Quote Originally Posted by satomi325 View Post
But the thing is most food grade rabbits are huge. And a small food grade adult rabbit is still rather big for a ball.... Most smaller breeds are for show or pet grade. I'm not saying that you can't buy a smaller breed to feed a ball, just most small breed rabbits aren't worth buying as food because they're meant for show or as a pet. Their price tags are significantly higher than a rabbit meant for consumption.

My boyfriend just bought his ball and ferrets a few rabbits to try out for the first time. The kits still had their eyes closed and were about medium-large rat size. The rabbits were cheap. 4 kits for $4($ per pound). That's cheaper than medium rats. The guy specifically breeds meat rabbits.

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if someone starts breeding rabbits for food, i dont think the price for the initial breeders to start the colony with would be an issue. small breeds of rabbits that are pet quality / show quality may be too expensive to be used as food right now, in the current market, but they are not too expensive to be used to start a breeding colony. once they start reproducing, well, like rabbits, the initial cost to get a few good breeders will become meaningless. just like with rats, where some people have morphs and and high quality genes in their breeding colony and pay premium for ideal breeders to start with.


i dont know what will be more economically sound, but rabbits and rats are both mammals that grow quickly and reproduce quickly, both can be kept in groups and take care of their offspring and are quite easy to keep. unless im really missing something in the picture, i think the economics of it will be comparable, so both can work even if customers try to keep costs down for the feeders they buy.