Next step small rabbitry?

[Adin]

So I've been breeding rats more than successfully for the last year and half. I have added three red tails added to my collection one being near breeder size and the other two being sub-adults. I know eventually there will be a time they will really need rabbits over rats. My large hypo salmon female can easily devour a large rat and seems to grow daily. So my main dilemmas here are that I don't want to breed a rabbit breed that gets overly big for Boas, What ratio of female rabbits to snakes would I need to feed my Boas? Do they breed fast enough like rats do to support a boa collection? Many many questions about rabbit breeding for specially the use of live feeders for reptiles, Just no-one to ask!

If you guys have some rabbitry set-ups I would love to see what you have going on, especially if your breeding for feeders like I would be mainly. I plan to hold on to the ones that don't get fed off if I over produce babies and sell them as pets. (Maybe even keep one for myself as a pet? )

[Rhasputin]

You can also try guinea pigs (though they only breed 1-2 times in their life) or coturnix quail. I think the quail qould never out grow your snakes, and they lay eggs like crazy. You'd just need to hatch them.

[txcoker]

Rabbits can have babies every 29-31 days. I give mine a week off after the last baby is weaned. You could probably get away with 2 females and 1 male. I have roughly 30 females and 5 males I am a little male heavy right now because I'm raising a couple to replace a few older bucks. I raise Californian and New Zealand.

Feel free to ask any questions.

[Adin]

Thanks for the replies, truly appreciated! I was also thinking quail vs. rabbits but idk if I like the idea of more eggs to incubate :/ but you never know I might change my mind on that. I would like to go with rabbits that stay about 8 lbs. or so. I was thinking silver martens but I would like to breed something that has a variety of coat colors as well. So many rabbit breeds to choose from it's crazy.

Edit: can rabbits be fed Mazuri 6F rodent feed or would I have to buy a separate feed for them? I plan in also feeding them small snacks for variety like I do with my rats. What are some good treats for rabbits?

[txcoker]

If you plan on feeding these to snakes I highly recommend going with a true meat rabbit(I prefer Californian & New Zealand's). Non meat rabbits don't carry the same muscle mass which translates to less meal for the animal. Also true meat rabbits grow to size quicker than non meat rabbits.

Not sure on the Mazuri 6f, I feed Purina Professional and GRO feeds. They run $13-16.00 a 50lb bag. I feed the growing rabbits 18% and the males and non birthing females the 16%.

Also you need to keep in mind that rabbits are temperature sensitive. They also crap and piss a lot! You will need a place to get rid of all of the wastes. It makes great fertilizer.

[Adin]

Garden compost or just trash it :/ I was planning on doing outdoor hutches and I'm in Colorado? I thought rabbits could handle being outside as long as their hutches were covered and insulated? Am I wrong on that?

[Skittles1101]

Garden compost or just trash it :/ I was planning on doing outdoor hutches and I'm in Colorado? I thought rabbits could handle being outside as long as their hutches were covered and insulated? Am I wrong on that?

My mother lives in Massachusetts and her rabbits live outside. Last year she kept their hutches really insulated and covered with blankets on really cold nights. She also found a website that has non-electric head pads. Not sure how they work, but she had to use them for a while over there as there were feet of snow and below freezing. Her females live together and use eachother pretty well for body heat, and her only male has a massive amount of fur but he was fine by himself. Not sure if they'l breed in the winter though. I'm no expert on rabbits, but he may have meant temperature sensitive as in they won't breed in certain temps?

[Adin]

Oh see now. There has to be some way to keep them warm outside. :/

[txcoker]

You can keep them outside year round. In the winter they need to have a barrier from strong winds and snow/ice, in the summer the males will go sterile if temps stay in the 90's for an extended period. I use heat lamps and tarps for my outside rabbits during the winter. In the summer I have fans blowing through the cage area. The ones housed inside a building are kept between 70-80 degrees.

On the rabbit poop, yes you can use it in flower beds as well as a garden. It is a "cold" fertilizer, which basically means it won't burn your plants or garden such as horse/cow and chicken manure that needs time to get the high amounts of nitrogen out.

You can also scoop the poop and put it in your empty feed sacks and sell them on craigslist or if you can find some local organic garden clubs they would also probably buy it from you for $5-15.00.

[Annageckos]

Rabbits need rabbit food, it is different than rodent food(rabbits are not rodents, they are lagomorphs). Rabbit food is normally alfalfa or timothy based, though I think for breeding rabbits alfalfa would be preferred. Rabbits also should have hay to eat. Most veggies make good treats and many weeds too.