Does anybody keep rabbits for food ?

So I was looking for a recipe to make my own cat food, and I stumbled across this site that ideally recommended feeding either poultry or rabbit.

Then that site recommended a site where you can buy rabbit meat and I came across this page:




Then I saw the picture of these cute rabbits for sale.


Growing up as a kid loving animals, it was a horrifying thought imagining these cute little bunnies getting their heads chopped off like on an assembly line. Imagine the guy who's job it is to grab these cute little bunnies and chop their heads off one after another and skin them.


On the other hand, I thought what an inexpensive, healthy and convenient way to provide meat for oneself. They do reproduce 'like rabbits'.

Anyway I was wondering if anyone kept rabbits or other little furry cute animals for food?

a reply to: nOraKat

it depends - while its theoretically feasible

here [ UK ] veryone i know who " uses " rabbit - sources them from vermin control - golf courses , agriculture etc

supply can be erratic - but ts cheep

i am unaware of anyone running a commerical rabit farming venture - for meat production

I really like rabbit meat, makes a great stew, can be grilled etc.
I’ve always considered keeping rabbits and feeding them only the best carrots ..
But haven’t got around to that yet.
Rabbits and ducks.
It’s good meat.

Best of luck!

a reply to: ignorant_ape

People used to go rabbiting for food with flashlights at night. Not so much these days

In the UK I used to shoot rabbits for the pot. There used to be plentiful and are classified a vermin. Now sadly the population of wild rabbits is in a terrible state (at least where I live) having crashed from 2010 onwards due to rabbit haemorrhagic disease. To make matters worse a new hemorrhagic virus is now doing the rounds and killing hares. Poor rabbits. Poor hares. Soon there will be nothing left.

a reply to: surfer_soul

" lamping " s still a technique used in UK - we dont use vehicles much - and the laws have changed over the years - but dependant on target and if you use dogs - its still used .

Seems it could be a good idea, especially in the event of a SHTF food shortage.

Beware 'rabbit starvation', though, and keep diet varied;

Protein poisoning (also referred to colloquially as rabbit starvation, mal de caribou, or fat starvation) is a rare form of acute malnutrition thought to be caused by a near complete absence of fat in the diet.

...Protein poisoning was first noted as a consequence of eating rabbit meat exclusively, hence the term, "rabbit starvation". Rabbit meat is very lean; commercial rabbit meat has 50–100 g dissectable fat per 2 kg (live weight). Based on a carcass yield of 60%, rabbit meat is around 8.3% fat[1] while beef and pork are 32% fat and lamb 28%

Rabbit Starvation - Wiki

I used to hunt rabbits for the pot myself, can't beat a good rabbit stew 👌

I shoot them every now and then. I got 32 of them at my pals farm last year and mostly made stew from them.
I attempted to cure the skin's but they went a bit rotten so I'm gonna have to study how to make skin's. I'm using them for game of thrones style cloaks 😁.
Rabbits a lovely meat even more protein than beef or chicken.

a reply to: nOraKat

I have eaten Rabbits but keeping them and then killing them for food would seem a bit like killing a Cat or a Dog.

I just don't think i could do it unless i was really bloody hungry.

a reply to: andy06shake

I gotta admit it is easy from 40 yards or so to kill em but a couple of years back I made a spring trap and caught one but it only broke it's back so I had to snap it's neck...boy I cried as I did it and cried as I ate it.
It made a scream that haunts me....
Bloody wet I am lol.

Ketsuko and I considered it for a while. We have a 2-level deck that would offer protection from the elements, and there is a specialty meats butcher within a mile that could dress the carcasses for us.

They are quieter than chickens (and carry less transmissible diseases), can be fed some weeds and grass clippings as part of their diet, and their pellets make great fertilizer for a garden.

a reply to: nOraKat

I live on a farm with lots of wild rabbits. My cat catches his own rabbit food - problem solved for me!

a reply to: nOraKat

I used to bone out pigs heads in my late teens to early 20s. But rabbits are considered vermin and your allowed to hunt them at certain times of the year in Scotland, another thing if you only ate rabbit you would die of malnutrition as your digestive system uses more energy to digest it, seen that on the TV program QI... I'm guessing if you stew it then that's probably ok, don't quote me on that though.

a reply to: Teikiatsu

Plus they breed like well erm rabbits

a reply to: andy06shake

theres fooking wierdoes who keep a slab of self proppelled bacon as a " pet " - now thats sick

a reply to: MyToxicTash

At least you are using the flesh and not doing it for sport.

Think i would be in the same boat, could do it from 40 yards, and even up close at a push, but i would have a wee tear in my eye either way.

a reply to: ignorant_ape

Some monkeys use pigs as horses.
Dunno why that came to me but hey hum.

a reply to: ignorant_ape

You had me at bacon.

a reply to: andy06shake

I argue with my vegan lesbian girls that if we didn't kill em they would destroy the crops therefore I'm saving their food.
One was around my house sat on a fur rug should have seen her jump up when I told her it wasn't faux fur 😁 love winding up vegans.
But I suppose the more I kill the more used to it I will become.
Gonna have another hunt soon I think.

a reply to: MyToxicTash

That's it, my first job was cleaner and to bring pigs off the trailer and into their pens ready for slaughter, they knew what was going down, at first the screams they made had an unsettling effect on me but after a few weeks it became normal, never got used to the special order from Chinese customers though, they liked piglet for certain occasions, although it wasn't often I don't think I could of ever got used to bringing those little guys off the trailer. Even working on the kill line was tough when a little piglet came your way, I remember as soon as it came out the plouter you had to put a foot in its mouth so it would set in an open position so an apple could be placed in its mouth.