Breeding rabbits.

[stephanbakir]

Hey guys.
My friends and I are unfortunate enough to be positioned far away from any fair priced rabbit breeders, there is only one within a 20 minute drive, and none of the main companies ship to Quebec.
Instead of paying 7-9 dollars a pound I was planning on breeding them instead. I started doing research and the idea I'm getting, is that you should never house a male with a female, and only place them together for breeding, and no rabbits should be housed together for that matter.

Does anyone have experience in this area?

[EvaS]

I raised rabbits for food for years.We housed them all separately.Females will fight each other.Sometimes if you get lucky you can house them together from babies.But Its not worth it if your breeding.New moms almost always lose the first litter.They either over clean and eat half.Or they have them all over the cage floor and trample them.But usually the second litter is a go.If I were breeding for snakes, I would get a New Zealand white doe and a Satin buck...They have some nice big meaty babies with that hybrid vigor.Dont bother with the giant breeds like Flemish.Mostly bone and eat like crazy.
Its expensive.They eat alot.The reason I quit is because of the heat here.It was just a pain to try and keep them all cool in summer.And I got bored with it.
Always put the female in the males cage.Never leave them alone for very long, females can get mean.Sometimes you have to hold the female down to get the job done, they dont always want to breed.Its always the funniest thing to see what the male does when he gets his job done.My fave male would roll his eyes and fall over sideways...LOL!!
Prepare to be scratched.I never mastered the art of taking an unwilling female out of a cage without getting a good scratch down my arm.But its always exciting when a litter is born.Baby bunnies are about the cutest things ever once they get the fur in.
We only had New Zealands and Satins.Pure NZW will have larger litters but the babies take longer to grow.So if you want lots of smaller buns get these.But the hybrids have around 8 babies and they grow bigger faster.

[EvaS]

Also if you get on Yahoo groups, they have a great meat rabbit forum that was a big help to me when I started out.
this the best board for asking questions and get answers.They wont flame you because your feeding your buns to snakes either.
Meatrabbits : My name is Kathleen Bacon and I am the owner of the Meat Rabbit list. Although I am not an expert on raising rabbits for meat, (http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/Meatrabbits/)

[stephanbakir]

Thanks a ton.

[Jenn_06]

cool i need to remember this post when i start breeding in about 6 months.

[EvaS]

I often thought I should get a giant snake just so I could feed some of the extra buns off.But I did feed alot to my dogs as well as us.But my two oldest sons moved out and I didnt want to kill the buns myself(Sissy)..My son would shoot them in the head.I know I should have learned to break the necks but I just couldnt bring myself to do it.
The funny thing is when he first started shooting them I couldnt watch but after awhile it didnt bother me.

[stephanbakir]

Shoot em, or get a snake that refuses to eat F/T? lol, easy way to make an excuse.

[Jenn_06]

you can always use CO2 to put them down.

[Lankyrob]

There is a thread on here from a guy that shot the prey for his snake and the snake died from lead poisoning, its quite easy to learn to break a rabbits neck in one swift movement that kills it instantly, no worries tehn about having to feed live, you could always just kill the rabbits as required and feed fresh killed.

[stephanbakir]

I'm fine hackin at them with machetes if its what needs to be done, I'm referring to EvaS who cant use methods for whatever reason, Co2, a gun or buying a snake that eats live is all that comes to mind.

[EvaS]

It would cost a bundle to CO2 rabbits.LOL...My son shot them in the head and we cut that off so no lead poisoning.As for hacking a moving target, thats inhumane.If you can somehow hold a half wild bunny still and manage to get in a killing blow it may work.But it could get really messy.Just dont miss and hit your own hand.Your better off with blunt force on the back of the head.
Buns dont always cooperate.My son missed more then once and had stomp on the buns head(fast and efficient but gross).Killing is just messy and nasty and even with the neck breaking from what Ive been told sometimes it doesnt work right away either.Killing isnt fun no matter what method you use.But the more animals you work with the more likely to make mistakes.
BTW buns will keep kicking even after they are dead.In fact we had some that still moved after being skinned and gutted, that is super creepy.

[stephanbakir]

I was referring to killing them in the wild, my cousins and i go camping with nothing more then a knife and a machete.

If i were to choose a method for killing the ones i was breeding, i would probably just break their necks.

[Snakefood]

I raise bunnies for both snake food and meat for our freezer. My hubby does the killing (I'm a quasi-sissy, will if I have to, but don't have to so I won't!) He says you grip them by the head and swing your arm down really fast like your flicking a thermometer or pen. He has yet to have one suffer at all since switching to this method, they die quick and clean with hardly a twitch.