Meat Rabbit Economy

I have been interested in raising meat rabbits for a couple of years now. It is a high protein, low fat meat. On the occasion that my husband has brought home wild rabbit for dinner, we have all enjoyed its flavor. But, I wondered, would raising rabbits for meat be economical enough for our already tight budget?

This year, at our county fair, I made it a point to walk through the rabbit barn. As hoped, I ran into a boy who had brought his rabbits for competition. He informed me that his dad heads up the meat rabbit division of our local 4-H club! After a very informative half hour of talking with the boy's father, I went home feeling greatly encouraged. But still the issue of costs lingered in my mind. This man was a professional and had many rabbits... enough that if one of his does had a particularly small litter, it wouldn't affect his overall production enough to matter. I needed to get down to the nitty-gritty... the dollars and cents of the matter.

Meat has been on mine and my husbands minds a lot lately. So while my husband was away hunting for elk, I took advantage of the quiet, lonely (once the girls were in bed ;-) ) evenings and, armed with my homesteading books and a list of the prices of feed from our local co-op, I settled down with my calculator and pen and got to work. Here is what I did and what you can do if you are interest in raising rabbits for meat.

Considering that the average 10 lb breeding rabbit eats 10.5 oz of food a day, you can either feed 10.5 oz of complete feed rabbit pellets OR 3.5 oz hen scratch (or other blend of grains) plus 7 oz of alfalfa.

The first thing to do is find out how much your feed costs per oz. To do this, multiply the number of pounds per bale or bag by 16. That will tell you how many ounces there are in a bag or bale. Forty pounds is 640 oz and 50 lbs is 800 oz. The average bale of alfalfa is 40 lbs (640 oz.).

weight of bag or bale in pounds x 16 = weight of bag or bale in ounces

Next, take the price of the bale or bag and divide it by how many ounces it contains.

price of bag or bale / weight of bag or bale in ounces = cents per ounce

Now calculate the cost of feed per rabbit per day, but multiplying the number of ounces of that particular type of feed you are feeding (either rabbit pellets or the scratch/alfalfa blend) times the number of ounces of each type of feed you are feeding.

cents per ounce (scratch) x 3.5 oz = cost of scratch per rabbit per day

+

cents per ounce (alfalfa) x 7 oz = cost of alfalfa per rabbit per day

= cost of feed per rabbit per day (in cents)

OR

cents per ounce (rabbit pellets) x 10.5 = cost of pellets per rabbit per day (in cents)

Now we know how much it costs to keep one adult breeding rabbit for one day. It's time to find out how much it will cost a in feed to raise a kit to butchering age. Each kit will eat an average of 4 lbs (64 oz) of feed from birth to butchering. If you are feeding rabbit pellets, simply multiply the cost per ounce of pellets times 64 oz. Your answer will be in cents and you may want to divide that number by 100 to translate it into dollars. If you are feeding a blend of scratch and alfalfa you will need to multiply the cost of each type of feed times the total ounces you will be feeding each type of feed ( 27 oz of scratch and 38 oz of alfalfa) and adding those two numbers together.

(costs of scratch per oz x ounces being fed (27 oz)) +
(cost of alfalfa per oz x ounces being fed (38 oz)) = cost of (4 lbs ) feed

That will be the cost to raise one kit. But the doe has an average litter of 8 kits, and most breeders breed the doe so that she has one litter every 3 months. So now it gets a little tricky. First, find the cost of your adult rabbits for three months.

cost of feed per rabbit per day x number of rabbits x 92 days
= cost of adult rabbits over three months

You need to take the cost it takes to raise each kit times the number of kits you will average (depend on the number of does you breed). To that number you will add the cost of your adult rabbits over three months. This will give you the total cost to raise your kits and maintain the buck and does for three full months.

(cost per kit per day x average number of kits)
+
cost of adult rabbits over three months
=
total cost of kits and breeding rabbits for three months

We're almost done! Take your total cost of kits and breeding rabbits for three months and divide it by your average number of kits. This will tell you how much you are actually spending per each rabbit you will be eating.

Total cost of kits and breeding rabbits for three months /
average number of kits
=
cost per rabbit you will be eating

Now, the final step!! To find out how much it will cost per pound of meat. The average kit (now young rabbit) produces an average of 2 lbs of meat. So... take your cost per rabbit you will be eating and divide it by 2 lbs.

cost per rabbit you will be eating / # of pound of meat per rabbit
=
total cost per pound of meat

Every three months you will be rebreeding your does and your whole cost analysis cycle will repeat.

In my case, I will be feeding a mixture of hen scratch ($9.87 for a 50 lb bag) and alfalfa pellets ($10.52 for a 50 lb bag) so it will cost me $40.57 to maintain my trio (a buck and 2 does) for three months. Since I will have two does, I should get an average of 16 kits every three months. It will cost me about $1.27 to feed one kit to butchering time. When I multiply that by 16 kits and add in the cost to maintain the buck and does it should cost me a total of $60.89 over a three month period. When I divide that by 32 (the number of pound of meat I should get from my 16 kits) I come up with the final cost of $1.90 per pound!!!

Now that makes sense and saves dollars!!!!