Raising Rabbits--Considerations for Preppers

In the prepping community, as soon as you mention raising rabbits someone brings up the "fact" that you can't live on rabbits because of rabbit starvation.  And if it isn't mentioned out loud, someone is still thinking about it and thinking you're an idiot and you're going to die when The Storm hits.

It's enough to make you want to bang your head on the wall.  But then people would begin to suspect you're even crazier than previously thought.  So you put a smile on your face and try to patiently explain what rabbit starvation really is.

Rabbit starvation is what happens to the body when a person subsists entirely on lean wild game, such as wild rabbits.  Also known as protein poisoning, it occurs when too much protein is consumed concurrently with a serious lack in the consumption of fats and carbohydrates.  Yes, it is a serious and potentially fatal condition.  Are you planning to subsist entirely on wild rabbits?  If so, this entire blog is not for you.  Better to spend your time elsewhere.

If you are not planning to live entirely off wild rabbits and if you are open to the idea of raising rabbits to supplement your food storage, read on.

Most people who begin raising livestock to feed their family start with chickens.  Having done both chickens and rabbits, I can say that chickens are definitely easier.  And chickens produce eggs, which is a huge plus.  But rabbits have a number of advantages as well, so let's run through that list.

--Rabbits are more efficient in meat production than chickens, meaning that it takes less feed to produce meat and they are ready for butchering sooner.
--Rabbits are very quiet, so they can be raised in close quarters, like apartments or subdivisions where houses are very close together, without attracting attention by their noise.
--Rabbit manure is the perfect garden manure.  It can be added directly to the garden without composting, unlike chicken manure.
--Rabbits are very calming to hold and can help reduce stress and anxiety levels.
--Domestic rabbits actually do have fat on them--it's wild rabbits that are lacking.
--Rabbits can be multi-purpose as well.  In addition to being raised for meat, their pelts are also useful.  In the case of angoras, you get the valuable fiber without even having to kill the rabbit.

In contemplating the idea of raising rabbits for meat, you'll have to research the breeds.  You have a lot of options.  Californians have the same coloring as a Siamese cat.  New Zealand whites, Americans, American chinchilla, beverens, and cinnamons are all good meat breeds and weigh in at eight to eleven pounds, a good size for a family meal.  I wouldn't recommend Flemish giants unless you are feeding a larger group--at twenty pounds that's a lot of meat if you don't happen to have refrigeration to preserve it, and it takes longer to grow them out.  If you want the pelts as well, the Rex is an excellent choice.  But if you're having a bit of trouble getting the children to buy in to the idea of rabbits because they don't want to eat them, you could approach it in a roundabout way, which is what we did.

We knew, of course, that our girls would not want to raise rabbits for dinner.  We had raised a batch of meat chickens in Missouri, and that was fine, but it just wasn't their thing.  They have pretty tender hearts, and while eating our own chickens was doable, rabbits would be a lot more difficult.  However, I really wanted to have some meat rabbits, just for preparedness purposes.  Personally, I do not need to eat meat.  I can be happy meeting my protein needs with beans and milk and eggs.  But my husband is a type-1 diabetic.  When food and insulin supplies become disrupted, we need to be able to feed him still.  He likes food.  To conserve his insulin supply, he will need a very low carbohydrate diet, and that means lots of meat and eggs.  We have no delusions about being able to live off the land and hunt all the meat that we need.  Game will become extremely difficult to obtain soon after there's no food in stores.

But I really didn't have time to raise rabbits, nor the inclination for butchering them myself. So could I get the girls to do it?

My daughters all love animals, the more the better.  And they'd been asking for more.  However, we told them we were not getting any more pets--their animals had to have a purpose.  So if they really wanted rabbits, did they want meat rabbits or wool rabbits?  I think it took all of two seconds to make that decision.  Wool rabbits.

After that, it was a matter of deciding which angora rabbit breed would be best.  (While you may not be deciding which breed of angora to raise, the decision-making process will be the same for meat breeds as well.)  With angoras, we had four breeds to choose from:  English, French, Satin, and Giant.  There are other angora breeds, but only these four are recognized by the American Rabbit Breeders Association, and this recognition is necessary in order to be able to participate fully in 4-H and other rabbit shows.  We ruled out the English angora because its fiber is very high maintenance, and because it is smaller--less meat.  Satin angoras don't produce much fiber.  Giant angoras are only white and are much larger, so they're a little harder to handle.  French angoras, we decided, were the perfect breed.  They produce a good amount of fiber, which is combed out about every three months, and their coat is usually very low maintenance, requiring only about five minutes of grooming per week.  They grow to about eight to ten pounds, a good size for meat, if necessary.  If (when) we need them for meat for their dad, it will be an easy transition. 

Have we ever butchered our rabbits?  No.  Honestly, it's not something we look forward to.  The girls do become very attached to them.  The rabbits all have their own quirks and personalities.  And angora fiber is pretty valuable and sells for up to $10 an ounce.  But for us, the greatest value (right now) is being able to spin that fiber into very soft, very warm yarn for mittens, hats, scarves, and sweaters.

And no, you don't need a spinning wheel.  But that's for another post. 

27 december 2018