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Permajen

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Somehow I went into the 'meat rabbit' thing with no clue about how fantastic rabbits are.
They're these gentle lovable things that come hopping up and poke their noses in my knees.

And now these:



I'm seriously in danger of not going through with it... Help!

How do you get past the babydoll factor?
 
We went into it the same way - just for the meat, didn't know much about rabbits. We are thoroughly enjoying them, and our first litter is due on Saturday. We are pretty attached to our buck already, enjoy the does and anticipate really enjoying the babies! What I keep front and center in my brain (and my husbands!!) is that we eat meat, and would so much rather eat meat that comes from an animal that was treated well, cared for and had a good life, as well as being organically raised and no hormones, chemicals, antibiotics, etc. are used. Even though all the other meat we buy is organic and naturally raised by people who say these same things are true for that livestock, we really are having to trust them that it's true and hope for the best.

I'm also finding that I really am gaining a lot on a level that's hard to explain just by being so connected to our food sources. We are also starting our first garden this year, and expanding our fruit orchard. The work and care that we put into all of these things really makes us respect what the end products do for us, and along the way we get to experience watching a seed turn into something amazing that nourishes our body, and the same is true for being involved in the whole life cycle of a rabbit, from tending the parents, guarding and caring for the babies - nourishing them so they can nourish us, and not hiding from the fact that something has to die in order for us to live. I think we respect our food much more as a result of all of this, and we don't take it for granted the way many do, and we're also not thoughtlessly putting who knows what all into our bodies the way most people do.

It's very interesting to me how fast - just several decades really - Americans have lost touch with our own history. Not that long ago it was pretty common for people to do all these things for themselves, and I think we are just becoming too soft as a nation.

Just my personal perspective. :D Those are some cute babies, though!

p.s. I just had the thought - we also had to build a bunny barn, buy cages and accessories, food, medicinal herbs, etc. etc. These rabbits are just too expensive to be pets - we need to eat them, because we're out of money now! :rotfl:
 
I enjoy my rabbits.
Sometimes I think too much.
I am still tweaking my numbers.
One mixed doe that I sold, turned around in the carry
case as we got her ready to be loaded and gave me
what I call , the look. I almost changed my mind about
selling her. I do okay with the younguns when time to
sell them, but the older animals, it is hard.

If and when I eat any, somebody else is going to have
to do the deed. I won't be able to, nor will the hubby.
I sell for breeding stock, so other people can have
meat rabbits in their back yard. And when people ask
me if I have meat rabbits, I have to stop and explain,
that no I do not eat mine. I just sell the extras.
( years ago, we used to eat them ). So they're safe
as long as they live here :)

Only exception would be a mean one. I would find a way
to put one of them down. Or get someone to do it for me.
I would not breed them or sell them.
 
It's easy to get past the baby doll factor when you have 9 kits in the grow out cage that sit there and run from you because one of them decided to stamp it's feet since it decided it didn't like you. Plus they grow out of that cute phase. On top of that, when they sit there and attack you it makes it much easier or they attack each other or you've eaten on of them and found out how delicious they are.
 
Once the food bill starts adding up... <br /><br /> __________ Fri May 16, 2014 6:32 am __________ <br /><br /> Another thing that got me through it, is if I don't breeding is over. I cannot have any more, I'd be out of room.
 
You've been given several very good reasons. LOL.

Mean rabbits......they're easy.

Justifying the expense of keeping them. (not all can be pets)

Knowing your food source. To me, that's what so unique about rabbits. You
KNOW they're the best to grow your family. With no "spooky-things" being
added to their diet to make them grow quicker, faster, bigger, or better.
They are your safest, most reliable source of protein you can obtain.

Look back to the "original" reason you got started in them and don't deviate
from your intended path. Regardless of "cuteness" they're meant to feed your
family.

grumpy.
 
you get kinda attached to the breeders ok but you have to brace yourself for several things. good rabbit gone crazy clawing furry chainsaw. good rabbit very sick/very badly injured. just a bad rabbit all around. good rabbit just not producing. things like that...

personally i grew up sloppin hogs and gatherin chicken eggs and milkin goats and huntin and butcherin chickens/turkeys/deer,... its a way of life. not everyone can grow a big garden, or herd sheep, or milk goats/cows,... not everyone can feed and care for an animal and then eat it, even if they take it to butcher. my grandparents neighbors each had a few goats and when it came butcher time they'd switch out butcher wethers and eat the other families because none of the kids would eat their own.


you can look at em and give em a lovin and take good care of em.. but then ya say "no more for yall fuzzy dinners!" or some such. we used to do two or three hogs each year. as close as i got with them was "suuuuu-eeeeeee! here pig here pig!" and dump the slop, scoop some feed, fill up the water. if anything we joked about them being sorta named.. breakfast, lunch, dinner one year. another year was bacon, sausage, ham.


that and of course the costs add up.. you get some scratches.. by the time this litters butchering i am countin down to new litters or have em already..
 
It is true, right around the time they're big enough to butcher, they grow out of being so blasted cute.

One thing that makes it easier around here is the fact that as long as we keep sending the older growouts to freezer camp, we can continue having those killer-cute, cuddly babies. :)
 
I totally agree with Miss M. Keep making more. Ensure you have younger, cuter, fluffier buns around when it's time to butcher the older ones. You'll do it because the little ones need space and time to grow. And the older ones do get a little awkward... and if you don't handle them often enough, they aren't all that friendly by butcher time. (flighty, not necessarily mean.) And as long as you have more waiting, you'll HAVE to butcher the older ones unless you have unlimited cage space! (and unlimited food funds)

We put down a really mean doe and a super sweet and wonderful doe a little over a week ago. The sweet one suffered an injury and recovery was hopeless. I cried. I still miss her. But she's in my freezer and I'll definitely be able to feed my family with her. I thanked her profusely for the wonderful babies she gave me.
 
I agree with all of the reasons stated already. :)

It is harder to butcher an older animal for me, since we have a "relationship"... but we still eat them, and call the dish by their name. ;)

Hardest of all though, is killing one because it is ill. They need to be removed from the herd both because of their own suffering and the chance of spreading disease, but I hate to have the choice of who stays and who goes taken out of my hands.
 
Having a new batch of babies when it's time to process the older ones is also a good strategy. I have my breeding schedule set up so that we either process the same weekend the new litters will be born (8 weeks) or the weekend after (9 weeks). I did that on purpose because I hoped having new babies would soften the blow at processing time, and yes - we would need the grow out cages cleared out soon, so that's incentive to keep on schedule with the processing! I'm glad to hear that others find that helpful, because I was hoping it would be!
 
I love my babies, I love my fryers, I love the adults. I give each one a petting and a treat before I hand them to my husband to dispatch.

I feel good about what my family eats, because I know the animals were free from fear or suffering from beginning to end.

After a certain age, they would all need individual cages. Lets see, I have 27 kits here right now...so...nope. It's not in their best interest to let them all live until maturity. I simply could not have that many adult sized cages. Crowding them is subjecting them to disease, illness, and aggression from other rabbits.

If I sell them too cheap, people who think rabbits are disposable toys show up at my door. If I put a fair price on them, most would not sell, because too many people already sell rabbits very cheap or give them away for free.

I honestly feel they have a good, short life, and that butchering most of them is in their own best interest, and good for their species in general.
 
Everyone here raises excellent points, but I think the most obvious part of it all is worth stating: Every rabbit is going to die. In the rare instances that a person has been really horrified that I could kill a rabbit I remind them that rabbits are not immortal. The alternative isn't life, it's an inevitable and more painful death. If we don't kill them ourselves they are not going to live to be 10,000 years old and frolic on rainbows and have great adventures with the other magical woodland creatures in Narnia. They are going to get old, they're going to hurt, and then they will die, and that's the best case scenario. As far as I'm concerned a rabbit who's born into a warm nest, is never attacked or maimed, never experiences a moment without fresh food and clean water, and is never too hot or too cold before the day it's instantly and painlessly dispatched is a rabbit who's lived a better life than 99.9999999% of all rabbits in the history of the world. It gives me food and fur, and I give it a charmed life.
 
Didn't find it that hard but I've done quail and chickens. I had a nasty doe who was nothing but trouble so I didn't feel that bad butchering her. The beginning litters from my meat crosses were pretty uniform and didn't have much individual characteristics. Just chestnuts, blacks, and reds. I did get more interesting colors later and some got kept that I otherwise would have butchered because we liked the color and handled that rabbit more than the others. I was moving towards more show quality rabbits with less butchering of the kits I produced. Various problems caused me to cut the herd down to just 6 netherlands plus kits. I do butcher colors that don't sell but they are just dog food. Not enough meat to be worth cooking them.
 
I thought I couldn't do it at first either. My first litter I sold. The next I gave the kits and their mother to a friend, with the understanding that if they dispatched the kits I would show them how to process.

Turns out the friends hubby wouldn't be able to come that day to do the dispatch, so I ended up doing it anyway. I learned that I can do it, and also lost a great doe that day because I thought i couldn't keep meat rabbits. (She's in a good home, but I do miss her....) I also learned its much quicker, cleaner, and easier than chickens, even if they are cuter, and the little boogers are pretty tasty at that.

I sill handle all of my meat kits like I do my wool and show kits, they get the same high quality care everyone else in the herd gets. But they only ever have one bad day in their entire life, and that's the day I process them.

I'd say their pretty lucky at that, and that helps me not feel so bad about having to dispatch them.
 
I can defiantly understand. I have only butchered three,need to do four more, two from the same litter as the first two. The other was a return from a sale, sex change fairy visited.
We tried to sell medium sized rabbits but no one was interested.Everyone wants the big bunns.....most wanted my Flemish but she is mine..10 to 13 kitts at a throw and has already made it through an arizona desert summer. :p
So this weekend the medium size breeding pair are off to camp.Don't want to do it but..all my bunns are "working"bunns If I can't make bunny money I make dinner. Now that we have had a couple of meals I hope it will be easier, Hubby had to have a glass of wine before the first batch. :?
I go along with the belief that you can get attached to the breeding stock but grow outs are food. Unless of course you want to deal with the crazy folks who think you are walmart or their personal reference guide. Then you can do pet sales. :lol:
 
I just can't thank you all enough for those posts -- some made me laugh out loud. All were just perfect.

I grew up with a little farming and have butchered chickens regularly, but I just had no idea rabbits were so loveable. I'm so glad this forum's here to help. :)

@Comet007, what you say about Americans losing touch with food sources is just as true here, maybe more so -- you seem to have such a solid frontier spirit in places. I think most Australians tend to be a bit more docile and obedient and... well, authority-respecting. And we especially respect the science community, which in modern times has got to be just a little scary. (I couldn't agree more about spooky food, @Grumpy.)

But back to topic: I'm determined to see this through, for all the reasons you've all already mentioned (health, humaneness, environment, survival). Thank you all so much for your thoughts. What a great group! :D
 
I am late seeing this, but I had the same problem, going back to when we started raising chickens. They all had names, and were, frankly, spoiled. It made it so very hard to process them when the time came.

I decided to approach it differently with the rabbits. My breeding stock all have names, get their treats and pets, and are, frankly, spoiled. The kits are treated like livestock- no names. I had to make myself refrain from bonding with them, keeping in mind that we would be keeping none of them. When we dispatched our first rabbits, it was soooo much easier for me.
 
Marinea":3m2sr2z7 said:
I am late seeing this, but I had the same problem, going back to when we started raising chickens. They all had names, and were, frankly, spoiled. It made it so very hard to process them when the time came.

I decided to approach it differently with the rabbits. My breeding stock all have names, get their treats and pets, and are, frankly, spoiled. The kits are treated like livestock- no names. I had to make myself refrain from bonding with them, keeping in mind that we would be keeping none of them. When we dispatched our first rabbits, it was soooo much easier for me.
Click to expand...

I hope this doesn't prove true for us - I am looking forward to spending time with the kits, and we are going to use themes to name each litter - I thinking Finding Nemo and The Hobbit for the first set that were born this weekend. I already love examining the little ones and comparing their differences, and they are so sweet to hold! DH is the one I am most worried about, as he will process and I will then just see the end product in the kitchen - I've already told him that if he has trouble and gets too sad then he doesn't get to play with the food, except the breeding stock. However, even those might get replaced if we have a superior kit that we want to replace a breeder with. My thought is we don't know who will get kept until later, so I want them all to be friendly and easy to handle - plus I really want to enjoy the whole process. Only time will tell if we can maintain this down the road or will have to move to your strategy.
 

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