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.

The firm rabbit pellets are a nitrogen-rich natural fertilizer which will not burn your plants. Rabbit manure also contains a large amount of phosphorus which is important for flower and fruit formation. Studies of rabbit manure find the following mineral levels: 2.3% Potassium, 2.4% Nitrogen, 1.26% Calcium, 1.4% Phosphoric Acid, 0.6% Potash, 0.4% Magnesium and 0.36% Sulfur.

Unfortunately, raising multiple rabbits means more excrement to deal with and some find they have too much on their hands. There is a market for those wanting to sell rabbit droppings (about $5 for a five-gallon bucket) and rabbit manure tea for the garden, but there’s one more thing you can do with it which requires very little work at all: feed it to your earthworms.

Instead of keeping pans for droppings under your rabbit cages which will need to be emptied and cleaned frequently, you can keep earthworm bins directly below cages and hutches with wire bottoms. The feces will drop right through the wire holes and into the waiting worm bins. The worms will then gobble up the feces, reducing odor and fly problems, as well as helping to eliminate disease which spreads when rabbits are hopping around in their own excrement.

The worm compost, which will be even richer than the rabbit manure, can then be thrown on your garden or you can sell the worm compost as dry material or worm tea. Much like rabbit manure, worm compost is extremely mild to plants and will not harm them. In fact, the plants just take the nutrients they need and the rest goes into the dirt.

Vermicomposting, or composting with worms, will require a small amount of extra time and attention from you (feeding the worms, keeping the compost moist, harvesting worms or compost) but it’s a minimal time investment given the rewards. And you will be spending less time scraping rabbit droppings out of trays.

This type of arrangement works best in open well-ventilated rabbitries located in moderate climates. Worm beds need to be kept moist and rabbits prefer low humidity. If you live in a cold climate or your rabbitry is enclosed without good ventilation, you may experience more problems until a proper balance can be achieved. Instead you might also choose to keep the worm bins just outside the rabbitry so rabbit manure can be dumped into the worm bins conveniently and quickly.

So when you find yourself sick of scraping up rabbit poop, remember that there are other great alternatives for getting rid of the manure. And if you end up with way too much worm compost, you can usually get a better profit margin on it versus rabbit manure. Covering the costs of running your rabbitry is always a big plus.

• Would you like to know exactly where the meat you are eating came from and what happened to it during its lifetime?
• Would you like to fully control the animal’s diet and whether it truly was fed organic feed and the best other foods possible, instead of just being pumped full of chemicals?
• Would you like to be certain that it lived in a cage or pen that was cleaned regularly, where it lived a content life and was culled humanely?
• Would you like to provide your family with warm clothing as well as put food on the table?
• Would you like to have meat, fur, rabbits and more to sell, trade or barter?

All that and more is possible if you begin raising your own rabbits for meat. Rabbits are quiet, clean and docile creatures which can even be raised in your home. Even most apartment dwellers can find enough space to raise a few rabbits and neighbors may never even know they are there.

People have been raising meat rabbits for centuries but breeding rabbits for meat and fur production didn’t become popular in the United States until the beginning of the 20th century. During the Great Depression, many families began raising rabbits for food to avoid starvation and provide a significant source of protein. Despite only feeding the rabbits table scraps and foraged greens, a family could still have decent rabbit meat production numbers although the rabbits were not at their ultimate protein levels.

The US Agricultural Department expects food prices to rise 3.5-4.5% in 2009, versus an increase of 5-6% in 2008. The average price of beef has increased almost 44% since 1996.  The price for a pound of chicken has increased 300% since 1998. Do you want to keep giving your money to big business or would you rather keep it at home where it belongs? There is no better time to take control of your own food supply chain and to being raising meat rabbits in addition to growing your own vegetables and fruits. Just a few minutes out of every evening are enough to keep your rabbitry running smoothly.

Active, growing and producing meat rabbits need about 1100 calories a day. A doe and her litter will usually eat 100–120 lb. of feed during an 8-week period. A variety of hay and straw must also be encouraged all day long (i.e. replenish available hay a few times a day) so that your rabbits get all the fiber and roughage needed. Be sure to also include plenty of twigs for them to gnaw on which keep teeth filed down. Rabbits can be fed twigs from apple, pear, fir, hazel, hawthorn, maple, spruce and willow trees or from blackberry and raspberry patches.

If your rabbit is leaving a lot of food behind from one feeding to the next, cut back on feed. On the other hand, if your meat rabbit seems to be hungry all the time, give it more food. Just remember that overfeeding can lead to poorly producing meat rabbits, especially does. Does start to build up fat which leads to breeding complications and makes it more difficult for them to give birth. If your meat rabbit suddenly loses its appetite or has no interest in food, it could be a sign of health problems.

The easiest way to tell if you are giving your rabbit the right amount of food is to stroke its backbone regularly. If the ridge of the backbone is present but feels rounded, your meat rabbit is receiving the right amount of food. If the ridges of the backbone feel pointed and sharp, start giving your rabbit more food. If you can’t feel the backbone, decrease your rabbit’s intake. A quick weekly check while you are inspecting feet and other parts is recommended.

Generally, pregnant does, lactating does with litters and growing fryers (1-3 months old) can be fed as much as they will eat (until they start leaving food behind). Replacement meat rabbits being brought into the breeding cycle and bucks you are currently using for breeding should be fed about 6-8 ounces of pellets a day. Dry does and bucks which are no longer reproducing have lighter needs of about 4-6 ounces a day.

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.

One local farmer, Nguyen Dinh Hoi, explains how the new system is working for him:

“My family consists of  my wife and four children; we earn a living mainly by raising chickens and pigs. However, we did not have enough money to raise many of them. We also do not know how to prevent disease or how to take care of these animals so that they can grow fast. Some months ago, I was selected to take part in the rabbit breeding model. The knowledge that I have gained from the meetings I share with my family as we all take care of the rabbits. So far, we have done well and been able to increase our family income.”

Forty households currently participate in the program which has been going on since February 2009. Each family in the program was given five rabbits of each sex and money for cages and vaccinations. Training courses have also been conducted to teach families about feeding and caring for the rabbits.

So far each household has earned an extra 2,000,000 Vietnam Dong ($112 or €79). In a place where most families live on about $1.50 (€1) a day, that’s a considerable amount of money in just a few months time. The extra income will be used to keep food on the families’ tables and send their children to school.

At the moment there is an incredibly high demand for rabbit meat and not nearly enough suppliers. More and more restaurants are adding it to their menus in an attempt to be more European, many supermarkets in America carry rabbit meat and Carnival Cruise Lines has been a large buyer of rabbit meat in the past. Hurricane Katrina put a damper on some of Carnival Cruise Lines’ purchasing power which forced many breeders out of business when demand suddenly dropped off, but there is still meat to be sold. Those willing to get a USDA certification will probably find themselves with more business than they can handle.

So with all this demand, why is it so hard to become rich off rabbits? One issue is that rabbit meat sales are often cyclical. And in the summer months, rabbits slow down their production and growth. This causes many breeders to try to increase their meat production by adding more breeding rabbits in the summer. But then they forget to decrease production or plan incorrectly and find themselves with way too much meat later in the year.

If you are hoping to become a millionaire off rabbits, try entering the market for rabbit serum, or blood which has been cleaned. It’s the animal blood closest to humans and therefore highly in demand for cancer research. It can be sold for $15,000-20,000 a gallon. But finding your way onto the list of  biomedical sellers is not easy.

In Alabama, there is a lot of initiative and encouragement being shown for rabbit meat breeders. The state has been allocating money to provide technical and marketing support. This has led to formation of Alabama A+ Marketing; coordination of better prices on rabbit feed; centralized pickup points to ship the product to the Kentucky processor; and even persuading a Birmingham culinary school and fine restaurants to develop more rabbit dishes.