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Our Rabbitry: Why I Love Raising Rabbits For Meat

May 19, 2015 - 55 Comments

I love raising rabbits for meat. That's right, Ladies and gentlemen, we're back in the rabbit business! Lord have mercy! Hallelujah! Can you hear angels singing? Can you see the rainbows shooting across the sky? Is it currently raining gumdrops and lollipops where you are? … and is it just me, or do I smell fresh bread coming from the oven?

Yes. Being back in the rabbit business is that good. Gooder than angels, rainbows, gumdrops, and fresh bread.

And yes. Gooder is a word. I looked it up.

… okay fine, that was a lie. It's not a word. But let's not focus on the small details, people.

The point is simply this: We're back at it! And our rabbitry is once again in full swing. 

After leaving Alabama two years ago, we had to part with our wonderful rabbits that provided us with meat. That was a rough one for me. I loved my rabbits and told them so by picking them fresh weeds from our neighborhood each morning with my (then much smaller) children. As much as I begged Stuart to somehow bring all 15 of them back with him in the van he was about to drive 2,700 miles back to Washington, we ultimately had to leave them behind in ‘Bama. And since then, I've been eager to get my rabbitry back up and running. Even though it can be emotionally difficult to butcher rabbits, or any animal for that matter, the wonderful meat, compost, and fur is worth the effort. 

 

Raising Rabbits for Meat: Our breeding buck | The Elliott Homestead

Why I Love Raising Rabbits For Meat

1. They fatten on grass.

Grass, people. Sustainable. Easy to grow. Easy to store. Inexpensive. In fact, most of the year, they can just be fed on weeds I pull up from the garden, a variety of old leaves and such from the garden, and wildflowers. No grain. No alfalfa pellets. No money.

Raising Rabbits for Meat: Kits fattening for harvest | The Elliott Homestead

 

2. They produce rapidly.

They breed… like… ya know, rabbits. Remember the rabbit mamba? It's a productive dance, my friends. Rabbits have around a 31 day gestation, which is incredible considering they can produce anywhere from 1-15 (or more!) kits from each pregnancy. And when you've waited patiently for five months to welcome a new sheep into your herd, only to have that same lamb die a few days later, the 31 gestation starts to sound pretty dang sweet.

Let's not even talk about Calf Watch 2015 that is currently underway (… that story began almost 10 months ago). Many farm pregnancies last for awhile. Rabbits' pregnancies are not one of those.

Raising Rabbits for Meat: Raising Kits for Harvest | The Elliott Homestead

 

3. The meat is wonderful.

Rabbit meat is incredibly lean and is a great combination to raise alongside pork. Pork is fatty and when you harvest your own pigs, it leaves you with a variety of fats (some in the form of bacon!) that are wonderful to pair with rabbit. Leaf fat, lard, caul fat, pork belly, etc. are all wonderful contributors to a rabbit feast. Rabbits are great roasted, baked, fried, braised, and boiled. Because rabbit is so lean, it does well with some fat added in whatever form that may be.

Butter, anyone?

Don't tell me you don't like rabbit. Just don't. Because chances are you haven't had it. And if you have, then it's time to try it again. Because while it doesn't taste exactly like chicken, it is a very comparable meat and is much more sustainable for the small homestead. I love our meat chickens and will continue to raise them (if only for their feet!), but rabbits are a great way to temper our chicken eating. Watch out chickens. There's a new white(ish) meat in town.

Raising Rabbits for Meat | The Elliott Homestead

 

The Setup

We currently have one buck. Named “The Buck”. And two does named “The Does”. Creative, I know. But I keep naming animals and then they die, so I've given up. From now on, we're sticking with purely biological names. “Big doe” or “Spotty doe” are as creative as I'm going to get.

Our rabbit run is still in the works (hello, flower boxes), but besides the basic waterers and feeders, it's finally complete.

The 16×8′ area is fenced off with picket fencing. A rabbit-gauge metal fencing lines the inside to keep them from squeezing through the pickets. The does are theoretically supposed to be separated into the different pens within the rabbit pen, but have since figured out how to climb through said rabbit fencing (who designed this stuff?!) and a bit of mending is in order. I'm not too worried about it at the moment, as they're all happily living as a community amongst themselves. Lil' ol' rabbit community. How precious.

…until we take the little ones and butcher them for supper. But again, let's just not focus on the small details, yes?

…and speaking of rabbits, it's actually time for me to head out and encourage a little love-date for the buck and a doe. Now that her kits are weaned, it's time for more littles! 

Sustainable. Quiet. Easy. Prolific. Delicious.

I love rabbits.

Why I love raising meat rabbits | The Elliott Homestead

Other posts of mine on raising meat rabbits:

  • Feeding the Rabbits
  • Naturally Feeding the Rabbits
  • Rabbit Breeding Schedule
  • Harvesting the Rabbits
  • How to Butcher a Rabbit (video)

Why I Love Raising Meat Rabbits (and a peek at our rabbitry) | The Elliott Homestead

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Comments:

  1. Grant Garber

    May 19, 2015 at 12:54 pm

    What do you use for recipes? We tried cooking rabbit, but couldn’t see the benefit compared with the ease of chicken.

    Reply
    • Shaye Elliott

      June 6, 2015 at 10:21 pm

      They are very comparable.

      Reply
    • Ivy

      August 26, 2015 at 3:04 pm

      Just use a lower heat and plenty of oil as not to dry ’em out.

      Reply
    • simone

      February 21, 2016 at 7:14 pm

      Oh love cooking rabbit. I can be like Bubba and talk all day about it. Lol. I will be covering rabbit meat specific recipes in my new blog. http://www.farmskitchen.WordPress
      The Elliot Homestead has been my daily reading. Shaye is awesome at what she does!

      Reply
  2. Jen @ The Easy Homestead

    May 19, 2015 at 2:11 pm

    This post is in perfect timing! We have been considering adding rabbits to our farm but didn’t know the logistics. One question: how old are they when they are butchered?

    Reply
    • Ed

      May 24, 2015 at 12:27 pm

      Depending on the breed rabbit’s can be butchered at 8 to 12 weeks of age. Good records and weighing live and slaughtered carcass will tell you the best time for your particular breed of rabbit. Best Wishes ! ! !

      Reply
    • Micah Wotring

      May 27, 2015 at 10:58 am

      2 months after their born and you wean them 2 more and you butcher.

      Reply
  3. April @ April Tells All

    May 19, 2015 at 2:25 pm

    I’ve been waiting for this post since you posted on Instagram that you had rabbits again. I’ve been (not so) patiently waiting for our meat rabbits to join us, but alas they keep getting pushed to the back burner as far as animal purchases go. For now I’m living vicariously through you, and pinning too many rabbit hutch/run ideas.

    Reply
    • Shaye Elliott

      June 6, 2015 at 10:21 pm

      We have a few projects like that too that just get pushed to the back!

      Reply
  4. joanna

    May 19, 2015 at 3:47 pm

    How many pounds of meat per rabbit? We want meat on our homestead (right now we only have veggies, fruits, and laying chickens…) we want pigs, because they sounds “easy” but rabbits sounds “easy” too, is this true?

    Reply
    • Shaye Elliott

      June 6, 2015 at 10:20 pm

      Yes, they are! I like that pigs give you such a bigger harvest. But I love that rabbits are small and easy and if something happens it’s not such a huge loss. How can one choose?!

      Reply
  5. Ally | A Home Called Shalom

    May 19, 2015 at 3:53 pm

    I just… I feel like I’m too much of a tender heart. I gotta get farm tough!

    And also- rabbit recipes? Got any?

    Reply
    • Ally | A Home Called Shalom

      May 19, 2015 at 4:06 pm

      Oh, and- what do you do with the fur? (Sell it? And where?)

      Reply
      • Shaye Elliott

        June 6, 2015 at 10:20 pm

        That’s a goal!

        Reply
  6. Loren

    May 20, 2015 at 6:32 am

    i live in the burbs, but my husband and I are starting to put a plan together to start a farmette out in the country. For now I grow veggies and we thought rabbit might be a good way to start raising some meat on our small lot. I would love to see pictures of your rabbit enclosure. I’m not keen on those little rabbit cages and your setup sounds nice. The other thing I was curious about is how much of your food are you able to raise. What things do you still buy at the grocery store?

    Reply
  7. Life With The Crew

    May 20, 2015 at 12:30 pm

    I’ve kept several pet rabbits and currently have a free range house rabbit. We bought him with the intention of breeding rabbits for dog food (with 6 dogs, we spend a lot on food), but being the soft-hearted vegetarians that we are, 5 years later he is still with us.

    Reply
    • S Pengelly

      March 3, 2016 at 6:58 pm

      Well done. I keep free range rabbits too….. they are part of the family.
      Couldn’t imagine eating them any more than eating the dogs.

      Reply
  8. Monica

    May 20, 2015 at 9:33 pm

    I’m also interested in what you do with the fur. Our first litter is (we hope) due in 11 days. (I wish I had known about your mating video beforehand!) I guess I have romantic visions of soft rabbit fur mittens and whatnot, but don’t want to use a bunch of toxic chemicals to preserve the hide. I am just beginning to explore but since you mentioned the fur as part of the plusses of rabbits, thought I’d ask you.

    Reply
    • Shaye Elliott

      June 6, 2015 at 10:17 pm

      We did our sheep’s hide with salt which was great. We haven’t done our rabbits yet but I’ll report on it when we do!

      Reply
    • Walt

      March 2, 2018 at 9:18 am

      I’ve tanned rabbit and squirrel hides many times a few raccoons and a couple groundhogs. The groundhogs were probably the nastiest because of the Grease. It’s very simple you clean the flesh side down to the just skin and then Alum and salt. Roll them up flesh side in and it takes a few days to a week and a half when it’s white all the way through you’re done give it some oil and stretched a little bit to make it limber.

      Reply
  9. Sam

    May 21, 2015 at 4:30 am

    Love rabbit, it’s probably my favourite meat. I’d love to keep meat rabbits but we have fields (and often a garden!) full of wild ones! Do you think there is a big difference between wild rabbit meat and raised rabbit? Would you still raise them yourself if you could get as much wild rabbit as you wanted?

    Reply
    • Shaye Elliott

      June 6, 2015 at 10:14 pm

      I’d love to hunt them like Hugh from River Cottage, but alas, no wild rabbits here 🙂

      Reply
    • Leslie

      November 13, 2016 at 12:48 pm

      No. They carry diseases. Unless you know they do not have any. But I recently had a friend who did this just to help lower the numbers he had and got sick because they were carriers of something. (Sorry I forgot what it was called) he was in the hospital for a week. We then found out he wasn’t the only one, and it wss in multiple states. I find it better to just raise your own and know what your eating.

      Reply
      • Howard

        January 22, 2018 at 7:22 pm

        No. I’ve hunted and eaten wild rabbit for 30 years.

        Every states fish and game will have a listing for what’s safe to eat and what’s not.

        Wild rabbit is fine.

        Reply
        • Amy

          September 22, 2018 at 8:32 pm

          Where do you hunt? I offered a friend in Arizona an opportunity to help shrink the rabbit population on her property – I have four dogs. They would have been happy to have the catch.
          She and her son both told me that the local cotton tails were carriers of a disease, and therefore offering the meat to the dogs would be a bad idea.

          Amy

          Reply
  10. Leslie

    May 24, 2015 at 3:38 pm

    Shaye, want to know your thoughts on rabbit breeds for meat and what you guys think/have. Funny thing…I paid for my Californian rabbits yet my best meat bunny produceping mama happens to be a free Craigslister, my mini lop! That’s some craziness right there 😉 love your posts!

    Reply
    • Shaye Elliott

      June 6, 2015 at 10:09 pm

      Right now we have Chinchilla rabbits and some sort of weird Rex cross? Haha.

      Reply
      • Heather

        July 17, 2015 at 10:33 pm

        I call ours meat mutts!

        Reply
  11. Karen

    May 24, 2015 at 10:10 pm

    WHATEVER YOU DO – DON’T NAME THEM! I knew each one by name even in the freezer!

    Reply
  12. Danae

    May 25, 2015 at 9:18 am

    This is so exciting! I will definitely be following this venture. We are city-living at the moment, with our backyard mostly garden, and dreams/plans of having land (hopefully in the very near future!). We’re ready to take the leap whenever our Good Lord shows us the right place. But while the hubs only desires to do large-scale garden and run cattle, my goals for the family is sheep or goats, chickens, ducks, rabbits, etc etc! I want a full range of learning experiences for our kids…and I love animals and the life process (sad as it may be in the end) so it’s a win win. However, I’ve only raised rabbits as pets and don’t have much experience on the meat side. I look forward to more on your operation. 🙂

    Reply
  13. Carol

    May 25, 2015 at 1:02 pm

    Been raising rabbits for over a year. I love it, but it’s a learning process. Like, timing of breeding – had 26 kits born in a 24 hour period by 3 does last year, & all survived and thrived. Learned not to breed brothers/sisters offspring. Does have no maternal instincts and lost 18 kits recently, still grieving that loss and the brutality. Sent does to freezer. Two new does and one delivered 8 kits last Friday. Most protective mother ever! Love the babies. And my garden is growing madly from their rich poop.

    Reply
    • Shaye Elliott

      June 6, 2015 at 10:08 pm

      Such goes life on the farm… so much to learn!

      Reply
  14. Danielle Brown

    May 26, 2015 at 1:19 am

    Have you made sausage with rabbit and pork? It sounds like you have from the post. That’s the next step in my rabbit raising. I’ll have to buy my pork fat, but raising rabbits is so fun and easy (in comparison to all of the other animals I’ve raised in my life), plus, when you raise pure New Zealand Reds, you can replace “Pickles” the pet three times and daughter doesn’t even notice. Any information or links that you can recommend for rabbit/pork sausage would be greatly appreciated.

    Reply
    • Shaye Elliott

      June 6, 2015 at 10:06 pm

      I haven’t but that would be fun! You’d definitely need pork fat for sure, but other than that, I don’t see why it wouldn’t work!

      Reply
  15. Dorie

    May 27, 2015 at 2:19 pm

    We had rabbits for a few years. Very easy keepers but alas was not a fan of the taste.

    Reply
  16. Becca

    June 4, 2015 at 10:29 pm

    This is a great post! I’m a little confused though, at how old do they start reproducing? I really know nothing about rabbits (obviously), but it seems that if you keep the buck separated so that you can schedule when breeding goes on, what happens when the momma rabbit has boys and girls. Do they take several months to reproduce and you butcher them before they get that mature? In my small mind I just see hundreds and hundreds of bouncing fluff balls reproducing madly every month….

    Reply
    • Shaye Elliott

      June 6, 2015 at 9:50 pm

      Yes, they are butchered before they can sexually reproduce!

      Reply
  17. Stacey

    July 3, 2015 at 11:57 am

    Do you move them to fresh grass? Is there a bottom to your area? Do they dig out? I ask bc our meat rabbits are in wire cages off the ground. We pick grass and give it to them but I would love to get them down on the grass. Just worried about them digging out.

    Reply
    • Shaye Elliott

      July 6, 2015 at 12:47 pm

      We don’t have a system for that yet… I’m working on establishing a fodder system for them. We have wire along the bottom of the run because THEY WILL dig out.

      Reply
  18. TJ

    July 7, 2015 at 2:11 am

    Do you have to keep them cool?

    Reply
  19. Jaime

    July 9, 2015 at 8:08 am

    I absolutely love your blog! I’ve been looking for others who raise rabbits for meat and after reading a few posts, this is one of my most favorite blogs now! Can’t wait to see what comes next, keep up the amazing work 🙂

    Reply
  20. Mark

    February 9, 2016 at 6:50 pm

    Came across your blog searching “Homesteading Rabbits”. We live in a small town in Indiana and just started our own rabbitry. I appreciate your thorough posts (I clicked through on several links). I think I’ll keep tabs on what you’re posting as I feel I may learn some things. Thanks again!

    Reply
  21. Anajú

    March 28, 2016 at 7:00 pm

    I love rabbits. I’ve been trying to breed them for a year, but I’m having a horrible luck. I’ve read most of your blog and you always say that chickens are stupid, but girl, my rabbits are the worst! One got intoxicated with Aloe, other got stuck in a block and just died, at least two escaped from the run and got eaten by the dog. And now another escaped, and the dog was nice enough to not eat it. But I’m a slow person, too tired from a day of work, the man of the house is playing soccer and I’ve been chasing that little monster for two hours now and just want to sit and cry. Thought you will understand. This is so hard and I haven’t even eaten one rabbit. I totally get why people don’t do this and just go to the market.

    Reply
  22. beverly

    April 1, 2016 at 7:22 pm

    I,m in Australia, have breed rabbits. but now where I live, if I go away, I have no one reliable to look after them.
    so relucently I don.t breed any more.
    I used any chicken recipe, when I cooked them; apricot rabbit, rabbit rissoles but add chopped bacon as rabbit hasn,t much fat,
    crumbed, steam pieces or pressure cook then crumb& fry. bake whole with stuffing, fresh breadcrumbs+egg+ onion+mixed herbs. can also add dried chopped apricot. (no water as egg binds).
    they are very easy to care for, & can inoculate against mixo(not in aust though) & calicie virus.they are killers in Australia.
    foxes are also a problem in aust. I manager a rabbit farm years ago, foxes got into shed over night & pulled their legs through the cages, plus they died of fright.heart breaking !!

    Reply
  23. Miranda Hupp

    April 3, 2016 at 2:58 pm

    First….I came across your blog recently and I love it!

    We ventured in to raising rabbits last year. We spent way too much money getting started but we really enjoyed it. When it was time for butchering we were a little freaked out because most of the rabbits had white spots on their livers. We ended up getting rid of it all. I want to start over this year. Did you ever deal with that? I read that it was fine to eat the rabbit just not the liver but eh…just seemed weird.

    Reply
    • Shaye Elliott

      April 26, 2016 at 11:32 pm

      Join the Backyard Meat Rabbits group on Facebook – tons of people there with much more experience than me who can offer some words of wisdom!

      Reply
  24. Donna

    March 29, 2017 at 11:53 am

    Shaye, I love your sense of humor!

    We’ve been raising meat rabbits for about 3 year. A personal favorite is “Rabbit Wings”. Prepared just like honey BBQ chicken wings. We save the front legs just for this treat. A second amazing way is in the instant pot. Just some seasoning and water. Just be sure to let the pressure decrease on it’s own the meat will fall off of the bone. Talk about gelatin broth!!!

    Reply
  25. Yvonne

    April 29, 2017 at 10:02 pm

    We love raising meat rabbits too!! I got a good chuckle out of your “creative names”, we let our daughter name our the first brood; the girls are Sweet-Sweet and Jump-Jump, our boy is Bun-Bun. We are still working on the best cage set up for ours, it has changed over time to allow for easy cleaning and the best protection from the climate. So many people just can’t believe that we raise rabbits to eat. Yes, they are hard to process but like you said so is any animal. If it wasn’t difficult to do I do not think there would be as much appreciation towards the animal for what it gives us. We are proud homesteaders, we love our way of life and hope grow and continue onward.

    Reply
  26. Diane

    July 17, 2017 at 7:02 pm

    We are new to homesteading and rabbits. My initial thoughts was to raise my bunnies in a community. I purchased 2 does (bred just before I obtained them) and a buck. Both does kindled June 26 and since it is a community I suspect they bred again. I have since moved out my buck to a batchelor pad 12 of my 14 kits perished over the past 3 weeks (some with mucous enteritis- some separated from the nest and must have gotten cold and 3 just plain vanished. ). My question is what do I do with the 4 week old bunnies when the doe kindles again ? How do I know if they are weaned? I am working on separate homes adjacent to each other because communally I felt out of control. Please help

    Reply
  27. Noel

    July 23, 2018 at 8:39 pm

    You say you don’t use pellets for your rabbits, just grasses, weeds, kitchen scraps and hay. Do you find your rabbits grow well without pellets? Do you still offer some pellets? I’d love to raise completely pastured rabbits, but I’ve never heard of anyone raising them without some pellets.

    Reply
  28. Brett

    October 20, 2018 at 8:56 pm

    Hey nice blog… considering raising meat rabbits but sounds easier than it is. I guess what isn’t. I have recently viewed documentary on farm raised salmon. The toxicity apparently comes from the protein in the pellets. Did you ever read content list on rabbit pellets or dog food labels. Evidently they spray a pesticide into the protein blend [which consists of emulsified fish carcasses after the fillets are remove of which includes fins, head, etc and fish can be raised in unclean H20]. This pesticide is banned in many countries….. This is why I liked your idea of a no pellet diet as whatever your animal is eating….. you are eating!

    Reply
  29. Npbabe

    May 22, 2019 at 11:44 pm

    No thanks! Chicken, beef and fish for me only.

    Reply
  30. Christina Stone

    April 15, 2020 at 9:03 am

    My husband tells me he heard that rabbits will be too skittish to mate if they are around barking dogs. Our dog does bark more then we like, but isn’t a constant barker. She isn’t very aggressive at all. With the grocery stores lately and all, I’m thinking to have our own meat source would be a good thing. Do you think a dog would put off rabbits from mating?

    Reply
  31. shawn

    March 2, 2022 at 3:43 pm

    I agree rabbits can be appealing as food, I agree how cheap and easy they are to raise and store. They are cute, amazing, and harmless but there’s ONE problem.
    What stops me is that rabbits cross the line into pet territory.
    I’ve only eaten it once so I obviously avoid it. Not saying it doesn’t taste good, but it’s also quite similar to chicken.
    I could never dispatch, skin, gut or process one. I wouldn’t want it on my conscience.
    Only if I had to for survival, even then I would feel bad. Please kill these peaceful creatures painlessly, and don’t kill them too young, give them a chance to live life.

    Reply
    • shawn

      March 2, 2022 at 3:46 pm

      The one time I ate rabbit meat: It was purchased by a family member, not myself.
      I was simply curious. I later advised them to not purchase it again.
      Rabbits are too cute to be food.

      Reply

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