Meat Nuggets: Episode 1
We have meat rabbits. The two females (does) and male (buck) are like pets. We feed them every day, and they love getting their ears scratched when we do.
We bred them in late June, and now we have baby rabbits, called kits. Our first-time mommas are doing great. And the kits are wiggly and squeaky and resemble naked mole rats. But I know very soon, they will grow to look like adorable baby bunnies. And I’ll coo over how adorable they are, as I call them little meat nuggets.
It might sound ridiculous, or callous, but I do this so that I constantly remind myself of their purpose. Regardless of their adorableness.
Meat rabbits are an incredibly sustainable meat source. For just a few dollars and a couple months, we’ll have probably 30 pounds of rabbit mean in the fridge. Think of it as basically the dark meat on chicken. We are really excited to try it on the smoker, and for rabbit curry.
If this has all been too much for you, then you’ll probably want to skip our Meat Nugget episodes. For everyone else curious about these pet/livestock critters, welcome to our sustainable meat production journey!
How we got here
In March, we picked up our first doe, Cinnabun. (I think puns are stupidly hilarious. #sorrynotsorry) We knew we wanted two does and a buck to start, so we built our first hutch.
Cinnabun
Then we collected our other doe, Ebony (get it? e-bunny!?), and our buck, Bucket.
Ebony
Bucket
(Our buck)
First hutch—don’t worry, it no longer exists, and certainly not on our patio!
The hutch was okay for the little rabbits, but there was no way this thing was going to hold up over the long haul. We built a much-improved hutch, and moved the rabbits off the concrete. Even though we had plastic sheeting down, the scent of rabbit urine was getting ridiculous. They needed to be over the ground, not the patio.
New hutch, mid-build
And then, summer in the midwest arrived. They only had the shade of the roof to keep them cool. That is to say, with fur coats, they were not cool at all!
Shade Palace
We invested in this structed, deemed the Shade Palace, and relocated the rabbits and chickens to benefit from the shade.
But the rabbits still needed more help with the heat. We bring them frozen bottles of ice when its 80 or more, sometimes as frequently as every hour and a half to give them something cool to nestle against.
And then we watched this video, and became electrolologists as we assembled a solar panel/computer fan set up to give the rabbits a cooler place to lay. With the ice in between them and the fan, they have their own little swamp color air conditioning system.
Checking the solar panel and computer fan wiring
With the infrastructure in place, we bread them as soon as the youngest reached six months. We wanted to breed both does at about the same time (by a couple days), in case one momma didn’t make it, or wasn’t nursing. That way one could, if necessary, care for both litters.
Thank goodness both are doing great!
Cinnabun kits
Hidden in all that hair!
Ebony kits
Untucked for counting
Cinnabun was an early nester, and pulled TONS of her hair to keep her kits warm. Ebony seemed almost surprised by having kits; she waited until the last minute to nest and pull her hair for the kits. They are enjoying their space away from the kits, until we go to check on them, at least. Then, they’re very keen for us to move along as quickly as they can usher us away. Good little mommas!
We think we have 14 kits, but haven’t done a complete investigation of Cinnabun’s nest. She was getting a little too anxious during our first counting attempt so we stopped. We know where to find them. We check them every other day to make sure they’re still all wiggling. They squeak thinking our warm hand is their momma, which is pretty cute. Their eyes and ears won’t open until days 7-10, which is when we’ll start to check them daily to make sure they don’t have swollen or eye infections, known as nest eye.
It’s been neat watching other homesteaders on YouTube raise their meat rabbits, but it’s even better getting to raise our own!
