Thinking on my meat rabbits

[ladysown]

as most of you know I currently raise harlequins as my meat breed of choice. I love them, love their markings, but I am finding myself frustrated in the differential in their grow out so I'm considering moving away from the harlequins.

When I get a good litter I'm simply delighted, but when I get a litter of growers that simply DO NOT grow worth a diddle...or who stall at the 3 lb mark I feel like I'm throwing feed and time away.

So I'm considering a couple different things.

1. I like showing, but I show maybe four times a year and I have my mini rex and polish to fill that fix.
2. I have a growing meat business so I need a supply that can consistently fill that demand for 3-4 lb rabbits.
3. I considered the Lilac...but heard they can have a slow growout, so I stopped considering them. Considered cinnamon...but they seem to basically be a brown torty rabbit and that just doesn't really interest me. Considered bruns and argents... hubby is very much NOT impressed by their colouring. I have a love affair with two colours...Chocolate and Chinchilla with tricolour coming in a close third. So I don't know of any meat breed that comes in Chocolate... but the am. chin comes in Chinchilla colouring.

4. BUT my hesitation is that they are BIG rabbits, much bigger than the harle which would mean needing to figure out housing a bit differently. BUT because they are big, they should throw bigger litters, and if I get the right stock should hit that 3-4 lb range quicker BUT would they consume the same amount of feed that my harles are currently consuming? just in a shorter time span?

5. would I just be better off considering doing good meat mutts, or even doing black NZ's? or ???

6. then of course is the question...how many would I need? (one of my current meat does is my son's rabbit and she will NOT be leaving anytime soon) I currently have three meat does that I breed every 3-4 weeks. Would two does and one buck work? My mini rex litters/culls pick up the slack when I need it and I have fellow meat breeders that I can call upon if needed.
Just needing some additional input from folks as I'm thinking things through.

 

[PulpFaction]

Satins come in both Chocolate and Chin, as do Standard Rex. I think they may also both offer tri color...but I am not sure if they are showable. They definitely come in broken! There are also strains of Chocolate Silver Fox out there that are in development, it would be nice to have an outlet for the culls and get to help develop a new variety.

Another one would be the Havana. They come in chocolate and are closer in size to Harlies so maybe you wouldn't need to change up your set-up much.

 

[rabbitgeek]

Standard weight for Satins is just one pound less than NZ. They are commonly used for meat rabbits.

Have a good day!

 

[moonkitten]

Another consideration when switching breeds is "what is available in your area". Standard rex are extremely few and far between around here. There are a few satin breeders, so that isn't too bad. Havanas? I can't recall having seen any or any listed, same goes for Cinnamons.

My suggestion would be to look around and see what is available before deciding you want a certain breed. If you can't get replacements easily, is this going to cause more frustration down the road?

 

[ladysown]

very true, not looking at going too far afield.

I could just go with NZ's and do some crosses...not good perhaps for breeder sales, but I don't get a WHOLE lot of those... so I don't really figure those in. But NZ's can be pretty big too....

Hard to figure. To get bigger size quickly you need to go bigger rabbits, but they'll eat you out of house and home too....

 

[Devon's Mom Lauren]

American sables?

 

[eco2pia]

I would love to get my hands on some great big American Chins, but those are hard to find here--however the STANDARD Chin seems much more available here, and it is a smaller rabbit--5-6lbs, I think. Would that be a good option? I don't really know anything about how they are to breed/raise, but they sure are purty.

 

[ladysown]

don't know a whole lot about american sables, and haven't found standard chin around here.

 

[eco2pia]

Bummer, there are a couple of breeders near me who just sold out. I was sorely tempted, but a) haven't got space for more than one breed, and b) they were the small version. My husband breathes a sigh of relief!