Well I am sorry to say I've decided to stop breeding rabbits for meat and fur.
It has not been cost effective, although it is a very good meat for the dogs to eat, the kids wouldn't eat the fluffy bunnies and it works out as rather expensive dog food so it's time to call it a day. Also I can't use 'the bunny room' any more as mum insist she has to have somewhere to sleep! Pah! lol
Perhaps if I had more land in which to grow more plants and hay for them to eat it and could raise them indoors it would have cost less. Don't get me wrong, it doesn't cot much to raise rabbits. A 12kg bag of pellets is about £10, A bale of hay is about £4 but if you take into account that you can't breed over the winter as they are outdoors and the baby bunnies can eat twice as much as an adult then each rabbit (which weighs about 1- 2 Kg) costs about £10 to raise. Unfortunately my dogs eat about 2 Kg a day! Just not worth it for me I'm afraid with the work involved in looking after them too.
Bye for now! I might blog about a different subject at some point!
It has not been cost effective, although it is a very good meat for the dogs to eat, the kids wouldn't eat the fluffy bunnies and it works out as rather expensive dog food so it's time to call it a day. Also I can't use 'the bunny room' any more as mum insist she has to have somewhere to sleep! Pah! lol
Perhaps if I had more land in which to grow more plants and hay for them to eat it and could raise them indoors it would have cost less. Don't get me wrong, it doesn't cot much to raise rabbits. A 12kg bag of pellets is about £10, A bale of hay is about £4 but if you take into account that you can't breed over the winter as they are outdoors and the baby bunnies can eat twice as much as an adult then each rabbit (which weighs about 1- 2 Kg) costs about £10 to raise. Unfortunately my dogs eat about 2 Kg a day! Just not worth it for me I'm afraid with the work involved in looking after them too.
Bye for now! I might blog about a different subject at some point!
I've read that the brains of an animal generally have enough tannins in them to tan they're own hide, and I was wondering why you didn't use this method (or if you didn't know about it?) I would also love to know where you learned all this stuff (if possible), because whenever I look up fur tanning all they talk about is leather, not fur (which apparently often falls out like you may have experienced). This is all so fascinating! Your philosophy is exactly like mine and it's awesome to read someone who's done it before :) I'm about to get some meat rabbits myself, and while I hoped for giant chinchilla's I could only find rex's but it's good to hear they're yummy. Thanks for posting all this stuff, although it's sad you had to stop. I intend to have mine running with the ducks and chooks outside, which sounds easier :)
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