I recently brought back 3 lovely young New Zealand female rabbits from my Uncles house in Salt Lake City. I am building some nice hutches and am going to get a buck and try my luck at raising rabbits for meat. The 3 I brought back are going to be pets and breeders. Anyone else on LBT raise or have raised rabbits for meat? My hubby and I can't kill anything so I am going to contact the local rabbit 4-H group about helping me. Otherwise my step father said he would happily help me too in exchange for dinner. I recently read some facts about rabbits. Their meat is something like 25% less in fat and cholesterol than chicken. I remember loving rabbit meat when I was young and even had it a few months ago and liked it. My bunnies are still a few months too young to breed but that gives me plenty of time getting a proper set up and learning more. Last year my mom and I split a 1/2 a beef that was locally raised on grass and grain. I will NEVER buy store meat again. That was the best damn beef ever. Even the traditionally tough cuts were so tender. I'm tired of ingesting hormones and chemicals from grocery store meat. I'm hoping next year to raise a calf of my own. Another nice benefit of rabbits is their manure. It is the only manure that doesn't have to be aged before putting it in your garden. I'm already putting that to good use in my vegetable garden. Anyway I just wanted to see if anyone else had any experience raising rabbits for this purpose (I had some as pets when I was a kid) and recipes using rabbit would be good too. Thanks Teresa

I was just thinking about this old feeling I used to have my entire life. I always felt I was born in the wrong place at the wrong time. I used to dream of being a homesteader and pioneer wife. I was actually very lucky as a child because we always had many different animals, goats, horses, pigs, dogs, cats, rabbits, ferrets, parrots, etc. We had a neighbor that owned 200 acres of ponds, woods, rivers and fields. We kept our horses there and THAT was my playground. I loved to innertube the river, canoe the ponds, catch frogs, lizards and snakes, hunt for treasure, pretend we were cowgirls and chase the cows on the horses (until we got in trouble for driving them thru a fence), we used to build castles in the hay barn, camp, etc. It was amazing. I miss those days. I was actually a vegetarian the first 7 years of my life. My dad was raised on a "dude ranch" in colorado and by the time my parents married and moved to Oregon they were a bit hippyish. We always had a greenhouse full of vegetables and a sailboat we took out on the nearby lake. It was also a bit of a tough childhood because of my parents divorce when I was 8 and being overweight. I went to the same school with the same classmates my entire life. At graduation I was reminded of events that had happened in first grade (peeing the swingset at school and forgetting to put on my bathing suit during swimming lessons. I just walked out to the pool area as naked as a jay bird and had no idea. Of course I was even heavy at that point in my life so I never lived that one down. LOL. Funny thing is, I NEVER see any of those people since graduation. Not even my two childhood best friends. We all just went our own ways. Anyhow enough rambling. I was raised a bit funny I guess.

I am with Jen...."Save the Rabbits"...but..........

when I was growing up, we raised our own rabbits and my dad butchered them and we had them for supper. I always thought it was chicken...did not find this out til way later in life after I was married that I had ate rabbit. I only eat beef, pork and chicken..no seafood, no squirrel, no deer, no frogs......just the 3 basics.......but, whatever works for you...Good Luck!!

what is the difference between rabbits and bunnies??? NOTHING!!!...this thread has really helped me today i am no longer hungry!!

or maybe slow roasted with a stuffing with just a hint of sage. yeah, Apricots and sage. You would need to probably tent to keep the meat moist.

So what time is dinner?

you girls are aweful, leave the bunnies alone.

why is it awful to eat bunnies but not chickens? If you've ever had a pet chicken you would think that chickens are pretty funny.

Lots of people don't/won't eat any meat. Some people won't eat anything that was ever cute. Some won't eat anything that had a face. No difference in eating beef than eating bunnies.