# Meat Rabbit vs Flemish Giant pics



## laughaha (Mar 4, 2008)

We butchered two rabbits on Sunday, a meat rabbit that I bought and the mismarked flemish giant that I raised. Both were between 8 and 9 weeks old. pics below show the size comparison....

Meat on left, Flemish on right









Meat on left, Flemish on right









I was really surprised by the Flemish. It weighed almost twice what the meat rabbit did and Definitely had alot more meat on it. Both tasted about the same except for the different marinades. It was the first time I ever ate rabbit and it does NOT taste like chicken. I really love the taste though. Next time I'll cook them in the crockpot and make a stew.

We also butchered the meat chickens the same day. Boy is butchering rabbits alot easier. 

I had originally bought two meat rabbits to butcher but Mark kept the other male to try a breeding with Horton (when they are old enough) to see what type of meat/growth the mutts get.


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## Bamboorabbit (Jan 22, 2009)

It is tough to compare as meat rabbit means......who knows. Now if it was a known breed that would be different. It is like saying man my Chihuahua sure is smaller than my Great Dane  Did you by chance weigh them either pre or post processing?


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## laughaha (Mar 4, 2008)

The meat mutt was a nzblack/californian/mutt mix. Alive it was a little more than 1/2 the size of the flemish. 

The only weighing we did was when we were holding both up. Next time I will put them on the scale, never even thought to do that. 

What surprised me the most was that the flemish had alot of meat on it's bones. I was expecting it to be really skinny and mostly bones which was why we bought two meat mutts to butcher in addition to it.


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## Bamboorabbit (Jan 22, 2009)

Are you sure the Flemish is a pure Flemish and not a Flemish NZ cross? That cross produces some big meaty rabbits. There is a person in my area who raises that cross and I was impressed with the size and solidness of his rabbits, so much so bought a buck.


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## laughaha (Mar 4, 2008)

I'm positive that the Flemish is purebred, I have the parents and they are pedigreed and from show stock. Grinch, the father was shown before I bought him. He was chosen to be butchered as his markings were not correct. I wasn't expecting him to be that meaty at all.


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## o&itw (Dec 19, 2008)

I guess the only real comparison that is valid is to measure the feed that goes into the two rabbits versus the weight of the meat that one ends up with.

I perefer a larger rabbit like a FL or a flemish, and I prefer to process them at 10 to 12 weeks instead of 8. The commercial meat producers have pretty much scientifically proven that NZW and Cals (with their lighter bones) processed at 8 weeks, give better "bang for your buck" when it comes to feed conversion.

Since I don't have 50 or 100 does, and need to make every penny count to show a profit. I neve noticed any difference in the feedout between the NZW/Cals and my FL when I was raising them, and I did get a much larger carcas off of the FL. I never removed the meat from the bone, however, to see how much I was losing there. The main difference I noticed was in the maintenace diet for the matue FL does and bucks.... it was noticably higher than the NZW. Since I am not crazy about white rabbits in the first place, especially REW, and since I liked the FL breed so well, the few extra bucks I was spending on feed to maintain a buck or two and from anywhere from 3 to 7 does was worth it to me.

I like large bodied rabbits to process, and I would combine the parts from several at a time. I might process 8-10 at a time. Usually I packaged the front legs together(sometimes with the rib "flaps")for frying, the loin and back legs together for stewing (too dry for frying and at 12 weeks sometimes a bit tough) the ribs, etc I would package and boil down for soup. This worked good for me... we ate a LOT of rabbit. It would never work for somone selling to Pel-Freez.


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## Bamboorabbit (Jan 22, 2009)

laughaha said:


> I'm positive that the Flemish is purebred, I have the parents and they are pedigreed and from show stock. Grinch, the father was shown before I bought him. He was chosen to be butchered as his markings were not correct. I wasn't expecting him to be that meaty at all.


I just noticed something.....lok at the first picture. You are correct that there is quite a size difference BUT......look at the back legs of both and they are almost the same size and the meat mutt appears to have larger loins. The Flemish is bigger in the chest and ribs....and that does not net much extra meat, just bone.


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## SquashNut (Sep 25, 2005)

My concern for the FL is the larger extra heavy duty cages needed for raising them.


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## laughaha (Mar 4, 2008)

I'll admit that my flemmies are not raised in the cheapest manner...lol and I'm pretty sure the meat rabbits only got pellets and NOTHING else. 

Everything I've read is that NZW and Cals are the best meat rabbits and I'm sure they are the cheapest way to get the meat, but I was just REALLY surprised at how much meat I got off of an 8 week old flemmy as compared to an 8 week old meat mutt. I was expecting the flemmy to be all bones with just a bit of meat and I was pleasantly surprised that this was not so. 

The meaties back legs were about the same size as the flemmies, once the flemmy's giant feet were taken off. The flemmy had a nice meaty backstrap that was quite a bit bigger than the meaties. I can see how raising NZW's and Cal's would be the more economical option. I am actually getting excited to see how Horton's litter (this fall) turns out. 

Niceness counts in my house and my flemmies are MUCH nicer than the meat mutts. Of course this probably has alot to do with the way they are raised and that I have ALOT less rabbits (and ALOT more nieces and nephews) than the lady I got the meaties from. 

My nieces and nephews are out there at least twice a day feeding mine treats and petting them. Keeping Grinch from getting fat is a bit of a problem, as they always feel sorry for him cuz he isn't allowed to get as many treats as nursing Cindy Lu and growing popples. The meaty that is still here is not taming down at all. Won't even try to eat a bite of carrot or watermelon or grass or weeds or hay, will only eat pellets even though everything else is in his cage.


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## laughaha (Mar 4, 2008)

I'm not saying that everyone should switch to flemish's as meat rabbits. This whole thread is about how surprised I was that I got as much meat from the flemish as I did. The size comparison with the meaty was just to show how much bigger the flemish was at the same age. These were the first rabbits we had ever butchered and cooked and I wasn't expecting any where near as much meat from the flemish as we got.

I know that flemish's are the more expensive option, especially caging (cuz I really don't think the feeding is that much more). For a two hole flemmy cage it cost us about $400+. This cage could have been built much cheaper, but it should withstand a trip to Oz and back easily.


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## Bamboorabbit (Jan 22, 2009)

Is no need to defend the post...I am just curious Like I said I am adding some Flemish blood to my NZ line. By the way, how many were in the flemish litter and the meat mutt litter?


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## Lazy J (Jan 2, 2008)

There is a difference between carcass size and meat yield. It sure appears to me that the "meatie" had more meat from the photos you showed. 

I think it is great that you actually did a comparison for your own education. Keep up the questioning.

Jim


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## Reauxman (Sep 14, 2002)

Basically the picture shows you have a longer rabbit, not a meatier rabbit. 

The flemish was longer throughout, in the back legs and backbone. 

It's more what you like when it comes to which breed to raise for yourself. I am a mini rex breeder. My culls find their way to the table. No, not the largest or meatiest animals, but meat none the less. I raise them because I like the breed and they are competative on the tables.


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## Guest (Jul 1, 2009)

Just wanted to say how much I enjoy this thread. Very interesting.


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## laughaha (Mar 4, 2008)

The flemish litter was 6, I have no idea about the meat litter, probably more. There were 6 other meat kits about the same size in a grow-out pen so I'm gonna assume there were 8 in the other litter.


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## o&itw (Dec 19, 2008)

Reauxman said:


> Basically the picture shows you have a longer rabbit, not a meatier rabbit.
> 
> The flemish was longer throughout, in the back legs and backbone.
> 
> It's more what you like when it comes to which breed to raise for yourself. I am a mini rex breeder. My culls find their way to the table. No, not the largest or meatiest animals, but meat none the less. I raise them because I like the breed and they are competative on the tables.


Providing they are being held at the same distance from the camera, and the thickness not being disguised by the angle, the back legs on the Flemish look substanitaly larger. 

I think the poster was just mentioning her suprise at what they found...not trying to argue a point. She said basically, that at that age, for those rabbits, she found the Flemish to be meatier than the meat mutts...... I have no reason to not to believe her. I have found similiar results with FL.


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## laughaha (Mar 4, 2008)

They are being held about the same distance from the camera. The meat rabbit is turned a little which is why it may look as meaty (legs) as the flemish. 

The original reason for this thread is just that I was surprised at how much meat I got off the flemish as I wasn't expecting as much as I got. I find it interesting that an old fashioned meat rabbit (flemish's *were* originally meat rabbits a long time ago) that hasn't been bred for meat in a very long time gave as much meat as I got. 

I still think this meat rabbits meat/bone ratio is probably higher and was cheaper to produce, but I think Flemish's are still a viable meat producing rabbit. I am now wondering if I would be able to selectively breed for meat production and if I could get it close to a NZ or Cali. It may become a pet project. I think I will wait till 3 months for the next flemish I butcher, as they just grow so fast during their first 3 months. 

Horton is (I think) about 4 1/2 months old right now and she is larger than most rabbit breeds max weight. I really got to weigh her.


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## lorian (Sep 4, 2005)

Thanks so much for posting this! It has answered some questions I've been thinking about.


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## Lindafisk (Nov 17, 2004)

I found this thread interesting because we have flemish and are looking at cals or new zealands also......and I just got some harlequin mixes that are going to (hopefully) be large too. Fun to think of the possibilities of size and color and type.


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## Thank you. (Mar 18, 2021)

laughaha said:


> I'm not saying that everyone should switch to flemish's as meat rabbits. This whole thread is about how surprised I was that I got as much meat from the flemish as I did. The size comparison with the meaty was just to show how much bigger the flemish was at the same age. These were the first rabbits we had ever butchered and cooked and I wasn't expecting any where near as much meat from the flemish as we got.
> 
> I know that flemish's are the more expensive option, especially caging (cuz I really don't think the feeding is that much more). For a two hole flemmy cage it cost us about $400+. This cage could have been built much cheaper, but it should withstand a trip to Oz and back easily.


I so appreciate your posts. I committed to buying an FG doe to breed with a Creme D argent for meat, and I have been freaking out about making a mistake since reading all there hype about bone mass vs meat mass.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

The poster you quoted hasn't been here since 2012, nearly 9 years ago.


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