# Best breed of rabbits to raise



## TreeMUPKennel

What are the best breeds for raisen for eatn. What types are yall yousn. Some helpful info. Thanks


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## 1969cj-5

Flemish are some of the biggest. We raise Flemish Cross.


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## cybergranny

We cross California White and New Zealand.


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## *Andi

Californian or New Zealand are both nice meat rabbits. We added a rex buck last time to add color to the furs, which he did.


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## jjwilson72000

Californian and New Zealand are the standard meat breeds. There is a mini-breed that the guy from the book "Storeys guide to raising rabbits" breeds that I don't recall right now, but it sounded perfect for a urban rabbit raiser. They eat less and dress out well for their size.


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## Vertigo

1969cj-5 said:


> Flemish are some of the biggest. We raise Flemish Cross.


@1969cj-5: Have you raised this breed yourself? Any tips or info you have on this breed?

We are going to be raising rabbits for the first time this year and will probably get this breed as it is the most common breed here (it being flanders here  )

thanks in advance!

V.


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## 1969cj-5

Vertigo said:


> @1969cj-5: Have you raised this breed yourself? Any tips or info you have on this breed?
> 
> We are going to be raising rabbits for the first time this year and will probably get this breed as it is the most common breed here (it being flanders here  )
> 
> thanks in advance!
> 
> V.


Our Flemish are crossed with New Zealand. They are very gentle. They will eat primarily green stuff you can cut in your yard and get along fine. We hardly ever feed them pellets. I cut and bale 20 acres of fescue and red clover hay and that is what I give them most of the year. They also get greens from the garden when they are in season.

Remember big rabbits mean big (size and quantity) rabbit poops. We are setting up a worm bed with our rabbit droppings to create an alternate food source for our chickens. We also have several compost beds that rotate into the garden for fertilizer.

This is a good website. http://myplace.frontier.com/~szabof/id7.html


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## jjwilson72000

I would suggest you cross them with something. Everything I have read says they are too large to be a good meat breed. As in the bones and organs are huge compared to the meat take.

From Storeys rabbit book: Flemish Giant, "Big eater and too boney; needs a very large hutch-in fact, requires a hutch much bigger than any available commercially.

And this is the breed that the author proposes for a meat breed. (Though I have never seen them available locally).

Florida White: A meat rabbit of small size that dresses out better than any other breed. It is basically a solid block of meat, with small ears, small feet and small bones. At 12 weeks you can get as much dressed, edible meat from a Florida White as you can from a rabbit twice as big at 8 weeks. Has large litters for a small breed; often used in crosses with larger rabbits to produce meat.


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## Vertigo

1969cj-5 said:


> Our Flemish are crossed with New Zealand. They are very gentle. They will eat primarily green stuff you can cut in your yard and get along fine. We hardly ever feed them pellets. I cut and bale 20 acres of fescue and red clover hay and that is what I give them most of the year. They also get greens from the garden when they are in season.
> 
> Remember big rabbits mean big (size and quantity) rabbit poops. We are setting up a worm bed with our rabbit droppings to create an alternate food source for our chickens. We also have several compost beds that rotate into the garden for fertilizer.
> 
> This is a good website. http://myplace.frontier.com/~szabof/id7.html


Thanks for the info 1969cj-5, this is good stuff!

V.


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## Judygranny

We used to raise New Zealand, California and Dutch, plus a few others along the way. We found the Dutch to be much better at feed conversion - more meat for the amount of feed required. We also liked the size at butchering, small can be better unless you have a large group to feed.
As for feeding from the garden, be careful not to feed gassy lettuce or cabbage family foods. Grasses and some legumes were fine. Root crops are generally good feed too. Start any new food gradually and in small amounts, then watch for a reaction.


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## *Andi

Also remember a large rabbit like the Flemish Giant needs a wood floor not a wire one ... or ours did anyway.


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## 1969cj-5

*Andi said:


> Also remember a large rabbit like the Flemish Giant needs a wood floor not a wire one ... or ours did anyway.


Mine live in an improved dog run with a cement floor.


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## Magus

Free rabbit food[sort of]

Sow an area 10'X30' long with wheat grass and alfalfa.

Construct your hutch approximately 10'X 3' and use a wide mesh for the bottom of the hutch and make it strong so it can be drug or put low wheels on it.

Push it over the free grass daily.by the time it reaches the end the second crop will be up.


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## Doubletap

I have New Zealand Reds, Champagne D'Argents (One of the best but rare) and Californians. There all good but if your looking to make a little bit on the side to cover the costs, don't bother with the Californians. Champagne D'Argents have more meat in the hinds than most other rabbits, but there hard to find. New Zealands make good moms.


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## OHprepper

i had about 20 checkered giants at one time. they took up a lot of space, and their temperment was awful. but they were pretty good eatin.


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## DirtyHarry

I have raised a lot of rabbits. I don't think anything can beat the New Zealand Whites if you buy good breeding stock. I have been developing a line for years now. Mine usually have litters of 8 to 10. I ween them at 6 weeks and by 8 weeks they will weigh 5 to 5 1/2 pounds, ready to butcher. These rabbits thrive on 1 cup of food per day. I use all wire cages so the manure drops right through. There is no better fertilizer than rabbit manure. If you are going to use it in your garden I would recommend not feeding them grass or hay as this will put the seeds in your garden. I also think they do better on pellets. There is a big difference in the quality of the meat between rabbit breeds just like there is between chicken breeds. We do so many things with the meat. In addition to grilling, frying, and slow cooking, we can it, grind it for burger, make jerky, etc.


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## HillbillyPrep

We raised some Giants for about six years and I loved them. Lots of meat and they threw big litters. They eat a lot but we fed them a mix of grass, hay, rabbit feed and apples. We used the droppings for compost. 
Never had problems with their temperment, a couple of them wasn't too bright but were tasty.
We used wire floors but we braced them a lot. We butchered all of them last fall to take a break over the winter and now I'm about to get a couple more.

Heres ol Grandpaw


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## HillbillyPrep

Here's The Sisters


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## LeSellers

*There's only one:*

I raise Florida Whites. They look exactly like New Zealands, except for the size. They're smaller than New Zealands (about 65% the size), but dress out at about 85% the edible weight. Just right for two people for two meals if you don't need a quarter-pounder every meal, or two people for one meal if you really like meat.

They mature faster than either, too, so they eat less before you can slaughter or mate them. This means a better "feed-to-food" ratio.

They can handle a smaller hutch and kindling box, so there's less cost in housing them.

White fur means good pelts (for those interested in that).

And they're cute, so the grandchildren love to pet them.

Ours have good-sized litters, although there are occasional small numbers in the nest. I haven't seen any significant disease issues, not even ear mites (our New Zealands and Californias had 'em bad in times past).


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## jjwilson72000

I am very interested in trying Florida Whites, but I cannot find anywhere to get a breeding pair.


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## LeSellers

jjwilson72000 said:


> I am very interested in trying Florida Whites, but I cannot find anywhere to get a breeding pair.


It took me a while, too.

Where are you? That makes a difference.

I'm in north-central Colorado. I got mine from a breeder a couple of hundred miles away.


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## tseymour81

Anyone know of anywhere in the upstate SC area to get a good breeding pair? Also is it necessary to have two pairs to prevent inbreeding. Any help would be great as I am just starting the research process to raise them for meat and furs.thanks.


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## LeSellers

tseymour81 said:


> Anyone know of anywhere in the upstate SC area to get a good breeding pair? Also is it necessary to have two pairs to prevent inbreeding. Any help would be great as I am just starting the research process to raise them for meat and furs.thanks.


If you're only concernedabout fur and meat, inbreeding is not a problem.

It takes several generations to have any effect, and not all results from inbreeding are "problems" anyway. If it ever does become an issue, you cann buy a new buck to service your does and te problem goes away. At up to fkfty bucks a head, buying two bucks and two does is just not a good investment.

If, however, you are planning on selling breeders or showing them, you should get at least two bucks and four or five does to start out with (althoigh you can spread that out over several months if money's a bit tight). You might even want to get an additional buck (to replace the current herd sire) every fifteen-to-eighteen months.

I'm only in it for the meat (and an occasional pelt for a gift) , so I have no concerns about inbreeding at this point. As I hinted, if it does reach the problem level, I'll just replace my buck and even the breeding does, too. Let the pursists bear the costs of maintaining the blood lines. I'm 'way too cheap to care.


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## mdprepper

LeSellers said:


> If you're only concernedabout fur and meat, inbreeding is not a problem.
> 
> It takes several generations to have any effect, and not all results from inbreeding are "problems" anyway. If it ever does become an issue, you cann buy a new buck to service your does and te problem goes away. At up to fkfty bucks a head, buying two bucks and two does is just not a good investment.
> 
> If, however, you are planning on selling breeders or showing them, you should get at least two bucks and four or five does to start out with (althoigh you can spread that out over several months if money's a bit tight). You might even want to get an additional buck (to replace the current herd sire) every fifteen-to-eighteen months.
> 
> I'm only in it for the meat (and an occasional pelt for a gift) , so I have no concerns about inbreeding at this point. As I hinted, if it does reach the problem level, I'll just replace my buck and even the breeding does, too. Let the pursists bear the costs of maintaining the blood lines. I'm 'way too cheap to care.


Thank you for that answer.

I was just talking to Hubby yesterday about adding rabbits when we move and I was worried about ending up with two headed bunnies  if I couldn't remember who sired who! His answer was that we could make money off of showing the two headed bunny (left head would be named Dudley and right head would be named Do-Right :ignore: :lolsmash: ).


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## tseymour81

Thank you for your answer it helps greatly


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## jjwilson72000

LeSellers said:


> It took me a while, too.
> 
> Where are you? That makes a difference.
> 
> I'm in north-central Colorado. I got mine from a breeder a couple of hundred miles away.


Northern Illinois. I scan craigslist pretty regularly and never see them. I drove 300 miles to get the kind of Muscovy's I wanted. Would definetely travel for the florida whites.

On the inbreeding issue, unless you are going to show them it won't make any difference. And if you are showing them you need to get pedigreed with papers and all that jazz. Way too much time and money unless that's your thing. I don't think any of us here are concerned with that. Even if you get a generation that are mentally defective, they still taste the same.


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