Meat Rabbits.

I have been talking about rearing meat rabbits for sometime. Now this year I am going to do it. I shall be on the lookout for NZ and Californian breeding stock in the spring. Do any of you keep rabbits for the table?

I often considered it, but wild rabbits are so plentiful hereabouts...

We have in the past but only made sausages with them. We decided it wasn't financially worth doing as was hoping to do it commercially but to many rule and regs. We have since sold them all. JJ was saying about having some rabbits, not sure how he's getting on with them

Sean Ph'lib wrote:I often considered it, but wild rabbits are so plentiful hereabouts...

IMHO farmed rabbits are bigger and better tasting than the wild ones. This is not to say that I dislike the wild ones but we don't have them locally in sufficient quantities to justify hunting them. Something I luv to do. As a complement to our operations here they would also recycle our veg waste, or most of it and would thrive on gleanings sauced locally. All round winners me thinks. I could see problems described by Deryn if we tried to do this comercially though.

Hey Wayland!

I have a doe NZ white and a buck that's a cross of NZ white and Californian. I am hoping to breed them in the next couple of months and get some litters going in 2018 for the freezer.

I have had some trouble with getting a good stock to be honest with you. originally bought 2 bucks and 2 does all unrelated but I only have 1 buck from that group left. although I was warned that the first couple years will be hard as you will have a lot of deaths and its up to you to breed the strongest.

I'm still in that phase but hoping to make some headway this year.

It looks like I would have to pick up my breeding stock from the UK the next time we go visiting. I would be looking for a trio. There are all kinds of problems with young breeding stock kept in captivity, least of all with the Doe`s eating their young. I would let this go for the first time but if she does it again then she is in the pot!. I have had problems in the past with young rabbits dying an alarming death. Post mortems revealed an intestinal blockage probable due to the young eating the Doe`s pellets to soon. Mixie needs to be sorted of course.

wayland wrote:It looks like I would have to pick up my breeding stock from the UK the next time we go visiting. I would be looking for a trio. There are all kinds of problems with young breeding stock kept in captivity, least of all with the Doe`s eating their young. I would let this go for the first time but if she does it again then she is in the pot!. I have had problems in the past with young rabbits dying an alarming death. Post mortems revealed an intestinal blockage probable due to the young eating the Doe`s pellets to soon. Mixie needs to be sorted of course.

I'd love to get a couple from the UK, if you would be willing to bring a couple extra home with you let me know when you are going and we can try to sort something out!

Will do JJ.