in either rabbit's background and none of the siblings show signs of it, why not give the pairing another chance? Heck, if you are really concerned, try pairing two of the siblings - if it is genetic, then the probability of it showing up in a brother-sister pairing would be really high. (I'm sure you wouldn't want to sell those kits, even if they turn out squeaky clean... I guess serious breeders don't like sibling breeding very much.)
 
It still stinks here on processing day when I have some to do, it never changes for me but you dealt well.

As far as the bad teeth, breeding together close relations (even litter mates) and the original pair IS a good idea to see if its lurking genetic problem or just a fluke. Some lines don't mesh well, other times it was just a fluke mutation or an injury (did they pull on things a lot with their teeth early on or have a fall?). Inbreeding closely will make it apparent rather quickly if they are a genetic problem, that's how I found out with my original lions, I bred 2 siblings together got 1 with bad teeth rest was fine (several litters of this so took offspring from resulting litters that were 'ok' and bred to each other, that resulted in whole litters of messed up teeth so it was def genetic). They were all other purposed except for a handful that stayed until their deaths as pets. I can understand not wanting to perpetuate the problem, that's a good thing to be concerned over.
 
Thanks everyone for your thoughts. My current plan is to keep the best doe and buck from the six remaining and breed them to the parents to see if anything shows up. The rest will be culled so no one breeds this problem into other lines. I have alerted the breeder whom the rabbits come from. So we will both watch that line carefully. It may have been a random thing but I am currently taking steps to make sure of it.
 
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