Shara
Well-known member
I may be moving back to my hometown at some point...little dinky town of 250 people...
about six years ago, there was a car accident that tore my family up, my mom was in the ICU, all us kids were shipped out to different family members, and the animals were split. No one was able to take the rabbits (minirex mixed with some red pet store rabbit, really pretty babies), so my mom sent someone to go butcher them. Well, a neighbor of ours caught wind of the "autrocity" that was going on, so he went over there and set the rabbits "free". :?
Anyways, they have set up a pretty good feral population there, and were even in the Oregonian paper at one point a few years ago, have successfully navigated all of the pitfalls, and are still going strong. I was kind of playing around with the idea of catching a few and seeing if they were good, but small "meat type" rabbits after all this time, maybe breeding some and see how it goes.
I think, though, that it may be a hard go for them, seeing as for the last six years these have been free rabbits, so have not been in confinement for a number of generations, and so inbred (they all come from one doe and one buck originally) but I was thinking it might be interesting to breed a buck to a meat doe, maybe breed one of those offsring back to an original rabbit...I don't know, it is probably a bad idea, but I was wondering, what do you guys think? How would a rabbit like that do in a cage setup? is it even a good idea at all?
For sure, IF I move up there, I would like to cull out as many as possible (discreetly). I don't think it's real good to be introducing feral populations like that, but thought it might be interesting to see what we'd get. I do enjoy that kind of play.
Input?
about six years ago, there was a car accident that tore my family up, my mom was in the ICU, all us kids were shipped out to different family members, and the animals were split. No one was able to take the rabbits (minirex mixed with some red pet store rabbit, really pretty babies), so my mom sent someone to go butcher them. Well, a neighbor of ours caught wind of the "autrocity" that was going on, so he went over there and set the rabbits "free". :?
Anyways, they have set up a pretty good feral population there, and were even in the Oregonian paper at one point a few years ago, have successfully navigated all of the pitfalls, and are still going strong. I was kind of playing around with the idea of catching a few and seeing if they were good, but small "meat type" rabbits after all this time, maybe breeding some and see how it goes.
I think, though, that it may be a hard go for them, seeing as for the last six years these have been free rabbits, so have not been in confinement for a number of generations, and so inbred (they all come from one doe and one buck originally) but I was thinking it might be interesting to breed a buck to a meat doe, maybe breed one of those offsring back to an original rabbit...I don't know, it is probably a bad idea, but I was wondering, what do you guys think? How would a rabbit like that do in a cage setup? is it even a good idea at all?
For sure, IF I move up there, I would like to cull out as many as possible (discreetly). I don't think it's real good to be introducing feral populations like that, but thought it might be interesting to see what we'd get. I do enjoy that kind of play.
Input?
You'd probably have some very hardy "I can take anything" stock. Rabbits seem to adapt to things quite quickly, but you'd have your hands full the first bit. 
