Why Raise Rabbits for Meat?

When I started sharing about raising rabbits for meat on social media, I knew I would get backlash.

For some reason, people will eat a chicken without a second thought, but they shudder at the thought of eating a rabbit.

The question I think I get most often is, “Why would you eat a rabbit?”

So, let’s talk about it.

Why choose rabbits to raise for meat?

When we decided to homestead, I kept seeing everywhere that people recommended new homesteaders start with chickens. They don’t need a lot of infrastructure, and they are fairly cheap to get started with (compared to other homestead animals).

But, for us, the draw back with chickens was in reproducing them.

Most people purchase chicks from a hatchery, feed store, or nearby farm every time they want new chicks.

We want sustainability in our food sources, not another reason to be reliant on a commercialized system.

If they don’t purchase their chicks already hatched, often people will purchase an incubator to hatch out their eggs, but we don’t have that as an option since we are an off grid homestead.

We could use a hen to sit on the eggs and hatch them out, but most chicken breeds have been commercialized to the point that they don’t instinctively know how to sit on eggs anymore.

It seemed like an overwhelming task to take on as our first homestead animal.

So, I did what I love to do best.

I started researching.

I was introduced to the idea of raising rabbits, and it just made so much sense to me.

*Rabbits are as cheap to get into as chickens. We paid 20-30 dollars each for our starter rabbits.

*Rabbits needed a similar housing structure as chickens. We started with rabbit tractors.

*Rabbits breed easily, and they have a very short gestation period. Rabbits gestation is only 1 month, and they can be rebred 2 weeks after birth. Meaning you can very quickly scale up your meat rabbit operation.

*They grow to butcher weight quickly. We grow ours out to 16 weeks, because we save their furs. But, rabbits can reach butcher weight as early as 10 weeks, depending on your needs.

They seemed to rival chickens in every aspect, except we get fur out of the deal instead of delicious eggs.

It was then that I wondered, why don’t more people breed rabbits for meat?

Eating Rabbit. What does rabbit taste like? Is it safe to eat rabbit?

I often get asked what rabbit tastes like, and after trying to explain it and failing many times, I finally figured out a good description of the meat that people could understand.

Rabbit meat has the richer taste of chicken thighs, with the texture and leanness of chicken breast.

It is not quite chickeny, but it is dang close.

If I used the rabbit in a recipe like rabbit and dumplings or tacos, you would not be able to distinguish it from chicken.

It is only when we know that we are eating rabbit that we can really distinguish the difference in taste, because it is more flavorful.

Rabbit also has more protein than chicken meat does, and YES it is completely safe to eat.

The impression of it being unsafe comes from the thought that eating it would give you protein poisoning or rabbit starvation.

And it will, if all you eat is rabbit.

Breakfast- rabbit.

Lunch- rabbit.

Dinner- rabbit.

Nothing else, just rabbit.

It does not sound too appealing, does it?

Your body needs MORE, and rabbit can not give that to you.

Rabbit is carb free and EXTREMELY low in fat.

Your body actually needs both carbs and fat to survive.

So, people have died from protein poisoning while eating rabbit, but it was because they were only eating rabbit. 

If you want to get into raising rabbits on the homestead, I say go for it!

Rabbits can be a great animal to get started with.

We have chickens now, and I still prefer my rabbits to the chickens.

And if you need to know where to get started with rabbits, check out our meat rabbit playlist on youtube.