Anyone here raise rabbits?

[Big-Ed]

Wondering if it is worth trying to raise meat rabbits in the TX heat (cats, dogs, other dangers in town). If it was something worth the effort, I could setup a rabbit operation on our land 4 miles away (I already have shelter, power, water, etc).

[kcmarullo]

You would need double bottom in your cage to keep dogs from pulling the rabbits feet through the wire.

[XBowHunterMike]

I don’t raise them but my wife’s grandmother does. She would show them and has some great best of breed awards.

Breeding, showing and selling. She does it all.

[Burnadell]

Chew, Chew, Bobby's your man! If he can't supply you, nobody can!!!

[AntlerCollector]

Chew has awesome videos on YouTube that you may find extremely helpful

[Strummer]

I raised Tamuks rabbits . Same breed as chew . The are the best for the Tx heat .

[tex4k]

Friend of mine did, his nephew(renting mobile home space on property) kept bringing in wild jackrabbits to feed a couple of penned bobcats, apparently the wild rabbits had some kind of infectious disease, my friend was out of the rabbit business in like a week. Moral of the story keep your domestics well away from wild rabbits!!! For those that are gonna ask, they're fairly sure the cross contamination came from said nephew feeding while my friend was out of town.

[Chew]

I'm just getting started. But these TAMUK Composites seem to be doing very well in the heat. I still keep a box fan blowing through their cages most days....but they are very active when most other rabbits would be laying around panting or stroking out. If you want to get in touch with the rabbitry where I bought mine, let me know. She's in Campbell, Tx

[Big-Ed]

Awesome! The heat was a big worry. I don't want house pets.

Feral cats would be my biggest concern since I have a fenced backyard. Just trying to see if it is something that would be useful and possibly profitable.

Big-Ed

[Matteo]

Put your hutch under as much shade as possible.

[RifleBowPistol]

We raised show rabbits as kids, for 4-H. You will learn rabbits are not the nicest sweetest animals, but everything likes to eat them. I would build a tall enough fence around the rabbit hutches, to keep dogs out. I would say at least twice a year, we would have dogs rip a hole in the bottom of the rabbit hutch. The bottoms of the hutches are made of hardware cloth. It's pretty durable, Then usually chicken wire for the rest of the cage/hutch. You will get a lot of fertilizer from them, depending on how many you have.

We had plenty of large live oaks, and lived on the coast where there was always a good breeze, when we had rabbits. We never had any problems with rabbits dying of heat. We lost rabbits to old age, dogs and other rabbits. You will want more hutches than you have rabbits. You will have to move rabbits around at times. When I female gets pregnant, usually the only sign you will have that she is about to have a litter, is she will start ripping fur from her collar and building a nest. That's mainly after they have had a litter or two. The first time they have a litter, they will usually give birth and not understand what's going on and eat the babies. Then the next morning you will find baby rabbit parts and blood all over the cage.

If a female has a litter, you need to keep any bucks away from her, actually keep all other rabbits away from her. Usually the males/bucks will each through the chicken wire, to get to the babies, then kill and eat them. But we have had other female rabbits do the same. But then we have had other female rabbits try to steal the babies. Rabbits are nuts. You don't want any other rabbits in a cage with with a female that is about to have babies or even in the next cage over, because they will eat through the chicken wire.
We had one big female that had previously had many litters, never ate or killed any of the babies. She was one of the best does we ever had. But then one night she had a litter, we did not know she was pregnant. There was a buck in the cage next to her, he ate through the chicken wire, got into her cage. She kicked his azz. There was blood and fur all over the place, the next morning. We saw blood, fur and a big hole between the two cages, and was sure he ate some babies. But then we saw there was a whole litter, no baby rabbit parts in the bottom of the cage. But he was way at the other end of his cage in the corner. So we quickly realized she had kicked his azz, that night. But then the next night, she killed and ate all the babies. First and last time she ever did that.

Ants can be a bit of a problem, we had some problem with fire ants and rabbits, but not nearly as bad as the fire ants eating the chickens alive on the nests. Cats would scare the rabbits at times, but never did any damage. Don't think we ever had problems with snakes getting into the cages. I think the only animals other than rabbits that harmed the rabbits were dogs. I want to say we had some bad thunder storms than caused the rabbits to go nuts. Then would run around their cages, wind up stomping any smaller rabbits to death, I don't think deliberately, just out of panic. During hurricanes we would move them into the garage, till the storm passed.

If the rabbits were in a area, that gets very hot, no breeze and left in the direct sun, it could kill them, I would bet. We never had problems with heat, but our rabbits were never in the direct sun light.

Also I would have running water near the cages, you will need to spray the cages out every so often, rabbit poo will build up in the cages, most of it drops through to the ground, but some will build up in areas of the cages. Also another reason to have more cages/hutches, than rabbits. So you can move them to clean their cages. Then also if a rabbit eats a hole between two cages, it's easier in the middle of the night, to just move one rabbit to another cage, than to fix the hole in the middle of the night.

[Big-Ed]

Lots of good info! Eye-opening info...
Definitely not raising pets... these are for meat.

So full shade or just afternoon (heat) shade?

[Matteo]

As much shade as possible. Mine are under an oak and an ash. Double stacked cages in a two sided hutch. Water crocks and auto waterer. Water is important enough to be redundant. Box fan on top shared by two cages.

[Chew]

Yes...be careful with water. I have an automatic waterer (5 gallon bucket) that I fill every other day for 3 rabbits. Also water bottles for backup.

[Aggiebow88]

I betting Chew has some good info.
My knowledge is from HS when I raised and showed (30+ years ago). Best to keep each rabbit in a cage by itself. Only communal rabbits should be the weaned youngsters. re: the issues RBP outlined above.
When time to breed, put doe in cage with buck. watch closely, wont take long to see if does is receptive. if not take her out and try again a few days later.
when get close (weekish before) to time to have litter (28 days total if memory serves??) put nesting box with clean hay in with her an she will pull fur and make a nest a couple days before.
Plenty of clean water, food, shade, breeze.
Protect from bottom like said. I used good strong welded wire to build mine, double bottom.