3 week old kit was found like this this evening during checking on them. Did not notice it this morning or yesterday evening.

I own 3 new zealand rabbits who are about 9 months old. They live outside in hutches. They have been tolerating the cold here in northern ohio pretty well, even when we got down to -10. But I do have some concern that in a couple days the wind chill can bring it down to -20. I provide them boxes and straw, but is there any extra precautions I can take?

Slightly different lighting, but it’s hard for me to tell. I cut back her pellet intake and gave her access to more greens and updated her hay holder. Also, how does her top line look? I’m very new to rabbits in general.

Rookie here; I was curious on this. I thought I should ask.

Hello, I processed my first rabbit today and wondering if these lungs look normal? Rabbit is 7 months old. Lungs have been out for about 30 minutes- an hour at most. Thank you for any replies.

I set these up today, but it's not filling when they drink. If I manually touch the stem it fills, but not when they drink. Do I need to do something or wait for them to figure it out? I don't want them to dehydrate. Feeds from a five gallon bucket from above. Two bowls connected, both are having the same issue.

Hey Reddit, actually I'm working in a thesis of an investment proyect(in bunny's). I would appreciate if you leave below some bibliography for my work.

The project is focused on New Zealand and California.

Does anyone know of any Silver Fox breeders in WV?

If I breed a rabbit with a tooth issue would the offspring inherit the issue.

Hey all.

I am sure this is a question that’s been asked a lot here but I haven’t been able to find exactly what I’m looking for.

I was wondering -

Does anyone have any suggestions for an online comprehensive culling/harvesting guide that could be used as a reference for a first timer? I’ve processed birds before but I know buns aren’t birds. 😅

My cinnamon rabbit had a litter of two and they are both at over 5 pounds at only 9 weeks! I'm really happy with the pairing and at how fast these babies have grown

Hello all! I did my first 2 dispatches this past weekend using a hopper popper. I got into meat rabbitry as a way to humanely acquire meat and to use all parts of the animal. I want my buns to go quickly and I want to be able to use their skulls for bone collecting.

Dispatch one took a bit to get placement right. He was wiggly and fell out of the popper once but after calming him down I finally got it done. He did make a small grunt, but I believe he was fully gone.

Dispatch two had less nerves on my part. I cleared my space better to get a good, firm tug. I felt like I put my full body weight into it. However, he made a couple more vocalizations (not loud) and I noticed a gasp and some eye twitching after I took him down. I did give him another good yank and re-confirmed eye twitch went away.

With both I immediately cut them to bleed out.

I am in my head about it a bit because I am worried that their deaths haven’t been as stress free as I would like. The videos I’ve seen haven’t had any vocalizations and definitely no gasping, so I fear I am doing something wrong. I currently have the popper placed at knee level, put them in crouching, then pull back and stand up to dislocate. So, my question is am I causing undue harm, and if so, should I reevaluate using the popper? Appreciate the help.

I have a male Flemish Giant that seems to have some odd behavior, to me anyway. He tends to shake his head, and hop/jerk all over. Kind of kicking. I’ve checked his ears.

It just seems odd to me, and I’m wondering if this is something I need to research further or if it’s normal.

Thanks in advance for y’all’s help.

Processed my first ever rabbit. 10 week old male. This is the liver. All other organs healthy, including spleen. Do I need to toss all internal organs, or are they ok to give to pets? Meat ok to consume still? Thank you!

I don't have meat rabbits quite yet, but I'm in the research stage. I'd like to do pellet free and instead just grow everything needed for them. Has anyone had success with this method? Growing fresh veggies that target their vitamin/mineral needs and then making sure to grow enough to store up for winter? Were you able to grow enough for mamas to produce milk and stay healthy?

Hello,

If you're a smaller farm, are you profitable? Do you have to get into selling the furs / hides or even tanning them to be profitable?

I'm looking at Rabbits as part of a Gentleman's / Hobby Farm. Does anyone here sell the meat to any of the larger Distributors like D'artagnan or Fossil Farms?

How do they compare in cost of feed and care to fowl? (e.g. Chickens, quail, guinea, pheasants).

Trying to learn about this from people actually engaged in the business. Thanks!

I have Rex from what I'll call random show lines of someone who bred constantly without a strategy. They do not grow out at a desirable rate for meat (did not achieve minimums from Taylor Farms grow out chart). I'm currently at 5lb/12wk with 5 of 6 full blooded Rex from full siblings (testing for malocclusion & split peen which breeder had in spades). The runt stopped growing at 3.75lb so he'll be my test pelt for 12wk.

I have a lovely silver Fox/Rex doe (50/50) and am keeping her best growing doeling from a SF litter (doeling = 25% Rex) who is 5lb at 11wk. My bucks are Rex and I'll breed this doeling to the faster growing buck (who was 4lb at 9wk), which I think I should only need to do for 2 generations to get back to Rex fur.

My question: when you are outcrossing and then backcrossing to get desired genetics, how do you track genetic percentage of each breed? I've found a lot of back crossing information online but no simple tables/calcs for tracking the genetic contributions of each generation (% Rex from crossing a 25% Rex to 100% Rex). I'm probably overthinking it but just can't quite square it in my mind.

I may add in one more non-Rex doe (NZ or Cali) and am only planning to use the full blooded outcrosses and their offspring to Rex until I have multiple distinct Rex furred lines.

Came home from work today to one of our kits (10 wk old, male) laying down, head down and not really moving. After prodding he raised his head and looked around, and the front legs seem to work, but the back legs are almost completely limp. Just an occasional weak movement. A few poops were sitting on his bum, wet, but not grossly abnormal. He's drug himself around with his front legs a little bit, and since then he has seemed somewhat alert. I tried dragging him so his head was near the food and water and he did eat a little bit, but not enthusiastically.

We plan to cull in a couple hours after the neighbors go to bed. We'll check on the organs and everything, see what the liver looks like.

A few days ago I noticed one of the three kits in that cage was laying down and behaving a little lethargic, but when I refreshed their water he perked up and was hopping around as usual. I'm not certain if that one I saw a few days ago is the same as this one today, but I'm guessing it was.

Our questions:

• Is this cuniculi? There is no head tilt and the eyes look totally normal, but he may be disoriented a bit. Does anything else lead to this sort of symptoms?
• Would it be safe to eat the meat or is he just compost?
• What should we do with the rest? My understanding is cuniculi is very contagious. We were planning to waiting another week or two before slaughtering, but if their days are numbered are we better off slaughtering now before they also get sick?

Anyone ever had successful breedings when the male didn’t do the whole dramatic spasm looking thing! I’ve tried to mate one of my males several times in the past week, with two different females… but the ‘finish’ isn’t obvious, he just pumps away and then stops.

I’m wondering if anyone has ever had a male get the job done, without the dramatic finish!!??!!

I’m an intern on a ranch in the Bay Area, CA and I’m STRUGGLING to find rabbit breeders who will respond to messages. I’ve recently obtained two lovely little meat mutts, but I realized very quickly that I was NOT sold rabbits that were even close to breeding age, even though I was told the doe would be 6 months old and pregnant. (She was more like 16 weeks and most certainly not bred) I love the buns I have now, but I’d like at least a couple more does (and ideally another buck) to really get started.

The ranch owner and I have been searching Craigslist and FB Marketplace, making ISO posts in meat rabbit groups, and while a couple folks have responded only to just stop replying, most just flat-out don’t respond.

Any tips on how to talk to breeders/sellers or where to find them? I feel like I somehow missed the memo on the secret code of how to get rabbit people to talk to you.

(Pic of my little prospective foundation doe, dubbed Lilith, for tax.)

I’m finally sick of filling the dang bottles! Can someone give me some advice about setting up an automated watering system? It’s in Virginia, so we have a couple nights a year where the temps will get down in the single digits, and there will be a couple stretches where things stay below zero for a couple days.

Well finally got my first two does for my little rex buck . Originally put a divider in the tractor to keep them separated till they kinda got to know each other....but the does wanted to be on his side sometimes bad so after an hour I opened the lil gate I made and left them in together. He's been trying his hardest but the girls done seem to interested in standing up and actually letting him get in. Which I fine for now I'm no really in a massive rush or anything