rabbits for meat and fur

[dalewick]

We fed ours from the garden. I don't what we would use in the winter now. I am sure you could come up with a winter crop or put something away from fall. With pen fed, you are trading green food for red food.

Rabbits love alfalfa hay for winter forage, high in protien, easy to grow and easy to store. Might want to try some cool season crops under shelter for green feed. Rabbit feces makes great source material for methane and the waste is then good for the garden. Nice little circle.

Dale

[wac220]

What you feed pen raised rabbits if things were such that a quick trip to the feed store were not possible?

We fed ours from the garden. I don't what we would use in the winter now. I am sure you could come up with a winter crop or put something away from fall. With pen fed, you are trading green food for red food.

[Bue]

What you feed pen raised rabbits if things were such that a quick trip to the feed store were not possible?

[wac220]

We raised, and I use the term lightly, meat rabbits when I was in high school. We never had a lot of them, but just enough for my dad to keep us reminded of where our food comes from. When we moved from that property back into town the rabbits were not quite fryer size yet. The garden was coming in pretty good and the new owners were not going to be moving into the house for several days. We turned 20 young rabbits and the 3 adults loose in the garden with the ducks so they would not starve. I kept in touch with some of my friends for a while and they said the whole neighborhood was overrun with rabbits. Looking back on it is kind of funny.

[Chefsimms]

Last time I raised rabbits...my wife made pets out of all of them, I still see a white rabbit from time to time running around the area.

[Morgan101]

Wendy Brown's book, "Surviving the Apocolypse in the Suburbs" has an entire chapter devoted to raising rabbits. Very informative. I would consider it, but I have a sneaking suspicion my significant other would become far to attached. We would probably end up with a thousand rabbits, all with names, to go with the four rescued dogs.

[Omegaman]

We raised meat rabbits when I was young and I think this year once we get our ckicken flock settled we will bring meat rabbits into the mix and then sheep or goats.

[Levi]

Rabbits are considered as the ultimate survivalist meat. They are very easy to care for and breed like .. well like rabbits. One of the biggest draw backs to rabbits, however, is their lack of body fat. You need the fat of animals to maintain a healthy life. The fat contains the minerals and most of the vitamins we would get from protein. What I am doing is wrapping my rabbit in bacon. It seals the rabbit meat making juicy and it adds the fat my body needs. With some greens, and root veggies I have a healthy delicious meal.

[blkhawk21]

My father in law raised rabbits for years as food and profit. Growing up we ate rabbit a lot when the were in season they taste great.

[Renee]

Bobbie, great post! There is a lot of good info here~ I have been taking steps to get "back to my roots", as I abandoned them for the sparkly city life years ago. Reading this brought back memories and added another line to my list of things to do in the next few months.

My father kept New Zealand white's for years. My mother fried them just like she made her fried chicken.

As a kid I hated feeding them after school~ when I got close to the cages and did not pay attention, I would spook them and then get sprayed with pee!! lol They do have nice fur too. lol, I remember using some of the little, leftover scraps, my father had tanned, on a school project.

And... my dad used the poo in his gardens too, but sparingly. It seemed to get too hot and would burn the plants. He always preached to me about using the chicken poo.

[MGF]

I've heard that eating too much Rabbit gives you a vitamin deficiency not sure what type was talking to a few guys and the topic came up and really didn't pay attention

Your body can only handle so much protein and you need fat and carbs. people live on little other than blubbery animals with no problems.

If you have to survive on lean animals for any length of time, (as I understand it anyway) you want to eat everything...internal organs, bone marrow and all.

[Bobbie]

doubtful cause it wont have a home it will just wander around till eaten. If it is tennessee and wooded just trap the wild rabbits. You could trap wild rabbits try to keep them alive and relocate them but if you are bolting that would be hard to do. Also if you are traveling carring a couple of rabbits would be very hard.

[Big Guy]

Is there a "domesticated" Rabbit that will thrive if taken to a remote BOL lets say,.... in Tennessee and just set free?

[Skyowl's Wife]

Thanks for the info!

[Bobbie]

they will dress out at 2-3 pounds each. Just think 1 doe rabbit has 4-6 babies in 8 weeks you butcher them and have 8-18 pounds per litter. 1 doe can produce doe can produce 50 pounds of meat from babies per year. Rabbits do not take much room especially if you have stacked cages.