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Why is it so hard to find meat rabbits


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As in the title really, I am after some New Zealand white does and a New Zealand Red Buck,  yet I can't find any near me in West Wales or anywhere really for a reasonable price.

All I see are adverts for pet rabbits that are lops, netherland dwarfs or lionheads and some have been neutered at that and at very high prices.

I am scared to ask on some of the animal/pet forums as I get jumped on for daring to want meat rabbits.

Has anyone else had this problem,there doesn't seem to be any info on the net for NZ rabbit breeders in the UK maybe they also keep their heads down.

 

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On 19/10/2019 at 15:30, unicornleather said:

As in the title really, I am after some New Zealand white does and a New Zealand Red Buck,  yet I can't find any near me in West Wales or anywhere really for a reasonable price.

All I see are adverts for pet rabbits that are lops, netherland dwarfs or lionheads and some have been neutered at that and at very high prices.

I am scared to ask on some of the animal/pet forums as I get jumped on for daring to want meat rabbits.

Has anyone else had this problem,there doesn't seem to be any info on the net for NZ rabbit breeders in the UK maybe they also keep their heads down.

 

Commercial rabbit meat production was a mug's game. Even more so for the Good Lifers who couldn't achieve any sort of scale of economy. Low profits, regulations ,and the low price of wild and imported rabbit pretty much killed the industry. The money was in the sale of  breeding stock to hopefull beginers . Then came the boom in designer pet rabbits.

Hence you may have to pay show stock prices  for some starter stock. Though good nucleus bucks and does were never cheap.

The NZW and its strains were the industry mainstay, but if you are just hoping for an interesting hobby that provides a few family lunches why limit yourself? 

   The California was a close second in commercial popularity ,much prettier and easy to handle too.  The English rabbit may not match the size  and growth rate of the big commercial strains but it  is considered a quality meat breed and has the advantage that  spare stock should easily sell on the show or  pet market. 

I doubt Hyline are still in the rabbit business but  they ,or The Commercial Rabbit Association , used to be the people to seek stock,equipment or advice from . You could try some of the smallholders' forums. Or dare I suggest it ,try to find a supplier of laboratory  animals!

Edited by comanche
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Wait till winter and the impulsive summer purchase willl be for sale cheap when they got to go out in the cold and wet to clean them.

think what meat you get off a wild rabbit then look for similar size , some of the larger breeds like the French lop take to long to mature and the bone to meat ratio isn’t that great. 

I talked to one fella an he devolped a strain of dwarf lops for the table. 

 

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