Whats are you guys take on raising rabbits to feed dogs ?
Whats are you guys take on raising rabbits to feed dogs ?
As a sole source of food, don't do it.Originally Posted by montycash
Rabbits are supplemental feeding animals only. They do not have enough body fat to keep a dog alive as a sole source of meat.
You can use them occasionally, but not as the primary (or sole) prey item.
Chicken is your best bet for a cheap way to do that.
Jack
Rabbits eat quite a bit as well. And as Jack says, there's not alot of fat on them.
Not per se, but the fat content does go up in pen fed rabbits, especially meat rabbits. I am not saying it is as fat content as chicken, but it is not like the rabbit just shot in the bushes.
When I was a kid we skinned deer that deer meat was very lean, almost no fat. The hunter has changed over the years, it is popular, it is a sport, where big horns are more important than big hams. To get big horns the deer are fed certain things. I have several friends that spend weeks and months on feed plots, feed hundreds of pounds of corn to get the that set of horns. In turn the deer eat a certain diet, do not have to roam and forage as the food is plentiful right up under that deer stand. Thus, the deer we are killing today have a higher fat content than the deer I skinned as a kid.
Rabbits the same. It is a fattier rabbit in a pen than in the bushes. I know a few people who use them as a 'whole prey' feed method. It is not the compete diet but it is a good source. It can go either way, it can be a staple and supplement with other fats, or it can be the supplement to the other staple. Either way, still better than 99% of the bags out there. EWO
I'm trying to go raw without going broke and 40lbs of chicken is $40 and I got 12-14 dogs ranging from low 30s to high 40s one or two 50lbs
WHERE THE HELL DO YOU LIVE AT, $40 FOR 40LBS OF CHICKEN ($1.00 A LB.) THAT'S CRAZY. THE MOST I'VE EVER PAID FOR A 40LB. BOX OF LEG QUARTERS IS, I BELIEVE 24.99 BUT I MOSTLY GET THEM FOR 19.99 NOWADAYS.
That's a great deal, that's pretty much $.50 a pound. Can't beat that, what's your location so I can rack up. Lol.
If you are feeding straight from the grocery store RAW can be expensive and is a lot of pre-work, work to feed and post work. I have fed both ways and combinations of the two for years. RAW gets more and more difficult as the number of dogs go up. It can be tough. And it can get expensive.
My first experience was when it was raw instead of RAW. I rented from a guy who was a butcher by trade and also processed deer meat in the winter. I got five gallon buckets of everything every day. There was no rhyme nor reason to my feeding raw, whatever was coming out of the bucket as I passed that particular dog is what he ate. It was not the best diet but it was free, and free ain't bad when feeding dogs. I later moved and it was back to bags.
After that I searched out local butchers, local hunters, and local processors. A lot of the stuff they consider throw away is perfect for the RAW diet, especially the hunters and deer processors. Even if one lived in the city or the suburbs it would be worth the drive to the country once or twice a week/month to load up. Loading up on the cheap is the really important part when the number of dogs go up.
Buying straight from the grocery store can be costly. I buy the stuff about to go bad and I buy scraps from my local butcher. That is pretty much the bulk of what I buy. Starting next week I will start loading up on the deer meat as gun season starts here. Like most things one has to be creative and innovative when feeding RAW, especially when feeding a bunch of dogs. The rices and veggies and such are pretty much the same cost across the board, but with the veggies I hit the local farmers/gardens, they always seem to have collards/greens left over for free to real cheap picking.
If nothing else a reader can figure out I am rather cheap and I apply that to feeding the dogs as well. I do the best I can but I am always looking for an angle to shave some pennies when I can. A little more effort in the pre-work area can make the cost of feeding be reduced some, and sometimes dramatically. EWO
im flirting with the idea of buying a couple sheep letting them procreate, raising some cattle along with a bunch of chickens, and than having a 1 day slaughterfest to last the year.... and start over again....
cornish cross chickens, theyre ready 8 weeks after hatching...... build a couple chicken tractors.... and figure out a system that produces enough birds to feed your dogs consistantly throughout the year......... maybe raise a cow or 2, meat all year for your family & your dogs......
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