Revaluating costs

[avdpas77]

Over the past few years I have been raising from considerably more matings than I need for my own use in order to get the crossings to the point I desired. Because of this, I tended to have a lot more youngsters than my breeding program or freezer needed. I was selling these via the local TSC and Craigslist with the idea of breaking even on my feed costs. I should say here, that making money selling rabbits has never been the premise behind my present group of rabbits, only developing a group of cross-bred rabbits for my own use. One can't ask a lot for cross-bred rabbits no matter how good the quality, so from the beginning I priced them at "cost".

The problem with that is, that my cost basis was figured on $10.50 bags of pellets. I would sell 6-8 week old rabbits for $6 or $7 but price them at $5 for 4 or more. These were easy figures to remember so I have been using that pricing regularly and completely disregarded the face that my feed is more like $15 a bag now. Therefore I really need at least $7 or more, each, even when selling a group of rabbits.

This is a reminder to those who sell rabbits... including show rabbits, that you might need to re-evaluate your costs in light of higher prices on feed and housing.

 

[OneAcreFarm]

I am fortunate that my feed has stayed relatively stable cost wise...hay on the other hand...<br /><br />__________ Tue Apr 17, 2012 1:29 pm __________<br /><br />I am fortunate that my feed has stayed relatively stable cost wise...hay on the other hand...

 

[Diamond]

I am trying to walk into the rabbit hobby with eyes wide open, so to speak. When I bought my rabbits I started a journal-sized notebook to write down EVERYTHING. So far we've got about $1000 invested in 5 rabbits... after the new rabbit barn building materials and costs of the wire to build the cages is included! Plus the purchase price of the rabbits, feed, accessories..... But we have a very nice setup with large cages (and more being assembled).

I am keeping track of rabbits' weights, breeding dates, when a new bag of food is opened, litter sizes, vet treatments/ costs (I do my own vet work so to speak, only the horses and dogs go to the real vet in emergency situations). The notebook also gives me a place to jot down observations about rabbit behaviors or things that need improvements.

My husband and I plan to sell about 50% of the meat we raise from the rabbits. Our hope is to eventually cover the costs of feeding the herd and maintaining the rabbitry, not to profit but to make it a sustainable hobby.

 

[MaggieJ]

Avdpas, you remind us of some important matters. My rabbits do not cost that much to feed, but even so I would not be happy selling one for less than $15 these days. Less than that and we'd be better off eating it ourselves. I realize that you need to sell some because one family can only eat so much rabbit, but here supply has never exceeded demand.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

We are also thinking of selling some, and I was planning on using the current price of chicken and beef as a guide to what to charge.

 

[Secuono]

...Our feed is $19-21 a bag... =(

 

[Cindi Davis]

Our feed here is $18.00 per bag it has gone up $3 a bag in the last 8 months. However we do have a slight slight advantage there are 2 stores we go to when they have a sale. Last one was $15.00 a bag. I charge $10.00 to 15,00 per rabbit depending on how many are bought by a person.

 

[avdpas77]

Avdpas, you remind us of some important matters. My rabbits do not cost that much to feed, but even so I would not be happy selling one for less than $15 these days. Less than that and we'd be better off eating it ourselves. I realize that you need to sell some because one family can only eat so much rabbit, but here supply has never exceeded demand.

Uh..my kids are grown....250-300 rabbits a year is LOTS of rabbit meat for two people. :shock: I keep thinking that my crossing is close to done.. that I should get down to about 3 does instead of 10 or 12 and 2 or 3 a growing. But then I think "what if I would cross this with that" I have blue-eyed whites out of my crosses that I am playing with... and now "reds" too.....and maybe some chocolates in the future..

I get rid of some senior does....and then I see those empty cages..sitting there... calling to me like sirens.....my economy cries to me "wasted space, wasted space"...

I guess I'm hopeless :shock: :?

 

[akane]

I'd be happy with everyone else's pellet prices. It's $20/50lbs here pretty much equally across the board. Nutrena is less but it's a 40lb bag so I think it comes out the same. Grains are $14-$18 so I don't save a whole lot. We bought out the last of the clover hay from last year and he may not get a first cut due to frost so while we normally push to eat lots of hay since that is cheap compared to the rest of the country ($8 for 50-70lbs certified organic clover/alfalfa of the best quality) we may have to last until July for hay.

However rabbit saves us about $40/month in dog food and $16/month in cat food plus a few free rabbits here and there makes my friend occasionally forget about the $60/month tuition fee to practice at her martial arts school when I don't have the money. The netherland kits at easter paid for 6month of pellets so that worked out well.

I no longer find it worth selling a rabbit under $20 even for the mutts because the effort of selling them and loss of meat of even netherlands as cat food is worth more than that.

 

[avdpas77]

We bought out the last of the clover hay from last year and he may not get a first cut due to frost so while we normally push to eat lots of hay since that is cheap compared to the rest of the country ($8 for 50-70lbs certified organic clover/alfalfa of the best quality) we may have to last until July for hay.

Wow, you are lucky to find it. There is a lot of clover here, but it is spotty in the fields (with fescue) and most of the hay is put up into large round bales which is something I presently have no way to incorporate. I had a supplier of good clover hay in small square bales, but a "horse" lady found out about his hay and contracted for all it. Now I am back to chasing it again every year.

 

[skysthelimit]

Feed is $15, hay is $4, the timothy/alfalfa/clover mix is no where to be found. I was raising mainly for supplemental dog meat, but I don't have enough does and kits to feed rabbit alone. The cost of raw meat for 4 large dogs for one month is $48, way less than dog food. They eat 160lb of meat a month, I don't think I could raise that many kits to sustain that on this plot. It would cost more to feed those kits than would make sense. So the rabbits are really for variety. There is no real market for pet rabbits around here, except small breeds that aren't real useful to me for meat, which is why the hollands are here, and they don't seem to be too good at producing anything. It would be nice to sell at least two kits a month, that would pay for their feed at least.

 

[akane]

Kibble alone is $40-$50/month/dog for the quality both required and that I would not go below feeding my animals. I will eat $1 pizzas all week before my dogs will eat that crap like purina or worse from the grocery store. My akita also will not eat more than 1 cup of kibble per day no matter what. She will starve herself to skin and bones any kibble not calorie dense enough and it can take 8 cups of low quality kibble to equal 1 cup of good quality kibble.

You can't feed too much rabbit. It lacks certain fats and you can actually starve to death while eating all the rabbit you want. There are cases of old time trappers dying because they were only eating the rabbit they caught. The dogs coats and overall health will also begin to suffer quickly. I've found rabbit is best kept to no more than 50% of the diet and if you are doing full raw you should secure at least 3 different meats. Otherwise a partial kibble diet is best.

You can't plan to sell so many kits a month or week. It won't work. The market fluctuates. You have to figure out when rabbits are in demand in your area and sell then. 3/4ths of the year we don't sell any pets and they become cat food but about 3 different times of the year I get an email a day and can't produce enough at once. I have to plan for those times in order to make up my costs with pets.

 

[skysthelimit]

You can't feed too much rabbit. It lacks certain fats and you can actually starve to death while eating all the rabbit you want.
You can't plan to sell so many kits a month or week. It won't work. The market fluctuates. You have to figure out when rabbits are in demand in your area and sell then. 3/4ths of the year we don't sell any pets and they become cat food but about 3 different times of the year I get an email a day and can't produce enough at once. I have to plan for those times in order to make up my costs with pets.

I did say I was raising raising rabbit for supplemental meat. Of course it is not their primary meat source, that would defeat the purpose of the raw diet. I don't feed kibble at all, and will never again, when I did feed kibble, it was $40 a bag, with one new bag every week for each dog, so $160 a month. I don't feed Purina anything, and the kibble was no corn, no wheat, no by produces. Grocery store kibble is a curse word here.
Now I pay $48 for chicken, beef liver and what ever other tidbits I can gleam,tripe, intestines, for four dogs, for a whole month. The point was I cannot raise enough rabbits to even get close to seriously supplementing their food, I can't even get anywhere near %50, if that was what I was shooting for. Maybe they eat 1/4lb of rabbit a month. Therefore the purpose that I starting raising rabbits for is not even close to being effective, so really I'm in the hole for the entire operation.

I never said I planned to sell kits. I said it would be nice to sell at least two kits a month to recoup feed bill. Would be nice and expecting are not the same. I know full well there is very little market for anything in OH, dogs rabbits, chickens,houses, cars, so anything I raise is purely for my enjoyment. Besides the fact that if I start selling pets I will not have enough meat for the dogs to eat. I'm not really the best sales person anyway, not much into marketing. People only want the small ones, they don't want 8lb Rexes.

 

[AnnClaire]

I have a problem with the reports of a rabbit diet being lacking in the fats needed to sustain a person or animal when looking at domestic rabbits. The way I see it, most folks limit the pellets so the rabbit doesn't get fat. But, the fat is what is said to be missing in rabbit-heavy diets. Well, a wild rabbit will not have the fat build up that a domestic rabbit can. So, when I butchered the first litter at 5#/12 weeks, I paid especial attention to the amount of fat that each carcass had and found a 1" x 1/2" x 6" long strip of fat on each side of the spine in the abdominal cavity, and the kidneys were fatted too. This next butcher, I am going to leave the fat in the abdominal cavity and cook up the quarters together to see what the taste difference will be. The fat was white, not yellowed like a wild rabbit would have, so should not have the gamey taste of a wild rabbit.

Thinking further about it, I supplement the pellets with crimped oats, therefore "graining" the meat and fat, which also results in a smoother tasting white fat.

 

[skysthelimit]

I have a problem with the reports of a rabbit diet being lacking in the fats needed to sustain a person or animal when looking at domestic rabbits. The way I see it, most folks limit the pellets so the rabbit doesn't get fat. But, the fat is what is said to be missing in rabbit-heavy diets. Well, a wild rabbit will not have the fat build up that a domestic rabbit can. So, when I butchered the first litter at 5#/12 weeks, I paid especial attention to the amount of fat that each carcass had and found a 1" x 1/2" x 6" long strip of fat on each side of the spine in the abdominal cavity, and the kidneys were fatted too. This next butcher, I am going to leave the fat in the abdominal cavity and cook up the quarters together to see what the taste difference will be. The fat was white, not yellowed like a wild rabbit would have, so should not have the gamey taste of a wild rabbit.

Thinking further about it, I supplement the pellets with crimped oats, therefore "graining" the meat and fat, which also results in a smoother tasting white fat.

The breeder I got my rabbits from was complaining that her dogs were on the lean side because she's had been feeding a lot of rabbit, she doesn't eat her culls either, so the dogs get them. I don't want overly lean dogs, I need a bit more fat for show and performance dogs, so while I would like them to eat more rabbit than what I am producing, it can't be there sole diet, or they will not put on enough weight for the breed ring, from what I've seen.

 

[Frosted Rabbits]

The breeder I got my rabbits from was complaining that her dogs were on the lean side because she's had been feeding a lot of rabbit, she doesn't eat her culls either, so the dogs get them. I don't want overly lean dogs, I need a bit more fat for show and performance dogs, so while I would like them to eat more rabbit than what I am producing, it can't be there sole diet, or they will not put on enough weight for the breed ring, from what I've seen.

Perhaps you need to get a couple egg layers back on the place--just a couple, not a huge flock. If you can raw feed 4 large dogs, for less than 50 dollars a month-- I really need ot look into that myself for the next the dog I have--I should be able to get game animals in the fall (roadkill deer) for like 'nothing'- after all, here, we don't need a hunting permit if one owns a vehicle!!! ancake:

 

[grumpy]

In reality, rabbits...are the cheapest item in raising rabbits. Sounds weird, I know. But, the rabbit itself is relatively inexpensive when compared to the costs of getting everything "in-place" before you get your stock.

The building, cages, equipment, and supplies are far more expensive than the stock. My feed is $26.50 per hundred. Alfalfa hay is $5.00 per bale.

By the time I've raised a weanling doe until she's old enough to kindle her first litter, I figure I've got $50.00 in her, the feed, the cage, and the equipment. (That's using an existing structure to house her in) It would be more money per unit if I had to build a new building.

Grumpy.

 

[skysthelimit]

The breeder I got my rabbits from was complaining that her dogs were on the lean side because she's had been feeding a lot of rabbit, she doesn't eat her culls either, so the dogs get them. I don't want overly lean dogs, I need a bit more fat for show and performance dogs, so while I would like them to eat more rabbit than what I am producing, it can't be there sole diet, or they will not put on enough weight for the breed ring, from what I've seen.

Perhaps you need to get a couple egg layers back on the place--just a couple, not a huge flock. If you can raw feed 4 large dogs, for less than 50 dollars a month-- I really need ot look into that myself for the next the dog I have--I should be able to get game animals in the fall (roadkill deer) for like 'nothing'- after all, here, we don't need a hunting permit if one owns a vehicle!!! ancake:

Probably not going to happen, though I am considering raising a few meat birds this summer. Primarily they are eating chicken, it's somewhere around $.33 a lb. I do feed chitterlings in the summer, they get quite a lot of fat that way, and when I get tripe, I keep all of the extra fat and feed that too. If I had help, I'd have plenty of roadkill deer in my van!!