What to do with the extra parts from rabbit processing?

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Philip

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I will be processing 6 rabbits for the first time this weekend. I don't want to just throw away the extra parts. I am planning to dehydrate the ears for dog treats. What can I do the the rest of the left over parts?
 
I keep the heart, liver and kidneys and fry them up. I use the blood and head and toss it in the worm bin (Black Soldier Fly Larvae) which I harvest every day and feed to the chickens as protein booster. I've never done it, but you can certainly tan the fur.
 
We save hearts, livers and kidneys. Roll the pelts up and freeze them, going to try my hand at tanning. All te rest we freeze and send out with the nest trash haul.
 
Heads and feet get fed to the dogs, as well as the guts minus the heart, kidneys, and liver. If fed large quantities of guts at once, the cecum will often be refused. (Well- left on my front porch, actually! :sick: )

If I don't want to save the pelt, I feed that to the dogs as well. Cats like the pelts too.

Sometimes I will give some of the guts to the chickens and/or cats, but the dogs get first choice around here. :)
 
Livers, hearts, and kidneys get saved and eaten here. Deeeelicious!

We tried giving the rest of the innards to the chickens. They refused them. :shock:
 
MamaSheepdog":kgk7m122 said:
If I don't want to save the pelt, I feed that to the dogs as well. Cats like the pelts too.

Do you just toss the pelts to them or cut into manageable chunks? I have started feeding bones with a little meat left on and the organs- kidney, heart and lungs to the dogs but the cats just turn their noses up. I think they would eat if it was ground but I will need a separate grinder for that if I choose to do it.

Also tried the innards with the dogs and chickens and they both didn't really go for it...?? :shock: Too bad.<br /><br />__________ Thu Aug 29, 2013 4:12 pm __________<br /><br />Save the livers for my friend....I am not a liver fan.
 
stone soup farm":17j5jky3 said:
Do you just toss the pelts to them or cut into manageable chunks?

I just give it to them. The cats- who are not nearly as well trained as the dogs- will try to steal my "keeper" pelts out of the bucket of water.
 
Philip":2wak0ysa said:
I will have a happy dog.

Some dogs wont eat raw meat at first. You might need to lightly cook a piece of raw rabbit to give your dog the idea.
 
I feed the head and ears to my dogs as I butcher, it keeps them out of my way.
I cut the pelts I do not keep into 1 inch wide strips, I dry them out and use them as raw hide treats for the dogs.
I put the guts into a 5 gallon plastic bucket with holes drilled in the bottom, and place this on top of my hens run.
this will produce lots of maggots, for the hens to eat.
I eat the livers.
I do not think there are any extra parts left over.
 
CWD":r28eh3gb said:
I put the guts into a 5 gallon plastic bucket with holes drilled in the bottom, and place this on top of my hens run.

CWD,

I tried this last year, but I didn't drill holes in the bottom of the bucket because I didn't want it dripping liquified dead things into the chicken pen. It was an epic fail chicken feed wise, but did keep the adult flies trapped in the bucket, so that was something at least. :?

The instructions I read also said to put leaf litter or something in the bottom of the bucket.

Anyway... what size holes did you drill in the bottom? And do the maggots take care of business before it putrefies and starts to ooze?
 
Yeah...I am interested in the bucket thing too. Does it smell or attract predators? I would assume so and that is why I haven't tried this. My chickens are next to our garden and close to our house.
 
organs we either eat ourselves or give to the dogs. Dogs get the heads too. The guts go to the chickens. Pelts we tan and I also save the back feet to make "lucky" rabbits' feet. Pelts and feet we mostly have given away to friends and family, but now I'm saving up the nice pelts to eventually make throw blankets.
 
Organs get fried up and eaten here too! :cool:

Good pelts get tanned.

I felt like a zombie the night I was splitting all the rabbit heads for brain tanning supplies. :lol:

All else use to get thrown to the pigs but my rescue pup eats ANYTHING and has taught my mums dog that squiggly bits are yummmmmmy so the pigs are getting less and less over time.
 
MSD I drilled 1/8 inch holes in the buckets. about 25 holes in each bucket.
yes the maggots do their job very well, I have little to no waits left in the buckets
after a few days. there is some dripping of the ooze, but my hens eat this as well as the
maggots. you should see my hens, hey will sit under the buckets and wait for anything
to fall out onto the ground and they are all over it.
the weather here is pretty much the same as in your area, during the summer. so you will get a little smell
now and then.
the worse time for smell is when I dump what is left in the buckets into my compost. out of a full 5 gallon bucket I
will dump out 2 or 3 pounds of rotten stuff.
the smell is worse if I happen to have a dead chicken or two thrown into the mix. the chickens smell the worse
I believe, because the maggots do not eat the feathers and bones.
 
CWD thanks for sharing. I might try braving it and see how it goes with the smell and predator thing. My dog has been staying outside and just got skunked a few days ago. But at least he was doing his job.
 
SSF, try a mixture of 4 cups hydrogen peroxide, 1 teaspoon dish soap, and 1/4 cup of baking soda. It works, I use it at my shop all the time & the best part, it's inexpensive & easy to make and use.
 
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