Rabbit Husbandry Tips

 

Meat Rabbit Husbandry Tips

The key to raising quality meat rabbits, especially for novices, is starting small. Invest in proven breeding stock and buy just one buck and one doe. Rabbits, as we all know, reproduce rapidly.

A beginning keeper simply won’t be able to adequately keep up with the daily health checks, feeding, and hutch cleaning necessary for multiple breeding pairs or groups from day one — at least not while producing illness-free animals that churn out satisfactory meat.

Once you truly learn the cornerstones of meat rabbit husbandry, then it is time to expand your colony and start butchering and preserving the meat for an SHTF event. The perfect meat rabbit colony ratio is one buck to two females. Such a setup should most likely produce up to 50 kits (baby rabbits) on an annual basis.

A small colony of rabbits, regardless of the meat breed, can produce more than 300 pounds of just female kits per year, creating a steady supply of future breeding does. A small rabbit colony, one that lives in only a humane 3-foot by 2-foot hutch, could ultimately produce around 960 pounds worth of kits each year.