Are you making money or losing money with your rabbits?

[Mary Ann's Rabbitry]

it could be worse! Instead of rabbits, my vice could be cocaine or something, LOL!!!!!!!

That's what I tell my mom when she says I spend too much money on animals. At least it's s clean hobby, and they do have some type of resale value. If I had kids and was spending money on them no one would say anything...

and that is soooooooooo true.....Raising kids cost a lot ..I love my kids and I love my rabbits..

 

[grumpy]

I try.......REAL, REAL, HARD.

I'm always looking for different ways
to make a buck off my rabbits. Some ideas work.
Some...not so well.

grumpy.

 

[Dood]

I make enough to cover the feed bill and electricity and this last month I calculated that I've made enough to cover the cost of the barn renovation and cages so anything from here on out is pure profit

but I'm not going to able to quit my day job :mrgreen: If I was smoker I could afford a couple packs a day but I'm not so its going into my animal emergency fund.

 

[Prisma]

By the time I count the feed, the gas to shows, the gas to and from feed store trips, the gas to and from picking up rabbits, cages, show supplies, breeding supplies, grooming supplies, first aid items, and every thing else I'm way in the whole. Let's not even count the ghastly amount I've spent on stock to get restarted this year....and I'm still way in the hole. I *may* break even next year or the year after permitting showing goes well and so do planned litters. I still have yet to get the new building and cages with trays and feeders plus 1/2 gallon water bottles I want as well. I love the rabbits and its what I spend my time doing instead of overly drinking and parting like most my age do yet. I've decided if its the money pit I want to spend my time in, then its mine to do. No different than some one spending thousands on a jet ski or fishing gear or boat...least it is to me.

 

[MaggieJ]

I'm not sure any more... but I think I am ahead.

My initial start-up costs in 2005 were about $125. No purchased materials or equipment since then except a few thrift shop crocks.

When I fed pellets, my rabbit meat was costing me about $1.50 a pound. When I switched to natural feeding this dropped to about 75 cents a pound. (The lowest pork or chicken, on sale, is a dollar a pound.) I haven't tracked my feed costs in recent years. Hay has stayed about the same, but grain has gone up some.

Production is uneven... In a colony the rabbits breed when it seems good to them. They don't favour June and July (and who can blame them) but I expect a litter or two in late August and right on through the winter. I should keep track, but I don't. No idea how many rabbits I put in the freezer in the past year.

I recently bought the hay that provides the basis of the rabbits' diet: 20 square bales of good quality alfalfa hay at $3.50 a bale. That comes to $70 for the year. A few days later the man that sold us the hay called to say that a friend of his was looking for a couple of rabbits for a special dinner. I sold two at $20 each, which put a big dent in my hay costs. Hoping I will have a semi-regular customer now. Grain costs are hard to estimate because the goose and chickens get fed from the same bag. And then there are incidentals... trace mineral salt blocks, some cabbage and carrots in winter, a bag of sunflower seeds on occasion.

The idea of raising rabbits for meat was to decrease our dependence on supermarket meat, to have at least some meat that was free of antibiotics and growth hormones and to provide us with a luxury meat that we cannot otherwise afford. A fryer - when you can find one in the stores - costs about $24.

 

[Miss M]

I figured once that with the money I spend on their food and hay, I spend about $1.25/lb for rabbit meat. I figure I'm winning, as that is almost the cheapest meat I can buy... and I know where it's been, how it's been handled, and what it's been eating.

Rabbit is about $5 a pound here (last time I looked).

Chicken is $1.69 for whole roasters, $1.49 for fryers. At least $1.99 for drumsticks, or thighs, or wings, and more than that for breasts. I can get those 10-lb packs of leg quarters for $.79 per pound.

I used to be able to get Boston butts for $1.18 a pound, but I haven't seen that price in a loooooong time.

So I think I'm doing pretty well.

 

[Heritage Homestead]

I am losing. Um, that should be with a very large capitail L.
I can't seem to get on my feet with the rabbits. Just when I think I see some light I get one that is sick, and buck that is a dud, a doe that is a buck, and the list goes on and on. And I find that I have to basically have to start over.
Why does money have to be so necessary! :x :roll:

 

[DonnerSurvivor]

I started raising rabbits to make alil extra cash, The first registered trio of rabbits I bought one of the does got killed by my dog 1 day before kindling (she pretty much made a impossible escape) The other doe refuses to be bred and raise kits and she is getting close to being a expensive dinner. I also bought a trio of angoras since my Fiance is very skilled at crocheting and seems to not have a huge problem selling things she makes for decent money. Well the Angoras came down with pasteurella and are now in quarantine at my parents farm until they can be bred and I can get replacements from the litters. So all in all I would say im several hundred dollars in the losing money category though I do have some nice cage setups and have been enjoying the rabbits very much though it has been frustrating as of late.

 

[ottersatin]

What you have said appears to me to be,
part of "The learning curve".
I bet you will be muck more careful when making your next Rabbit purchases.
It is kind of disheartening to see all of the things that can befall
us when we are first accustoming ourselves to the wonders and horrors
of Rabbit keeping! If it was easy, everybody would be doing it!
welcome to an elite group of Crazies!
Ottersatin. ldtimer:

 

[Bad Habit]

Hands down making money. I had enough profits from the Lionheads to spend almost 400$ importing a trio of high quality velveteens. I lucked out with my lionheads, as well, upgrading my stock from cheap poor quality critters to rabbits that I am proud to own and would be proud to show. I don't show, so don't have that cost. Gas to the feed store is covered for 10 months of the year, as my niece has archery lessons just down the road from the feed store. Hay is cheap, 4$ a bale, just down the road from me. Greens I get all summer long from the market for free. I dry those and provide dried forage over winter(I also collect and dry dandelions). Litter is just wood stove pellets, about 5$ a month, although it's 12$ if I don't stock enough wood stove pellets and have to get equine bedding. I scour the internet, yard sales, thrift stores to get free/cheap cages. I get my crocks and litter boxes from the dollar store.

I also don't have a huge rabbitry. My ideal size is 6 rabbits, I think. I also had false dwarf does who routinely gave me BIG litters, helping with the profits. I've had my ups and downs - sometimes it feels like I hemorrhaging money with the rabbits, when I need all the supplies at once, or make a big purchase, but most of the time I feel I am at the very least breaking even. As long as the rabbits continue paying their own feed bill, and the feed bills of the dog and (now) ferret, I will be happy.

 

[Fire-Man]

I look at it this way. I feed my rabbits 50lb of feed and I get close that much back in fertilizer and/or feed for the worms I raise---I then feed some of the worms to the chickens. I actually fertilize rows of vegetable with the rabbits poop, worm catings(poop) and chicken poop. I feed alot of this food to the animals/rabbits/etc, as well as my family. I even started selling some of the extra vegetables for more than the rabbit feed cost me in the beginning. Then I sell some of the rabbits and cook some good meals using the rabbit meat. If I wanted--I can sell some of my worms and some worm castings. Worms sell for around $20 per lb, worm castings sells for some good money as well as "worm tea".

Rabbits are the only animal I raise that I feel I come out REAL GOOD on. In my opinion, If you are not coming out with your rabbits, maybe you need to look into things that you can do with their by-products.

 

[squidpop]

I figured once that with the money I spend on their food and hay, I spend about $1.25/lb for rabbit meat. I figure I'm winning, as that is almost the cheapest meat I can buy... and I know where it's been, how it's been handled, and what it's been eating.

Rabbit is about $5 a pound here (last time I looked).

Chicken is $1.69 for whole roasters, $1.49 for fryers. At least $1.99 for drumsticks, or thighs, or wings, and more than that for breasts. I can get those 10-lb packs of leg quarters for $.79 per pound.

I used to be able to get Boston butts for $1.18 a pound, but I haven't seen that price in a loooooong time.

So I think I'm doing pretty well.

This is a little off topic but, OMG- A whole chicken in New Zealand is $6.00 and a package of 6 thighs is $6.00 too. Raising meat rabbits here really would save tons of money if it replaced buying chicken if you were in New Zealand. Food is so much more expensive here- they ship it all to China I think.

 

[Peach]

hmmmm I'm pretty sure I'm just maybe breaking even somewhat now....but I'm sure I'd be in the negative no matter how you slice it.

When I think about how much I've payed for my stock....I'm just glad it happened slowly over time lol

Equipment... then the monthly feed bill is about $160 with feed and 2 bags of shavings . I seem to be returning back to them eating a little more than 50lbs a week now that I don't have as many litters.

I sell the occasional show quality rabbit here and there...I sell pets but only bucks. The females get butchered because to many people wanted to by my does for PQ does for breeding/ complained about personality. Not that they weren't sweet but they didn't have the same tendencies of a buck. More independent.

I sell 50lb bags of rabbit manure/shavings for $5 and it's a little extra cash

 

[skysthelimit]

In my opinion, If you are not coming out with your rabbits, maybe you need to look into things that you can do with their by-products.

Now that is the catch. The market for anything has to be there. No market for rabbits, no market for meat, no market for by products. They won't even take the manure for free. Location plays a big part. I figure a lot of people get disheartened because they didn't figure that in when they started. I'm thinking if your not coming out with your rabbits, you need to chalk it up as a hobby. I have a budget, and once I get past that, I start culling rabbits.

 

[Miss M]

I figured once that with the money I spend on their food and hay, I spend about $1.25/lb for rabbit meat. I figure I'm winning, as that is almost the cheapest meat I can buy... and I know where it's been, how it's been handled, and what it's been eating.

Rabbit is about $5 a pound here (last time I looked).

Chicken is $1.69 for whole roasters, $1.49 for fryers. At least $1.99 for drumsticks, or thighs, or wings, and more than that for breasts. I can get those 10-lb packs of leg quarters for $.79 per pound.

I used to be able to get Boston butts for $1.18 a pound, but I haven't seen that price in a loooooong time.

So I think I'm doing pretty well.

This is a little off topic but, OMG- A whole chicken in New Zealand is $6.00 and a package of 6 thighs is $6.00 too. Raising meat rabbits here really would save tons of money if it replaced buying chicken if you were in New Zealand. Food is so much more expensive here- they ship it all to China I think.

Oh, I'm sorry... I meant "Chicken is $1.69 per pound for whole roasters, $1.49 per pound for fryers. At least $1.99 per pound for drumsticks, or thighs, or wings, and more than that for breasts."

So a whole chicken here would be over $6.00 for a 4-pound chicken. Way more expensive than it used to be.

My price per pound is actually calculated on the high side. I am double-counting feed in that calculation. I take the price of all the feed consumed in the rabbitry from the start of a litter to the end of it, and divide it out and get my number. The thing is, it includes the feed being eaten by other growouts, so my actual price per pound is lower than what I stated. I've just never done the careful tallying required to figure out exactly how much feed is consumed from breeding day to butchering day, for one doe and her kits.

 

[dangerbunny]

My costs are very low so I am breaking even or making a bit.

Rabbits are nothing compared to horses anyway, horses cost sooooo much.

 

[skysthelimit]

My costs are very low so I am breaking even or making a bit.

Rabbits are nothing compared to horses anyway, horses cost sooooo much.

I bet!

I feed four German Shepherds in a month what it cost me to feed my herd every 10 days. I will add up the total weights of the herd, vs the dogs, and see how that compares.

 

[Stormy]

I sell 50lb bags of rabbit manure/shavings for $5 and it's a little extra cash

now *that* is an impressive entrepreneurial idea! Make money off manure!! heheh I should start charging my neighbor for wheeling away the horse manure.

I am so far in the negative I don't know how I ever thought raising rabbits would be an economical way to provide food for my family and 4 maine coon cats on a raw meat diet. When the vet said we had to stop feeding kibble due to health problems with a couple of the cats - they have been doing super since switching to raw meat diet - but the food bill for them is $180/month. That felt gauging so I got into rabbits. Now I spend a lot more than that each month!! Maybe also because I keep buying equipment, as we get set up for more rabbits, have more cages and pens. We finally broke down and just got a couple 100 ft fencing rolls and cordoned off part of the pasture for them. Its an exercise to keeping them in there - they love to dig - but they seem to have caught on that if they dig in the middle, we let them have their burrows.

Back to the money bit - I also discovered when our local feed store burnt down a couple weeks ago, that I was paying $10 more a bag of food for Purina than going directly to a food mill couple towns over. Now that I have a cheaper source of food, I hope to someday break even - even turn a profit maybe. With all the health issues I've experienced - and the testing and vet visits - it may be awhile before that happens. I actually am keeping a tally of expenses AND weighing out each butchered rabbit for total pounds of meat so far...

On that note, you can only get $5 a lb for rabbit meat? wow. The local farmer's market is selling for $12/lb, and $45 for a whole rabbit - the guy told me he can't keep them in stock they run out so fast. I was amazed. Can't imagine selling them for so much. Or even buying a $45 rabbit. Very thankful to raise my own! I don't know that I'd want to get into supplying rabbit meat however, though I've thought about it a few times, that would really make me a butcher. It's bad enough killing the ones we eat for ourselves I don't know if I'd want to go large scale on it.

 

[Desert Rose Rabbits]

I'm currently in the hole. Figure it'll take a few litters before I get anywhere close to at least breaking even. However, I will be tracking their 'meat worth'. My main reason for raising buns is for meat so if they end up not costing me much more than what my grocery meat budget is, I don't care. I'd rather have FRESH meat w/out gunk in it and pay a little more, you know? However, I've been watching the market and it looks like dressed rabbit is running about $6.99 a pound, and there's a market for hides as well as finished products. I keep the poo for myself since the soil here is so horrible... my dirt literally KILLS gardens, so they're saving me from having to buy amendment.

 

[Frecs]

Oh, I'm not even yet by a long shot. I'm still putting money into housing and still spending more on purchased feed than I want to. I may never break even much less make a profit. But, I'm not in it for profit. (Although, breaking even would be nice.)

I've found it is not easy to sell $30 Silver Foxes in an area saturated with $10 NZs and lionheads. I've actually had people ask me to sell for $10. I tell them for less than $20, I might as well put the animal in my freezer. It doesn't cost me $20 to raise that rabbit to butcher size but I still won't sell them for less than that. So, I'm not selling very many.

My brother asked me recently if this "animal thing" was "forever". I guess he thought it was just a short-term project??? Yes, I said, it is "forever". Mother and I enjoy the animals immensely. We don't have cable, we don't go to movies, we don't do drugs or other "recreational" stimulants, we don't spend hundreds of $$ on clothes or shoes. We sit and laugh at our chickens and ducks and hold our rabbits and talk about growing this for food or that for food and where to fit in more hutches so we can increase the number of rabbits. I don't need a gym membership because I get my exercise by mowing the grass, shoveling and moving around the rabbit poop, cleaning up the stinky duckling litter, etc etc etc. As I see my mother getting older and more fragile, the sight of her holding a little bunny gives me joy.

I also see the rabbits, chickens, and ducks as part of our path to self-sufficiency. Not that we can produce all we need on a half-acre but we can produce enough to barter with others and make it in the tough times I see coming.

I love my life that I'm living now and hope that in the years to come as I get this homestead more established I'll be ever so very much happier...and never regret the money I've invested into this lifestyle.<br /><br />__________ Wed Aug 07, 2013 9:41 am __________<br /><br />

I look at it this way. I feed my rabbits 50lb of feed and I get close that much back in fertilizer and/or feed for the worms I raise---I then feed some of the worms to the chickens. I actually fertilize rows of vegetable with the rabbits poop, worm catings(poop) and chicken poop. I feed alot of this food to the animals/rabbits/etc, as well as my family. I even started selling some of the extra vegetables for more than the rabbit feed cost me in the beginning. Then I sell some of the rabbits and cook some good meals using the rabbit meat. If I wanted--I can sell some of my worms and some worm castings. Worms sell for around $20 per lb, worm castings sells for some good money as well as "worm tea".

Rabbits are the only animal I raise that I feel I come out REAL GOOD on. In my opinion, If you are not coming out with your rabbits, maybe you need to look into things that you can do with their by-products.

Before the rabbits, I spent $$ on bags of manure for the garden and never could afford all I needed. Now, I have a never-ending manure resource! Plus, my chickens and ducks clean up the spilled rabbit food and enjoy the worms that are ever present. That makes my eggs free and once I start harvesting duck meat, that duck meat will be very cheap (I do have to feed the ducklings until they feather out.)

I would like to figure out ways to sell either some of the rabbits or their pelts or their feet or their ears or something! I need all the manure for myself.