Depending on the dressed size, one rabbit can easily feed a family of four. An acquaintance of mine who enjoys raising meat rabbits prefers the live weight of his butchers to be 3 to 2-1/2 pounds. Personally, I like to let my growers get up to around 4-1/2 pounds.
How many to start? In most cases, start with an unrelated pair (buck & doe) or trio (buck & 2 does). Raise a few litters successfully before growing your herd. If you rebreed 6-8 weeks postpartum, one pair can produce about 30 fryer rabbits or 90 pounds of meat a year, which is plenty for 2-3 people.
If you are raising rabbits for meat or sale and have a very high demand you can keep the bucks & does together full time. One buck can easily cover 10-15 does. If you have too many bucks, they could fight more often and overbreed the does.
Whether your homestead is in the city or the country, meat rabbits can help you feed your family with lean, nutritious meat. Rabbits breed and grow so quickly that one pair of healthy does (females) can produce more than 600 pounds of meat in a year.
Rabbits are generally sold whole and usually weigh just under three pounds, dressed. One rabbit will feed four to six people.
In about 12 weeks you'll have a large quantity of healthy, lean meat to feed yourself and your family. A trio of rabbits can produce upwards of 600 pounds of meat in a year which is more than a dressed one year old steer. That's pretty impressive.
A four-pound animal produces about two pounds of meat. Rabbit really tastes something like chicken, and it even gets cut into eight pieces like a frying chicken. However, the bones are smaller and the meat is all white. What will this lean, home-raised meat cost?
Although companion rabbits are capable of living 10 to 15 years, the vast majority of “meat” rabbits are killed at three months of age. Referred to as “fryers,” these baby rabbits weigh only 1.5 – 3.5 pounds. A small percentage are slaughtered at 8 months old or 4 pounds; they are known in the industry as “roasters.”
Once the kits (baby rabbits) reach 10 to 12 weeks of age they are ready for butchering. After 10 to 12 weeks of age, the feed to meat conversion ratio increases, and it becomes less economical to continue growing them. Also the older the rabbit gets the tougher the meat becomes.
The American demand is low, so there's not much supply. With low supply, the cost can go up since there are few alternative sources to buy from and an inefficient supply system.
Can a Human Survive on Rabbit Meat? Humans can survive for a short period—like a few days to weeks—on only rabbit meat. However, if they are limited to only consuming rabbit meat because of food scarcity for a prolonged period and cannot consume any fat or carbs with it, they will likely die after some time.
You breed about every 90 days. Gestation only takes 30 to 32 days. The young nurse for five or six weeks, learning to eat as they go along. At six or seven weeks you put the young fryers in another hutch or two and eat them between then and ten or twelve weeks.
New Zealands
This breed is available in many colors and are the most popular meat rabbit breed to raise. The NZ rabbit weighs between 9 to 12 pounds and matures quickly. Butchering time for New Zealand rabbits is as early as 8 weeks of age.
Rabbits generally don't need all that much space to live happy, healthy lives. If your rabbits have roughly 8 to 10 square feet of enclosed space matched with roughly 22 to 26 square feet of space to get some exercise, you'll have very little to worry about.
Feed your rabbits a small amount of good quality pellets or nuggets daily. Give them the right amount - measure 25g (an eggcup-full) of pellets per kg of your rabbit's body weight. For example, for a medium-sized rabbit (2kg), feed a maximum of two full egg cups.
You should gut furred small game as soon as possible. Especially rabbits and hares, because there's something about their innards that allows them to sour very quickly. In warm weather, it only takes an hour or so for the thin abdominal muscles to start turning greenish blue.
Rabbits are typically slaughtered as fryers at 5 pounds (about 10 weeks of age). Often considered a delicacy, rabbit meat is white, fine grained, and delicately flavored. It also is high in protein and low in fat, cholesterol, sodium, and calories.
7. Quick to Reach Harvest Date. Rabbits can be harvested as early as 8 weeks of age, though many prefer to harvest them around 4 to 5 pounds. I prefer to harvest between 8 to 12 weeks, but no later than 12 weeks of age as the meat begins getting tough.
A typical range is 3 to 9 ounces of feed per animal per day. Smaller or mature (but not pregnant) animals will require lower amounts of feed than larger breeds, pregnant does, or growing rabbits.
Rabbits generally eat more at night than during the day. Weanling meat-type rabbits will eat about 4 to 6 ounces of food per day, depending on their size. As a general rule, a New Zealand doe and her litter will eat about 100 pounds of feed from breeding to weaning.
According to Stats of 2021, 572 Million Rabbits were Killed for Meat (FAO)
Rabbit is a lean protein, which means that it's good for your heart and won't contribute to high cholesterol or heart disease. Cons. The downsides of eating rabbit meat are mostly psychological. You may balk at the idea of eating a petlike animal even if you've never kept a rabbit as a pet.
As discussed earlier, a major disadvantage of rabbits for industrial production is their inability to be successfully raised on high-energy, low-fiber diets. Some improvements in this ability might be possible.
3.1 The disadvantages of keeping rabbits
They need to be protected from these by fences and other barriers. Large numbers of rabbits require a lot of labour, particularly if they are kept in individual hutches. Each hutch has to be cleaned out daily. Each rabbit needs to be fed and watered two times daily.