Breeding Meat Rabbits
If you want to breed rabbits for a sustainable meat supply, there’s a few things to take into consideration. Rabbit meat is popular among homesteaders because rabbits are easy to raise, and they breed easily and birth in less time than other traditional homestead livestock like sheep, goats, pigs, and cows. Rabbits also produce lean, healthy meat that’s low in fat, and is a culinary delicacy in many countries around the globe.
Image courtesy of The Frugal Chicken.
Best of all, for non-traditional and suburban homesteaders, most city ordinances allow you to keep rabbits, so in areas where chickens and other livestock are not allowed, meat rabbits make a great alternative. Unlike roosters, rabbits don’t crow, don’t smell, and don’t free range (unless you build a special tractor), so your neighbors are unlikely to object.
Choosing Meat Rabbit Breeding Stock
Before you begin breeding, you will need to first choose parent stock. On our homestead, we breed New Zealand and Rex crosses, mostly because of their large size and docile natures. We do have a wild rabbit that has been tamed (we acquired all of our rabbits from someone who did not want them anymore) but she is difficult to pick up, and still has a wild streak. She is also quite small. However, she is advantageous to our breeding program because, well, she likes to breed.
For first time meat rabbit breeders, I recommend going with a breed that is more domesticated, because they will be easier to handle and you will have a better experience.
Rabbits are able to breed at around 7 months of age, and we also prefer to wait until that age to harvest them because they are nearly full grown.
When looking for parent stock, look for rabbits that are robust and large, and have healthy-looking coats. Although rabbits can live 10 years or more, choose breeding stock that’s on the younger side, and look for a reputable breeder in your area. If they will not let you see photos of the rabbits before purchasing, avoid that breeder. Some breeders will not allow outside parties to view the area rabbits are housed; this is another red flag.
Image courtesy of The Frugal Chicken.
Some breeds to consider are New Zealands, Rex rabbits, Californians, Chinchilla, and Flemish Giants. These are large breed rabbits, and since these breeds don’t eat much more than smaller breeds, but use their feed more efficiently, they’re a better option in my book.
We specifically choose to breed crosses because I believe cross breeding yields very healthy animals, and it’s our goal to have a self-sustaining herd of meat rabbits.
How to Arrange a Breeding Schedule
We breed one female each month; that way we aren’t overwhelmed with rabbits, but since they have a 30 day gestational cycle, we still have plenty of meat available. Rabbits can have large litters, anywhere from 1 to 14 offspring, so with such a short gestational cycle, it’s easy to get overwhelmed.
For now, our plan is to keep our original parent stock, and to use the offspring for meat, unless one or more seems like a keeper, or if we lose a parent rabbit to old age, disease, predators, or the like. With 5 females and 4 males, we will be able to breed for quite a while! We keep our males and females in separate cages; most people who keep rabbits will keep one rabbit in one cage, however, I prefer to do it differently. I like to keep at least 2 rabbits in a cage, and of course we keep them in cages that are large enough to comfortably house them. Rabbits are herd animals, and don’t live solitary lives. Since our goal is to give them happy lives before harvesting them, I want them to be able to interact with other rabbits.
How to Breed Your Rabbits
When actually breeding meat rabbits, the male should be put in the female’s cage, not the other way around. Because we keep more than one rabbit in a cage, we temporarily remove the any extra females for the duration of the “date.” Once the male has bred the female twice, he is removed, and her female companion put back into the cage. When the bred female is close to giving birth, her buddy is also removed until the offspring are bigger. Not everyone does it this way, but it works for us.
** Disclaimer: There has been some concern about this method. Many people say the female should be moved to the male’s cage. I don’t have rabbits myself, but this is the method that works for Maat. Use your own discretion when breeding your rabbits. **
Breeding meat rabbits is very easy, and a great way to have a continual supply of fresh, lean meat! If you’re interested in keeping rabbits, download my free checklist, the Top 10 Things You Need To Know About Keeping Rabbits!
Image courtesy of The Frugal Chicken.
Latest posts by Maat van Uitert (see all)
- Breeding Meat Rabbits - November 15, 2015
Hey there, I’m working on starting a herd for raising meat. I have two bucks, a Silver Fox and a Rex. I have read that these two breed well for meat, but I was wondering which would do better as a sire…is a large buck and smaller doe better, or a small buck and large doe? My Silver Fox is pedigreed, so I would prefer using him with Rex does. I’ve basically been keeping these for fertilizer, and I’m ready now to expand my husbandry practices. They are both 1 1/2 years old. Thank you for any suggestions or advice!
It’s always best practice with any animal breeding to have a large female to small male, otherwise the offspring may end up too large for the female to birth.
Bingo! I thought that may be the case for rabbits too. Thanks for your help, and I’m glad I found your website!
Female Rabbits are very territorial and should never have a Buck put into her cage. Always bring the doe to the buck!
We are just starting off our experience and we absolutely love all the information you post, we started a blog so we can write all about the ups and downs. We are so happy to have the three rabbits and have the incubator for our soon to arrive quail eggs, they are Texas whites, my mom says they are wonderful for the meat. Our laying chicks are due to arrive April 4 th. I’m so thrilled. We retired this year and we are making it on one SS check until next year. So after some consideration we decided that being more self sufficient would really benefit us! Thanks to you for all your information.
You are so welcome Victoria. Welcome!
Glad someone pointed out that you don’t bring the male to the female
***NEVER put the male in the female’s cage! You are lucky your female’s haven’t tried to kill the male. Maybe because you have females who share cages? IDK. Put her in with the male, let him do his thing, take him out, wait a few minutes, put him in again, repeat that 3x, then remove the female back to her cage.
I was wondering about that. When I bred rabbits for 4-H as a kid we never put the male in the females cage, I was told the female would attack him because females are very territorial. We got some Californians last week and I was refreshing myself on breeding them. I think I will read some more and see what other people’s opinions are.
Yeah this goes against everything I have ever heard. Always female to male as the females can and will tear into anyone who comes into their territory.
Is there a difference that makes a rabbit a “meat” rabbit versus something other than a meat rabbit? Other than the obvious, your eating one versus keeping it as a pet?
Any rabbit could be a meat rabbit. Some breeds are chosen for their rate of growth, meat to bone ratio, etc.
Thanks Jessica!
We got our first set of rabbits from Daniel Salatin at Polyface (we live an hour from their farm),and they are a mix of new Zealand and California. We like meat rabbits because they are inexpensive to raise, easy to handle, low maintenance, take up little space, easy to process, and they taste great in a variety of dishes. I am working on growing more fodder for them, so we can purchase less pellets. Any suggestions for resources?
This is a great article about fodder for livestock (rabbits included). http://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/sprouted-fodder.aspx I don’t have a lot of experience with it myself. I’ve sprouted, but that’s about it.
I’m really looking forward to having rabbits on our homestead. We were gifted a hutch from my cousins and can’t wait for it to get here and to start our bunny adventure. We want to do both meat rabbits and fiber ones!
I think you’ll be really pleased with them.
My son raised rabbits on our farm in the early stages for meat, he chose the Californian and New Zealand. They were raised on ground with a mobile set up, was pretty neat. Processing was a breeze, must faster than chicken. The hardest part is the cull because they can be difficult to keep from moving. He figured it out though and the experience was positive. I still prefer the quail for a small breed self reliant animal.
My dad use to tell me stories about how he was a kid and my grandparents would do this. They were poor and they basically had to raise and grow their own food. I would imagine in a “have to” situation I could do it, but I am not sure I could raise rabbits just for food.
Chickens on the other hand, I could do it in a heartbeat.
I working hard to mentally separate this from killing a bunny but we’re nearly there. I’ve killed a chicken before but my husband is the one in charge of harvesting the animals and he’s seeing the benefits of raising meat rabbits in a more favorable light. We’ll probably always do chickens and turkeys, too, but they’re kind of a pain in the butt to raise compared to a rabbit.
Thanks for the great article!
It certainly isn’t easy. I’ve done the quail, but I send the chickens away. For me, it’s worth $5 a bird to not have to do the deed. Plus, they come back cleaned, cut, and vacuum wrapped.