well if your canning or making sausage toughness is not a huge issue.
Oldsters can get boned and get ground up for sausage.
I use a mix with garlic and of all things the cheap parmesan cheese in it. YUMM
What age to dispatch?
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Oldsters can get boned and get ground up for sausage.
I use a mix with garlic and of all things the cheap parmesan cheese in it. YUMM
Hi there,
I use a digital one for the rabbits, it’s fine for a ballpark weight. We have a larger mechanical scale for weighing our hay and I trust that one more.
I was just talking to our son about mixing the rabbit entrails, liver heart and kidneys that we have frozen with moose meat and making sausages. He has about 50# of moose meat that still needs to be processed. Probably use a sweet Italian recipe and brats. Mix in ground jalapeño peppers for hot brats.
Good to use all the meat we can. I generally take the kits away from the moms before 8 weeks. They can really abuse the does it seems. That probably effects the growth rate. At 12 weeks our goal has been a 5# live weight. 2-1/2# frier average. Your line breeding program seems to be working well. Good on you ! We are restarting our rabbitry a few years ago. Had to miss a year because we couldn't find a decent Californian buck. We finally found an adoption. Big buck. We also have a cross from our stock that will be ready next spring. Hopefully, he wasn't very interested or successful last year. Maybe too young. But he has filled out nicely and we will hopefully have a good buck from our linebreeding. We are raising a lilock color. So be nice to breed our blue buck and a blue doe. Just enjoy the color.
Thank you for the information
Good to use all the meat we can. I generally take the kits away from the moms before 8 weeks. They can really abuse the does it seems. That probably effects the growth rate. At 12 weeks our goal has been a 5# live weight. 2-1/2# frier average. Your line breeding program seems to be working well. Good on you ! We are restarting our rabbitry a few years ago. Had to miss a year because we couldn't find a decent Californian buck. We finally found an adoption. Big buck. We also have a cross from our stock that will be ready next spring. Hopefully, he wasn't very interested or successful last year. Maybe too young. But he has filled out nicely and we will hopefully have a good buck from our linebreeding. We are raising a lilock color. So be nice to breed our blue buck and a blue doe. Just enjoy the color.
Thank you for the information
depends on my needs. Bucks get done early... usually before 10 weeks, does... when I have time/desire/need. Bucks are normally turned into critter food, though I might save the loins. I'm more flexible with the girls.
I got back into rabbits a couple years ago and am breeding New Zealander's. I have not been happy with their rate of growth. I've had to keep them to at least 14 weeks to get them to a decent size and then not happy with how tough the meat is. The only way we can eat them is by de-boning and using them for ground meat.
I bred Tamuck's years ago and was very happy with them so I bought a trio of 5 week old Tamuck's last August and by 10 weeks of age they were almost as big as my adult New Zealander's. I've never seen growth like that. I'll be breeding them for the first time in February and plan to butcher at ten weeks (or less). I got rid of my NZ's except for one favorite doe and I will be breeding her to the Tamuck buck in February also to see if he can improve her litters. Fingers crossed.
I bred Tamuck's years ago and was very happy with them so I bought a trio of 5 week old Tamuck's last August and by 10 weeks of age they were almost as big as my adult New Zealander's. I've never seen growth like that. I'll be breeding them for the first time in February and plan to butcher at ten weeks (or less). I got rid of my NZ's except for one favorite doe and I will be breeding her to the Tamuck buck in February also to see if he can improve her litters. Fingers crossed.
I butcher when they reach 5 lbs. The Tamuks have consistantly been 5 lbs. At 9 weeks.
Thanks, good to know!
I know it's an old post, but I didn't see my method of weighing rabbits mentioned -- in a cat carrier. My rabbits love the carrier. They go in on their own and sometimes just hang out there. It fits perfectly on a digital scale designed for weighing babies. I already had that (bought second hand) from back when my (human) babies were babies.
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For me it is about tenderness more than size, but it is only two of us. Right now with my American Chinchilla rabbits I've been hitting around 7 pounds at 3 months which is the age point my meat buyer wants. He pays best at that age.
A friend grows to 6-9 months because she wants more meat for the trouble of butchering.
One thing to keep in mind is meat to bone ratio. The New Zealand is supposed to be the best meat rabbit, with some others right next to it. It isn't always about the weight. Think about it, unless you can grind the bones and want to eat them then they subtract from what you get out of your feed
Meeee tooo. Love the parmesan cheese in ground up rabbit. And unless your a vampire the garlic is a big plus
Tamucks are a hybrid line of New Zealand rabbits. Developed by Texas A&M for fast growth, good meat to bone ratio and heat tolerance.
I'm kinda old. I find its easier to butcher younger rabbits. Basicly the skin isnt so attached that I cant pull it off. At least that has been working for me. 12 weeks and older I have to put my whole weight into it. Sometimes joints get dislocated. (Not mine, the buns)
Start to finish I can easily do 4 in an hour. Again, for me this is the right size. Just the two of us now.
Yes, I have heard of them but know little. Are they white? And do you think they live up to their reputation?
One could say the total weight is a sum of genetics and diet.(with consideration to random factors like heat,etc). I've seen numbers tossed around as the meat to bone ratio being on average 50%- 55% or really good 60%-65%.
I don't really know about that,but easy enough to do the math if you are curious.
I raise New Zealands and my broken litter hit 5# at 9 weeks. I kept the 5.6# doe of that litter. The frosty/rew litter was a little shy of 5#. Factors I take into consideration: # in litter, 1st time mum and variances in genetics. I can work with that. The litters had different bucks. Next go around I will use the broken buck, Cracked Pepper to compare.
I'm not intending to hold any non speculators longer then 12 weeks. Sometimes, the end date may be earlier depending on how many litters are going on. I try to breed in cycles where 3-4 litters are close together in age.
I don't really know about that,but easy enough to do the math if you are curious.
I raise New Zealands and my broken litter hit 5# at 9 weeks. I kept the 5.6# doe of that litter. The frosty/rew litter was a little shy of 5#. Factors I take into consideration: # in litter, 1st time mum and variances in genetics. I can work with that. The litters had different bucks. Next go around I will use the broken buck, Cracked Pepper to compare.
I'm not intending to hold any non speculators longer then 12 weeks. Sometimes, the end date may be earlier depending on how many litters are going on. I try to breed in cycles where 3-4 litters are close together in age.
Mine are all white although I understand you can get them in different colors. My past experience with them has been exceptional. They grow fast, have good meat to bone ratio, have large litters and are good mothers from the very first litter. They don't seem to suffer from the heat like my traditional line of NZ's do. I also think their meat is tastier and more tender. I hope my current breeders live up to my past experience with them. I'll know in another 3-4 months.
Mine are not white. They are this color. And some are brownish with black outlines. Think it maybe called "tort". Not sure cause I thought that was a legal term.
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RabbitsOfTheCreek
Netherland Dwarf Breeder & Well-known Member
Looks like they might be harlequinized to me
kusanar314
Well-known member
From what I've seen there were 2 separate lines of them developed. One is heavily New Zealand White based and sold white (made more for the commercial lines) and then a non white version that is more mixed breed but you get all sorts of colors out of them.
The non-white is referred to as a Composite and is not normally used in commercial breeding. I'm not sure why but read someplace that commercial meat buyers prefer the white. ?? I don't know that to be true because I just raise them for my own use. I know I think a white furred rabbit tastes better but that's probably just me.
I just ran into this doing our first bucks. Haven't done the does yet. One skinned real easily. One I practically had to knife skin. It was a surprising difference. I haven't done rabbits in decades and didn't remember how it was. I'll probably try and do them a tad under 12 weeks and see if that improves the skinning. It's not awful to knife skin like most other animals we do but certainly not as quick. I laughed out loud when you said "not mine".
As I get older I have to check to be sure it's not mine. Ours are all white meat lines. So far we've had a lot of struggles with them but from my understanding and as things seem to be smoothing out I think it's been mostly breeder issue and bit of my relearning curve on the breeding end not the breed themselves. Time will tell for us but slowly I'm liking them more and more. The proof for us will be in the eating but we just had a litter of 10 after her first litter of 8 and she's a doe who's barn name is witchy or cruela devil depending on the day. She's been an excellent mother from the first litter on so far. She's had a major struggle with ear mites that came from the breeder but yet in spite of the stress and the stress from treatments she's raising good litters. She (they all) DOES NOT want to have any handling at all and she lets us know yet still in spite of it all is producing well.
That is a very nice color. I wonder if their hides are a little thicker. That's one thing I'm working on is using hides and they are supposed to be very thin (heat tolerant benefit) and not ideal to use as hides. This is the first I've seen a non white Tamuk. I'd be interesting in that. Thanks for sharing a pic!
