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I'm with everyone else, in that my buns get plenty of the basics, and frequent treats, but they are not coddled. No heat in the rabbitry, but I did set up a mister system and run it during the hottest days (over 95 degrees). But as folks say, try whatever you like and are enthusiastic about! If...

I agree that first and foremost you should go with a breed that you think is cool/awesome/adorable/etc... You will be investing a lot of time and energy into your buns, so make sure they are critters that you can be really excited about. Next most important is to find a breeder whose goals...

Check out this earlier thread about blue steels and opals. I have some blue steels pop up in my Americans from time to time. They are usually pretty easy to tell from the true blues, but I could see how you would be surprised if you weren't looking for them...

I'm with Grumpy - 2x4 wire will not cut it for overnight use. You need no less than 1/2" square hardware cloth to prevent nasty raccoon hands from getting in there. And my tractors also have bottoms. I don't ever want to have to chase a bunny down out in the pasture. But, if it's just for a few...

I've tractored rabbits for almost a year now (I think there's more detail about what I do in other posts...), and my tractors definitely have bottoms. Substantial ones - wire decking panels for pallet racks. No escapees ever, though in theory a kit could probably squeeze out... I have yet to...

Thanks, Michael! I had seen that recently, but it wasn't quite what I had remembered seeing earlier. Somewhere I had seen a recipe/directions for smoked belly flap bacon... But if no-one pipes up, the fresh bacon/jerky approach will probably work out just fine too.

I like GlobalPedigree.com but haven't tried any of the others. Since I don't show, I don't need all the show-related bells & whistles (and perhaps GlobalPedigree has that, I just wouldn't know!). It's one of those internet-based programs, so you can access your records whenever you have an...

Hi folks! Somewhere, once, I saw a recipe/guidelines for making "bacon" from rabbit belly flaps. Now that I have a nice smoker and have been storing up belly flaps, of course I can't find the recipe again! Would anyone come to my rescue with suggestions? Thanks in advance.

I've chatted with the folks at Modesto Milling before, and they are very nice and sympathetic to small farmers' issues. They will sell you their products at a decent discount (near wholesale) if you pay to have a pallet's worth shipped over. Don't quote me on this, but as I recall, a pallet...

Sounds like you're on the right track! BTW, I think that 5 litters a year should be very much do-able. We seem to be on track for 6-7 from our Americans (but not the Champagne d'Argent, they seemed to have decided to take the winter off, even the buck), and they don't seem to be slowing down...

So, I hopefully will be starting a trial of feeding barley/wheat fodder to my meat rabbits this week. I have two litters of Americans to wean soon, and will try splitting them each into two groups. One set will hopefully be transitioned to all fodder and hay (maybe some black oil sunflower seeds...

Thanks for the feedback. I was pretty sure she was a steel, but she had just enough markings (mostly fawn around nape and ears, pale underside of tail) to make me doubtful. This pairing produces some really obvious gold-tipped black steels, and others that seem much closer to chestnut, and I...

Hi, color gurus! I have a rabbit who I suspect is a gold(fawn)-tipped blue steel, but I want to make sure she actually isn't an opal. Steels are really useful for nice dark blues, but an opal would be less useful. Breed is American, she is 11 weeks old. Her father is blue, a known steel...

I start trying my young does out around 4.5 to 5 months, I won't hold them for the buck but if they lift on their own, I figure they think they are ready. So far, everyone has continued to grow out just fine reaching good senior weights of 9-11 pounds, depending on breed. Seems like there's more...

If you try it out, be sure to report back (especially whether it was wet or dried). And thanks for sharing your whole grains source.

I've seen that too... I wonder if it's "spent" brewer's grain, fresh malted, or dry malted? If anything but dry, I'd suspect there might be a good chance for dodgy molds to be present (I've read somewhere that rabbits are unusually susceptible to some of the molds and other beasties often...

I measure for the bucks and any does not heavily pregnant or nursing (my Champagne buck in particular can get fat off of even 1/2 cup of 17% pellets plus hay a day!). Does with litters, late pregnancy, and grow-out pens get full feeders. Everyone gets a nice chunk of alfalfa-grass mix hay, and...

I know it's traditional to salt the meat before putting it in the fat to make confit, but I almost never bother when it's nice young, tender rabbit or duck. Wild goose or grouse, that does get a little more aggressive of a treatment. After the confit has finished with the fat step, we often...

Confit! I confit just about everything these days (rabbit, goose, duck), so easy and impossible to dry out the meat.

Thanks for the hopper addition ideas. Much easier than fashioning an entirely new feeder, especially since we have random bits of wide diameter PVC pipes laying around the place. I especially like the idea of using heat to reshape the plastic. Now if we could just figure out how to stop...