Raising meat rabbits plays an important role for the homesteader and urban farmer. Meat rabbits provide a sustainable meat source, rabbit manure, furs, and a great experience for children.
They are a great meat source not only for people who live in the country but also for backyard homesteaders because they require a very small space and little time. Meat rabbits can even potentially provide all the meat a family needs for the whole year.
In this essential guide, I’m going to give you detailed information about raising meat rabbits for butcher. From selecting breeds of rabbits to feeding and caring for them. When we are done you will have a great understanding of how to raise wonderful rabbits yourself.
We Have Learned So Much Along The Way
We got our first rabbit years ago when Alex, Isaiah, and Marcus were small boys in 4h. It was such a fun experience for both them and me. Caring for them not only taught them responsibility but also built character and integrity in our boys.
We learned a lot more than basic rabbit care, being surrounded by professional rabbit breeders through all those years of 4h. However, that knowledge stopped with pet rabbits, we didn’t learn about raising and butchering rabbits until later. Eventually, we sold off all those pet rabbits, or they might have been let loose up the hill behind the barn at our Scio Farm, we’ll never know.
We thought we were pretty darn self-sufficient when we were on the farm in Scio, only to find out we weren’t. When the feed stores ran out of food during some hard times, we realized we had just traded our dependency on the grocery store for our dependency on the feed store!
Well, we were determined to find and fill those gaps in our self-sufficiency. When we moved to Arkansas, there was an obvious rekindling of our desire to truly pursue absolute self-sufficiency.
How to Raise Rabbits for Meat?
- First, you will want to breed often enough to produce enough a steady supply.
- Second, wean them at 6 weeks, separate them to another cage, and rebreed the doe.
- Third, feed them out till they are 10-12 weeks old, then butcher.
Why Raise Meat Rabbits?
Rabbits are a good source of meat and are easily able to be raised in backyards. They require very little time, just a few minutes every day. They are calm, gentle, and easy to take care of.
Benefits of Raising Meat Rabbits:
- Manure – rabbit droppings are the best fertilizer. Ready to go on the garden immediately, no composting necessary
- Meat – High protein, mild flavor of white meat, tastes like chicken meat. Not gamey.
- Pelts – soft, beautiful furs. Small and easy to tan.
- Quiet & Small Space – Good to raise in backyards, garages, and suburbs because they are very quiet and don’t take up a lot of space.
- Sustainable – Efficient at turning food into meat quickly. Easy to replace pellet feed for
- Easy Fast Chores – their chores can be done very quickly compared to all the other butcher animals like beef, pork, and chickens.
- Reproducer Quickly – They can produce enough to support an entire family with just a trio, breedable buck and 2 does.
- Simple Butcher – They don’t require a lot of large equipment to butcher like a steer or hog needs a way to lift them.
Is Butchering Meat Rabbits Hard?
If you have butchered animals before, this shouldn’t be too different except the hide comes off much quicker. Rabbits’ small size allows them to be hung on almost anything, from a clothesline to a tree branch.
If you have never butchered before, see if there is someone local who can show you how. Or even better, give you the hands-on experience of watching and helping them butcher. This will boost your confidence before you purchase your own meat rabbits. Check local FB groups or Craigslist.
Will My Family Eat Meat Rabbits?
This is something I suggest you experiment with before purchasing meat rabbits. Find some rabbit meat and cook it up, that’s the only way you will know.
Lastly, like with most homesteading tasks after the excitement wares off, sometimes the daily grind of the homestead workload can bury our purpose for doing a task. So stop right now and find your reason why you want to add meat rabbits to your homestead and write it down.
Rabbit Vocabulary
- Bucks – male rabbits
- Does – female rabbits
- Kit – baby rabbit
- Kindle/Kindling – mama rabbit giving birth
- Litter – batch of baby rabbits born together from the same mom
- Dewlap – roll of skin under does’ chin
- Junior – Rabbit under 6 months old
- Intermediate – Rabbit between 6-8 months old
- Senior – adult rabbit
- Dam – mother of a rabbit
- Sire – Father of a rabbit
- Proven – rabbit that has successfully had babies
- Fryers – young meat rabbits being raised to eat
- Grow Outs – young meat rabbits being raised to a butcher-weight
- Cull – to kill a rabbit that doesn’t meet standards
- Rabbitry – rabbit housing
Choosing the Right Meat Rabbit Breed
God made rabbits in a variety of breeds, sizes, and colors. There are small rabbits that are great for children’s pets and large breeds, like the flemish giants, that take a long time to grow. Then there are meat rabbits which have been bred specifically for meat processing. It’s not wise your first time to just go buy any cute little rabbits for meat rabbit farming.
Here is a quick list of rabbits to avoid purchasing and a list of meat rabbit breeds you should purchase. Even within the meat rabbit breeds, each breed has different growth rates.
First off, here are the breeds I advise against. They make great pets, but not good meat rabbits.
10 Worst Breeds of Rabbits for Meat: Small Breeds
- Flemish Giant Rabbits
- Holland Lops
- Any Smaller Rabbits
- Dutch Rabbits
- Mini Lop
- Dwarf Breeds
- Mini Rex Rabbits
- Netherland Dwarf Rabbits
- Lionhead Rabbits
- French Lops
10 Best Breeds of Rabbits for Meat: (and their adult weight)
- New Zealands: 10-12lb
- Californians: 8-11lb
- Silver Fox: 9-12lb
- TAMUK: 10-12lb
- Florida Whites: 8-9lb
- Champagne d’Argent: 9-12lb
- American Chinchilla: 9-12lb
- Standard Rex Rabbits: 8-9lb
- French Angora: 7.5-10.5lb
- Cinnamon: 8.5-11lb
My Favorite Breeds
New Zealand X Californian rabbits are my favorite. They are the most popular breeds for commercial use too. When I feed them the proper diet they have the best growth rate of all the meat rabbit breeds. I fold in a little Silver Fox because they have the highest meat ratio and TAMUKs for their fertility during high temperatures. It’s like a recipe for making cookies. You will eventually get your own breed or mixture of breeds that you prefer!
Don’t Purchase the Giant Breeds
Large rabbits like the Flemish Giant and Giant Chinchilla take a lot longer to get to weight, wasting time, food, and cage space. They also have large bones, which means less meat for their weight and size. Just stick with any of these 10 breeds and you will do just fine!
For more information on the best meat rabbits breeds check out these two posts by Imperfectly Happy and A Farm Girl in The Making.
Various Growth Rates of Meat Rabbit Breeds
It’s important to know the basics about the growth rates and stages of meat rabbits.
What is The Average Weight a Meat Rabbit is Butchered At?
The average live weight a meat rabbit is butchered at is between 3.5-5.5lbs. This usually means about 2-2.5lbs of dress weight. You will want at least 2.5 pounds dress weight to make all the effort worth it.
The ARBA (America Rabbit Breeders Association) describes the traditional market classes as:
| Fryer: | not over 10 weeks of age | 3-1/2 to 5-1/2 pounds |
| Roaster: | under 6 months of age | 5-1/2 to 9 pounds |
| Stewer: | 6 months and over | over 8 pounds |
What is The Average Time It Takes to Get a Meat Rabbit to Butcher Weight?
It usually takes between 8-10 weeks to raise a New Zealand or Californian meat rabbit to butcher weight. It can take more like 12-14 weeks to raise any other meat rabbit breed to butcher weight. Most people don’t wait longer than 16 weeks to ensure tender meat.
Rabbits start getting tougher and slightly more difficult to butcher once they are past 12 weeks. Also, their feed conversion starts dropping. They are pretty tough by the time they reach 6 months.
What to Consider When Purchasing Meat Rabbits
It is a good idea to purchase young rabbits as opposed to older ones, but no younger than 8 weeks of age. If you can afford to spend a little more on one of the rabbits, I would suggest buying a good quality young buck from a reputable breeder with quality stock.
Your size and growth rates can improve quite a bit by just purchasing better breeding stock to start with. His genes will influence half of every rabbit you produce. Whereas if you spend good money on only one female and not the rest, she would only be able to influence her babies.
If you can only afford regular rabbits off regular Craigslist, make sure at the very least they are one of the above meat breeds. It’s better to start somewhere than to never start at all.
It’s better to start somewhere than to never start at all.
-Cadence Farmhouse
Where to Purchase Meat Rabbits?
One of the hardest things when raising meat rabbits honestly is just finding the rabbits! There are several places where you can find meat rabbits to purchase. The best place to purchase meat rabbits is a local reputable breeder. Here is a Meat Rabbit Breeder Directory on the Homesteading Rabbits website. Another place to look would be The American Rabbit Breeders Association (ARBA), Craigslist, and local FB groups.
What Equipment Do I Need to Get Started Raising Meat Rabbits?
You will want to make sure you have everything before you bring your meat rabbits home. Here is a list to get you started:
Basic Rabbit Equipment:
- Hutch or cage
- Feeders & Pellet Rabbit Feed
- Feed Bucket or large garbage can with lid for storage
- Water bottles
- Salt/ mineral blocks
- Hay feeder & Hay
- Nail trimmers
- Brush
- Rest mats or ceramic tiles
- Twigs to chew on
- Later on: Nest box & Bedding
Housing for Meat Rabbits
One Cage per Rabbit
In order to ensure healthy rabbits, you will need to give the adult rabbits each their own cage of 4 square feet minimum. One hutch, rabbit tractor, or cage per adult rabbit. They will most likely fight if you leave a breeding pair in the same cage together except during breeding. Plus you will want a large grow-out pen or rabbit tractor for fryers.
It’s best not to keep the bucks directly next to any does, keep some space between them of at least a few feet. Bucks tend to spray less often if a doe is not next door. Keep a buck’s cage lower toward the ground to avoid getting sprayed.
Hanging Wire Cages
Hanging Wire Cages are the best way to keep rabbits. They are the cleanest, don’t take up much space, and provide more protection from snakes. No trays to dump. Just shovel the wood shavings up off the ground every so often and layer fresh stuff down.
Wood Homemade Cages
Homemade wood cages might get chewed and are not as easy to sanitize. This is why I don’t recommend buying used wood hutches. They are filthy, and can house mites, urine, and feces. Just invest in new cages or metal ones.
Rabbit tractors
Rabbit tractors are my favorite grow-out cages. It’s a lot like using a chicken tractor on meat chickens. It needs to be moved every day so the rabbits don’t get coccidiosis. They don’t provide enough cool shade in the extreme heat, nor warmth in the extreme cold. My only concern is wild rabbits spreading diseases to them, so keep a close eye on them. All the fresh grass sure reduces the feed cost though!
Fenced-in Colonies
I like to have a small herd in a rabbit colony with a rabbit hole or two, called “burrows”. It seems to make a good place to birth and raise babies with more temperature regulation coming from the earth. This helps in a good way to not stress out the rabbits from extreme hot and cold temperatures at least a little bit. It can lead to more parasites, fights, burrows flooding, and not as much protection. They are pretty complicated to keep well-maintained and I don’t suggest them for beginners.
What to Feed Meat Rabbits
Now that you have your rabbits and are all setup, it might feel overwhelming with all the different info on how much food and what to feed them. Let me break it down for you!
Quality Feed
Providing good quality food is important for growing healthy meat rabbits of all ages. A balanced diet includes clean water, good quality hay (like Timothy or Orchard grass hay), rabbit pellets, salt blocks, fresh foraged greens, and a variety of fresh vegetables from your garden.
Slow Consistent Changes
The most important thing with rabbit food is to be consistent and make changes slowly. If they have only been eating pelleted food, don’t give them a whole carrot randomly one day, just a piece of one is enough. If you have slowly added vegetables from the garden until they are eating half their diet of fresh vegetables, don’t suddenly quit one day and give them only pellets. The key is to just add things slowly and be consistent.
Appetite
You will want to pay attention to the food intake of your rabbit. If they lose their appetite that could be a sign of a more serious health issue like gi stasis. As long as they have an appetite and are a healthy body weight that’s what is most important.
Early Nutritional Requirements for Raising Meat Rabbits
Kits 0 – 4 weeks old: Rabbits are mammals and nurse their babies for the first few weeks of their life. As long as the mama is well taken care of and fed, she will be able to provide all of the nourishment for the growth of a rabbit.
Kits 4 – 6 weeks old: By the time they are three or four weeks old, they should be able to hop out of the nest box and roam around their mama’s cage. You will need to make sure they have access to clean water, good-quality food, and hay. They will begin to nibble and taste what they see their mama eating and gradually transition off her milk and start sharing her food and water.
You will want to make sure the water bottles are low enough or the bowls are not too big and deep. It’s better to use several smaller bowls for water than one large one. Replace these waters with fresh clean water daily. If they run out when you come to change it the next time, that means they don’t have enough and need more water containers. Or refill them more often.
Raising Meat Rabbits and Proper Nutrition
Grow-Out Butcher Rabbits & Breeding Stock Diet:
Fresh Water – Clean rabbit water bottles or bowls
Pellets – 18% protein pelleted rabbit food from your local feed store. Never ferment or wet the pellets. An adult rabbit gets ¾ c to 1 c pellets per day. Nursing does and baby rabbits should have access to an unlimited amount of pellets at all times. Never regulate their portions. Feed them where rain can’t get to it and get it wet.
Orchard Grass or Timothy Hay – Keep hay dry. They sell hay racks specifically for this. Don’t feed them alfalfa hay, it can cause bloat.
Twigs or small branches – (not from stone fruit like apricots, cherries, and peaches) are great at helping keep their teeth worn down. Just not grass clippings from a lawn mower. Yes, picking a handful of grass should be fine though.
Fresh Greens – grass, plantain, clover, and dandelions are all free and usually grow right in your yard. These are an extra food source and provide great nutrition, just make changes to their diet slowly. Even include these foraged foods slowly and be consistent with them. Don’t make sudden changes in their diet and risk causing bloat.
Vegetables – Vegetables fresh from the garden in abundance would not only help lower the feed bill but make for a more nutrient-dense meat. Don’t feed iceberg lettuce
Remember the most important thing with rabbit food is to be consistent and make changes slowly.
Breeding Meat Rabbits
Baby rabbits Baby rabbits are born hairless, and blind and depend on their mothers for all their needs. However, we can help her make sure these kits are well cared for by providing a clean, draft-free, warm box with plenty of material to line it. Also
Understanding Sexual Maturity:
Like all rabbits, meat rabbits reach sexual maturity at different ages depending on their breed and environment. Usually, females reach maturity first at about 3 to 4 months. This is sometime before they are ready to butcher, so it’s important to separate males from females to prevent any unplanned pregnancies. Professional breeders butcher or separate by the age of 12 weeks as a general rule of thumb.
Growing Meat Rabbits
A mother rabbit will have 8 baby bunnies on average as long as she is fed a healthy diet. KIts should be weaned around 6 weeks old, removed from the nest boxes, dewormed, and separated into another cage.
Extra Hay During Transition
Then, you’ll want to give them plenty of hay to ensure a smooth transition off of their mother’s milk and onto feed. Also, if you plan on butchering by 12 you won’t need to separate them by gender. However, if you butcher any later you will want to separate them so you don’t get any unexpected pregnancies.
Genetics, diet, and environment all affect the growth rates of meat rabbits. It’s important to keep them warm, clean, and dry. Then provide good nutrition, vegetables, salt block, and water in a balanced diet to ensure maximum growth potential.
Raising and Caring for Meat Rabbits
Chore-Time
As long as you have a good setup, rabbit chores are one of the easiest. They need to be fed, watered, and kept clean.
If you are keeping them in wire cages hanging in a small shed or garage, with an automatic water system, then this is your chore checklist.
Meat Rabbit Chore Checklist: Indoor Set-Up
- Daily Feed – ¾ – 1 cup of pellet rabbit feed
- Weekly Water- Check that the waterer has water and is working.
- Weekly Manure- Scoop up droppings and shavings with a shovel and wheelbarrow & replace them with clean shavings.
- Monthly Health – Check & trim nails if necessary
- Spring Only – Brush coat of all loose hair to help prevent hairballs.
If you are keeping them in wooden hutches outside with angled droppings collection trays and 5-gallon buckets, and use water bottles, then here is your chore checklist.
Meat Rabbit Chore Checklist: Outdoor Set-Up
- Daily Feed – ¾ – 1 cup of pellet rabbit feed
- Daily Water- Refill water bottles with clean water.
- Weekly Manure- Dump 5 gallon bucket of manure.
- Monthly Health – Check & trim nails if necessary. Check for signs of any other health concerns and address.
- Hot Weather – above 85* See Below.
- Cold Weather – below freezing See Below.
- Spring Only – Brush coat of all loose hair to help prevent hairballs.
Keeping Rabbits Comfortable in Extreme Hot and Cold Temperatures
Keeping Meat Rabbits Cool in the Heat of the Summer
It requires a little planning when keeping meat rabbits cool in the heat of the summer. No other sickness kills more rabbits every year than heat stroke does. We suggest not breeding during the middle of the summer if the temperatures get above 85 regularly. Regardless, you will want to move them to a shady cool place, and possibly provide fans, cool tiles, and frozen water bottles to help them cool down.
Bucks usually go sterile anyway, however TAMUKs don’t. They stay fertile all summer long, so if you have a TAMUK buck, you will want to keep him separate from the does for a time.
Keeping Meat Rabbits Warm in the Cold of the Winter
Rabbits do just fine in the cold, however, they can’t tolerate cold wind. So move hutches to a sheltered location like a shed, barn, garage, or cover with tarps well to stop the wind. If it gets really cold, stuff a pile of straw into the cage. They will burrow down and make a better-insulated temporary nest.
During the freezing weather, don’t forget to swap out the water bottles for warm ones several times a day. Also, you can just use bowls instead of the water bottles.
What Can Delay or Affect Growth When Raising Meat Rabbits
There are so many things I have gone over about raising meat rabbits. Here is the last topic, but it’s an important one! Health issues can delay growth by stressing the system. Here are some common Health Concerns in Rabbits:
Parasites – If rabbits are kept in clean wire cages they shouldn’t ever get them. But all other rabbits will need to be dewormed when showing signs like low weight, dull coat, clumped poop, etc. Dewormer is oral or liquid that goes in their water bottles.
Toenails – need to be trimmed. Use human toenail trimmers or cat clippers. Don’t cut the quick, it looks like a pink blood vessel in clear nails, Black nails are too hard to see.
Teeth – provide things for them to chew on, twigs, small branches, pinecones, and wood blocks.
Hairballs – Brush your rabbit when they are shedding to reduce hairballs.
Vaccines/Deworming – Rabbits don’t need vaccines or worming medication as long as they are raised in wire cages up off the ground. If they are on the ground, then deworm them right before pulling the babies out of the mama’s cage to separate them.
Health Concerns:
Common health concerns in meat rabbits are ear mites, dental problems, obesity, sore hocks, and gastrointestinal stasis. It’s important that you are familiar with the basic signs and symptoms of these conditions, so you can quickly care for them if they arise.
It is important to understand everything about raising meat rabbits to ensure they reach their full potential size swiftly. By giving them proper care, and nutrition, and by dealing with any health problems quickly, you will make sure your meat rabbits are healthy and end up with good meat quality.
The next layer to becoming entirely self-sustaining is to produce all your meat rabbits feed on your property. Join us as we continue to learn the art of self-sufficiency in its entirety.
Are you ready to go out and purchase your own meat rabbits now? Awesome!
For more information on butchering meat rabbits:
Checkout Homestead Rabbits. They have an entire course on it!
Here are Some Great Recipes to Use Your Homegrown Rabbits in:
Questions & Answers
The typical domestic rabbits stop growing at 6-8 months old for the average-sized rabbit, but they won’t be fully mature till about 1 year old.
Yes, we absolutely think it is worth raising meat rabbits! They are one of the quickest-growing protein sources we can grow. And if using rabbit tractors, they can be one of the cheapest meats also.
Typically meat rabbits should be ready to butcher at 8-12 weeks old, with an average of 10 weeks. So 6 weeks on the doe, and 4 weeks after weaning.
Rabbits are the one animal that only takes 2 or 3 to sustain any size family. It depends on if they are going to be your only source of meat or just a supplement to other main meats, to determine how many rabbits you will ultimately want to keep as your breeding stock. Either way. If you start by buying just a male and 2 females, you should be able to immediately keep a few of those daughters. Simply purchase a new unrelated male to breed to them all.
You can breed meat rabbits every 6 weeks at the closest. A doe can produce 4-5 litters per year comfortably and 7 at the very max.
Typically meat rabbits should be ready to butcher at 5-6lbs at 10-12 weeks old.
Can You Raise Meat Rabbits on the Ground?
Yes, many homesteaders successfully raise and grow their meat rabbits on the ground in rabbit tractors and in a rabbit colony. It is more complicated, so not recommended for a new rabbit breeder. But once you have the hang of things, then yes, absolutely possible.
Rabbit tractors allow for a grow-out pen of meat rabbits to be moved to fresh grass every day. This consistent diet allows for the maximum amount of fresh grass to be converted into meat, which makes for lower feed bills and healthier better-tasting meat.
How Many Meat Rabbits Will It Take to Feed Your Family?
3 Does can produce 336 babies in a year, and most families only need 1 rabbit per meal. So a typical-sized family only needs 2 or 3 does plus one buck to stay in fresh meat all year long!
A doe will comfortably produce 4-5 litters per year and each litter should average 8 kits. Let’s assume you have another meat source and only need rabbits for half your dinners each year.180 dinners divided by 8 kits per litter = 23 litters divided by 4 litters per year = 5.75 >> 6 Does are needed to feed my family of 12 half our own meat for a year!
Our family of 12 can eat 1 rabbit per meal as long as it’s deboned, cubed, and breaded in some sort of Asian stir fry like Sourdough Chinese Orange Chicken. It easily swaps out for fresh rabbit, and no one notices the swap ever!
Raising Meat Rabbits
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