Breeding Rabbits?? Does it make money?

Discussion in 'Other Pets & Livestock' started by jackrooster, Sep 6, 2010.

  1. dbunni

    dbunni Songster

    Nov 15, 2009
    the simple answer is NO. If you are not in it to improve the breed and love the animal, don't do it. As to mixes ... why put a mix breed out there when there are so many lovely purebreds. it cost the same to feed both.
  2. kbhear80

    kbhear80 Chirping

    Jul 18, 2010
    chapman, kansas
    I have raised show rabbits and meat rabbits since i was a child. Now my kids show. The money earned from breedings we turn around and put back into our rabbitry but still come out ahead. We dont have a huge heard, we try to keep it small so the feed bill is not very much. We also are very selective about our breeding and allot of times will have pepole waiting for us to have a litter. We get around $40 to $100 for our rabbits. I have never sold to a pet store or anything so i dont know how that would work. But from what i have seen i have never been impressed with the quality of the rabbits at the pet stores. Once in a great while we will get a rabbit that is not showable .. I will keep the animal untill i find a pet for for it so i know that the people who get the animal are aware that the animal is not showable/breedable and why. I do rescue and rehome allot of rabbits which does use up most earnings but i think its well worth it. I think it important that people who are getting into rabbits/breeding do there research before purchasing animals. You dont want to breed animals that have faults..i have seen allot of people sell animals to 4h kids with DQ's (white toe nails, non showable color, to much color and etc) and when the kids show the animals they get there little hearts broken.
    Last edited: Sep 7, 2010
  3. We raise meat rabbits and ours break even and sometimes make a few dollars. It's not much.

  4. bock

    bock Songster

    Oct 10, 2008
    Northern CA
    I have never bred rabbits, but I don't think you should breed any animal just for the money. You should want to better the breed, feed your family, I don't know. I just don't think that is a worthy reason to breed them...... Just my opinion though. [​IMG]
  5. cutechick2010

    cutechick2010 Songster

    Quote:I have had rabbits for a lot of years. I started out breeding, now I do rescue instead, and I will tell you why. kbhear80 is getting some money back because they invested in GOOD STOCK. That means SPENDING the money, time, work etc, to find and buy good stock, and then going to shows and winning so people will know that you have good stock. You will NEVER have a waiting list for "cute" baby bunnies. I can go and get a cageful of "cute" baby bunnies for $5 each twice a month at the auction, why would I go to you and buy one for $15 or $20?
    Now I will explain to you why I don't breed anymore. Pet stores sell those baby rabbits every day of the week, or they used to, people are not buying nearly so many right now because they don't have the money. The pet store here sells their baby bunnies for $35 they buy them from the breeder for $5 each. The pet store doesn't give a s*** who they sell to as long as that person has cash in hand. 95% of the rabbits I take in from my rescue were bought in pet stores and dumped as soon as they were no longer "cute". I even had one college girl that only kept her baby rabbit for about a month, because that is how long it took her to figure out it's cage needed cleaning out and she was going to have to handle POOP! Do you think there is a overpopulation of dogs and cats? There is just as much of one in rabbits, it just isn't as publicized. So yeah, if you are not willing to spend the money of proper feed, good hay and decent sized cages and don't care who you sell the rabbits to or what happens to them, you can make some money at breeding rabbits. But that also makes you the equivalent of a puppy mill.

    I am going to stop here, because I am really not meaning to be rude, but this topic infuriates me.
  6. cassie

    cassie Crowing

    Mar 19, 2009
    You can make money breeding meat rabbits if you have a market. Meaning a processor nearby to buy your fryers. Raising rabbits for pets is iffy. Get Storey's book on raising rabbits. I can't remember the name but it is by Bob Bennett and it will answer all your questions.
  7. Akane

    Akane Crowing

    Jun 15, 2008
    I would say it's possible to make money but not if you are selling to pet stores or breeding mixes. Pet stores are a way to get rid of lots of low quality offspring quickly with no profit and some ethical issues. Other than that they have no purpose except to create an overpopulation of pet rabbits that end up in shelters. Outside of a petstore mixed rabbits may not even sell and at best will probably only get you $5 each. The same with unshowable animals unless you trick unsuspecting people that are new to rabbits or at least showing rabbits.

    You would have to buy quality rabbits, build your own cages, have a good source for grass hay, find good feed store pellets, and get your name out there some how. Pet store pellets are $2 or more a lb and a lot of feed store pellets are just corn and other grains which are not healthy for rabbits. Our local feed store sells pellets that start with grain by products and end the non vitamin part of the ingredient list with forage products. Unnamed junk like that is most likely indigestible leftovers that are not helpful to the rabbit. I fed horse pellets until I found another feed store with nutrena brand.

    It takes more thought, work, and money than buy random female rabbit and put with random male rabbit. Unless your goal is just to enjoy raising cute baby rabbits that you will probably have to butcher or do some ethically questionable things to sell. I have no problem with the "raise random cute mix rabbits and turn them in to dog food" plan. That's what I started with and then decided to get pedigreed rabbits. However now I have rabbits who's offspring would sell and I find myself looking for meat breeds specifically in order to fulfill the plan of supplementing my dogs' diets.
  8. rodriguezpoultry

    rodriguezpoultry Langshan Lover

    Jan 4, 2009
    Claremore, OK
    The only way I would see making money would be advertising them for meat, snake food and selling pre-butchered rabbits for pets and human consumption.
  9. joebryant

    joebryant Crowing

    Paraphrasing what someone else said about raising chickens:

    Wanna know how to make a small fortune raising rabbits?
    Start with a large fortune.
    (I love that!)

    ETA I used to raise Champagne D'Argents, and always took first place at the Indiana State Fair; however, no matter how many culls we ate, it was never enough to pay for the feed. Lotsa fun though!
    Last edited: Sep 9, 2010
  10. Willow's Meadow

    Willow's Meadow Songster

    Apr 16, 2010
    Breeding any animal is not a good paying job....its a labor of love and usually you lose more money then you make. Please spay and neutur ALL you rabbits and if you want more adopt from a local shelter!!!!!!! There are to many homeless....abandoned and abused rabbits out there today. Number one if you breed you are adding more rabbits onto other rabbits that are out there. And number two you should be spending the time and money on rescuing, fostering and caring for abandoned rabbits instead of putting money towards breeding more rabbits.

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