Livestock Rabbit Breeds Decision?

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I'm going to look at some rabbits in a couple of days, with the intention of buying two breeding pairs (they are on Craigslist, but lots of pictures, and the cages look clean and the rabbits appear to all be healthy and good quality). She has three different breeds that I'm undecided between, as I haven't had any of them before. (Actually, she also has Giant Chinchillas and some Flemish Giant crosses, but I don't want those -- too big, grow too slowly, and don't have the best meat-to-bone ratios.) She's got Rex's, Chinchillas (American, I think, though I would consider the smaller Standard Chins), and Californians. I have experience with Satins and Checkered Giants, New Zealand Whites, Silver Fox's, and lots of mutt rabbits (in my experience, you are better off with purebreds when it comes to rabbits, unless you have lots of room, can raise lots of animals, and do a lot of culling until you get what you want). But I've never had the breeds she's got.

Initially, I was inclined towards the Chinchillas. I think they are pretty, they are good meat rabbits, have a good reputation for mothering and for good temperament (I hate getting scratched every time I need to handle a rabbit), and are fairly fast to grow. Californians have good meat qualities, but can be similar to NZW's in temperament (high-strung). Rex's are a little bit smaller, maybe, which is not necessarily a bad thing for me -- easier to handle. I'm wondering if anyone knows whether the Rex coat might be an advantage in our climate (south-central KY, so hot and humid summers, winters can get somewhat cold). Any other thoughts on the different breeds?

Kathleen
 
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summerthyme

Administrator
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New Zealands or Californians are definitely going to be the most efficient in terms of feed/meat ratio. Just cull hard on disposition... I never had much trouble with our NZs, even with kids snd dogs running around the barn where they were kept.

I love the Rex fur... made mittens and slippers for the kids when they were little. I'm not sure they'd be any more heat tolerant than regular bunnies, though.

Summerthyme
 
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summerthyme said:
New Zealands or Californians are definitely going to be the most efficient in terms of feed/meat ratio. Just cull hard on disposition... I never had much trouble with our NZs, even with kids snd dogs running around the barn where they were kept.

I love the Rex fur... made mittens and slippers for the kids when they were little. I'm not sure they'd be any more heat tolerant than regular bunnies, though.

Summerthyme
Click to expand...

I just realized, one thing I should have mentioned is that I suspect -- don't know for a fact, but suspect -- that if we aren't able to buy rabbit pellets, the older, less efficient breeds might do better on what we could grow and forage around the property. If anyone has any actual experience, I'd like to hear about it.

The last NZW's I had were from a friend who showed her stock (she had two big barns full of rabbits and was very good at raising them). Of three does I bought from her, one broke it's neck whanging around in the cage during a thunderstorm. One had three successive litters on the wire, where they all died before I found them (it was winter). Made me a little leery of high-strung rabbits, and it's hard to cull for bad traits like that when you only have a handful of animals. I do plan to talk to the lady and see what she thinks of the temperament of her stock, though.

This is the Craigslist ad: Farm critters - rabbits, turkeys, peacocks(no hens) - farm & garden...

Kathleen
 
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mecoastie

Veteran Member
There are a number of good books about raising rabbits without pellets. One is "Beyond the pellet" and the other is a WW2 british book called Raising rabbits and chickens on scraps. Both are excellent. The first year we had our rabbits we fed them pretty hard on just stuff from the yard/woods etc. Daughter got a job last summer so we relied mostly on pellets and hay now. I have no doubt that I could easily provide 100% of our rabbits diet just foraging with little human food being used in the process.
 
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Displaced hillbilly

Veteran Member
I would love to hear what kind of rabbits ppl are raising. We just started with them last summer. We have a pair of silver Fox, two finish does and a buck (they are the sweetest), and a door that’sa mutt-we didn’t intend to keep her, but bred her this winter to our Flemish buck. She had five healthy babies as a first time mom and kept them all alive and well during our super cold winter. We most likely will keep her and breed her again soon. The kits are almost eight weeks old. The grow out to butcher time should be interesting. Will be breeding all does this weekend to put more meat in the freezer. If we can sell some, that would be great too.
 
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The rabbits I just got are only three months old, so it will be a while before I can be sure of their productiveness. The lady's stock looked good, litter sizes and mothering and growth rates all seemed good. But I won't know for sure until we start growing bunnies out in a few months.
 
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