Balls Eating Rabbits???

[Pythonfriend]

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.

[dgring]

1/2 lb rabbits are equivilent to large rats so smaller rabbits would possibly be a resonable food

[bcr229]

LOL if I'm going to go to the trouble to breed and raise feeder rabbits, they'll go into my crock pot, not into my snakes. Rabbit is good eating.

[Phantomtip]

You can do both depending on what breed you get. If you get 4 female and 2 males to start then you can breed 1 group to start for human and the other group for BP. I have actually looked into this because it would help supplement meat supply for my family. After the first group for humans is large enough you set aside 2 females and a male to breed further and the others go in the freezer. On th BP group depending on how many snakes you have then you use as you need till they are gone or too big then you breed those that are left. You can also use the manure for your garden and have all natural fertilizer which will help bring down cost there. Also your raw veggie scraps can be used to supplement the rabbit food diet. So if it's done right and you go for like a New Zealand breed its more cost effective than rats because you eat the rabbits too. Just remember every now and then you need to give the does a break or put them into the freezer or stew pot before they get too old cause the meat can go tough.

[satomi325]

Yay for bringing back a dead zombie thread. This is almost 2 years old.

Anyway, getting your BP to eat rabbit is one of the main problems. I've offered rabbit since this thread, but none of my balls recognize them as food.

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[patientz3ro]

Yay for bringing back a dead zombie thread. This is almost 2 years old.

Anyway, getting your BP to eat rabbit is one of the main problems. I've offered rabbit since this thread, but none of my balls recognize them as food.

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Lol! Maybe the zombie rabbit dance is different than the zombie rat dance?

Since this was resurrected, it got me curious...

Is there any truth to this "rabbits are steroids" thing? I track down are devour every scrap of BP knowledge I can get my hands on, and this is the first time I've ever heard of rabbits being some kind of ball python super growth fuel. Is there any way to verify it?

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[satomi325]

Lol! Maybe the zombie rabbit dance is different than the zombie rat dance?

Since this was resurrected, it got me curious...

Is there any truth to this "rabbits are steroids" thing? I track down are devour every scrap of BP knowledge I can get my hands on, and this is the first time I've ever heard of rabbits being some kind of ball python super growth fuel. Is there any way to verify it?

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I offered live kits. Lol
But that's still a funny joke.

I don't know anyone personally who feeds rabbits to their balls, but I can see how they could grow faster and larger on rabbits. Think of how much a BP grows once its switched off mice to rats. They generally grow larger in a shorter time frame than mouse fed BPs. And there tends to be a significant growth spurt from switching from mice to rats.

Its not so much a difference in nutrition, but rather a difference in quantity.
Even with the slower metabolism of adults, it seems logical to assume rabbit does the same thing in this case.
A snake really never stops growing after all. It just tends to dramatically slow.

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[bcr229]

Anyway, getting your BP to eat rabbit is one of the main problems. I've offered rabbit since this thread, but none of my balls recognize them as food.

Good point, considering all of the trouble keepers have getting balls to switch from mice to rats, I'm not sure taking the time to switch an adult over to rabbits is worth it.

OTOH my BCI's would probably switch without any effort whatsoever on my part.

[patientz3ro]

They generally grow larger in a shorter time frame than mouse fed BPs. And there tends to be a significant growth spurt from switching from mice to rats.

Its not so much a difference in nutrition, but rather a difference in quantity...

Interesting. I guess the question is, how much IS due to nutrition? Ajja is only slightly less than 3.5 feet at less than 2yrs old. My scale is dead the moment, but she's easily >2.5in in diameter. She gets 4 to 5 mice per meal, but that's mainly because we play with her food. I wonder what would happen...

Good point, considering all of the trouble keepers have getting balls to switch from mice to rats, I'm not sure taking the time to switch an adult over to rabbits is worth it.

OTOH my BCI's would probably switch without any effort whatsoever on my part.

I switched from live to F/T by "brain scenting." Easiest thing in the world. If I switch to rats, I plan to do the same thing. I'd bet rats to rabbits would work too. I swear, it's magic!


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