Feeding rabbits to dogs- How do you go about it?

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Schipperkesue

Schipperkesue

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Bonk and feed?
Bonk, skin and feed?
Bonk, skin, gut and feed?
Bonk, skin, gut, grind and feed?
Bonk, skin, bone and feed?

I am sure there are other variations on this theme. How do you go about it? Do you vary delivery depending on the size of the dog?

Thanks!
 
Whenever I give rabbits to my dogs, I skin and gut. All the dogs get is fat, meat, and bone. Raw bones of any animal are safe.
 
my dogs eat everything. I just decapitate the rabbit & feed the body one time & a bowl of about 6 heads as a meal at another time. I give 1/2 the carcass if it's a full grown rabbit and the whole thing if a smaller one. My dogs are between 95-135 lbs. You figure about 2-3% of body weight per dog per day.

If I want the pelt for me, then I skin, if not, I don't bother. Wolves & coyotes don't get their meals skinned for them :)
 
Shoot, remove head, skin, remove intestines and stomach, cut larger rabbits in half, and freeze.

Mine seem to think fur is the same as stuffed animal stuffing and pluck it off bit by bit without eating the meat. The heads contain pellets from the gun. The intestines and stomach are not eaten and just get shoved under their blankets to bury it until I realize there's a weird smell or destroyed and smashed in to the wood floors. All other organs will be eaten if frozen in to the upper body cavity. Thawed or fed separately they won't eat them. The smaller dog has some issues with larger pieces of rabbit so I might portion hers out by the leg and then half the body at a time depending on the size of the rabbit and weight of the bone. The akita will happily destroy weight bearing bones of large animals. I keep expecting her to chip a tooth or something but she doesn't and her jaw strength is amazing sometimes.
 
Since I never know whether I'm getting a carcass or the dogs are, I skin, gut, and package for me. I chop into approximately 1-2" pieces for my Frenchie, otherwise she does a really disgusting Komodo dragon impression. My princess Boxer gets them whole. The organs I share between me and the ferrets.
 
Bonk, skin, bone and feed?
Click to expand...
A properly balanced raw dog food includes the bones. The calcium is needed to balance out the high level of phosphorus in the muscles and organs and prevent metabolic problems.

I skin, gut and put into chunks or ground as my pup only gets fed 4oz a day. Since most of my clients buy ground I always have it on hand and it is also easier to mix in her fruits and veggies to it. I try and give her chunks at least once a week as she does love to gnaw and snap them bones :)

I joke that if the Zombie Apocalypse comes she'll do better then my sister shepherd who'll only eat moistened kibble or canned.
 
Bonk, skin, give dog the rabbit head after cutting off the ears (for some reason the dog thinks those are treats so they come in handy,) quarter, take meat from quartering and put in freezer, take innards and throw them away, (I'm sure the dog would eat them but I find that even more nasty than eating the head) and give the bones to the dog if I already have enough rabbit broth to last me.
 
Bonk and feed, fur on, unless I want the pelt. The dogs love the guts and head the most, it's the first thing they eat, so I only take those if the rabbit was ill or died on it's own.
 
My dogs' main diet is a grain free kibble, so it is really only when we are running low on dog food and don't want to drive to town (100 miles round trip) that they get the actual meat and bones. I try to find the oldest frozen rabbit in the freezer (both chronological age and "time served"), thaw, and feed them that.

They usually get the heads and feet as I am processing, and I make up a "gut bowl" for them. If I do too many rabbits in a day for them to eat all guts I throw the extra away, otherwise they don't eat the stomachs and leave them on our front porch instead. :x

I have also given whole, skin on, after necropsying a dead rabbit. For some reason they prefer to age it for a couple of days, nibbling on the head and feet to test the flavor until it is just right.

They also LOVE pelts. They get the ones from fryers and have gotten quite a few that were on my stretchers when the wind blows them down.
 
I used to make my own food every month with whole ground chicken and other things from the grocer. I do have access to a grinder. Wondering if there would be any issues with putting the whole dead rabbit through the grinder... fur, ears, all the guts, everything?
 
Rabbit kills grinders over time. The raw cat feeders do it a lot and suggest only 2 grinders on the market for it. Dogs should have some bones to chew in order to keep their teeth clean and develop good jaw muscles. Rabbit bones are usually light enough the dogs can crunch them all so it's a good thing to feed whole or just portioned out for smaller dogs. However ground rabbit is useful in making dog treats and hiding pills. It takes about a pound of ground meat to get those stupid heartworm logs down my akita because she's so picky. I prefer tablets I can just shove down her throat but they quit making them. I'd have to order from australia. We are thinking about measuring out some 1% ivermectin and squirting it in their mouths instead. It would be less work and trauma than other methods.
 
I squirt the Ivomec into the meat before I give it to them. They eat so fast they would never know.
 
Akane, the grinder I have in mind is an industrial model. Not owned by me, the meat seller puts whole gutted chickens through to make dog food. If I can pasture my rabbits this year, I am thinking I can actually make dog food cheaper than I can buy. My own whole rabbits, my own eggs, shell and all, my own veggies. All ground together and frozen.
 
Watch the Ca:p if you are adding egg shells and vegetables as a full daily portion of the diet. Personally I don't feed vegetables and eggs are a treat except when used in the satin ball recipe that has been approved by vets as a whole diet. Even then I don't feed a full 3lbs worth of satin balls to my large dog because that kind of defeats the point of a grain free diet. I make 1/4lb balls for the 30lb easy keeper that needs about 1/2lb of food a day and 1lb balls for my 80-90lb hard keeper that needs about 2.5-3lbs of food a day. The rest is either grain free kibble or prey model diet which uses nothing but meat, bone (both edible and weight bearing), and organs.

Vegetables are iffy what they can digest even ground so calculating the exact ratios of the diet to make sure you are including the right ones is difficult, some are high in oxalic acid which binds to calcium causing them to excrete excessive amounts in the urine leading to kidney and bladder issues, and some can cause gas to a level of life threatening bloat. It's a controversial topic of raw feeding and people seem to be leaning more towards the prey model diet every year or using tripe instead of undigested vegetable matter. It's so much easier to feed carnivores a 100% animal product diet than to figure the amounts of everything for a herbivore. It's simplistic and you know they are digesting everything they eat. You don't really have to calculate or research much. Just feed whole prey or weigh out the correct percentages of "frankenprey" (portions from various parts of different animals that are combined in a way that mimics a whole prey item). All you need to look up or calculate yourself are the details of the animal you are using such as rabbit meat is too low in certain fats, high in protein by comparison, and have bigger livers per body weight than larger animals. You need to off set that with something that has a little more fat and don't overfeed the liver. Usually as long as you have 3-4 different sources it all balances out even without the research. We were doing 50% rabbit(over 60% caused health issues), 25% chicken, most of the rest in venison, and a small amount of beef parts my family didn't want to use like tongue, organs, and excess ground. With the rabbits gone though we packed the freezer with venison so it will probably become an even 25% each of rabbit, venison or elk, chicken, and beef if I can find a beef source I'm happy with. If not I'll have to see if elk prices are low enough or resort to more chicken. I get store bought on sale occasionally but mostly use retired layers from local farms.
 
None of my five dogs will touch the stuff either raw or cooked ....Silly city dogs , their loss , more for me (and the inedibles get composted).
 
3mina":27vumloi said:
I save probably $80-90 monthly growing my dog food
Click to expand...


That was the idea, but feeding the amount of rabbits it takes to feed 3 adult 70+ lb dogs isn't happening. I go through about $90 worth of rabbit food a month, but I was feeding 4 dogs with $90 for 6 weeks. Even at the max of 30-40% of the ratio, rabbits just didn't grow fast enough to be a real source of food.
 
When and if I get the meat rabbit numbers where I want them,
I may consider rabbit for our basset.
I would not feed him any bones, or the head or fur...just plain meat.
I don't want him figuring out the cute bunnies in the cages
are meat. Currently he is happy just checking them out via sniffing.

Currently I have other meat in the freezer we are working through.
 
TwoAcreDream":1rbhaj4w said:
When and if I get the meat rabbit numbers where I want them,
I may consider rabbit for our basset.
I would not feed him any bones, or the head or fur...just plain meat.
I don't want him figuring out the cute bunnies in the cages
are meat. Currently he is happy just checking them out via sniffing.

Currently I have other meat in the freezer we are working through.
Click to expand...

Do you plan to add anything to the just plain meat? Dogs need more than just meat in their diets.<br /><br />__________ Sun Jan 12, 2014 5:06 pm __________<br /><br />
skysthelimit":1rbhaj4w said:
3mina":1rbhaj4w said:
I save probably $80-90 monthly growing my dog food
Click to expand...


That was the idea, but feeding the amount of rabbits it takes to feed 3 adult 70+ lb dogs isn't happening. I go through about $90 worth of rabbit food a month, but I was feeding 4 dogs with $90 for 6 weeks. Even at the max of 30-40% of the ratio, rabbits just didn't grow fast enough to be a real source of food.
Click to expand...

I plan to experiment with pasturing my weaned buns this year to get around having to feed them expensive feed. I have a rotating pasture system in mind. I also have a very cheap source of grain I may supply in the pasture.

Question... Which grains are most suitable? I can get wheat, oats, barley, peas.

Ideally I would feed all my dogs with feed I grew, but have about 400 lbs of dog to feed so doubt I will be able to feed them all.
 

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