breeding rabbits

[Greg's C B Creations]

hello everyone.my friend has some big snakes.he has large boas burms and retics and rocks.i myself should be getting a burm soon.oneday he told me about breeding rabbits.i was wondering what species is the best to use as feeders and basic breeding instructions.we are hoping once we start breeding some we will save a little bit of money than having to buy rabbits every few weeks.thanks for you help.Greg

[Greg's C B Creations]

any one?

[youbeyouibei]

It depends on what size and the number of kits/animals you're needing. The largest breed is Flemish Giants, which have a lot of bone mass and not as much meat for their frame compared to a Californian or Rex. They'll top 30 pounds or so for a large one and are fully capable of injuring or killing even an adult snake, let alone they would probably be way too big for a food item. If you're wanting animals that have been raised/bred for meat for people, Californians, Himalayans and New Zealands (red or white) would be your best options. Those three breeds are bred for commercial meat sales and also by hobbyist breeders who raise their own meat. The kits mature fairly quickly, they throw large litters and tend to birth easily. Other options would be Rex or Mini Rex, as they're medium-sized rabbits and again, tend to birth easily, be decent to good meat producers and throw decent sized litters. Depending on how large a snake and/or how many you're feeding, figure out how many does (female rabbits) you'll need. One buck (male rabbit) can cover several does and they can be bred year-round if you set them up correctly. A Google search can tell you more than I could on what to look for and how to prepare if you're set on raising your own.

[mainbutter]

A great suggestion:

Don't ask snake people about breeding rabbits.

Ask rabbit people.

That said, I have a few comments that may steer you somewhere productive. Just so you go into this with your eyes open, breeding rabbits is not easy or cheap.. in fact I would go so far as to say it is pretty work-intensive, messy, and expensive. However, the same goes with keeping large constrictors, so it's to be expected. You'll also want to give serious consideration to the space requirement. Compared to rats, rabbits need ridiculous amounts of space to thrive. If you ever look into people who are serious about pet rabbits, they're going to start rattling off all the zillion reasons that rabbits make bad pets. This isn't to scare you away, but it's because rabbits are more than a handful for plenty of reasons, and the reasons why pet rabbits are difficult can apply equally to difficulties you will encounter while raising rabbits as snake food.

Handling water, food, and poop issues alone on a daily basis can be extremely taxing on a person's time and energy while keeping a lone rabbit, personally I can't imagine trying to breed a small group of rabbits AND keeping two large snakes AND having a 40-hour-a-week-job AND getting 8 hours of sleep a night AND staying sane.

If you're serious about it, do some looking into how rabbits are raise for commercial purposes, and also how rabbits are raised and kept for recreation. You'll probably want to find a balance of the two, I know I would as I personally can't stand typical commercial caging practices. Small cages, wire floors, and poor air circulation is a bad combination for rabbits. If I was going to raise rabbits for meat (human consumption OR snake consumption), I'd think of them more as 5lb cows and less like 5lb rats. Field-grazing farmland is about as ideal as you can get.

Don't forget, keeping mammals (particularly a large number of mammals being bred) is an every-day thing. There is no way I could take a weekend and go hunting or fishing, go to a wedding in another state, or travel for work if I was breeding rabbits.

[carlson]

My cousin has free ranging rabbits on his farm ha, they have a area in the barn that's caged so they are safe at night but during the day they hop around with the chickens and Ginny hens its kind of an odd site specially if a cow roams thru but the rabbits seem happy and are all good sized and nice enough you can pet and pick up if you wanted too.