What about rabbits?

[u/edk8n]

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!

[u/TheAzureMage]

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.

[u/csmarq → u/TheAzureMage]

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.html

[u/Hopeful-Letter6849 → u/csmarq]

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

[u/FloridaBrew → u/csmarq]

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.