Is there a market for rabbits?

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happybunny

happybunny

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I want to breed New Zealand white rabbits, but before I do I want to make sure there are people interested in buying them because I don't want to be stuck with a lot of rabbits. Is there a market for baby rabbits? And if my baby rabbits don't sell, will lowering the price attract buyers? Also, I'm not doing this for money, I just like to take care of rabbits as a hobby.
 
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very much agree. There are niche markets for purebred specialty breeds, but it is usually a very low profit enterprise, if you profit at all. It has to be a labor of love and a side gig to the main use you might have for the breed yourself. The size of operation required to make a living wage for one person would be extremely high, and require much more effort than most of us would choose to undertake, just like starting any business.

If you just want to take care of bunnies you can do that with a few pets, but I would not breed them unless you have a plan for using the offspring. they do breed like...well...rabbits! :)
 
If you want some pets, look into rehoming some.

If you want to breed animals no matter what species, first answer for yourself the question of what to do with the ones you cannot/don't want to keep and can't get sold direct to consumer.
Either find a buyer who won't care what breed or such it is and is likely to put them in their freezer / sell them for meat either animalfeed or human, or eat them yourself. If you cannot reconcile with having to sell for feeding someone / their pet i.e. they will be killed, don't breed period.
 
IMHO, if you want to breed for pets, a white NZ may not be the best choice. The smaller and more decorative breeds are usually the ones chosen for pets. Some folks find the albino NZ 'spooky' because of the red eyes. Also, lowering the price doesn't always sell the rabbits. At a really low price they can be seen as 'worthless' and folks are less interested in them. Pretty odd, but any time there's people involved, there's a chance for odd.
 
Buyers are fickle. Had 8 sold, we thought. One guy cane and got one. Another guy got one. The remaining 2 buyers never showed up, even after telling us the day of they would be on their way. Folks are inconsiderate these days. A simple "we've changed our mind" would have let us offer them to others and not kept us sitting around all day waiting. Yet, it was a blessing in disguise. We decided to register one of the bucks we had planned on selling, so took it to a show. Ended up showing it and getting a leg toward grand champion.
 
Didn't encounter many inconsiderate or wiered buyers here, if any at all, but they are scarce. I'm happy if I can get rid of 1 or 2 of the nicest characters before it's time for freezer camp.

I don't sell meat, or for butchering since the way I keep rabbits that would mean working for practically nothing, but I do give away rabbits for breeding or pets. Not for free, the notion that if somethings costs little it can't be worth much is widespread.
 
ohiogoatgirl said:
The auctions are full of 50 cent and dollar rabbits. Dealing with selling directly to people is always weird because people are weird and unreliable.
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I agree with this. It can be a real hassle selling direct - people don't turn up, or they bring the whole family including 6 kids and both sets of grandparents, argue over price, fail to bring a suitable carrier or box with them, stay too long, change their minds, can't make up their minds, or turn out to be someone you really don't want to sell a rabbit to. Plus if they are coming to your premises there's a risk of them bringing in disease if you're in an area which has RHDV. Even if your main stock is vaccinated you might still have young rabbits not old enough to be vacc'd.
 
CedarRidge said:
Buyers are fickle. Had 8 sold, we thought. One guy cane and got one. Another guy got one. The remaining 2 buyers never showed up, even after telling us the day of they would be on their way. Folks are inconsiderate these days. A simple "we've changed our mind" would have let us offer them to others and not kept us sitting around all day waiting. Yet, it was a blessing in disguise. We decided to register one of the bucks we had planned on selling, so took it to a show. Ended up showing it and getting a leg toward grand champion.
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That is exactly why I make them pay a deposit!
 
I have a great market! I had most of three litters sold before they were even born! Speaking from experience people don't really want REW for breeding or pets. They think they are scary. You should do research on it but I will say I have had a lot more customers since they are worried about the government and they want to be self-sustainable. What breed you want to get really depends on what you are going for. If you don't want to want to raise for meat you should definitely pick a smaller pet friendly breed! I wouldn't pick a breed that is super popular in your area. Also, many breeds have the REW variety if that is what you are interested in! I hope this helps!
 
Her Farmstead Rabbitry said:
That is exactly why I make them pay a deposit!
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Check the laws on deposits in your area. There were a few cases here in the UK during Covid where people had paid a deposit on puppies, then the breeders changed their minds, returned the deposits and declined to sell. It was decided in court that accepting a deposit was a contract of sale, so the breeders lost.
 
MsTemeraire said:
Check the laws on deposits in your area. There were a few cases here in the UK during Covid where people had paid a deposit on puppies, then the breeders changed their minds, returned the deposits and declined to sell. It was decided in court that accepting a deposit was a contract of sale, so the breeders lost.
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That's not a problem unless you plan on backing out of a sale. The conversation you were replying to is about a breeder being willing to sell and holding rabbits for buyers who never showed up to hand over the money. At least with a deposit in hand the breeder wouldn't have been out the entire sale if the buyers never showed.
 
kusanar314 said:
That's not a problem unless you plan on backing out of a sale. The conversation you were replying to is about a breeder being willing to sell and holding rabbits for buyers who never showed up to hand over the money. At least with a deposit in hand the breeder wouldn't have been out the entire sale if the buyers never showed.
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Thanks I was just going to say that I have no intentions of backing out on a sale. If for any reason I do, I will offer a full refund. I had someone want 4 rabbits and we set a date and they never showed up or said anything. I want to make sure I will get paid because there are other people I could sell the rabbits to. Also, I don't think anyone would go to court over $30 rabbits.
 
I wouldn't do it without a backup plan. We are still in the planning stages and started to buy equipment.

I've decided to breed 2 does at time in case fostering is needed. I'm hoping to sell some to cover costs and hopefully things needed like extra curriculum to take the load off my husband. I'll list them on Craigslist to see if there's anyone interested. We can't sell processed here or I wouldn't be as worried. I'll also test selling the poop.

But I also have 3 large dogs I can make homemade dog food as a treat. I don't think I could breed enough to feed them it consistently. So I do have a backup to the plan and can also pull back on breeding if need to. I don't think k I'd be comfortable doing this if the main purpose wasn't meat for our family.
 
Her Farmstead Rabbitry said:
Thanks I was just going to say that I have no intentions of backing out on a sale. If for any reason I do, I will offer a full refund. I had someone want 4 rabbits and we set a date and they never showed up or said anything. I want to make sure I will get paid because there are other people I could sell the rabbits to. Also, I don't think anyone would go to court over $30 rabbits.
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Now, what I would do, is if you want to ask for deposits have it be that you pay half and then you have a set time period (30 days?) to pay the rest and claim the animal, otherwise the sale is considered abandoned.

That way you can't get in a situation where you haven't heard from them and then you sell the animals to someone else or process them and then the next day the person shows up with money and is mad because you don't have their animals for them.
 
brittanyf said:
I wouldn't do it without a backup plan. We are still in the planning stages and started to buy equipment.

I've decided to breed 2 does at time in case fostering is needed. I'm hoping to sell some to cover costs and hopefully things needed like extra curriculum to take the load off my husband. I'll list them on Craigslist to see if there's anyone interested. We can't sell processed here or I wouldn't be as worried. I'll also test selling the poop.

But I also have 3 large dogs I can make homemade dog food as a treat. I don't think I could breed enough to feed them it consistently. So I do have a backup to the plan and can also pull back on breeding if need to. I don't think k I'd be comfortable doing this if the main purpose wasn't meat for our family.
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I sold rabbit poop for awhile with my younger sister and that went really well, surprisingly!:)
 
Definitely choose a pet breed if you arent interested in meat. Not only do some people dislike the pink eyes of white new zealands (I disagree I think they're precious) but they get a little bigger than people expect for a pet. Lops or mini rexes are great. Lionheads will sell like hotcakes, people love the fluff, but they are a little higher maintenance because of it and there arent as many showable colors since they're a new breed. I've found lops (Hollands or minis) to be the best of both worlds. Smaller and easy to maintain and popular. And lots of fun colors. They are a more common choice for pet breeders because of this.
 

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