market for giant breed rabbits?

[beth wallbank]

I was just wondering, we are getting my kids a pair of french lops for Easter, pets of course, and this breed of rabbit gets really large. Is the reason I wanted them. The adults average 12-18lbs when full grown. The average litters are 5-12 babies.
My question is, is there a market for a rabbit this large, for feeders that is? I can do the killing of course, (I am a woose) but I thought since they were male/female, why not. And I would likely be into trading for mice or rats with other breeders?
Any input would be great.

[Bartman]

Im no expert on large prey items but ive seen some people say how they feed chickens to large snakes. If they were relatively cheep then people would forsure rather buy a giant rabbit then a chicken..i know i would want to...

[Matt_K]

With the amount of people that own burms and retics now, i don't see why you would have any problem getting rid of them!!

[mice4you]

The problem is the cost of production. I used to work with Flemish Giants but it just was not worth the work. Large rabbits obviously eat large amounts of food and take a long time to mature.

If you are looking at it as a hobby and just trying to recover some of your costs, then at least you can have some fun

[Jayson]

I raise them for my burm and sell the extras off but for what people are willing to pay for feeder rabbits i am basicly trading them for feed money.
However, rabbits for human food in my area go for 2-3 times the price i get for feeders. These ones are also fully cleaned and dressed.

[beth wallbank]

I am not worried about the selling of them, more for trading for rats or mice if need be. The buyer will have to take them live though and do the killing themselves as I could never possibly do it.

[mice4you]

If you can find someone local, then go for it. The kids love to see animals have babies. We still have several breeding pairs of dwarf rabbits so our kids can watch and participate in looking after the rabbits (and now quail and chicks)

[Lisa]

I'd be more interested in them for immature young... something comparable to a large rat. that way you don't have to wait for rats to mature for the larger snakes.

[nita]

Actually your best feed to meat ratio is on californians or Newzealands. They put on the meat best and fastest for what you feed them, Flemish giants are pretty much skin and bone and not much meat until they are about 4 months old where as a californian or newzealan will be a good frying size in 10 weeks or so. I was talking to a breeder at the londonderry show easter weekend here. I also just got 5 rabbits, originally 4 does 1 buck but it is definately 2 bucks possibly 3 since one is still so terrified that I can't check properly yet. They weren't being treated well to say the least. But one pair harlys will produce adult sizes of 8-10 lbs and the others are mini breeds. I have BP's so I plan to feed the babies to them as well as possibly myself at least for the harlys, Dh won't eat it but I love rabbit stew myself, I'll sell off the remaining babies either as pets or feed.