Starting out in your venture to raise rabbits is not a difficult matter but it will take some good planning as well as good research. First you need to decide for what purpose you are going to raise rabbits. If part of you plan is to have meat for your table then you will want to make sure you choose a breed that has a good food to meat conversion rate, meaning that for every pound of food they consume a larger percentage of that food is converted to meat on the animal, not fat, and not burned off by activity. The most popular breed for this type of rabbit is the New Zealand White rabbit. If the pet market is more your idea then you will need to do a little research and find out what people in your area would like to have as a pet rabbit. Typically the smaller breeds and the lop eared breeds are more popular as pets. If you are more interested in fur or laboratory markets then you will need to locate your outlets for this in your area, for this area the New Zealand white is again the most popular.
After you have chosen your breed you will need to research and learn about how much space will be required for each animal. It is recommended that each rabbit have a cage that has one square foot of space for each pound of rabbit that will be in the cage. This will help you determine about how many animals you have space to accommodate. Now it will be time to decide how many animals you would like to start with. I recommend that you start with only three or four, two buck and two doe or one buck and three doe. This small number will allow you to get off to a good start and be able to gain experience and confidence without being overwhelmed with a large number of animals to take care of. This is also a very manageable number so that if you later decide that this isn’t for you, you will more easily be able to place these animals elsewhere. Rabbits reproduce very quickly so it will not take long to build up a sizeable herd if this is your goal.Now you will need to set up the living area for your rabbit. Have a cage of adequate size, an appropriate drinking bottle and food dish, as well as needed shelter for outdoor animals. Each rabbit will need their own cage. Rabbits will fight with one another especially if they are breeder rabbits.
Now that you have pinpointed at least your main reason for raising rabbits, decided on the right breed for the purpose, and determined the available space and the number you wish to start with, it is time to locate the animals. Finding rabbits is usually not difficult but finding good quality rabbits can prove to be a challenge. I recommend that you become familiar with the breeds standard before you begin looking. This way you will be more able to make an informed decision. If you know someone that has experience raising rabbits see if they will help by looking at the available animals with you. It is very important to start with good quality animals even if you are just wanting to raise meat for your table. The reason for this is simple. If you start out with good quality animals you end up with good quality meat at an effective price and with less effort on your part. If you start out with poor quality you may end up with animals that eat more food than they can efficiently convert to meat so this increases your cost far more than it should. For any reason you choose to raise rabbits poor quality animals will prove to have an extremely negative effect on your efforts. As mentioned earlier, it can greatly increase your feed cost. Poor quality animals are more prone to illness so that will be an increased expense. They may also be animals that are not productive. Even rabbits can be unable to reproduce if they are poor quality animals. If they can reproduce the litters may prove to be small and weak making them unsuitable for your purpose. Some poor quality doe are terrible mothers. They will not properly care for the litter, increasing the fatality rate. They may not be able to carry a litter to term properly or may have trouble delivering the litter making for more still born kits. The buck may not be able to produce litters large enough to make it worth your efforts. So it is very important to start with good quality animals. You are much more likely to succeed if you start with healthy rabbits that have been purchased from a reputable breeder.
So, how do you know if you have found a reputable breeder and good quality animals? First be ready to ask the breeder questions. A good breeder will know their animals and should be able and willing to answer most of your questions. One of the simplest questions to ask is “What kind of rabbits do you have?” Believe it or not, not everyone that raises rabbits knows what they have. They should be able to tell you the breed that they raise, even if it a cross breed they should know what kind of cross they have. The breeder should be able to tell you the birth date of the rabbit, or at least be able to find the information in their records. They should be able to tell you which rabbit was the dam and sire for the rabbit you are looking at. They also should have many to choose from, at least one litter, with more on the way. You want to know how large the litter was in order to have an idea of what to expect from your future breeder. You should be able to get information about any health issues the rabbit has had and any health issues the dam had during pregnancy. How many from the litter actually survived until market age? If there was a high fatality rate it is possible that the dam was not a good mother and this trait can be passed down to any female offspring. They should be willing to have you come to them to see the rabbits. If they do not want you to come to them it is possible that the rabbits are not kept in good clean living conditions which could make for health problems. They should also be able to tell you for a fact the sex of your rabbit if it is at least 8wks old. Younger than 8wks it is difficult to tell so if you want a specific gender don’t take a rabbit under 8wks of age. The breeder should be knowledgeable in their breed and willing to talk to you about any cares and concerns you may have.
A good, reputable breeder will most often keep a written record of the pedigree of the rabbits they raise. This is a sure sign that they are serious about raising good rabbits. Not all good quality rabbits will be registered. When people think of animal registration they tend to think about the AKC or CKC for dogs. For these organizations you simply have to prove that the dam and the sire are registered, send in you information on the litter and then the entire litter is registered. This is not how it works with rabbits. Rabbits are registered through the American Rabbit Breeders Association which has strict standards for registration. They will not register a litter based on the dam and sire registration status. They actually view each rabbit individually to make sure they meet the standards that they have outlined. So it is possible that in a litter of seven to have two that meet the qualifications and five that do not. Now just because a rabbit is not registered does not mean that it is not a good quality animal. Many breeders do not feel it necessary to register their animals because they keep good records and know they have good animals. A breeder should be willing to refund your purchase if you are not happy with the animal within an agreed time period.
The animals you choose should have a clean, healthy looking coat, bright, alert eyes free from drainage, a clean nose, and no matting in the fur. The teeth should be straight and appear to be an average length. Their back feet should be well furred and have a thick pad of fur on the foot. The ears should be clean and free from irritation and any buildup. The rabbit should hold its head up straight, not tilted to either side and should not be extremely timid. You should be able to pet the animal without it attempting to bite or scratch. They may run some but as long as they don’t attempt to harm you and do not growl at you they are likely to have a fairly good temperament. For livestock purposes it is best to start with junior animals, those less than 8mths old. It would be good if you could get one senior doe, one older than 8mths and one proven buck if the breeder is willing to part with such animals.
Once you get your rabbits home place them in their new cage, make sure they have food and water, then leave them alone for the rest of the day. Give them time to adjust to their new home before attempting to handle them very much. After an adjustment period if your rabbits are of proper age you can begin your breeding program. See the breeding page on this site to learn what to do and what to expect during the process.
Once you begin your breeding program and have begun to have litters you will start to see progress. A litter usually has about 5-9 kits if you are raising a medium to large breed. At four weeks of age these same size breeds can begin to be weaned from thier mother. In order to wean the kits you must pay attention to each individual rabbit. It is vital that the kit be eating out of the food dish AND drinking out of the water bottle. It is possiable that they will eat from the food dish but will still be getting mother's milk for drinking and not know how to use the bottle. I recomend marking each kit with a marker in its ear when you see it drinking from the water bottle and marking it with a different color marker when you see it eatting out of the food dish. Take the kits out gradually. In a litter of seven I will generally take out the three largest one night. Then I will take one rabbit out every other day until all have been removed. A cage set up for the kits will be needed in order to wean them. Set this cage up just like you would for your other rabbits but use a larger feed dish and maybe a larger water bottle. Removing the rabbits gradually is much less stressful on the doe. It allows her milk supply to dry up slowly, causing less discomfort.
The kits will grow rapidly over the next 4wks. By the time they reach 8wks of age they will be large enough for market and after this age the food to meat ratio goes down drastically so it is not economical to keep them past this age unless you intend to use them as breeders for your own herd. At 8wks of age a rabbit bred for a meat breed will produce at least the same amount of meat that is on a fryer chicken from the supermarket, usually the usable meat porition will be a little more due to smaller bones. For this reason rabbits this age are often referred to as fryers.
From our New Zelands we usally are able to dress out at least 20lbs of usable meat per litter of 7. After the startup cost is repaid the only expense that amounts to much is feed which cost about 13.00 for a 50lb bag. One litter of rabbits may consume about one bag from the time they start eating at about 10-15 days old. So if you do the math it equals out to about .65 per lb of meat. So as far as price, it compares quite well to chicken. The differences come from the fact that rabbit meat is more filling than chicken. It is a more dense meat so it does not take as much to get full. It also has a very good taste and takes on flavors very well. Seasonings and sauces work well and it can be prepared just like any other meat. You could easily use it as your only meat source and never know you are eating the same meat every night. Rabbit meat is also one of the most healthy meats available today.
Out of Chicken, Veal, Turkey, Beef, Lamb, and Pork, Rabbit has the highest percentage of protein, lowest percent of fat and moisture and the lowest amount of calories. It is an all white meat so it is a very good choice for those that are health concious.
If any of your questions have not been answered please feel free to contact us and we will do our best to give you the information you are looking for. We wish you the best of success.