Afraid to go near my rabbit

[thistlebloom]

Congrats on the successful kindling Hoodat! I was just thinking about your soccer ball today, wondering if all went well.

 

[hoodat]

I prefer to eat them as soon after the carcass cools as possible. Rabbit does not require any aging. I've never tried canning although I'm sure it could be done. Freezing is a good way of keeping them so long as you're careful not to let them freezer burn.There is no other animal that will produce so much meat in so little space.
It seems incredible but a doe who weighs only 10 or 12 pounds herself can, if bred 5 times per year, produce 120 to 150 pounds of meat in that year. No other animal produces so much more than their own body weight.

 

[vfem]

WOw... I see this as working out well for you! Congrats!

I don't eat red meat (or pork) so I will probably never venture down the meat rabbit road. I am going to do meat birds this year. We were going to get Ranger chicks, but my muscovy went and sat on eggs unexpectedly... so looks like duck for us to fill our freezer. They'll hatch any day now.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

Hoodat, about how many lbs each would that make the kits when you go to process them? i know you are fairly new to doing this but i wasn't sure what you might be expecting from them.

 

[hoodat]

I'm trying to develop a line of relatively small but meat efficient rabbits. I live alone at present so I don't need large ones. I'm just guessing since I'm using a large New Zealand doe bred to a smaller but very blocky buck of unknow breed. I expect them to go about 5 pounds live weight at that age.
I also expect them to gain weight slower than rabbits on straight pellets. I feed my rabbits mainly on greens. Pellets are always available but the hardly pay any attention to them so long as they have plenty of greens. That has two advantages. I stay away from pellets that are liable to contain GMO products (organic pellets are all but unobtainable) and most importantly I can get the greens free. Nothing beats free meat.
I'm not inexperienced at rabbits. I helped my grandfather and he taught me a lot. I just haven't raised them in a long time; about 30 years to be exact. Not all that much has changed since then.