meat rabbit breed suggestion

[Christyleigh]

Hello! My birthday present is to be a trio of meat rabbits. I am super excited and know the basics of rabbit keeping and am reading "Backyard Meat Rabbits" by Boyd Craven Jr. and "Beyond the Pellet, Feeding Rabbits Naturally" by Boyd Craven and Rick Worden.
My delema is what breed. I would like a heritage breed that tends to look the same within the breed so I don't attatch to one. Breeds that seem good to me are Silver Fox, Palomino and Cinnamon. I live in Northeast Illinois and they will be housed outside. Any input on these breeds or suggestions for others would be appreciated.

 

[cassie]

The most common meat rabbits used are Californians, New Zealands, and to a lesser extent, Florida Whites. They are all uniform in appearance and they perform well. I am not a big fan of feeding rabbits "naturally". Feed companies have spent a lot of money formulating rations suitable for a rabbit's needs. Balancing a diet yourself is not as easy as it seems. But they are your rabbits. You pays your money and you takes your choice.

 

[jak2002003]

My friend has great success with New Zealand Whites. He has a rabbit farm. He tried different breeds, but these proved to the hardiest and most prolific breeders.. and they took good care of their young.. not nervous or easily stressed.

 

[zaryka]

We've New Zealand Whites & Californians, the NZW are def much easier to breed than the Californians but both are great rabbits.

 

[chiklee]

Here is a good article for you if you want to produce large meat rabbits
This is how I breed mine and my breeders are over 20 Lbs Just look up Altex Rabbits and you will get the Idea .




The Altex Rabbit is a relatively new breed, produced for meat and not recognised as a show rabbit. The name comes from Al from Alabama and tex from Texas, and pronounced "all-tex". It is the product of Flemish Giant, Californian and Argente de Champagne crossings, also with New Zealand.[1] New Zealand crosses still have a large part to play in producing large rabbits for meat. Altex are predominantly albino.

 

[chiklee]

Did some one say meat rabbit? I'm stewey any one have a carrot?

 

[MrsKemmerlin]

Did some one say meat rabbit? I'm stewey any one have a carrot?

Stewey is cute, cute!

We have New Zealand whites and a NZ/Cali Cross - we are new to meat rabbits (actually have our first butcher date as this coming weekend) but everything seems to be going smooth thus far *knock on wood*

 

[N F C]

We have New Zealand Whites and Californians. So far, we've only had them long enough for one liter each but both breeds have done well with birthing and taking care of their babies. The Californian had 8 in her litter and the NZW had 2. It seemed to us the NZW's were a bit slower growing but they were the calmest and they did eventually catch up in size to the Calis.

We plan on breeding them again once the weather starts to cool off here in FL. We're still pretty new to rabbits so it's been very interesting learning about them.

 

[chiklee]

I have 4 cali born last week and 8 Flemish just born also
I own a black purebred Flemish named Leticia
a agouti mixed flemish doe named gracy
a mixed cali doe named lil momma
A mixed cali stewey buck
His brother thor
and a mixed silver Flemish named sterling
I had a littler in march and kept two does
one silver named René'
and a agouti named l'Ree
and yesterday I got my champagne That I always wanted He is not named yet He has a purebred name but I don't like it so thinking about a new one.
My agouti Flemish Gracy has some buns in the oven so I will be getting more in two weeks . she always gives me large litters .

 

[chiklee]

I have 4 cali born last week and 8 Flemish just born also
I own a black purebred Flemish named Leticia
a agouti mixed flemish doe named gracy
a mixed cali doe named lil momma
A mixed cali stewey buck
His brother thor
and a mixed silver Flemish named sterling
I had a littler in march and kept two does
one silver named René'
and a agouti named l'Ree
and yesterday I got my champagne That I always wanted He is not named yet He has a purebred name but I don't like it so thinking about a new one.
My agouti Flemish Gracy has some buns in the oven so I will be getting more in two weeks . she always gives me large litters .

My buck sterling

new litter Sterling is daddy