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Last Login: 5/6/2012 2:29:15 PM
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A couple of magazines have devoted articles to meat rabbits lately and I've been intriqued by the amount of weight translating to meat you would get from a meat rabbit and am wondering if anyone has raised them=- is there a market for rabbit meat? Found a place online that sells rabbit and thought it was very expensive. Work involved - disease etc. any experience or thoughts would be appreciated.
Dawn Collyott The Olde Farmhouse 
http://www.collyottfarms.com http://www.collyottfarms.blogspot.com
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Last Login: 5/25/2011 11:43:42 AM
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| I have been reading a lot on raising meat rabbits too. I found a yahoo group, meat rabbits, if you are interested. I am planning on adding some in the fall to my homestead. I am in WI and have a contact that says he will buy all I can produce at $1/lb live weight. Others I hear are getting $1.15/lb and not able to make money that way... I see offers on craigslist for meat rabbits occasionally. If you are not a USDA inspected plant, one way to get around it is to sell live rabbits and a value of killing and cleaning the rabbits for them, but NOT as a part of the sale... I used to eat rabbit as a teen, as much as I could shoot in OK. Where are you at and maybe I can hook you with my guy if you are close?
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Last Login: 8/22/2011 8:45:58 PM
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| I would love to raise meat rabbits, but my sign other is highly against it....he had a pet rabbit as a kid. Growing up my family raised new zealand whites, the ones that we couldn't sell as pets/4-H projects, dad would butcher when they got to a certain size. It was pretty good meat. I know where I live there was someone looking for people to raise rabbits for him last year or two. They are pretty easy to raise. The only real health problem I remember dealing with as a child was ear mites. They eat rabbit pellets, hay/alfalfa, grass, fresh vegeis, lots of water, salt blocks. Depending on how you set them up, I bet you could put them in something like a chicken tractor and then they would have access to fresh grass regularly. And they reproduce....like rabbits.  If you have more questions, let me know.
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Last Login: 2/1/2012 2:01:24 PM
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| I co-raise Palomino and American Chinchilla rabbits for meat with my mother. They have a great feed conversion ratio and taste delicious! I typically cook rabbit meat the same as I do chicken - it tastes similar, but cooked properly it will taste a little more gamey, sort of like a pheasant. Check out some local shows - www.arba.net will give you all the valuable information you need to know.
Cait CWhite Oak Rabbitrywww.wix.com/cattlecait/whiteoakrabbitry
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Last Login: 1/14/2012 9:17:45 AM
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We might raise rabbits down the road, who knows. I don't think I could process them myself though and I know DH wouldn't be able to.
Another market depending on where you live is dog owners who feed raw, depending on the prices of that sort of thing where you live. I'd likely do the rabbits as dog food if I could find someone to do the dirty work.
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Starting Member
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Last Login: 5/6/2012 2:29:15 PM
Posts: 40,
Visits: 51
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