Put your thinking caps on.

[Tom in Kingman]

I have a neighbor here in rural AZ that gave me some advice yesterday. I told him that I was strongly considering raising meat rabbits but was having trouble finding a medium breed nearby for sale. He told me to set up a colony for our wild cottontail rabbits. Put up a fence that they could enter and leave at will and feed enough pellets for them to not need any other food. Then as they realize that they don't have to leave the plan starts. The young ones still on milk will be left alone. The small ones that are feeding on the pellets can be taken and caged. When I get enough to have a couple of trio's and maybe a couple of spares take down the fencing and let them just leave. I realize that they are not quite like the rabbits others raise but face it , they are for meat. I can wait a bit and have breeders to raise from. What think you???

 

[MnCanary]

Besides attracting rabbits, you'd attract predators. Birds of Prey, rats, dogs, coyotes, cats, snakes....

I don't know if native rabbits dig. I do know that they make their nests on the ground, I've seen that in my garden. The nest was just on the surface of the soil, with a lot of refuse piled up.

 

[SixGun]

Morning @Tom in Kingman,
As a fellow Arizonan I want to weigh in...
Besides the obvious Fish & Game issue I think that colonizing and raising the cottontails would be a whole heck of a lot more work than finding a breeder.
We have lots of meat breeders in Arizona and transport can bring in what's not available locally.
The rabbit breeders state convention is Feb 19th and 20th this year south of Phoenix. I know people from your neck of the woods will be in attendance.

The actual issues of cottontail raising. They average 2 or 3 kits. Domestic rabbits average 7 to 9. Meat rabbits have superb feed to weight ratios, and meat to bone weights that make them good food sources. Wild rabbits much less so. They are bonier and their muscling is lighter as it is fast twitch muscle fibers. Think a white tailed deer to beef cow comparison.
But in a completely hypothetical situation it would be an interesting experiment, but not one that I think would gather any real food sources results.

 

[MuddyFarms]

There is a disease going around (RHDV2) that can kill wild and domestic rabbits. Not sure how much it is affecting the wild population there right now, just something to be aware of.

 

[Rabbits by Accident]

I once caught a wild mouse to tame as a pet. It died just from the trauma of being in a cage. Which is weird because mice already live in your house. I don't know if wild rabbits are the same but it may just die because it's captive.

 

[arachyd]

Cottontails do not take kindly to being caged, even the babies. They do very poorly in captivity and are easily stressed. Don't do it.

 

[Tom in Kingman]

I will advise my neighbor that I appreciate his advice but I have decided to take a different route. Thank you all for your imput.