Welp

[AShelBunny]

One of my neighbors is moving and they bred rabbits for pets. We had talked about how we considered getting into breeding rabbits because another neighbor of ours also breeds rabbits for meat. Well, they moved and offered to give us their rabbits. We accepted the kind offer. Now I have two questions as a newbie and feel dumb asking.

1. We didn't get enough information about the rabbits. I know nothing about them. Except they have bred before and she produced a litter, and we had one of her daughters, too. (However, there was a terrible accident where she broke her back). However, we put them together on Black Friday to mate - nothing happened. But now today she is pulling her hair! Did they breed her before? Is there another reason she would pull her hair? Is seeing the male enough for her to think she bred? That would be weird.

2. After talking to the meat rabbit neighbor, he said (not verbatim) "Those ain't meat rabbits, you guys are kinda dumb." So... they were bred as pets, I knew that. But, since our purposes are meat... should we just eat them and get a new set? Awkward. I feel bad about the neighbor who gave them to us. I said we could just get a meat rabbit doe and go from there, but my husband says that's dumb too.
I've been reading about this for a few years and we were always "planning on one day getting to it" and with the gift it's pushed us into actually pursuing this.

I raise ducks and chicks too. And I started that by the whole just gett'um and figure it out as we go method. So. That's what we are doing.

What would you do in this situation?

 

[eco2pia]

Ok, for starters YOU ARE NOT DUMB.

You are new and you are asking good questions. Now I have questions for you.

Let's start by trying to figure out what kind of rabbits you have. Please figure out how much your adult rabbits weigh, and post a picture of them.

To weigh a live rabbit put them on a kitchen scale in a box, weigh the empty box, and do the math to figure out the weight of the rabbit, or weigh the rabbit in a canvas bag from a fishing scale.

Meat mutt rabbits are looked down on by some who only breed New Zealand rabbits, but at the end of the day all rabbits are made of meat. A 5 lb dutch rabbit is just as delicious as my 12lb american chinchilla rabbits. Most of us started with mutts.

Not wanting to breed can be a couple of things--if the rabbits were kept as pets, they may be overfed and fat--that will make them not breed pretty quickly. Or they could have been neglected and be underweight. Pics will help us asses that as well.

Age will also matter, and some days, at some times of the year, does are just NOT HAVING IT. Heat in summer will put them off, as will dark in winter. If they will breed, they will in spring as day length increases...

How long ago did your doe give you the daughter that you have? How long has it been since she had a litter?

If you can't make them work, you can always rehome them to a pet home if you don't want to eat them...

 

[RabbitsOfTheCreek]

For 2., technically any rabbit breed can be used for meat. It's more of a matter of is it worth the work when it could be more profiting (ex. using a bigger breed for meat is better than a small breed, bigger rabbits = more meat and more Kits, whole having more medium-sized rabbits can cut down on space usage)

 

[AShelBunny]

Ok, for starters YOU ARE NOT DUMB.

You are new and you are asking good questions. Now I have questions for you.

Let's start by trying to figure out what kind of rabbits you have. Please figure out how much your adult rabbits weigh, and post a picture of them.

To weigh a live rabbit put them on a kitchen scale in a box, weigh the empty box, and do the math to figure out the weight of the rabbit, or weigh the rabbit in a canvas bag from a fishing scale.

Meat mutt rabbits are looked down on by some who only breed New Zealand rabbits, but at the end of the day all rabbits are made of meat. A 5 lb dutch rabbit is just as delicious as my 12lb american chinchilla rabbits. Most of us started with mutts.

Not wanting to breed can be a couple of things--if the rabbits were kept as pets, they may be overfed and fat--that will make them not breed pretty quickly. Or they could have been neglected and be underweight. Pics will help us asses that as well.

Age will also matter, and some days, at some times of the year, does are just NOT HAVING IT. Heat in summer will put them off, as will dark in winter. If they will breed, they will in spring as day length increases...

How long ago did your doe give you the daughter that you have? How long has it been since she had a litter?

If you can't make them work, you can always rehome them to a pet home if you don't want to eat them...

Male is the white with gray spots 3 lbs 3.3 oz
Female is the black 4 lbs 3.3 oz

 

[eco2pia]

Ok. The bad news is they are kinda small. The good news is they still have a meat breed "type", meaning they are not wildly skinny and lanky.

Mini rex and dutch rabbits are about that size. They will have smaller litters and smaller carcasses, but they will also eat less each month and be easier for a small person or child to handle. Due to the small size they may be faster or slower to reach butchering weight--your goal is to have them at a size you want to eat at about 10-12 weeks, but earlier is better. You will lose half the live weight to cleaning and butchering. My big rabbits are about 5-6lb at 12 weeks giving me a 2.5-3 lb carcass. A larger breed is not always faster--some of them spend time making giant skeletons before growing muscle.

So ask yourself: do you have a big family to feed? My big rabbits have hind legs that look like chicken leg quarters. But a whole roast rabbit is too much for me to eat before I am sick of it--I cut everything into pieces and freeze portions, which is more work. Your rabbits will look more like a cornish game hen, but that is ok if you have a small family and don't want to be drowning in meat anyway.

Also small cute rabbits are easier to sell for pets, good for offsetting your feed costs. However, small cute rabbits can be harder to kill...so again, you have to evaluate your goals.

It is not a disaster, you have a starter pair, and you can figure out if you like working with them and how you feel about the whole eating fluffy thing. Eventually you will want to add a doe, and then you will want to go bigger, probably. How much bigger depends on the goal for your family freezer.

 

[AShelBunny]

Ok. The bad news is they are kinda small. The good news is they still have a meat breed "type", meaning they are not wildly skinny and lanky.

Mini rex and dutch rabbits are about that size. They will have smaller litters and smaller carcasses, but they will also eat less each month and be easier for a small person or child to handle. Due to the small size they may be faster or slower to reach butchering weight--your goal is to have them at a size you want to eat at about 10-12 weeks, but earlier is better. You will lose half the live weight to cleaning and butchering. My big rabbits are about 5-6lb at 12 weeks giving me a 2.5-3 lb carcass. A larger breed is not always faster--some of them spend time making giant skeletons before growing muscle.

So ask yourself: do you have a big family to feed? My big rabbits have hind legs that look like chicken leg quarters. But a whole roast rabbit is too much for me to eat before I am sick of it--I cut everything into pieces and freeze portions, which is more work. Your rabbits will look more like a cornish game hen, but that is ok if you have a small family and don't want to be drowning in meat anyway.

Also small cute rabbits are easier to sell for pets, good for offsetting your feed costs. However, small cute rabbits can be harder to kill...so again, you have to evaluate your goals.

It is not a disaster, you have a starter pair, and you can figure out if you like working with them and how you feel about the whole eating fluffy thing. Eventually you will want to add a doe, and then you will want to go bigger, probably. How much bigger depends on the goal for your family freezer.

Well I butchered the daughter and we ate her. Lol. So that was my test run. It wasn't as hard as I thought. Lol

I like your mindset it's a lot more comforting

Thank you

 

[ladysown]

I raise holland lops and dwarf rabbits. Both provide my family with sufficient meat.

 

[TamiPac]

Well I butchered the daughter and we ate her. Lol. So that was my test run. It wasn't as hard as I thought. Lol

I like your mindset it's a lot more comforting

Thank you

My personal experience is, if they pull hair within 2 weeks of being bred it's a false pregnancy.
If you want larger rabbits for meat you could get a doe meat rabbit and just use the buck you have for now. Then regardless the size you would have 2 producing does.

 

[tambayo]

My rabbits are around 1700grams (dwarf rex), feed me just fine, easy size to handle, fits the pens i have room for, my cookingpot and the freezer. I can also still do this with this size animal when i'm 80+.

 

[AShelBunny]

My rabbits are around 1700grams (dwarf rex), feed me just fine, easy size to handle, fits the pens i have room for, my cookingpot and the freezer. I can also still do this with this size animal when i'm 80+.

Yeah, my family (although large) only eats 1 lb of meat per meal that we eat meat. And we only have meat meals like 3 times a week unless we eat at friend's or restaurants (which is seldom). So, worse case, it's a good starting point. Right?

 

[AShelBunny]

My personal experience is, if they pull hair within 2 weeks of being bred it's a false pregnancy.
If you want larger rabbits for meat you could get a doe meat rabbit and just use the buck you have for now. Then regardless the size you would have 2 producing does.

So we put them together on Black Friday (we thought we would get a better litter that way with everything going BOGO - lol I'm just kidding)
Is there a chance she was uninterested because the previous owners had already bred them? Or, it's just a false pregnancy and she thought because they hung out she's pregnant? Is there anything I need to do for a false pregnancy?

 

[eco2pia]

It is possible that she was bred--but a responsible owner should have told you that.

All you can really do is give her a box and some hay and see what she does with it. if she makes a nest immediately and you saw no breeding on friday it is possible she was pregnant. If she eats all the hay and doesn't kindle within a week or so, I would try her with the buck again, and keep trying every 3 days until he successfully breeds her and falls off.

 

[RabbitsOfTheCreek]

My personal experience is, if they pull hair within 2 weeks of being bred it's a false pregnancy.

Same goes for me



However, with a new Doe that you don't know if they're bred or not, I'd give them a beatbox for another week or so and see how she's acting

 

[TamiPac]

So we put them together on Black Friday (we thought we would get a better litter that way with everything going BOGO - lol I'm just kidding)
Is there a chance she was uninterested because the previous owners had already bred them? Or, it's just a false pregnancy and she thought because they hung out she's pregnant? Is there anything I need to do for a false pregnancy?

I give mine a box and let them play with it then re-breed.

 

[Dimplz]

You are not dumb, just not experienced yet.

Use these pet breeds as your starter rabbits. Use them to learn about taking care of rabbits, handling rabbits, breeding and butchering. Once you have been able to keep them alive and breeding, maybe set your sights on a goal with rabbits. Maybe you want bigger meat breeds or maybe you want to go smaller and get more in to pet breeds, or showing too.

Right now, just get to know the rabbits, and build a relationship with them. Have fun with them. Rabbits are the best and most versitile animal you could choose to raise.

 

[arachyd]

I had one rabbit that consistently pulled hair at 2 weeks after a breeding. She pulled more when she was about to kindle and was a great mom. As others have said, all rabbits are made of meat and it depends on how much meat you want from your rabbits as to how big they need to be. Some breeds have been developed to have a high meat to bone ratio and more economic feed conversion than other rabbits. Those are what you want if you want a lot of meat. If you want pets that also provide some meat your rabbits are fine.

 

[Cindy in SD]

It’s helpful that you have neighbors who raise meat rabbits, in case you want to go that route. I would have to drive clear across the state to buy meat rabbits, so… For some reason rabbits don’t seem to be a big thing around here. I’ve been butchering my meat muts and I have a large quantity of rabbit carcasses in the freezer plus two more litters to butcher soon. I’m not sure I even want huge carcasses. It’s just me and my hubby and the small ones are easy to process. (Oh and by the way, they’re delicious… better than chicken… but you’ve already figured that out. )

I’ll save the biggest buck and the biggest doe from these last litters for the winter, breed the new doe next spring, along with my two current does. The new buck I’ll have in reserve, just in case anything happens to my current buck.

If you want bigger, I would eventually purchase some stock from the neighbor if he has any to sell. That’s gonna be quicker than gradually selecting for bigger, faster-growing bunnies.

 

[AShelBunny]

I had one rabbit that consistently pulled hair at 2 weeks after a breeding. She pulled more when she was about to kindle and was a great mom. As others have said, all rabbits are made of meat and it depends on how much meat you want from your rabbits as to how big they need to be. Some breeds have been developed to have a high meat to bone ratio and more economic feed conversion than other rabbits. Those are what you want if you want a lot of meat. If you want pets that also provide some meat your rabbits are fine.

She was pregnant! She just had one kit! That we saw!