# Why don't people eat rabbit anymore?



## geo in mi (Nov 14, 2008)

Maybe...….

https://kalamazoo.craigslist.org/grd/d/paw-paw-rabbits/6954635350.html

Now, this upsets me. I don't have a skillet large enough to fry two at one time.

geo


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## GTX63 (Dec 13, 2016)

I'm guessing that particular ad poster would probably nix the sale if you started discussing recipes while writing out the check.


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

> Super sweet rabbits, just didn't work out with my *2 year old* like I had hoped.


I wonder what they truly expected?


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

GTX63 said:


> I'm guessing that particular ad poster would probably nix the sale if you started discussing recipes while writing out the check.


It would be tempting to call and ask if they also sell garlic and onions.


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## geo in mi (Nov 14, 2008)

GTX63 said:


> I'm guessing that particular ad poster would probably nix the sale if you started discussing recipes while writing out the check.



I do that at the 4-H fair in the small animal tent. A lot of the kids start crying... 

geo


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## geo in mi (Nov 14, 2008)

Rabbit is a staple food in Europe. As a kid, we ate rabbit almost as much as chicken. When I moved here, I bought cages and such, fully intending to grow them. But I put it off, and my grandchildren would have fits whenever I mentioned eating those cute little things.....

geo


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## BlueRose (Mar 7, 2013)

I raise rabbits for meat. I also sell at swap meets $10 each. My problem is that a lot of people want then already dressed and cut up. It is against the law to sell meat for human consumption unless you are licensed. I can sell butchered rabbit for raw feed but no one wants to pay $15 per rabbit for me to do it.


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## ET1 SS (Oct 22, 2005)

When our children were small, they raised meat rabbits and we ate rabbit occasionally.

A couple of our neighbors went through a spell when they were broke and they ate rabbit as their only meat. After about a year, they got terribly sick from rabbit starvation.


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## BlueRose (Mar 7, 2013)

You are correct rabbit can not be your only meat. I have chickens and goats so when times get bad I have that to fall back on.


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## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

You have to have additional fat in your diet if you try to subsist on rabbit.

I also raised rabbits for meat when the boys were younger. It's DRY. You have to know how to cook it.


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## BlueRose (Mar 7, 2013)

I like to ground some up with sausage. I fry in bacon grease. Stew and soup are made with my home made stock.


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## Oregon1986 (Apr 25, 2017)

We still eat rabbit,mmm rabbit with cream of mushroom and mashed potatoes


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## alida (Feb 8, 2015)

My parents raised rabbits both on our farm and when we moved into town. All of them were for meat, much to the horror of our friends when they'd see the rabbit hutches in the garage and asked if they were pets. 
It's very hard to find rabbit where I live. The real butcher shops who sell it from time to time are usually located in areas of the city where East/Western Europeans settled and still live. I don't think I've ever seen rabbit in my regular grocery stores.


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## HDRider (Jul 21, 2011)

geo in mi said:


> Rabbit is a staple food in Europe. As a kid, we ate rabbit almost as much as chicken. When I moved here, I bought cages and such, fully intending to grow them. But I put it off, and my grandchildren would have fits whenever I mentioned eating those cute little things.....
> 
> geo


I found it on menus in Germany all the time. I wish it was more available here in restaurants. The times I have bought it at farmers markets the price was stupid high.

My guess as to why it gets no traction here is that it cannot be dominated by high volume mass producers.


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## HDRider (Jul 21, 2011)

BlueRose said:


> I raise rabbits for meat. I also sell at swap meets $10 each. My problem is that a lot of people want then already dressed and cut up. It is against the law to sell meat for human consumption unless you are licensed. I can sell butchered rabbit for raw feed but no one wants to pay $15 per rabbit for me to do it.


I think you can..

https://www.sos.mo.gov/cmsimages/adrules/csr/current/2csr/2c30-10.pdf


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## geo in mi (Nov 14, 2008)

My sister, from Berne, Ind. used to bring me rabbit meat from the Amish. But they were smart about it. The ones they sold her were very heavy and past being tender fryers. And they would never include the fat or livers..... Those are delicacies in my book. The heavy back legs and back pieces would be juicy if they were smothered in gravy after being slow-fried in a covered skillet. 

But there was nothing better than Grandma's rabbit's fat gravy over the liver and baked sweet potatoes.

geo


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

possible reason: Bunny unions?


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## Lisa in WA (Oct 11, 2004)

I eat it.
But only in nice restaurants.
I don’t like how seeing it raw reminds me of dissecting cats in high school.


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## geo in mi (Nov 14, 2008)

Lisa in WA said:


> I eat it.
> But only in nice restaurants.
> I don’t like how seeing it raw reminds me of dissecting cats in high school.


In the old meat rationing days--in the WW2 butcher shops, they were displayed with their feet left on so the customers could tell them from cats.



geo


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## HermitJohn (May 10, 2002)

So this begs the question, why dont people eat snails anymore? Hey they are slow and easy to catch! Go down real easy, come pre-sauced.


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## Lisa in WA (Oct 11, 2004)

HermitJohn said:


> So this begs the question, why dont people eat snails anymore? Hey they are slow and easy to catch! Go down real easy, come pre-sauced.


They do. I’ve eaten escargot. Not a huge fan.


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## Lisa in WA (Oct 11, 2004)

I have a gastronomical streak of hypocrisy.

I hate the idea of foie gras and veal, but I sure do love eating both. I hadn’t had veal in years but had foie gras for the first time in about 15 years last winter. It was a good as I remembered. So I ordered a veal chop. Poor geese. Poor baby calves. 

I have not raised fwuffy bunnies for meat but they taste good when someone else does.


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## happy hermits (Jan 2, 2018)

We raise rabbits for meat. They are not cute and cuddly when you get a bad momma that chews her litters heads off.


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## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

Or when one bites down on your finger and won't let go.


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## Lisa in WA (Oct 11, 2004)

Geese aren’t very nice either when they bite but I can’t think of anything calves do to make me not feel guilty. 
Maybe a little guilt along with hunger makes a good sauce. 
Or however that saying goes.


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## nehimama (Jun 18, 2005)

I used to raise rabbits for meat. I love the livers. 

Had one mama rabbit who was mean as a snake. Put a hand in her cage, and you'd pull back bare bones! Got tired of messing with her, so pulled her out and set her loose on the floor of the bunny barn. It was enclosed so she couldn't get out. She was funny; used to growl and attack my boots when I'd go in to feed and water. I called her "Ma Barker" because she'd actually bark and growl. I started bringing carrots with me at chore time. I'd sit on a hay bale, and hold the treat out for her. She soon calmed down and became quite sweet and tame. I let her live out her live that way; free to roam the barn and get carrots and pets from me.


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## Farmerga (May 6, 2010)

Lisa in WA said:


> I can’t think of anything calves do to make me not feel guilty.


You haven't been a man who took a bottle from one and turned your back on it. They will just about lift you off of the ground hitting you looking for milk.


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## Mish (Oct 15, 2015)

Geesh you guys are making me glad my daughter wanted pet pigeons instead of the rabbits the husband was attempting to talk her into.


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## D-BOONE (Feb 9, 2016)

geo in mi said:


> The heavy back legs and back pieces would be juicy if they were smothered in gravy after being slow-fried in a covered skillet.





HermitJohn said:


> possible reason: Bunny unions?



Those thighs look juicy without gravy


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## SLADE (Feb 20, 2004)

HermitJohn said:


> possible reason: Bunny unions?


Wascally wabbits


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## emdeengee (Apr 20, 2010)

Rabbit used to be the staple meat of the poor - wild and domesticated. Now it is gourmet. I think that people got away from eating rabbit (especially wild) because of some of the awful diseases - hantavirus, leptospirosis, lymphocytic choriomeningitis, Tularemia and Salmonella. Not to mention rabbit K5 haemorrhagic disease biocide used to control rabbit populations.


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## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

Are you in Australia? That is where that was used.


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## Alder (Aug 18, 2014)

I raised and sold rabbits commercially quite a few years ago. Had a good market for them live. Of course there are always extras/culls/etc and we ate a lot of rabbit back then. 

You do get sick of it a lot faster than chicken. I've reached a point where I don't like chicken a lot, but I like rabbit a LOT less. I probably haven't eaten rabbit in 20 years.


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## Oxankle (Jun 20, 2003)

I raised them for a while. Tasted like a mouth full of dry cotton. Now cottontails are another story.


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## Elevenpoint (Nov 17, 2009)

Wild cottontails are my favorite game.
Hasenpfeffer.
Had none around where I lived.
Have an abundance here.
Going to be a good time for rabbits in the fall.


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## Redlands Okie (Nov 28, 2017)

Interesting timing on the thread. Cotton tail rabbit in the stew pot yesterday afternoon. Tried a Irish recipe with a bit of apple cider and apples (have fresh ones on the trees) 
We raised rabbits when I was kid. Yum yum.


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## wannabfarmer (Jun 30, 2015)

I plan on raising and eating rabbits when I get my land. I've been having small conversations with my kids on the circle of life and how it works. they are both young so they still think of them as pets. so far I've advanced them to "we can eat it but you have to promise to get more rabbits" I happily agreed but I know them saying it and it actually happening is two very different things. I might have to make burgers or something they are used to eating then tell them after they eat it a few times. not my ideal situation for parenting as I believe in honesty but good cheap meat is good cheap meat. lol


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## MichaelZ (May 21, 2013)

I was raised on wild game. I personally think gray squirrel is the best. Rabbit is similar to squirrel, but has a flavor that you grow weary of if you eat it too often. At least for me. And perhaps domestic rabbits do not have that taste. That said, I like rabbit once in a while. Before we had cats, used to shoot a few every summer when they snuck past my garden fence. Soaking them in salt water overnight in the frig is very helpful. 

Growing up I hunted them with my beagle, which was a great experience.


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## Elevenpoint (Nov 17, 2009)

MichaelZ said:


> I was raised on wild game. I personally think gray squirrel is the best. Rabbit is similar to squirrel, but has a flavor that you grow weary of if you eat it too often. At least for me. And perhaps domestic rabbits do not have that taste. That said, I like rabbit once in a while. Before we had cats, used to shoot a few every summer when they snuck past my garden fence. Soaking them in salt water overnight in the frig is very helpful.
> 
> Growing up I hunted them with my beagle, which was a great experience.


Hopefully June is a good beagle hound.
I was holding her while showing her two rabbits outside the garden, she nearly tore my arms off to get down.
Boogs swatted her on the nose a few times so they're getting along fine now.


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

BlueRose said:


> I fry in bacon grease.


That makes everything better.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

geo in mi said:


> I do that at the 4-H fair in the small animal tent. A lot of the kids start crying...
> 
> geo


Happens with calves and lambs too, especially if they started as bottle babies. My sister was one of those kids with a calf, and she didn't have a bottle baby.


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## Lisa in WA (Oct 11, 2004)

geo in mi said:


> I do that at the 4-H fair in the small animal tent. A lot of the kids start crying...
> 
> geo


Mean. 
My husband and I were such weenies we bought our daughters market lambs every year and kept them. Luckily they were always ewe lambs.


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## reneedarley (Jun 11, 2014)

Alice In TX/MO said:


> Are you in Australia? That is where that was used.


We have myxomatotis in Great Britain too. A cruel, painfull death. We were taught as children to kill rabbits with this sickness. Even as a child , seeing the poor rabbit screaming in pain from the illness , I did not hesitate to put it out of its' misery.
This also made country people hestitant to eat rabbits.


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## geo in mi (Nov 14, 2008)

Lisa in WA said:


> I have a gastronomical streak of hypocrisy.
> 
> I hate the idea of foie gras and veal, but I sure do love eating both. I hadn’t had veal in years but had foie gras for the first time in about 15 years last winter. It was a good as I remembered. So I ordered a veal chop. Poor geese. Poor baby calves.
> 
> I have not raised fwuffy bunnies for meat but they taste good when someone else does.


If you're eating veal, you're probably eating Holstein.

geo


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## geo in mi (Nov 14, 2008)

emdeengee said:


> Rabbit used to be the staple meat of the poor - wild and domesticated. Now it is gourmet. I think that people got away from eating rabbit (especially wild) because of some of the awful diseases - hantavirus, leptospirosis, lymphocytic choriomeningitis, Tularemia and Salmonella. Not to mention rabbit K5 haemorrhagic disease biocide used to control rabbit populations.



About the only thing we did, with tame rabbit, was to look at the liver when dressing the meat--Basically, if it was yellow and the animal looked puny, we wouldn't eat it.

With wild rabbits, we always waited until after the first freeze, and it was never "sportsmanlike" to shoot a sitting rabbit. Instead, in Hoosier talk, we had to "kick one up"(make it run)so we could assume it was healthy. Thus, I never got many wild rabbits for the table. But my Dad never missed. I found out why, when I sneaked his gun one day when he wasn't home. The first shot, I blew down two rows of corn. That twelve gauge was sawed off!



geo


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## prinellie (Mar 16, 2016)

Rabbits eat their own poop... you are what you eat


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## whiterock (Mar 26, 2003)

One year in college, my room mate and I ate a lot of cottontails, frog legs, dove and quail. Burned my self out on rabbit at that point. The rest I will still eat if the opportunity arises.


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## Redlands Okie (Nov 28, 2017)

prinellie said:


> Rabbits eat their own poop... you are what you eat


Good poop I guess


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## Shrek (May 1, 2002)

I eat rabbit, squirrel , dove, wild turkey, and deer every season.


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## newfieannie (Dec 24, 2006)

when I was growing up there would be rabbit soup suppers at the churches. people would flock there. it was probably my fathers favorite soup. mom never touched it neither did I . she said just seeing dad cleaning them reminded her of a cat. she was terrified of cats same as me. course that's where it came from for me.

once in awhile I use to see rabbit for sale in the market. out in the country you can still see them in the cold weather hung up by peoples houses for sale. way back they use to be 7 dollars a pair. considerably more now.


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## ridgerunner1965 (Apr 13, 2013)

I raised rabbits for years. I got to be very good at it. I had a couple crossbred does that would raise 12 or 13 kits a litter. these were big rabbits.

around here you couldn't give rabbits away. I ate rabbit until I was plum sick of it. havnt had the desire to eat rabbit since.


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## barnbilder (Jul 1, 2005)

We've been eating rabbit for years. Pointless to raise chickens. So much easier to raise and process. Too bad we have the subsidized grain and poultry industries here in the US, as well as PETA Disney and HSUS. If we replaced broilers with rabbits it would be much better for the environment on many levels. Much healthier too.

The whole rabbit starvation thing is highly overrated. Doubtful that anyone is not consuming enough fat to offset it's effects. Chicken can put too much fat in your diet, rabbit is an excellent low fat protein source.

On people not liking rabbit, there is a reason that the broiler houses raise cornish rock crosses and not Fayoumi silkie crosses. Just like any other livestock, some breeds taste better than others. Much of it has to do with getting big enough to butcher without getting too tough to eat. Also, a lot of it has to do with what you feed them. Wild rabbits eating alianthus bark are not going to taste as good as domestic rabbits on a good balanced alfalfa pellet supplemented with good clean hay.

On rabbits eating their own poop, they are the same as cows, they just get their cud from a different orifice. The material they re-consume is absolutely no different than a cow's cud. If you are worried about eating things that consume poop, definitely stay away from chicken.


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## Alder (Aug 18, 2014)

What the above said about the coprophagy thing in rabbits. It's not their regular poop, and it has to happen for them to properly digest their food.

I ate good young 8 week-old NZ Whites cleanly processed and raised on production balanced pellets...but just ate too damned many of them. Sooner or later, any way you cook them, they start to taste the same. If I had to eat rabbit again I would, but not by choice.


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## barnbilder (Jul 1, 2005)

We can a lot of rabbit. It's our preferred way to store them. Doesn't burn freezer space. De-boned canned rabbit shredded up can go a lot of places and you don't really know you are eating rabbit. Makes outstanding barbecue. I don't believe I could stomach fried rabbit more than every once in a while, though.


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## 101pigs (Sep 18, 2018)

Alder said:


> What the above said about the coprophagy thing in rabbits. It's not their regular poop, and it has to happen for them to properly digest their food.
> 
> I ate good young 8 week-old NZ Whites cleanly processed and raised on production balanced pellets...but just ate too damned many of them. Sooner or later, any way you cook them, they start to taste the same. If I had to eat rabbit again I would, but not by choice.


While living in Salt Lake City i raised NZ whites. Very good market for them there. Also sold a lot of them to the Mink farmers back then. Had fried rabbit with gravy about 2 times a week. Never tired of them. My wife took care of them while i worked full time in town. Those were the good years in the 1960' when i was young.


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## nehimama (Jun 18, 2005)

Bunny Gumbo!!!


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

Funny hearing people complain about eating too many rabbits. I ever hear that about bacon, hamburger or chicken.


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## Shrek (May 1, 2002)

Back in 1982 to 1987 I hunted wild rabbits in a 3 acre pine thicket behind the parking lot at my first apartment using my wrist rocket sling shot using old computer mouse balls I had replaced at work because the rubber coating of the track ball had been damaged.

Using my pocket knife to peel the rubber coating off provided me with a steel ball bearing about .50 cal sized to use on my winter weekend stalks into the thicket with the parking lot to my back to scare up a couple rabbits to take and sneak back to my apartment to clean and fry like chicken.

When I cleaned them, I would wrap and freeze the leavings that the sink waste disposer couldn't flush to put into my lunch cooler to take to work and dispose of in the incinerator at work to prevent anyone finding rabbit heads and guts in the apartment trash bin znd thinking there was some sort of Devil worshiper living in our complex instead of a misplaced country boy trying to make ends meet a little easier. 

Still not sure if hunting inside the Huntsville city limits was legal then but I was in my 20s , had a valid hunting license for when i traveled to my hometown area to hunt  , the thicket was owned by the complex where I lived, I only sling shot hunted during rabbit season during daylight hours. never carried or discharched a firearm when in the thicket and only took enough for a meal same as when I brought home fish I caught after work on my fishing license from the river inside the city limit by where I worked to stretch my food budget back then.


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## Riverdale (Jan 20, 2008)

geo in mi said:


> Maybe...….
> 
> https://kalamazoo.craigslist.org/grd/d/paw-paw-rabbits/6954635350.html
> 
> ...


Rabbis, cuddly AND tasty! 

We have a pet rabbit, and I would not mind getting meat rabbits again.


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## Alder (Aug 18, 2014)

Danaus29 said:


> Funny hearing people complain about eating too many rabbits. I ever hear that about bacon, hamburger or chicken.


No, you don't. There is definitely something weird about rabbit. The acquired aversion is pretty common.


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## MO_cows (Aug 14, 2010)

Our cousins raised rabbits for awhile, we had our own beef and would trade. She would can rabbit pieces in quart jars. It was tender and delicious. Rabbit pot pie coming right up. But I don't think I could kill and dress them, they are too darn cute. So when they got out of rabbits, it left our menu. We have wild rabbits out the wazoo but never tried to harvest any.


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## geo in mi (Nov 14, 2008)

On our farm in Indiana, we hunted wild, and raised, tame rabbits for meat. I much preferred the tame, rather than the wild, and if the two were served together, I really hated to get a piece of the wild meat. There is a big difference, to me, in flavor, and I don't particularly like the gamey taste of the wild meat, unless it is served by itself. Today, the rabbits munching on my garden lettuce are safe from my frying pan, but not from the local coyotes in the form of MRE's (meals ready to eat...…).

https://www.tastecooking.com/why-eat-rabbit/

For homestead meat, though, the above article shows the basic cuts of rabbit pieces for cooking. We always butchered rabbits at about four pounds (as I recall, about eight weeks?) to get meat tender enough for frying. Anything larger was baked, stewed, or pressure cooked (as Mom used to do) to keep it tender. In fact, because rabbit has almost no fat marbling, it must be cooked and even fried pretty gently and carefully to keep it from coming out like overcooked chicken breast can be. (sort of like a grey hockey puck)

Fried rabbit pieces were "finger food" at out table, and I learned pretty quickly that the back leg has one bone--the kneecap--which can almost break your tooth. So, you have to be on the lookout for that.

We raised our rabbits in an apartment-like coop which had a wooden room for shelter and warmth, and a wire side for eating and pooping--the waste fell through the mesh wire down to the floor. Their diet was basically pellets of pressed alfalfa and minerals, some red clover or ladino from hay and in the summer, treats of lettuce and such from the garden. We also gave them miniature salt blocks to lick. My job was to tend them each day, before school and after--along with any calves we had. Those were my chores. From the beginning, I looked at them as food for the table.

geo


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## AmericanStand (Jul 29, 2014)

BlueRose said:


> I raise rabbits for meat. I also sell at swap meets $10 each. My problem is that a lot of people want then already dressed and cut up. It is against the law to sell meat for human consumption unless you are licensed. I can sell butchered rabbit for raw feed but no one wants to pay $15 per rabbit for me to do it.


And there you have the reason at $25 a rabbit for something less than 3 pounds of meat . Become some pretty pricey stuff. We had a butcher around here that sold butchered rabbit and the last time I was in there he said it was his last bunch of rabbits as there was no profit in it. And the rabbit cost me nearly 25 bucks for less than 3 pounds of meat I decided I couldn’t afford it


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## Riverdale (Jan 20, 2008)

Alder said:


> No, you don't. There is definitely something weird about rabbit. The acquired aversion is pretty common.


Rabbit is real lean, and if it is not prepared properly, is tough.


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## AmericanStand (Jul 29, 2014)

Alder said:


> No, you don't. There is definitely something weird about rabbit. The acquired aversion is pretty common.


 Could it be that we watched to many years of bugs bunny and rabbits are cute and cuddly ?


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## Oxankle (Jun 20, 2003)

Wannabe: Don't get heavily invested in rabbit cages, hutches, barns, equipment, etc until you find out whether or not you can stand the taste of domestic rabbit. Been there, done that, never again.


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## Alder (Aug 18, 2014)

AmericanStand said:


> Could it be that we watched to many years of bugs bunny and rabbits are cute and cuddly ?


Never bothered me for eating the first 500(?) or so...

I ate rabbit for 20 years at least...and yes, I know how to cook nice young 8 week old fryers, which is what I raised.

Now? Like I said...don't really ever want to see another one.


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## MichaelZ (May 21, 2013)

whiterock said:


> One year in college, my room mate and I ate a lot of cottontails, frog legs, dove and quail. Burned my self out on rabbit at that point. The rest I will still eat if the opportunity arises.


I sort of did the same thing.


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## BlueRose (Mar 7, 2013)

HD Rider, I was talking to some people who asked me about selling them the meat, they do not want to give me their names and contact information. Thank you for your help.


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## GTX63 (Dec 13, 2016)

Rabbits at the local livestock auction last week were selling for about $7. 
Most were heading for a freezer or a pot.


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## muleskinner2 (Oct 7, 2007)

When I was a kid, my mother decided that keeping rabbits in small cages was too much work, for very little return. So she opened the cages and let them loose. For many years we had fifty to sixty running around the yard, summer or winter. I learned to shoot a pistol a Ruger Blackhawk .357, by harvesting these for the pot. Only head shots were allowed.


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