How many meat rabbits do I need to feed my family?

The short answer is “one breeding doe per member of the household” including carnivorous pets, but there are some variables to consider here. How much meat do you consume? Do you have other meat sources such as chickens, goats, pigs, or cattle? With that in mind, it would be best to track your meat consumption for a month to get a good idea of your needs. Tally up the chicken and pork specifically as rabbit will substitute those two protein sources easily in their recipes. Then multiply that by 12 to get your annual meat consumption estimate. Once you have an idea of your annual need for rabbit meat, go to the meat rabbit calculator and use it to plan how many does you need and how often you will need to breed them.

Can you starve eating rabbits?

Queue epic face palm… Rabbit is 21% protein and 10% fat. Is it lean? Yes. Will it kill you to eat JUST rabbit meat? Maybe, if all you eat is the meat and not the fatty tissues to ensure you get adequate lipids/fats. Lack of fat in a diet causes protein poisoning. more on the subject here.

Don’t rabbits feet get injured if they stay on cage material?

Depending on the material, it is possible. Which is why we use the best inch by half inch GAW 14 gauge wire for the floors for our rabbit AND quail cages. avoid the 19 gauge 1/2” by 1/2” hardware cloth they sell as cage material at the big box home improvement stores. You can also supply the rabbits with resting mats or cooling tiles if you want to give them break from the wire.

Can I raise rabbits free range?

Not really, no, that’s a good way to feed your bunnies to the local wildlife. And if they do survive they’ll cause an ecological nightmare, just ask the Aussies what happens when domesticated rabbits get let loose where their aren’t enough natural predators to keep their populations under control. The closest you can get to free ranging rabbits is the colony style method. I wrote an article describing the colony style method of cuniculture.

Do you know anyone in my area selling rabbits?

Possibly, but the world is a big place and I’ve much of it to see and explore… There are resources for finding breeders though, raising-rabbits.com has a good search tool. Craigslist and local rabbit FB groups are good places to start. I also have a buyers guide to help you pick out the good buns.