Boarding Rabbits?

[CokeZero]

Any thoughts on boarding rabbits? I don't have the space for the currently as I want a small colony (10x10ish). I'd need some sort of electric to run a heated waterer but I wouldn't need any sort of care or feeding for them if I can find a place close enough. Is this a viable idea, and what would be a good offer as to price for something like this?

Edit: I seem to have not been clear enough. I'd like to get back into rabbits, I currently have none. I have extensive experience breeding, colony keeping and I did natural feeding. If I boarded (keeping my rabbits elsewhere in this sense) it would be at a rural property with no other existing livestock. No biosecurity issues other than wild rabbits/hares. In 100% going to lose money, that's not my goal. My goal is ethically raised meat and possibly show rabbits. This would be a doe only colony with bucks introduced only to breed and only specific does. Think boarding as in horse boarding. Keeping your animal elsewhere because you don't have space.

 

[tambayo]

Biosecurity risks, so i wouldn't. If you have rabbits of your own and especially if you depend on them for meatproduction or otherwise breed for show or such, you don't want to risk bringing in diseases. Animals from elsewhere regularly bring such risks. At shows there is more oversight on health and you can quarantine such animals on return, same with new breeding stock you buy.
You'd need 2 buildings if you want to board rabbits while minimizing risks.
I'd much rather board something i have experience with but don't have myself anymore.

 

[Robochelle]

Tambayo hit the nail on the head. It is an interesting niche that might have a market; you'd likely not make money and only hope to break even for years, though.

If you're serious about it, I'd suggest talking to dog boarding kennels. There would obviously be species differences, but their protocols might give you insight into how they handle biosecurity. It might also shed light onto other unforeseen problems and solutions.

Another consideration, would be humane societies and animal shelters: especially if you could volunteer in order to get real life experience on how to temporarily house multiple animals. Some of them might even deal with rabbits as well, leading to species specific insight.

 

[CokeZero]

Tambayo hit the nail on the head. It is an interesting niche that might have a market; you'd likely not make money and only hope to break even for years, though.

If you're serious about it, I'd suggest talking to dog boarding kennels. There would obviously be species differences, but their protocols might give you insight into how they handle biosecurity. It might also shed light onto other unforeseen problems and solutions.

Another consideration, would be humane societies and animal shelters: especially if you could volunteer in order to get real life experience on how to temporarily house multiple animals. Some of them might even deal with rabbits as well, leading to species specific insight.

Tambayo hit the nail on the head. It is an interesting niche that might have a market; you'd likely not make money and only hope to break even for years, though.

If you're serious about it, I'd suggest talking to dog boarding kennels. There would obviously be species differences, but their protocols might give you insight into how they handle biosecurity. It might also shed light onto other unforeseen problems and solutions.

Another consideration, would be humane societies and animal shelters: especially if you could volunteer in order to get real life experience on how to temporarily house multiple animals. Some of them might even deal with rabbits as well, leading to species specific insight.

Edit added!

 

[CokeZero]

Biosecurity risks, so i wouldn't. If you have rabbits of your own and especially if you depend on them for meatproduction or otherwise breed for show or such, you don't want to risk bringing in diseases. Animals from elsewhere regularly bring such risks. At shows there is more oversight on health and you can quarantine such animals on return, same with new breeding stock you buy.
You'd need 2 buildings if you want to board rabbits while minimizing risks.
I'd much rather board something i have experience with but don't have myself anymore.

Edit added for clarity!

 

[ladysown]

anything is possible. You'd need to find the right person willing to do the work. Can you find a place that will allow you to have rabbits and set up a small colony? Possibly.

 

[MsTemeraire]

I think you would still have biosecurity issues. If you've been out of rabbits for a while, you may not have heard there's now a major virus present in the USA in many states (and spreading). RHDV is also affecting wild rabbits and hares, and indeed these represent a very high infection risk. Vaccine is available but won't protect young rabbits under vaccination age and the virus may mutate (it already has in Europe).

 

[Phrick]

Boarding rabbits is on the list of things I plan to start, but in a different way. In the state of Arizona, I am not allowed to sell MY butchered rabbits. USDA inspection rules - they fall under voluntary inspection and here that means I'd have to hire an inspector full time on my place at a cost of 90k or more. But stupidly, if I sell live kits, board them on my property their whole lives, and offer butchery as a service to their owner, THAT's totally fine. Even though paperwork is the literal only difference.

So that's my plan. I can see it working the same for you, even with the inputs you'd need (the space, electric, etc) on someone else's property. If you're not opposed to the financial losses of getting started, yes I can see that working well.

As far as price, I assume you are asking what you should offer to whomever you approach to ask if you can use a chunk of their property - basically, the price you'd like to offer for rent. And for that I'm not as sure - but I would start by checking in your area on Craigslist and etc, to see if anyone offers private storage (eg my dad rents sections of the barn in his old dairy, which hasn't had cows for 30 years) to get a feel for what private storage spaces are going for. You may be able to set up a barter that way even, there are a lot of people open to barters out here.

There's also the Neighbor app, which facilitates private storage - we rented some driveway space to a guy who needed to store his RV for a few months - and that's another possibility for both finding the space to set up your colony and for finding prices. He didn't use our electric at all but his RV and truck took up way more than the 10x10 size you're talking about and we charged $110/month. The nice thing about Neighbor is they handle all the payments and rental agreements and stuff.

If you're providing whatever structure you need, any security, and all you need is electric for the waterer(s), I'd start out low as far as amount, with the offer of meat as part of the deal. But it's a little hard to guess at an actual dollar figure as things are so different in Arizona than in Iowa!

 

[hotzcatz]

Rabbits are a pretty hands on livestock to keep them offproperty, IMHO. Probably whatever works will be something close to where you are since you'd be going there daily? Anything within walking distance? Maybe a gardener neighbor who would allow a rabbit hutch/space in exchange for rabbit manure?

Since you may want to show the rabbits, is there anyone near you who shows rabbits and would be willing to share space? Maybe split rabbit care with them in exchange for space?

 

[kusanar314]

Boarding rabbits is on the list of things I plan to start, but in a different way. In the state of Arizona, I am not allowed to sell MY butchered rabbits. USDA inspection rules - they fall under voluntary inspection and here that means I'd have to hire an inspector full time on my place at a cost of 90k or more. But stupidly, if I sell live kits, board them on my property their whole lives, and offer butchery as a service to their owner, THAT's totally fine. Even though paperwork is the literal only difference.

So that's my plan. I can see it working the same for you, even with the inputs you'd need (the space, electric, etc) on someone else's property. If you're not opposed to the financial losses of getting started, yes I can see that working well.

As far as price, I assume you are asking what you should offer to whomever you approach to ask if you can use a chunk of their property - basically, the price you'd like to offer for rent. And for that I'm not as sure - but I would start by checking in your area on Craigslist and etc, to see if anyone offers private storage (eg my dad rents sections of the barn in his old dairy, which hasn't had cows for 30 years) to get a feel for what private storage spaces are going for. You may be able to set up a barter that way even, there are a lot of people open to barters out here.

There's also the Neighbor app, which facilitates private storage - we rented some driveway space to a guy who needed to store his RV for a few months - and that's another possibility for both finding the space to set up your colony and for finding prices. He didn't use our electric at all but his RV and truck took up way more than the 10x10 size you're talking about and we charged $110/month. The nice thing about Neighbor is they handle all the payments and rental agreements and stuff.

If you're providing whatever structure you need, any security, and all you need is electric for the waterer(s), I'd start out low as far as amount, with the offer of meat as part of the deal. But it's a little hard to guess at an actual dollar figure as things are so different in Arizona than in Iowa!

Couldn't you just sell the rabbits with free processing of their rabbits once the sale is done? That's how we do it here. Less paperwork and things that could go wrong (you sell a young kit, charge board for it, it spooks and breaks it's back, now you have to charge this person for a dead rabbit that they can't consume) as you have responsibility for the rabbit up until the day or at least the week that it is processed.

 

[Phrick]

Couldn't you just sell the rabbits with free processing of their rabbits once the sale is done? That's how we do it here. Less paperwork and things that could go wrong (you sell a young kit, charge board for it, it spooks and breaks it's back, now you have to charge this person for a dead rabbit that they can't consume) as you have responsibility for the rabbit up until the day or at least the week that it is processed.

Possibly. I have a few emails out to the various regulators and have talked to another breeder in the area who has been involved in trying to get the rules changed, and I know already for sure that the method I outlined would work. However, the backyard processing rules that I found state that the owner has to be involved in "a majority" of the processing (which is infuriatingly nebulous), and per the other breeder friend it's less "iffy" to have them own the rabbit for its whole life, if that makes sense.

That said, AZ Fish & Game offers free a game processing license - it's designed so that hunters who can't process at their place (eg lives in an HOA) can still have their meat processed without having to take it to an expensive facility, but if I'm reading it right I think it will be applicable to me for processing rabbits sold live to others since even domesticated rabbit is technically game meat, at which point yes, selling a 10 week live kit & butchering virtually immediately would be fine. That's the part I'm still waiting to find out.