I was hoping Will could help me out here, but if there's anyone else with experience, please feel free to post!

I've raised rabbits before as pets, but I was thinking of starting a small rabbit-raising venture for the dogs, since I'm just getting started at raw feeding. Are there any good sources of information online that could help me get started? How many rabbits should I start with?

You comfortable with killing them?
I would start there first...buy a couple, kill, process and see if it is for you.

I do not have an ethical issue with it, heck they are probably better off than commercially raised animals but killing bunny foo foo would be hard for me..........and I used to work at a vet school and killed scores of research dogs....but an injection is more detached than snapping a neck.

I can just see it now - me raising bunnies or chickens or whatever for meat - I would end up with thousands of pet bunnies and chickens. I couldn't kill any of them, especially the rabbits - maybe I could send the chickens off to be processed - but the rabbits would quickly have names and be part of the family. Nope, I couldn't do it that's for sure.

molly

Nancy, I *think* I could do it. I would be knowing from the get-go that they were going to have to be killed one day, so I think that would keep me from getting attached to them as pets. Adam said he could do it for me until I got 'comfortable' with it.

I've raised fancy mice before, too, and I had to kill a few of them one time when I had a bot fly infestation. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> It was hard, but I was able to do it - and they WERE pets and did have names.

Kristen...I just didn't post the method of killing the bunnies because it sounds so brutal in print. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

It'll just give the PETA morons something else to complain about ( of course, with the news coverage of PETA killing all those shelter animals and dumping their bodies into dumpsters, maybe they'll shut their hypocritical mouths for a change )

Rabbit is a great meat though, it's easy to replace chicken with it in nearly any recipe.

Kristen,
Go back to the Raising Chickens thread and go to the Link that Lynn posted: Old Mother Earth. They have step by step instructions.

I'm really thinking hard on this one, I think I'm more like Molly! My BF, who I attempted to delegate this job to told me to "Foo off". He too would have them all named. He's so bad he throws my fish back in the water when I catch one. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

This website has step-by-step instructions on how to butcher rabbits, along with pics. It is written by a woman who raises rabbits for her dogs. It's not for the squeamish <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> but has a bunch of good info.

Oh wow! I didn't even see that section of the Raw Dog Ranch website, and I've been there many times. It's one of the best websites that I've found on getting started with the raw diet.

Man, sometimes I wonder about myself. lol

I've raised gerbils for my snake both as pets (they're fun and cute) and as food, and it wasn't hard for me to kill them. It's not necessarily that I've got a hard heart, far from it, it's just that I keep in mind that I've given these guys a very comfy life, they had the best food, a good environment, and the killing is swift, they most likely feel very little or nothing- no suffering, that's the key. The absolute worst thing you can do to a food animal is botch the killing. No animal deserves to die the prolonged, ugly way many do in slaughterhouses (for the record, I'm no animal-rights fanatic). When you do start keeping rabbits, I'd suggest finding someone experienced in killing rabbits or similar mammals of that size so you can be taught how to do it as well as see how it's done. I've read some horror stories on attempted killings gone very bad, and it sucks to have that on your mind :| You've already done mice, so that will help some. Breaking the neck really is the best way, and I checked out the butcher site that was posted, and I think that broomstick method may be tough for a first-timer to pull off. I know pithing works fantastically but it can be difficult to learn. I know some people recommended CO2, but that may be hard to execute and I'm not 100% sure that it's painless, if anyone can clear that up that'd be nice.

THe broom stick method looked clumsy to me.

I recall my uncle who raised a hog some chickens and rabbits (not to mention the ocassional 'possum) would hold them by the back legs with one hand and stretch them out and snap the neck with the other and it was fast.

No moral issues just not sure I could do it............but then I am not planning on raising bunnies.