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Jeremy Barker

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Sep 24, 2018
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So first hi to all I'm new to raising rabbits mosty meat rabbits. And I have some questions as I'm new to this.
1 what are some good meat rabbits to raise
2 best foods and bedding for them
 
Well, most of that depends on what's available at your location and what your resources and preferences are.

If you don't have a special breed in mind I would contact local breeders, rabbits that lived in your area for generations are more likely adapted to the climate and food sorces than some fancy turbo breed from the other end of the continent, doesn't matter if purebred or mutts. It also helps to know fellow breeders when there's some shortage or specific questions (when sexing kits I always get a second opinion from one of the other two breeders in my road), and if your stock is from one of them quarantine proceedures when exchanging rabbits are somewhat less important since it is much less likely that they carry something that this rabbits can't deal with.

I feed mostly forage, some pellets as treats (there are only 2 brands easily available here, and one is tainted with antibiotics (pointless, since my local mutts have no problem with cocci whatsoever, and that antibiotic creats resistancies awfully fast - actually it's in there to make them grow faster...) - so not much choice for me), some oatmeal while the kits are small, in winter hay I made and from a local farm, apples, topinambur, willow branches and whatever the rabbits dig out in the snow (when I'm home they have free run of about 200m² garden . That is a very extensive way to raise them, and it takes 16-20 weeks, but they are healthy and It is cheap since most of the stuff I have myself. Also, mine are something between pets and livestock, my buck is my free range house bunny.

Bedding, well, that depends on what kind of setup you have in mind.
 
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If you have 4-H or FFA kids in the area you might check to see what breeds they raise for meat. Typically it’s New Zealand’s and Californians. That’s what my daughter had in FFA.
 
If the idea of a monster rabbit doesn't scare you and you have the time to tame down your breeding rabbits, I would highly recommend looking into Giant Chinchillas. The meat to waste ratio is better than even NZ-Cali crosses and the time difference in growing is negligible. You can have an 8 pound rabbit in under 3 months with Giant Chins, but they do eat about 50% more than the average meat cross. The only problem I had with Giant Chinchillas was trying to find one. I ended up driving 200 miles to get my rabbits but they are oh so worth it!
 
That is something to look into like I said I'm just starting out this is I'm raising meat rabbits to eat and also feed to my dog which is a German Shepherd she itches a lot so wrong should help with her itching
 

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