Also keep in mind that when spring approaches and there are constant changes in the weather, your rabbits are likely to start shedding before the last major frost is gone. So make sure that you keep an eye on your rabbits during these fluctuations, and remove extra bedding over the day if necessary to prevent them from burrowing into something too warm.

Rabbits do not sweat like humans. In fact, if you ever see your rabbit panting or appearing to sweat in hot weather, it is in serious trouble and must be cooled down. Rabbits regulate their body temperature through the ears, via the tiny veins that run close to the surface of the ear. That is why there is generally not much fur on the ears, so heat can escape through the blood as it passes through the thin ears. Rabbits with smaller ears are at higher risk of overheating in temperatures over 80°F.

It is also normal for reproduction to considerably slow down during warm months, especially if it remains over 85° for 4 days or more. The bucks begin to have fertility issues at that point.

Water is also important during hot weather to keep your rabbit hydrated. Rabbits will naturally consume more water as well as food during warm periods so that they can regulate body temperature. Place ice cubes in water bowls or bottles…or place frozen water bottles into the colony for the rabbits to lay on or next to. Just make sure they don’t start eating the bottles or lids.

Make sure that food remains dry and clean. During high humidity days, the feed may become damp and in turn may start to mold or mildew. This can be toxic to your rabbits, causing illness or even death.  You can also feed your rabbits a few frozen vegetables so that they are remaining well fed while also helping themselves stay cool.

It is also important to keep the stress level of your rabbits as low as possible at this point. Don’t handle them unless it is necessary and keep other animals away from the colony as well.

Metal nests are best because they last a very long time, are easy to sanitize and are great for summer nesting. In the summer, if the pups are hot, they will lie against the metal sides to dissipate heat.

Barley straw is the best option to line nests. Shavings and sawdust are terrible for your rabbits — they absorb water and become damp and cold. The dust from it can also cause illness and breathing problems in your rabbits. Also, most wood products now contain some preservatives and it has been banned for use as hog bedding. A good barley straw nest can last up to six weeks without changing. It sheds liquids and it has a hollow core so it provides constant insulation value even when wet.

Rabbit nesting boxes can be purchased in many places, made from wood, sheet metal, wire or a combination of these. Because you’ll be needing several nesting boxes around the same time, you may find buying them a bit expensive. Building a nesting box yourself is a fairly simple and inexpensive option. The material you select will not only dictate the price for the box but also how much cleanup time you need later on.

Regarding the flooring of the nest, building or buying one with pegboard floor will make sanitation a lot easier, especially if it is removable. You can use treated masonite peg board for the perforated floors of either metal or wood cages. Cut the peg board to fit the bottom of your nest, soak it in linseed oil and then dry it in a warm place for a couple weeks. It will become impermeable. A hinged top is also a great option for simple cleanup in colder climates where the rabbits need more warmth.

Whether you buy or build your nest boxes, be aware of the box’s size versus the size of your rabbit. The box should be large enough for your mother doe to comfortably turn around in after bedding has been added to the box and the entrance hole should be easy for the mother doe to fit through. The babies will also be hanging out in here for about 3 weeks so you need to allow space for them too.

Rabbit Nesting Box Dimensions by Breed Size
(Length x Height x Width)
Small – 12” x 8” x 10”
Medium -  16” x 10 1/2” x 10”
Large -  20” x 11 1/2” x 10”

Closing the box up with at least a partial top will give the mother rabbit a perch to escape to and will keep babies warm in cold weather. This will also allow you to isolate a doe that is causing problems with the pups. If you cannot close the box you will need to remove it from the cage.

Keeping the Nest Clean

An extra nest or two is essential when you need to clean it before the kits are ready to hop around the cage freely. Nests, especially wooden ones, should be scraped and scrubbed with lots of elbow grease and bleach or a disinfectant spray at weeks 2, 3 and 4 after the litter is born. Once the majority of the funk is gone, take a small propane torch to the cage to lightly burn off the remaining hair and manure (where nasty organisms love to grow and multiply.) Torching should be used in combination with other cleaning because neither will get the job done alone. Leaving the box out in the sunlight for a while will also help kill off harmful organisms.

An alternative cleaning process involves scrubbing and lots of bleach. First scrub out and rinse boxes and floors, then wash them in strong bleach solution. Soak floors or wooden sides in clean water, twice, scrubbing between soaks. Then drain them off and spray them with a strong bleach solution, keeping them wet five minutes. Finally, air dry the nest floor and wooden boxes for at least a week and re-bleach them. They are then ready to dry and be used again.

Feeding your meat rabbits is definitely the most expensive part of raising them but you’ll still get more bang for your buck than you would if you were raising other animals for meat. What you put into your rabbit will be directly reflected in what you get out. Quality, not quantity, is the key.

Rabbits are vegetarians but a large portion of the meat rabbit’s diet needs to be proteins and amino acids. However you try to combine them, there’s no way that a meat rabbit could ever get the protein needed to produce it’s fullest capacity and be in top health by getting these amino acids from salads alone.

If you’re not focusing on the goal of high production, rabbits can easily survive on grains, vegetables, lawn clippings, or garden and table scraps. Give them the tops of carrots, salad hearts that aren’t used in the salad itself, pumpkins and more. Subscribe to the Meat Rabbit News mailing list on the side of this page to get a whole list of fruits, vegetables, herbs, tree cuttings, leaves and flowers which are safe to feed rabbits for free.

During the Great Depression and in some third world countries, people still raise rabbits on a diet of scraps and grains alone.  The rabbits continue to produce and grow just fine, but their litters are smaller and grow more slowly. Not optimal if you’re raising meat rabbits. The rabbits may also lack protein, salt and other nutrients that they normally consume from feed pellets. Using a good store-bought feed pellet just simplifies your feeding routine and keeps you from spending a lot of time mixing together your own feed. An over- or underweight doe is more susceptible to disease and may have trouble breeding and kindling.

Feeders

Galvanized metal self-feeders are available at most feed stores for $6-7 each. A feeder is a metal box which attaches to the outside of the cage with a trough which sticks through a hole cut in your cage. Some hang entirely inside the cage. Get the model with the screened bottom so “fines” (dusty bits of the feed pellets) sift through. They only cost a bit more but will save you from cleaning them out all the time. Rabbits won’t eat the fines and the dust could cause respiratory problems if left in the cage.

You can also use dishes or crocks for food dishes but they get mistaken for a toilet by babies, are sat in and get knocked over. Using a feeder will make the process a lot easier and allows you to feed the rabbits without opening every cage door. They also hold more feed for times when your rabbits should have plenty of food available, such as when your doe is pregnant or has a litter being weaned,

Water bottles or watering system

Fresh, clean water is essential for your rabbits and needs to be available at all times. During warm weather, a doe and her kits may drink up to a gallon of water per day. Avoid using any sort of crocks, bowls or open-topped water bottles. As mentioned in the feeder section, rabbits love using bowls and crocks for a port-o-potty and will constantly flip them over. They are also a breeding ground for diseases like liver coccidiosis. If do decide to use a crock, make it a half-gallon stoneware crock that is heavy enough to stay put. Getting one with a sloping sides and a concave bottom will keep it from breaking during freezing temps in the winter.

The hanging water bottle with a dew drop valve is a common and inexpensive solution. If you buy one, spring for the hinge-topped rather than the bottom-filled bottles to save a lot of hassle and time. Remember, bigger is better when it comes to bottle size. You could also build your own bottle watering system with large jugs (such as a bleach bottle) and the dew drop valves themselves but make bottles small enough that you still need to refill them daily so you keep them cleaner. Build a rack to hold the jug upside down and feed the valve into the cage. Punch a few small holes in the bottom of the jug (which has become the top when it’s upside down) to vent it and keep the water flowing. Using large jugs keeps you from needing to add or change water so often, the rabbits will always have plenty of fresh water and freezing isn’t an issue since the jugs are plastic. Each rabbit will need his own bottle and they will need to be scrubbed out and disinfected from time to time with bleach or sanitizer.

Some things that you might often think to feed your meat rabbits are lettuce, cabbage, spinach and other leafy greens. While rabbits can eat these foods, they should only be feed in small portions at a time. Otherwise your rabbits will get diarrhea and you don’t want to be scrubbing cages all day. Other foods you should be careful with are Brussel sprouts, cauliflower, corn, groundsel, kale, molasses, mustard greens, tallow and turnips.

Meat rabbits can also eat a large variety of flowers, but crocus, daffodils, irises, poppies and tulips are a few that are not edible. In fact, any flower that comes from a bulb should be kept away from rabbits. So if you occasionally let your meat rabbits out to roam in the yard to much some fresh grass, be certain that they don’t get a hold of any of these flowers.

Never feed meat rabbits chocolate, rhubarb, beans, potato sprouts or the leaves from a tomato, peach or plum tree. Any sort of evergreen tree should not be fed to your rabbits, whether it’s just the leaves or twigs to gnaw on. And keep ivy away from them as well.

In addition to all these plants and flowers which cannot be fed to meat rabbits, there is also a considerable list of twigs that need to be avoided to keep your meat rabbit healthy. Starting with fruit tree twigs, never feed branches from an apricot, cherry, peach or plum tree. As previously mentioned, you should also never feed your rabbit any sort of evergreen branches. Other twigs to avoid feeding your meat rabbits are azalea, beech, clematis, elder, holly, ivy, mistletoe, oak, oleander, rhododendron, rosewood and wisteria.

This is just a small sampling of common plants, vegetables and foods that you might think about feeding to your rabbits. For a complete list of foods that could kill your meat rabbits, join our mailing list. You’ll also get a list of safe foods too. They’re both in an easy to read chart that you can print out and put beside your meat rabbit cages so you never have to question what is ok again.

Symptoms: In mild cases, no symptoms may be noticeable. In moderate to severe cases, your rabbit may have no appetite, diarrhea or will stop gaining weight. The rabbit may also appear bloated or as if it has a pot belly.

Treatment: Ponazuril (aka Marquis from Bayer) was developed to treat a microsporidian parasite in horses, but it has been found extremely effective for permanently removing coccidia in rabbits.  In the UK and Australia, there is a product called Baycox (toltrazuril) which has the same effect and is less expensive. Only 3 doses (1 per day are required) although some prefer to dose an additional 2 days to ensure that the protozoa are gone.

Previously it was not possible to rid the rabbit of the protozoa, only control their growth. This was done with a .025% level of sulfaquinoxaline in the feed for three or four weeks, or in the water for two or three weeks. Other sulfa drugs (sulfadimethoxine, triple sulfa, etc.) may be effective but are less toxic than sulfaquinoxaline. Amprolium in the feed or water was also sometimes effective. Not only are most coccidia resistant to these now, but as mentioned, the treatment lasted several weeks.

After an outbreak, be sure to sanitize and fully disinfect housing, cages, bedding, food and water dishes – anything your rabbit has come into contact with which would harbor coccidial protozoa.

Prevention: Coccidiosis is prevented simply by keeping your rabbit’s housing area as clean as possible. Keep rabbit housing clean and sanitize regularly. Design housing so droppings can fall through to the floor. Keep feces out of food and water. Use a hay rack or tie the hay up with a wire or string to keep it from getting trampled on and soiled.

NOTE: These suggestions for treatment and prevention are not being given by a licensed veterinarian. If you have concerns about the health of your rabbits, you may want to contact a professional. All animal drugs are now under federal regulations. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions and needle withdrawal times found on the label of each drug container. Observe all local laws and regulations governing proper drug usage. Dosages may change.