I want to start raising rabbits for my dinner table.I am looking at the popular meat breeds,New Zealand white,Californian and Florida White.I wonder wich breed will give the most meat per pound of feed. Most butchering will be done at about 8 weeks.

The New Zealands are the largest of this group but I am not sure that they will produce the most meat at 8 weeks. The californian while not as large looks like it is a chunkier breed and may have less bone per pound. The Florida White is the smallest of the bunch but I have read that they have fast early gains in bodywieght and may consume less feed per pound of meat.

Anybody have experience with these breeds, or hopefully more than one of these breeds?

-- Brian (brilas@hotmail.com), February 24, 2002

Answers

I cross breed New Zealand does with a California buck and have great success! We usually butcher at 10 weeks and have really nice fryers. I've never had any luck with California does. I've heard they are notoriously hard to breed. So, I just stick with my New Zealands. Lately, I've been selling them faster than my rabbits can produce! I've got a waiting list!

Sorry, but I don't know anything about a Florida White - never heard of the breed before.

-- Cheryl in KS (cherylmccoy@rocketmail.com), February 24, 2002.

around 5 pounds,, and dead

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), February 25, 2002.

This 1998 West Virginia Univ., Production of Rabbits for Meat, http://www.wvu.edu/~agexten/forglvst/rbtprod.htm article might be of interest to you. Talks about hybrid vigor crossing and that it takes about 15 lbs of feed to produce 4 lbs of weight.

There are several more Univ. Articles listed at: Univ. Ext. Links, http://aggie- horticulture.tamu.edu/alternatives/alternativelinks.html#r, look under rabbits. The total list is: Rabbit Production (Penn State University), Commercial Rabbit Production (Mississippi State University), Starting A Rabbit Enterprise (Mississippi State University), Concerns To Consider When Building Rabbit Facilities (Mississippi State University), Slaughtering and Dressing Rabbits (Mississippi State University), Sources of Information for Rabbit Production (Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food), Alternative Opportunities for Small Farms: Rabbit Production Review (University of Florida), Production of Rabbits for Meat (West Virginia University), Selecting Breeding Stock (West Virginia University), Housing and Equipment for a Commercial Rabbitry (West Virginia University), Rabbit Nutrition (West Virginia University), Backyard Production of Meat Rabbits (Texas A&M)

-- BC (desertdweller44@yahoo.com), February 25, 2002.

Thanks for the help, I am still checking out the links. It seem one sight is down tonight.

-- Brian (brilas@hotmail.com), February 25, 2002.

Hi Brian, I raise Florida Whites, and they dress out at about 67% live weight, which is really good. Florida whites are smaller (about 6 pounds full adult weight) than NZW's and Californians, so it would depend on how many people you intend to feed at one meal. A 3- to 4-month-old florida white feeds our family of 3 no problem. If you have a large family I would suggest NZW's or Californians. BTW, I have a Californian doe and have had no problem breeding her, she had 9 babies this last time. It all depends on the rabbit.

-- Tracey in Alabama (trjlanier@cs.com), February 26, 2002.

Thanks Tracy, Did you breed the californian doe to a purebred buck? 9 babies is great, I dont think the Florida White will produce such a litter very often. How do your californian fryers dress out at 8 to 10 weeks. They get credited with a 50% dress out of live weight in the books.Lets see, if a californian dresses 4 lbs.x 50%=2 lbs.

Florida White 3 lbs x 67%=2.1 lbs on less feed??? How many babies do the whites have normally?

-- Brian (brilas@hotmail.com), February 27, 2002.

HI Brian, Yes my cal doe was bred to a purebred cal buck. 50% is about right for the californians or NZ's for that matter. My floridas usually have between 5 and 7 in a litter, but occasionally I will have one with only 3. Usually the magic number is 6 or 7. The only problem with big litters is that they don't grow out as big, because there are so many of them competing for the mother's milk....I would personally rather have a litter of 5 than 7 or 8 because all of the babies get enough and grow out really nice. If possible I usually try to foster them off and even out the babies if possible.

3 pounds is about right for a florida white at 10-12 weeks. I usually don't butcher them until 4 months unless I really need the cage space, and they are usually 4-4.5 pounds by the time they are 4 months old. The floridas DEFINITELY eat less than the californians or new zealands....and food ain't cheap by a long shot, so you should definitely take that into consideration too!

-- Tracey in Alabama (trjlanier@cs.com), February 27, 2002.

Thanks Tracy,I guess the only thing left to do is check prices on breeding stock. By the way feed prices average about 16 to 17 cents a pound in my area by the 50 # bags. It pays to manage your feed bill.

-- Brian (brilas@hotmail.com), February 28, 2002.