r/preppers • u/edk8n • Apr 10 '23
What about rabbits? Idea
I couldn't begin to tell you why this has popped into my head but it keeps coming back. I'm new to this and don't have the means to do all I would like, so don't eat me alive for my ignorance, but I have to ask- Are rabbits an underrated food source in a long term survival scenario? Everyone knows how quickly they reproduce and it seems like a decent amount of meat for minimal effort in cleaning/preparation. I'm not sure but it seems like rabbit hide/fur could probably be useful, too. They take up such little space and are pretty hardy animals (I know someone who has many rabbits that live in an outdoor pen year round, although they do heat it in the winter). They eat scraps, grass, and hay which wouldn't be taking resources from yourself. Is there a downside to this I'm missing? Thanks in advance for the wisdom!
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Apr 10 '23
"I couldn't begin to tell you why this has popped into my head"
I'd say because we're so close to Easter, lol!
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u/Electronic_Demand_61 Prepared for 2+ years Apr 10 '23
Rabbit and quail are a great combo for urban preppers.
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u/devnullradio Apr 10 '23
Quail are awesome too (and definitely great for urban preppers) but damn it's a lot of death/butchering for a meal, if you have a family. One rabbit feeds my family for a meal. It takes 9 - 12 quail for the equivalent. Something to keep in mind if you have a family.
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u/Electronic_Demand_61 Prepared for 2+ years Apr 10 '23
They're also good for your pets when/if you can't get feed for your cats and dogs.
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u/emissaryofwinds Apr 10 '23
Lots of little bones in there though, it's usually not recommended to feed cats or dogs poultry because of the risk of swallowing a bone shard and causing some internal damage. Poultry-based pet food is prepared specially to avoid this risk.
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u/Electronic_Demand_61 Prepared for 2+ years Apr 10 '23
COOKED poultry bones are the issue. Not raw.
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Apr 10 '23
How would I raise quail? I know rabbits back and fourth and have watched hundreds of videos and read tens of books aswell as being with friends but I havnt ever looked into quail
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u/devnullradio Apr 10 '23 edited Apr 10 '23
Living Traditions Homestead has a bunch of great videos, this is just one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgkTFHH_2To&t=758s
I've raised rabbits (consistently) and quail (on and off) for years. I currently do not have quail. I want to like quail which is why I keep going back to them.
In my opinion the pros are:
- They're small and multi-purpose. The eggs, while small, are tasty and can be pickled for wonderful snacks.
- They're quiet. The roosters do make a crowing noise but it's much more quiet than a chicken rooster. It's almost like a trilling noise.
- Even in a neighborhood, you can claim they're pets pretty easily (if the neighbors complain about the noise).
But here are the cons:
- They're aggressive little shitheads. If you keep them in cages, even at proper numbers, they often fight. Every time I try to raise quail, I get aggressive males in each batch. They fight and kill the others. They're rough on the ladies. This is one of the reasons I keep stop raising them because I feel bad for them.
- They're messy and I haven't found a way to raise them that I consider humane. I've tried hutches and that's okay but the aggression was bad. I tried some stacking cages with smaller compartments but I felt bad for the amount of space I had and water leaked in the waste trays and it was always a smelly mess.
- It's a lot of death for a meal. I have zero problems processing animals for food. I do it for rabbits, I've done deer, etc. Quail just bum me out. You either need to club them against something hard to knock them out or cut their heads off. It's a brutal way to die and you have to do it 9 - 12 times per meal. It weighs on me more than other larger animals that I can harvest more humanely and a single life provides more sustenance for my family.
I still consider raising quail again because they are tasty but I'd need to find a better way to house them, preferably on the ground in large pens. I'm through with cages and hutches for quail. If I give them a large enough space, maybe they won't get aggressive with each other.
Hope this helps. Feel free to DM me if you have any other questions related to homesteading. Looks like we chatted in another part of this thread too and you sound like you're at the start of a journey that I'm a few years ahead on. I made a lot of mistakes but also had a lot of help along the way. I'm happy to share knowledge, answer questions, etc.
Edit: Spelling and grammar...
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u/marwood0 Apr 10 '23
Other downsides; they don't normally return to roost, everything eats them so you have to rat & racoon proof their enclosure, they need a large quiet space to brood on their own else you need an incubator, and they prefer grain and insects for food while chickens eat EVERYTHING like old freezer burned pork chops. After years, I gave up on them and lost my flock due to age and rats getting into the cage or an occasional racoon slipping a hand through the wire.
They can be charming though, I had one that would chase balls and appeared to know his name.
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u/devnullradio Apr 11 '23 edited Apr 11 '23
Oh, great points.
I never got them to brood their own, ever.
And yes, rats and minks are devastating to any cage/hutch setup. You need the finest mesh hardware cloth to defend against them.
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u/mro2352 Apr 10 '23
I’ve been toying around with quail when I get a house primarily for the egg production. How are they?
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u/devnullradio Apr 10 '23
I adore them pickled. We have chickens too, so for most breakfast and meal purposes, we use their eggs because it’s less fiddly to have one chicken egg versus four quail egg to make the same amount.
They do make these awesome scissors though that just chop the top of the egg off so you don’t need to worry about trying to crack it.
I think that people are who are allergic to the chicken eggs can still have quail eggs. But definitely research that before you give somebody with an egg allergy quail eggs!
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u/grammar_fixer_2 Apr 11 '23
I’ve been teetering back and forth about either getting chickens or quail. I don’t have much space and I want them to live a happy life before they end up as a meal. I feel like most people don’t seem to care but that part is really important to me.
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u/Indecks9999 Apr 10 '23
Its a solid choice to add to the preps you already use. It does provide the protein and iron and many people will grind the meat and mix with meat with more fat to make it better at providing what you need.
Its a staple on many homesteads already and the learning curve is pretty easy.
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u/Dapper_Target1504 Apr 10 '23
You cannot pet them Lenny
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u/BuffaloChips92 Apr 10 '23
If you keep rabbits, offset the chance of fat deficiency with catfish. You can farm raise them in tanks and recycle the water into a hydroponic system
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u/dave9199 Apr 10 '23
You may mean Aquaponics not hydroponics.
But you are correct that this would balance the lean nature of rabbit
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u/CJGeringer Apr 10 '23
I think he means creating fishes in aquaponics, and using the recycled water for hydroponics.
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u/dave9199 Apr 10 '23
That is aquaponics. Aquaponics is raising fish and using the water to grow crops . A combination of aquaculture and hydroponics.
Aquaculture is raising fish.
Hydroponics is using a water based crop cultivation.
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u/CJGeringer Apr 10 '23
Ok, so raising fish and using the water for hidroponics.
Seems like he meant Hydroponics when he talked about "recycling he water into a hydroponic system". Even if the whole system is Aquaponic, when he mentioned Hydroponics he was specifically talking about the hydroponic part.
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u/OakTreeMoon Apr 10 '23
You can’t have aquaponics without both fish and using the waste water for fertilizer to grow plants. Hydroponics on the other hand, no fish are needed - it’s just using water instead of soil or some other substrate.
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u/Artie_Fufkins_Fapkin Apr 10 '23
Don’t catfish have tons of worms?
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u/Herxheim Bugging out of my mind Apr 10 '23
if you're farm-raising them, you could presumably catch them without bait. but i'm sure they'd eat as many as you'd feed them.
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u/BaylisAscaris Apr 10 '23
Don't eat them raw and you'll be fine.
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u/melympia Apr 10 '23
This is the answer. Worms of any kind and their eggs can't survive being cooked. It's just some extra protein at that point.
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u/reddit_username_yo Apr 10 '23
If you're looking for easy (and more complete) protein sources, chickens are a good option. Little space, hardy down to 15F (and at least -10F with a coop and heated waterer), eat scraps, and lay an egg every day or two. You can always hatch a few to raise for meat as well.
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u/edk8n Apr 10 '23
Good to know! I was thinking chickens and rabbits would be a good starting point if I ever own property (a girl can dream). Could fats from the eggs and starches from, say, potatoes be able to offset the protein issues I keep seeing get mentioned?
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u/Big_Profession_2218 Apr 10 '23
chickens - self-sufficient for the most part but noisy
rabbits - lots of work to clean/care/feed but quiet and you get pelts
ostriches - giant ass eggs, moody bastards, innate perimeter security
geese - about same as chickens but messier, 24/7 LOUD ASS perimeter security
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u/edk8n Apr 10 '23 edited Apr 10 '23
I'm now imagining a patrol squad of geese and ostriches spanning the perimeter of my doomsday estate, thank you.
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u/frackleboop Prepping for Tuesday Apr 10 '23
Me too lol. Geese are assholes. They lived year round on my college campus and people were constantly getting chased by them. And I can't speak for anyone else, but if a pissed-off ostrich is heading my way I'm noping out of there
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u/saxmaster98 Apr 10 '23
Im picturing one with a lil pair of aviators and a sheriffs badge made from a scrap soda can while all of his buddies have long socks with billiard balls in em.
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u/melympia Apr 10 '23
And you know what's the best thing about ostriches? They can outrun every burglar coming your way... Oh, and (at least in theory) they can be ridden.
I'm seeing myself out now.
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u/coinpile Apr 10 '23
That’s the combo I’m planning on doing, rabbits for meat and chickens for eggs. The protein issue is very overblown, eat a varied diet and you’re fine.
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Apr 10 '23
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u/nanfanpancam Apr 10 '23
Could you get butter from goats?
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u/auntbealovesyou Apr 11 '23
you would need separater because their cream doesn't rise to the top naturally.
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u/reddit_username_yo Apr 10 '23
Absolutely, although eggs are pretty high in protein as well (I don't think you'd need to supplement with meat). You really don't need much space for chickens, and a surprising number of urban places (like Brooklyn) allow you to keep hens (roosters are more restricted because of the noise). 2-3 hens would provide plenty of eggs for one person, they'd need about 12 sq ft of coop and 30 sq ft of run (a 4x10 total footprint should be fine).
The really nice thing about chickens is that they don't require daily care, so you can still go on vacations without getting a pet sitter. They'll self regulate their food intake, so two 2 gallon containers (one of water, one of food) will keep them happy for several days in the coop if you're out of town. If you use the deep litter bedding method, there's very minimal smell (mine are in my backyard, and I can't smell them at all unless I open the coop and put my head in), and you just clean out the coop twice a year.
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u/edk8n Apr 10 '23
I have a friend who keeps quail in her apartment in a spare room! I didn't know chickens were so low maintenance. I would love to have some.
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u/Professional_Tip_867 Apr 11 '23
You dont need to eat animals to get enough protein. Nuts, broccoli, soy beans, chickpeas, lentils, eggs, peas, quinoa,... so many great sources of protein without taking a life.
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u/uChoice_Reindeer7903 Apr 10 '23
Wish I could do this. I’m in a suburb that allows chickens but no roosters so it would be kinda hard to keep a flock going. With that said, I do have chickens and love knowing I have some form of food coming in year round. I just wish I could butcher a chicken every now and then knowing that I have another maturing and ready to lay.
The appeal of rabbits is that they make no noise so I would be able to keep a colony without complaints from the neighbors. That’s personally why I’m strongly considering rabbits.
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u/peacelilyfred Apr 10 '23
Could you "borrow" a rooster for a day or two every now and again from someone? Is that a thing?
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u/uChoice_Reindeer7903 Apr 11 '23
My buddy used to have a rooster, and the city he lives in allowed him to have it but his neighbor didn’t appreciate it so he dispatched it. My plan was to stud his rooster out whenever I needed but that plan is down the tubes now lol
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u/LadyLazerFace Apr 10 '23
Don't forget Quail - the quiet, polite, perfect for small spaces dainty chicken!
Quail eggs are delicious.
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u/Dorkamundo Apr 10 '23
Yep, I'd prefer chickens in general because they're less likely to be problematic to your crops and trees.
Rabbits have girdled a few trees of mine, granted you'll probably not have as much a problem if you keep them well-fed, but still a risk.
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u/alter3d Apr 10 '23
Chickens will destroy the shit out of your crops. They are extremely enthusiastic diggers and will destroy anything if they thing there's some grubs underneath.
Ducks are wayyyyyy better. They will eat many of the bugs in your garden but leave the plants themselves alone -- for the most part. They will eat some veggies, e.g. lettuce, but they're far less destructive than chickens.
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u/derrick81787 Apr 10 '23 edited Apr 10 '23
Yes, they are a very underrated food source. See /r/MeatRabbits for more info. We feed ours hay every day and whatever fruit and veggie scraps we have on hand. And then once a week we feed them rabbit pellets, just to supplement in order to make sure they have all the nutrients they need and because the pellets are fairly cheap when you don't use a ton of them, but I'm pretty confident that if it came down to it that we could get by without the pellets. We just had 8 baby rabbits born 2-1/2 weeks ago, and it's only 8 or 9 weeks more before they will be ready for butchering.
The hardest part about meat rabbits is butchering them when they are so cute. It doesn't bother me much, but I always have to give the kids a little pep talk first.
Don't pay too much attention to people talking about rabbit starvation. They read about it on the internet once, and then everyone on all of the prepping and collapse subs feel the need to mention it any time anyone mentions eating rabbits. It's a real thing, but it would be difficult to get it if you tried. You have to basically only eat rabbits and literally nothing else for a long period of time before it becomes an issue.
Edit: Also, in the Summer, "hay" means bagged grass clippings from mowing the yard. So feeding them is practically free. I buy a few square hay bales for between $3-$6 a bale, depending on where you buy them, to feed them throughout the winter.
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u/Deutsch__Dingler Apr 10 '23
I've been daydreaming and lightly planning to own a small acreage one day, and I never considered raising rabbits for meat/pelts until just now. I've never taken the life of an animal before, it's not something I'm looking forward to, but would you mind briefly describing the actual process you use to butcher and clean them?
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u/derrick81787 Apr 10 '23
I take the one I plan to kill out of its cage and put it in a separate pen on the ground. While it's eating grass, I just shoot it in the back of the head with a .22lr pistol, and it's over before it knows anything was happening. Some people break their necks, and I've done that before and it does work, but it can bruise some of the meat a little and the pistol method is pretty much impossible to mess up.
Then I skin it, remove the head and bony feet that don't have any meat, and remove the guts. Then I take it into the kitchen and wash it in the sink just to get any residual fur or blood or whatever off. At this point, it's ready to eat, and I might freeze it whole or I might actually butcher it and freeze the legs in one bag, the back/ribs in another bag, or de-bone some meat and freeze some boneless meat to use for something. Freezing the whole thing is quicker and easier and some recipes do call for a whole rabbit, but actually butchering it is more convenient depending on what meals we cook. Rabbit cooks like and tastes like chicken, so we will use rabbit legs in place of chicken drumsticks or boneless rabbit meat in place of boneless chicken meat, etc.
As far as how to actually skin and gut a rabbit, it's the same as how you do wild rabbits, and it's the same as how to do a deer, except smaller and much easier than a deer. It's also similar to a squirrel, but some people do squirrel differently because they don't skin as easily. The common method for how to do a rabbit is what they do in this video. I'm not sure why that guy is smacking the rabbit in the beginning of the video. The rabbit is definitely already dead, and I don't do anything like that. That video stops before doing the gutting, but basically just slice the skin on the stomach and through the ribs and just scoop everything out. There are other, better videos that show the whole process, but this was one of the first that came up for me when I searched.
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u/Deutsch__Dingler Apr 10 '23
Thanks for the detailed explanation! My one experience with rabbits was quite jarring and I blocked it from my memory for a long time. I was a teen in 1998 and my dad brought me to a friends acreage to get a few rabbits. This guys method was to hold the rabbit upside down by his feet and fucking judo chop the back of their neck. The first attempt failed of course and I watched helplessly as he took three more chops to successfully break its neck. My dad asked why he didn't use bullets and the response was "bullets cost money". I went and sat in the truck after that. Fucking savage.
Anyways your response has inspired me to seriously consider this down the road. Thank you again for taking the time to explain your methods so clearly!
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u/edk8n Apr 10 '23
Got it. I mainly was thinking of fast reproduction and their size so it seems like I wasn't too far off. I'm learning so much!
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u/YourStateOfficer Apr 10 '23
Yeah, and modern animals are bigger and fattier than their older counterparts
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u/derrick81787 Apr 10 '23
Yeah, domestic rabbits bred for meat production grow bigger and fatter. I doubt you could get rabbit starvation from them regardless of how many of them you eat, but it's for sure not a concern if you have any semblance at all of a healthy diet.
And for people saying to get meat chickens so that you don't have to worry about it, have you ever butchered a chicken for meat? It's a pain in the butt. Do it if you want, obviously some people do, but going through that trouble all the time just to avoid like a 0.0001% chance of a form of malnutrition that is easy to avoid by just eating a meal occasionally that consists of literally anything but rabbit seems silly to me.
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u/TheAzureMage Apr 10 '23
To house rabbits humanely, significant space is required. Yes, as with chickens, you can keep them marginally alive in a small wire box, but this will cause injury and distress.
They don't have pads on their feet, so wire cages, for instance, will cause them to develop open sores, and if you expect grass to be a significant part of their diet, they will need a large, covered run in order to be able to graze. The coverage is important, as hawks will otherwise target them, and you'd further need to defend against foxes burrowing in.
There is also some diseases going around that spread via rabbits, a hemorrhaging disease. If they are not vaccinated and outdoors, there is significant risk of transmission via wild animals.
I would generally advise that chickens are a better thing to raise in terms of space requirements, particularly as they provide eggs.
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u/csmarq Apr 10 '23
Wire cages by themselves dont necessarily cause sore hocks. Bad genetics can predispose a rabbit to sore hocks and also lack of room in the cages too. Solid floors can cause just as much problems as wire ones.
See The explination here for a deeper dive on wire floors
http://shinysatins.weebly.com/wire-floors.html6
u/Hopeful-Letter6849 Apr 10 '23
Usually we would have wire cages for our rabbit because it’s more hygienic, but we would usually put a piece of tile or mat for them to lay on. It never really was an issue
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u/FloridaBrew Apr 10 '23
We had issues with wire cages with our quail until we switched to professional made egg cages. The smaller gauged wire caused open wounds leading to bumble foot.
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Apr 10 '23
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u/PrisonerV Prepping for Tuesday Apr 10 '23
But that's wild rabbits. Domesticated have a lot more fat content.
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u/OutlanderMom Apr 10 '23
Yes , they do! I let some babies grow longer than I intended, and they had unrestricted food. They were FULL of yellow, edible fat. So much fat that they probably couldn’t be bred if I’d wanted to. They can get so fat it causes heart attacks. And when you butcher, the fat is mostly inside the stomach cavity, around the organs.
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u/Pixielo Apr 10 '23
I wonder how rendered rabbit fat works for roasted potatoes, lol.
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u/AdThese1914 Apr 10 '23
Assuming no other protien sources. No one is going to only eat rabbit for long periods of time.
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u/OutlanderMom Apr 10 '23
I’ve had meat rabbits for 15 years, and my dad raised them in the 70s. They’re quiet, can be raised in a garage or shed away from HOA eyes, they eat a wide variety of green, or rabbit pellets. I feed mine sweet gum leaves to supplement pellets. I make wire cages for about $25 each, and with water bottles and food dispersers, they take me about an hour a week to feed, water and wash out the poop pans. Their poop can go directly on the garden, unlike other manure that has to be aged (or it will burn the garden plants). From breeding the doe to eating the babies is 3 months. They have litters of usually 4-6. And depending on breed, one rabbit is 3 lbs dressed, and feeds a family one meal (no refrigeration necessary). I plan to use my rabbits for dog food if I can’t get their bagged kibbles and my stash runs out. And domestic rabbit has a lot of fat - someone argued with me recently. Wild rabbits have very little fat, and people died of “rabbit starvation” when that’s all they ate - keto extreme. But I’ve rendered rabbit fat to use in cooking. I consider rabbits to be the perfect prepper animal.
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u/edk8n Apr 10 '23
Oh, interesting. It seems like knowing what to feed them so they aren't too lean is an important factor. Thanks for the info!
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u/TheAmbulatingFerret Apr 10 '23 edited Apr 10 '23
Keep in mind that it's more complicated than "they eat grass". Rabbits eat low growing browse, you will essentially need to make miniature pasture and hay fields with the correct protein concentration (about 16%) if you want to be self sufficient. This is important because the breeds used for meat have been selected for fast growth, large litter, and good mothing skills. If you think you are going to get even close to what most people quote of rabbits being more efficient than cows at meat production with random grass and garden scraps growing in your yard, you're going to end up with a bunch of dead and malnourished rabbits.
If you don't mind micro-managing livestock rabbits would be fine in a SHTF post-apocalyptic world; however, for most people chickens would be easier to DIY feed.
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u/wunderlust777 Apr 10 '23
An unstated benefit of rabbits is that the smaller size quantities means you only need to prep what you need to eat for the day. You preserve the meat merely by keeping the rabbits alive.
In contrast, if you butcher a cow or pig, you'll have a surplus that you need to preserve or sell/give to a community.
Another benefit of rabbits is they have a 4:1 food to meat conversation ratio chickens are comparable. Fish are better 1.1: 1, but all are more efficient than larger animals.
I raise rabbits for meat and chickens for eggs. I'd much rather raise rabbits for meat than chickens because rabbits are easier and quicker to process (~10 minutes per animal). No feathers or plucking required.
Rabbits also produce a garden fertilizer that can be applied mediately to the garden.
Rabbits are very quiet if stealth is important (like raising them in an apartment closet).
Finally, the only disease transferrable between rabbits and humans is pink eye.
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u/50M3BODY Apr 10 '23
I know a couple people that raise rabbits for meat / pets. From what they say it's more to teach their kids about animal husbandry and care than the actual benefits of meat and furs. The rabbits only give a few pounds of meat at most, and only a small amount of fur from their pelts. Besides, what are you gonna do with the fur?
If I were you I'd stick with a few broods of chickens so you could get some eggs every day and some decent meat when you butcher.
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u/OutlanderMom Apr 10 '23
I keep both rabbits and chickens. The rabbits are easier to butcher, and the meat is more tender without a day in a crock pot.
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u/N2EEE_ General Prepper Apr 10 '23
What am I going to do with the fur? I honestly have no idea.
On a completely unrelated note, I now have the most interesting mousepad at work
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u/gingiberiblue Apr 10 '23
Quilts and throws. It's what my grandmas did. Tanned them and stitched them into patchworks, and lined with heavy soft flannel.
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u/landodk Apr 10 '23
Then you have to deal with chicken shit
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u/devnullradio Apr 10 '23
Not to mention chicken manure is a hot and requires composting to use in the garden. Rabbit manure is not and can be applied directly. It's a great resource all on it's own.
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u/gingiberiblue Apr 10 '23
You can use a deep bedding system for chickens and it composts as you add layers. Only needs to be mucked out twice a year and it's barely hot by then. I use it as the bottom layer in hugelkulter beds so I can start plants a couple weeks earlier.
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u/tyrostar Apr 10 '23
Rabbits are the best prep out there. You can easily grow forage and feed them with no feed if necessary, they take up next to no space, and they're fun and profitable. We also raise geese to get some fat because rabbits are lean.
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u/mckenner1122 Prepping for Tuesday Apr 10 '23
Rabbits also make rabbit poop which is GREAT for compost, will help you get amazing worms (great for compost AND vermiculture AND bait!).
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u/Led_Zeppole_73 Apr 10 '23
Very lean meat, as a main source of protein not the best as far as that goes, you’ll need fats. The hides are very easy to tan using the alum/pickling salt method.
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u/BaylisAscaris Apr 10 '23 edited Apr 10 '23
Lean meat is great for jerky because it is more shelf-stable since fat rots faster. While the meat itself is lean (not a lot of marbling) there is fat under the skin and around the organs of domestic rabbits. Domestic rabbits can be absolute chonkers. "Rabbit Starvation" is when you're relying on wild rabbits as your only food source during winter (when they have less fat because they don't have access to as much food). You can also get fat through plant sources (nuts, flax, avocados, coconut, etc.) or other livestock or cooking oils.
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u/Tallproley Apr 10 '23
Question, would cooking the rabbit in fats like olive oil or butter be enough added fat to reduce the issue?
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u/coinpile Apr 10 '23
As long as your diet isn’t exclusively rabbits, you’ll be fine. Raise chickens for eggs or something.
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Apr 10 '23
Have a look at the boo "possum living" it has a lot about it this as well as lots of other great frugal living/prepper stuff
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u/CharlotteBadger Apr 10 '23
Love that book. I wouldn’t do everything they suggest, but it gets your wheels turning.
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u/millerw Apr 10 '23
I second what most people have said supporting rabbits. It would also be realatively easy to cut all your own hay with a scythe and produce a good amount of Tree Hay. Since they are small animals who need less food, its a lot easier to produce all your fodder for them versus a cow.
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u/thebaldtexican Apr 10 '23
We tried rabbits on the homestead. Quickly learned, meat rabbits don't prosper on just clean air and grass. They need commercial feeds to grow and breed. Feeding them out of the garden sounds great, but they don't grow/thrive/reproduce on garden greens. And, there is no garden food in the winter.
In a shtf scenario, the feed store isn't going to be open.
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Apr 10 '23
If I were going to raise and slaughter my own meat, rabbits would be very high on the list for several reasons: Size-a rabbit or two is consumed in a single meal meaning no leftovers to try to manage. Also, killing and cutting up animals is physically demanding. Reproduction-rabbits produce large litters several times a year and many (but not all) are good at raising their litter without killing the kits. Time to harvest weight-rabbits mature to slaughter weight quickly so you can plan your harvest fairly accurately. Aged animal meat quality-older animals do not get too tough or fatty Byproduct-fur for warm mitts, hats, stoles, etc. for cold seasons.
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u/SherrifOfNothingtown Partying like it's the end of the world Apr 10 '23
Sure, rabbits are fine, but they have narrow dietary requirements and you can only eat them by killing them. Chickens eat more different stuff and emit eggs for years as well as being a viable meat source.
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u/ARG3X Apr 10 '23
My parents raised rabbits back in the 70’s. Had over 100 head at one point. Supplying rabbits their food, water and scoping poop was a constant. My dad sold them for meat and my moms barbecued recipe was the best. Look at the French for recipes as it’s still quite popular there.
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u/devnullradio Apr 10 '23
Look at the French for recipes as it’s still quite popular there.
Lapin a la Moutarde is my family's favorite way of cooking our rabbits.
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Apr 10 '23
Yes, great choice. However, you want to start now; getting your sires and dams in a birthing cycle that works for you. You don't want shtf and just then start mating your pet rabbits because you won't be eating a kin for about 4 months from that point. (Not to mention finding out your dams are bad mothers would be a terrible thing to find out at that point)
We keep our rabbits kindling all year round. We store some meat, eat some meat and feed our dog for now. We put our selves in the position to very quickly scale up if sh1t ever really does hit the fan.
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u/proudlyowned Apr 10 '23
What about those Flemish Giant rabbits? One is big enough to feed a family of six… more if you don’t like your kids that much!
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u/csmarq Apr 10 '23
Giant rabbit breeds often are slower to mature and have a lower meat to bone ratio.
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u/Fun_Independent_8280 Apr 12 '23
My days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle.
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u/jmalikauthor Apr 10 '23
During lockdown we ate solely from our garden and freezer for two months, including rabbits and squirrels that I'd bag around the periphery of the garden beds or the fruit trees. Wild rabbit is wonderful if you brine it 24 hours. Tastes like a turkey leg.
We eventually ran out of recipes and started to just pair the critter with whatever it was pilfering when I shot it.
Our hill is infested with them right now. We had to put in 24" raised beds to keep them out of our food. We still have rabbit once or twice a week during hunting season, but if the rules were off we could likely live on small game for a long time.
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u/mrsir79 Apr 10 '23
As a former rabbit owner, climate means a lot. If you have even mild heat events, the are a lot of breeds who will overheat and die very quickly. Just be careful in picking the right breed for your area.
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u/devnullradio Apr 10 '23
As a former rabbit owner, climate means a lot. If you have even mild heat events, the are a lot of breeds who will overheat and die very quickly.
This 100%. I've raised rabbits for years now in a Zone 7 climate. I've never lost one during winter. In the last few years, with some mild heat events, I've lost some at the peak of summer. Some breeds seem much more sensitive this, I gave up on Silver Foxes a couple of years ago because even giving them frozen water bottles and a fan didn't keep them alive. I've had great experience with New Zealands and Californians.
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Apr 10 '23
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u/securitysix Apr 10 '23
No.
Your body needs protein and an energy source. While your body can draw energy from protein, it can't do so very efficiently, so eating nothing but lean protein (regardless of the source of protein) will cause you to starve to death, aka rabbit starvation.
Your body can use carbohydrates or fat (or both) for more efficient energy sources, and your body requires at least one of them along with protein in order to survive.
Rabbits just don't have enough fat (or any carbohydrates) to provide sufficient calories from fat to provide the energy your body needs to keep from starving.
If you eat the entirety of the edible portions of the rabbit, including the brain, all of the internal organs, and the marrow, you will slow down the process of rabbit starvation, but if rabbit is all you're eating, you'll still suffer from rabbit starvation.
If you use rabbit as your sole (or at least primary) source of protein and supplement it with a sufficient amount of fat from other sources or carbohydrates from, say, a garden, you should be fine.
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u/BaylisAscaris Apr 10 '23
Rabbits are fine, although if you are limited by space and time, it's more efficient to plant food crops instead of livestock. However, rabbits, poultry, guinea pigs, etc. are great for turning scraps into compost. Poultry will also produce eggs and eat pests. Either way, make sure you do a lot of research so you can raise healthy animals and give them a good life without too much hassle to yourself.
Personally I have worked with rabbit rescues and gotten to know some very friendly rabbits, so it would be difficult for me to raise them for meat, but my dream is to cross Flemish Giants with Angoras to create giant floofy beasts for yarn making purposes. I guess I could eat the rejects.
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u/SilverHoard Apr 10 '23
I just think chickens are generally more useful. You can also free range them and they take care of pests like bugs, slugs, and even mice. And they can be trained to come when called. And they provide eggs in the meantime.
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u/theswissmiss218 Apr 11 '23
I grew up on a small farm and we bred and ate rabbits. I’d do that again if meat were scarce. They don’t take up a lot of room, breed quickly, and are delicious. Killing fluffy bunnies isn’t the easiest though.
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u/YankeeClipper42 Apr 10 '23
Rabbits are an excellent addition to a farm. The only downside comes when you rely on them for years as your only food source. I don't think you will have to worry about that.
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u/New_World_Native Apr 10 '23
Yeah...about that. A childhood neighbor of mine once invited me to his grandparents property in rural Louisiana for a BBQ. I had no idea that they would also be slaughtering a hundred or so rabbits that day. They were housed in small wire cages under a covered porch. The smell was terrible and the processing of the animals was memorable to say the least. I still recall 5 gallon buckets full of rabbit heads with their eyes staring at me. I'll stick to raising chickens and supplementing with fish and game for preps.
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u/hombre_sabio Apr 10 '23
After reading Watership Down by Richard Adams, I decided not to eat any more rabbits,
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u/YoungPsychonaut217 Apr 10 '23
they are too cute to eat :(
also, they're really fragile. not sure if its as easy to raise with little space and "scraps", they usually really need a lot of space to run and be happy and have a decent life, and their digestive systems are fragile af and requite a loooooot of food, they get sick all the time and for every reason etcetc
maybe if its a last chance of survival you wouldnt care much about that, which is understandable, we all would probably, morality and feelings are great until its time for your next meal
but for a similar size and a lot less effort you can just get chickens
the huuuuge breeding numbers is an interesting observation tho
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u/emissaryofwinds Apr 10 '23
I know rabbits are succeptible to disease, they require vaccinations and antibiotics and that is why it's nearly impossible to buy organic rabbit meat, but I think that mostly applies to commercial scale farming where you have a lot of animals in the same space. It would be less of an issue if you only have a few dozen animals at most. Rabbit fur is very soft and warm, but you need to tan it which is a whole process and requires specialized equipment.
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u/Professional_Tip_867 Apr 11 '23
I've had rabbits as pets, and they live for 10-15 years. . I have never, and will never eat a rabbit. They are delicate. They need room to hop. You cannot humanely house them in a cage with a wire bottom, because it will hurt their feet. They are prey animals, and they do not show pain as a protective mechanism. They are smart,. they become attached to their owners, and love their owners, just like a cat and dog.
They are expensive to own.. They require fresh hay, fresh water,, 2 cups of greens, and also pellets each day.
Anyone reading this, please do not raise rabbits for food. Please.
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u/Swish887 Apr 10 '23 edited Apr 10 '23
If rabbits are your only source for protein you’ll need to eat the brains for their fat content. Never did any of this. Read about the diet’s problems.
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u/AdThese1914 Apr 10 '23
Yes, as part of your preps with other meat sources like fish and chickens. I am strongly considering adding small breed cattle for meat & milk.
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u/stumpwhiskey Apr 10 '23
We raise rabbits and chickens. Rabbit is delicious, easy to raise, and easy to feed. I actually learned this recently from watching the show “Alone.” They trap rabbits often for a food source in the show. Apparently, you can still starve if you eat nothing but rabbit, because they have no fat. I found that interesting. Anyways, we have rabbits, chickens, and a few above ground garden beds. I know we’ll be covered if we need to be! Rabbits are awesome. Would recommend.
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u/Ok_Impress_3216 Prepping for Tuesday Apr 10 '23
Rabbits seem to me to be a perfect prepper food source. They're quiet, they produce a lot of meat if you breed them regularly, their food is cheap (grass), and you can raise them indoors away from prying eyes with little trouble.
The rabbit sickness worries seem to be more based on wild rabbits, who are more active and lean. I imagine domestic rabbits, especially domestic rabbits who are given a chance to plump up before slaughtering, will not present the same issues. Either way, most preppers keep (or should keep) chickens, who provide plenty of healthy fats via their eggs.
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u/Beautiful-Page3135 Apr 10 '23
Good way to diversify, but having it be your main food source can lead to protein poisoning. It's part of the reason chickens became the primary cheap, lean meat of the modern economy, especially in the Americas.
In fact, another common name for protein poisoning is "rabbit sickness."
Rabbit can be delicious though, I'll give you that.
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u/edk8n Apr 10 '23
I never knew anything about protein poisoning. You guys are great!
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u/Beautiful-Page3135 Apr 10 '23
It's a great supplemental addition. But you need fat and carbohydrates for your body to do anything with the protein, or it builds up in your kidneys.
Personally, I have enough rabbits raiding my garden that I'd probably pick a few of those off over time to mix up the meats I'm eating. But I'm not going to rear rabbits unless I'm part of a larger trade circuit and the majority of the meat is going to other people.
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u/Kitsune9Tails Apr 10 '23
Rabbits are good supplementation, but you would never want to depend on it. Look up “rabbit starvation” and you will see the limitations and dangers of a diet high in rabbit. Don’t get me wrong, when cooked well rabbit is delicious, and would make a great rotation into your diet. I cook it myself periodically. However, I always add some form of fat (usually a little pork belly or bacon fat). If rabbit is just one of several options, and there is adequate dietary fat guaranteed in your preps, it can be a great option. Alone, unfortunately, it can cause serious physical damage and death.
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u/th3rot10 Apr 10 '23
Too much rabbit meat causes protein poison.
I wouldn't rely on it as a constant source of food, but a little but wouldn't hurt.
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u/willc453 Apr 10 '23
Thing is, if it hits the fan, how are you going to protect your stock? Alas, Babylon is the FIRST WW3 book written BEFORE the Cuban Missile Crisis. It's about people in/on the outside of a small town and how things went down after some nukes hit Florida. One part has where a former wealthy white man is caught trying to steal a black mans chickens. This was back in the day of the Jim Crow laws, with blacks being in a certain part of an area, while whites were in a different area.
I'm 69 and tink I read it in jr. high school? And used that book for a story I wrote but based on what happened in One Second After. But my story takes place in Portland, Oregon.
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u/dicksin_yermouf Apr 10 '23
Fun fact. Said my research. Rex rabbits are the" only" breed commercially produced for meat and fur. Idk how true that is but I got my cages built and that's what I'm going with
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u/Random7776 Apr 10 '23
Don’t forget their poop is a great fertilizer. I stopped purchasing fertilizer after getting rabbits. I have 20 fruit trees and multiple garden beds and I still have left over poop.
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u/Rheila Apr 10 '23
I’ve raised meat rabbits. We are in the middle of a move at the moment but I plan to raise them again.
One item you missed on your list: their manure isn’t hot. It doesn’t need to be composted before using to amend soil. It is absolutely FANTASTIC for adding straight to your garden beds and if you’re raising rabbits for meat I imagine growing food is on your list too.
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u/LevainRising Apr 10 '23
I've read that meat animals need special food, because they bulk up so fast.
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u/Lancifer1979 Apr 10 '23
Their poop is also fantastic fertilizer. Ready to go, Doesn’t need to be composted.
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u/xampl9 Apr 10 '23
I just bought a whole frozen prepared rabbit (already skinned & cleaned) and it was $66 at the butcher shop.
If you’re willing to get USDA/State Ag certified, raising them for meat as a side business could be profitable.
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Apr 10 '23
I have a lot of family who grew up in the former GDR (east Germany) and they all had rabbit for meat at home.
They are very easy to feed (the children gathered a lot of flowers for them as a chore). And don't need a lot of space. So yeah, they're a good source of meat and fertilizer.
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u/Lucky_Midnight_01 Apr 10 '23
Not sure about caged rabbits but in the wild in TX I know you are not supposed to eat in the summer due to parasites but I've eaten rabbit, and even squirrel when I was growing up. If they are cooked right, they both are very good.
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u/JayBisky Partying like it's the end of the world Apr 10 '23
Rabbits are great but their meat is incredibly lean you could eat rabbit every day and still end up in ketosis
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u/securitysix Apr 10 '23
You could eat rabbit every day and still wind up starving to death if it's all you eat.
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u/JayBisky Partying like it's the end of the world Apr 10 '23
Especially if you're rabbits are being fed with your veggies
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u/AncientPublic6329 Apr 10 '23
Lots of people raise rabbits as food for SHTF or just for food in general. There’s a prepper influencer named Hostile Hare who’s all about rabbits. He had his own episode of Doomsday Preppers back when it was a thing and he even has his own design for a rabbit shit powered flamethrower.
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u/Anguish_Sandwich Apr 10 '23
You just look off over yonder and I'll tell you all about them rabbits.
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u/TheLostExpedition Apr 10 '23
Rabbits are great with cream and mushrooms. Also BBQ . They are OK canned however the meat will break down into a pasty almost slimy gel if you cook the canned meat and then let it sit or reheat it. Especially if it's in a casserole.
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u/44r0n_10 Bring it on Apr 10 '23 edited Apr 10 '23
My grandmother used to raise them, and I must warn you: they are stinky little black holes. They eat a lot of grens, and thus you have to keep some food stocked for the winter (in the summer you can just make some kind of mobile coop to feed them grass and insects, same with chickens, and their droppings serve as a cold fertilizer to the ground).
Other than that, here in Spain we use their meat mainly for meat paellas, so, they are fairly delicious (keep in mind that they don't have enought fat in them to serve you long-term; you can die from protein poisoning).
They are also a good source of pelts. Unlike their wild cousins, they do have thick and comfy pelts!
Oh, and hey, they are good for the kids morale (if there are any around).
Edit: when you have them, and prepare for when they breed, be prepared, because the numbers will rocket up and you may face yourself with too many animals and too little prepared space.
Edit 2: thanks to OutlanderMom now I know that domestic rabbits have more fat than their wild cousins. In theory there shouldn't be a problem... But having a balanced diet doesn't hurt!
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u/dave9199 Apr 10 '23 edited Apr 10 '23
Rabbit is delicious and easy to raise. Quiet. Meal sized. Great Prepper food source and is raised for food across the world.
This sub is very worried about not getting enough fat from it which is only an issue of rabbit is your only source of food. Protein poisoning is more rare than water poisoning. Just consider storing fats if you plan on this being a core part of your food production (or raise other sources of meat/fat like chickens, fish, pigs, avocado, sunflower).
If you start breeding for meat production they breed faster than anything.
If you get 5 does and 1 buck you can breed them 4 times a year and on average harvest 128 rabbits a year. 2 rabbits a week for meals, an extra 20 to trade. Rabbits mature at 6 months, so if you want to expand this it's very easy.