feeding raw rabbit as dog food

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I feed EVERYTHING, except the gall bladder, which I TRY to cut off the liver so that it won't make everything taste bitter. The dogs love the heads and they brain is part of the 10% organs that they are to have on a raw diet[80% muscle, 10% organ, 10% bone].
I usually freeze everything I butcher before feeding to the dogs.I package in meal sized portions in zip lock bags, then I pull the bags in the morning and feed at night.
I usually include the rabbit head, feet and guts in one bag. That's about 3lbs. and my dogs are 100-130lbs. They get 3lbs, or so, a day. Then the next day they get the carcass. I don't give them the pelt because I want it myself. They are not showing any greater interest in the rabbits than they did before, but my rabbits are not "free range" or loose in anyway. they are caged and the dogs are not usually in their barn area. They are at the door in the morning as I am feeding and watering but I don't encourage them to come in.
I also feed them sheep that they are guarding in the pasture. This gets frozen for 3+days first too, to minimize any possibility of parasite transmission from sheep to dog back to the sheep from fecal contamination in the pasture. They relish the heads of any animal and it keeps them busy for along time, especially a cow head, which my pyr is chewing on right now.
The ranch slaughterer came today to do a cow, but with the rain & the slippery hillside wasn't able to get up to where the cow was. I think he felt sorry for me because he was supposed to come yesterday before the rain started & cancelled @ the last minute. So he offered me the "guts" including the feet and head, that he had from his previous slaughter this morning. I took it all. It filled 2 wash tubs & the dogs have spent the whole rainy day shewing on the lower leg joints and Ursula was the lucky one. I gave her the head. I wondered if I should have tried to cut it in half or something but she has not had any trouble with it. She DID take along nap after a few hours but as I looked out a little while ago she is back at it. I am cutting up the rest of the guts and putting in bags for the freezer. It will last a few days and the dogs will love it.
 
Our steer's head is in the freezer, and we are planning on deep pitting it. Apparently there is a lot more meat on it than you'd think, and it is supposed to be delicious. I find the idea of eating it rather gruesome, but am determined to suck it up and just do it. Seeing the dogs munching bunny heads probably wont bother us as much after that either!

Thanks for the in depth explanation on your storage techniques and feeding protocol. We should be knee deep in rabbits pretty soon, so I think the dogs and cats are going to have to help us eat it all.
 
JessicaR":2x73ff1r said:
general rule is you feed 2-3% of their body weight. It all depends on how active they are. Feed more if skinny less if overwight. I would remove the fur, I would also remove the head but that is just me. Seeing our dogs munching on a head would be too much for me :oops: I would love to raise rabbits and chickens for my dogs but I just cant seem to get passed the killing part and I dont know anyone that would do it for me.
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Come on over to Cleveland, I'd gladly do the rabbits for you. I skin my rabbits because I want the pelts, which is why I'm raising Rex for meat and not one of the bigger meat breeds.
 
skysthelimit":36yl9uy3 said:
I skin my rabbits because I want the pelts, which is why I'm raising Rex for meat and not one of the bigger meat breeds.
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Me too! Plus I've always just loved Rex. Don't tell Hubs, :lol: His name ain't Rex!

I also want Satins. I'm thinking Mini-Satins, even. My Rabbitosis has really been flaring up lately.
 
MamaSheepdog":yzx792mp said:
skysthelimit":yzx792mp said:
I skin my rabbits because I want the pelts, which is why I'm raising Rex for meat and not one of the bigger meat breeds.
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Me too! Plus I've always just loved Rex. Don't tell Hubs, :lol: His name ain't Rex!

I also want Satins. I'm thinking Mini-Satins, even. My Rabbitosis has really been flaring up lately.
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You will LOVE Satins! :) I too want Mini-Satins, but couldn't find them here. Oh well.
Color-wise, I am particularly fond of the red. That flaming scarlett is gorgeous - but so far, it doesn't seem to matter what color the rabbit is - if it has that Satin's shiny coat, it is a stunner.
 
DumansArk":3q60355v said:
MamaSheepdog":3q60355v said:
skysthelimit":3q60355v said:
I skin my rabbits because I want the pelts, which is why I'm raising Rex for meat and not one of the bigger meat breeds.
Click to expand...

Me too! Plus I've always just loved Rex. Don't tell Hubs, :lol: His name ain't Rex!

I also want Satins. I'm thinking Mini-Satins, even. My Rabbitosis has really been flaring up lately.
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You will LOVE Satins! :) I too want Mini-Satins, but couldn't find them here. Oh well.
Color-wise, I am particularly fond of the red. That flaming scarlett is gorgeous - but so far, it doesn't seem to matter what color the rabbit is - if it has that Satin's shiny coat, it is a stunner.
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I was supposed to get a satin. I contacted the breeder, and was waiting for a convenient time for both of us to pick them up, and that was 6 mos ago. Never heard from her again. Hope she's ok. I'm trying to get some Cals next week. Wondering if I can cross the Cals to eventually get a bigger, faster growing Rex?
 
caroline":25iswdcc said:
I feed EVERYTHING, except the gall bladder, which I TRY to cut off the liver so that it won't make everything taste bitter.
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The easiest way to get the gall bladder off is actually to "pinch" it off. You pinch at the skinny end and it will peel right off the liver.
 
I did some online searching and for food comparisons and discovered that he could be allergic to something in his food. I changed him to Canid ae which is all natural with no wheat, chemical preservatives, or corn, plus it has salmon which is great for a dogs' skin. Sure enough in a few weeks I noticed a difference. No more scratching and biting and the irritations went away. Canid ae is certainly one of the best dog foods I have found.

atopica 50 mg
 
When I was younger my grandfather and I dog hunted a lot we used to feed our hunting dogs raw chickens we got from a chicken farm and would also feed them deer and rabbit left overs but the thing that I always thought was interesting is we fed them the deer and rabbit hides and they would eat all the fur
 
We process our buns just as we would for ourselves - that is they have no internal organs, head, feet or skin. Hubby just cuts the carcuss in half with meat cleaver and they get half each.
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bramble hedge...you are giving your dogs some organ meats though right? I ask because it's important that they get some.
 
remember that rabbits have very little body fat. dogs fed raw need other meat also. we have tow dogs that eat all raw and tow that are partial raw eaters. We put all butcher scraps from our beef and pork, bones, organs, everything in tubs in the winter and a chest freezer in the summer. toss each dog an appropriately sized chunk, takes all of 3 minutes. our dogs are beautiful and very healthy. the 8 year old great dane, who eats partial raw, doesn't have a speck of plaque on her teeth.

as far as the rabbits go, if I have one for the dogs, it simply gets tossed at them whole. they are carnivores, they dont need help.
 
lonelyfarmgirl said:
remember that rabbits have very little body fat. dogs fed raw need other meat also. we have tow dogs that eat all raw and tow that are partial raw eaters. We put all butcher scraps from our beef and pork, bones, organs, everything in tubs in the winter and a chest freezer in the summer. toss each dog an appropriately sized chunk, takes all of 3 minutes. our dogs are beautiful and very healthy. the 8 year old great dane, who eats partial raw, doesn't have a speck of plaque on her teeth.

as far as the rabbits go, if I have one for the dogs, it simply gets tossed at them whole. they are carnivores, they dont need help.
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Hi seeing as how I raise rabbits and own a 8 month old Great Dane and my mixed breed had a litter 3 months ago was wondering if you have fed your Dane this diet as a puppy...I am just looking to create a healthier diet and supplement some of their kibble to decrease my expense of buying tons of the expensive high quality dry food...I always have excess rabbits and am thinking would be a good way to cut down on kibble while giving them a healthy option. I'm worried if I go full raw diet that they won't get necessary balanced nutrients that puppies, and especially Dane pup needs...do you have any digestive issues especially with the Dane feeding both dry and raw?
 
Wolves do not eat the stomach contents of their kills, but eat all the rest.

I fed rabbits to my dog for quite a few years, and the dog's health greatly improved. I did not feed the pelt or the head, because I didn't want that running through my lawn mower. The dog got the rest, and she ate the rest completely as far as I could tell. She was a golden retriever, and she got 1/2 rabbit per day. Plus kibble free fed but she didn't always eat the kibble.

Puppies, especially large breed pups, are another matter. For what a dog costs, it would be worth a chat with your veterinarian. The goal is to avoid bone and joint problems later in the pup's life.
 
Hi! I feed our Rhodesian Ridgeback half rabbit and half kibble and he has done well on it. We started this when we first got him at 8 weeks old (he is now 7 months old). We didn't feel confident trying to go all raw, but wanted to use more of the rabbits that would otherwise go to waste, and give him the benefit of a partial raw diet. Our vet was okay with this approach. When we process, the back legs and loin get packaged for us, and the rest gets chunked up and frozen for the dog (head and feet included, but not the stomach and intestines).

When he was really small he got itchy skin, so we started adding about 1/4 tsp of ground flaxseed to his meals. The itchiness cleared right up, and honestly I don't know if the flaxseed made any difference or if it was just something he had gotten into that irritated his skin, but we keep adding it anyway. Just thought I'd mention it!
 
There are a few SOLIDLY good raw feeding groups on facebook that would be a good resource for you. I would advise you to read their about pages as some of very militant in their approach. :)

Can young dogs (puppies) be fed raw? For sure, there are lots of them out there that are doing well. :)

Some vets are very ANTI-raw feeding and do their best to scare people off. So I would find out where your vet stands on the spectrum before inquiring further.
 
I'm not sure of the reference for wolves eating everything but the stomach (I would be interested to see a reference or two). Our dogs eat EVERYTHING on a rabbit (including the stomach) and are in great health! [Thank's be to God!]

We let our dogs eat broth (and the softened bones), homemade stew, raw eggs/shells, raw goat milk, raw rabbit....and we fill in the "cracks" with kibble. Just a thought question: What did people do before kibble?

What is "yucky" to us in a rabbit is really good and healthful for dogs (if it is a healthy rabbit).

Dogs in the wild (wolves, etc.) are carnivores. They don't get too much kibble. They are vibrant!
 
Wolves do eat the stomach of small prey like rabbits, but when feeding on larger prey such as deer they tear the stomach open and normally eat the lining but not the contents..they have also been known to eat apples, watermelon and berries including feeding them to their young. Depending on circumstance and food availability they, like our own dogs will eat almost anything. Although, plant matter is more easily digested by domestic dog than wolves due to the changes in gut microbiome and genetic changing through the many years of domestication and change in diet neither break plant matter down as easily as meat.

https://realonomics.net/how-do-wolves-eat-their-prey/
https://academic.oup.com/jn/article/136/7/1923S/4664711
https://dogsfirst.ie/feeding-vegetables-to-dogs/
The last is one is an article that does give research references you can look into if you like.


This research deals more with antibiotic resistance and digestive differences in dogs vs wolves but does show how there have actually been genetic changes in domestication of dogs allowing them to process starches and grains. In case anyone is interested

https://bmcvetres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12917-021-02815-y
 
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