Rabbits raised as food

When I was a kid we ate rabbit on a fairly regular basis. My dad's work was seasonal so in the winter we ate all kinds of things. We ate wild rabbit and I didn't like that as well. But we aslo raised and ate tame rabbit. It was ok, but not something that I miss eating. My parents still rasie rabbits for meat.

When we butcher rabbits, we usually cut the front of the throat to bleed them. They go into shock from it very quickly and I think it is pretty painless. You could break the neck first, but if you do it wrong it could just cause more pain and also, the quicker all the blood gets out, the better the quality of the meat.. We have "kill chutes" which are ust big metal funnel-type structures that we place them in after being cut so that they can flop and bleed out without getting dirty or bruising themselves, same as for chickens. As far as economics go, it is probably cheaper to buy meat at the store. Cattle, pigs, and poultry all convert feed into weight much more rapidly than rabbits and are far less delicate. But if you really like rabbit meat, raising rabbits is cheaper than buying rabbit meat.

Rabbits are an economical meat source, even if you buy everything you feed them. With a little research, you can raise meat rabbits with not many problems. Rabbits do need shelter from extreme cold and extreme heat and you have to learn to handle them. The butchering is the hardest part, in my opinion.

It is very much possible, and I have seen many of my relatives doing that. But I doubt whether I will ever be able to do that. I am too much in love with those creatures, and I had one wonderful rabbit as a pet once. So, I am not the pragmatic one about that.

I could never do something like this as I can't imagine eating something I raised :(. However I'm pretty sure it would prove to be economical if you can stomach it. I realize I'm being silly but I just couldn't do it myself. Lots of people raise chickens as well for the same reason, so I can't see that it would be any different with rabbits.

we have raised rabbits for meat and find it a wonderful addtion to our diet.it's worth all the money you put into the pens and feed just to know you raised it yourself and know what you are getting. we do the same with chickens right now. we've had several hens for eggs for a couple years now and it just makes sense to "put them in the pot" while still tender enough to eat, rather than watching them grow old. yes, it's hard to butcher, but once my hubby does that, it's 'meat' to me. :)

I remember as a child eating rabbit fairly regularly. I was wild rabbit at that time but later on my mom would raise them for food. She always told us not to name them because they would end up in the freezer eventually. I fortunately never saw her butcher them. It was a source of food for us, my mother was a single parent that had very little so we were thankful for something on the table. I am sure we ate stuff that I don't know to this day what it was and probably don't want to but I always knew when it was rabbit. I don't recall what I thought of the meat but I know it really hurt me to lose each rabbit.