# Crossing Flemish Giants with Smaller Breeds



## Shayanna (Aug 1, 2012)

To get more meat and less bone, keeping meat strictly for personal use. Anybody else do this? Just getting started.


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## Caprice Acres (Mar 6, 2005)

An F1 will not tend to be a nice balence between meat:bone just because you bred a flemish (heavy bone, less meat:bone ratio) to a lighter boned animal. You'll likely get a toss-up of the two - some heavy bone, some light bone, and maybe a couple that are 'improved'. You could, over generations, select for a lighter boned animal. But you'd just be reinventing the wheel there are tons of rabbits already out there known for their superior meat:bone ratio. NZ's, Calis, Florida Whites, Silver Fox, Dutch... 

Flemishes are BIG rabbits that require LOTS of food, LOTS of cage space. It simply costs more to maintain the breeding stock. For a fancy, it's not a big deal. For a meat standpoint, it really doesn't make much sense. 

Now if one of your does happens to be a flemish that you like, is a good momma, breeding her for meat litters is no prob. If it were me, I would not go out to start a meat rabbitry for home use and purposefully try to get flemishes.


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## arnie (Apr 26, 2012)

I definatly agree .take advantage of the experince of some expert breeders with thousands of generations pure bred meat rabbits to there credit .they have bred ore than 1 trate to improve the commerchial meat producers .thick well fured pads you hardly ever hear of sore hocks on these rabbits any more ,good milking and good mothering = the ability to raise even litters make nests and pass this on to the kits.calm personalitys fast growth nice even coats that easyly stay clean .disease reststance its been a long time sence if heard of the snuffles . Converting feed to meat .if you enjoy the flemishes and want to cross em with a meat rabbit to get some faster groing fryers. Id say it could work to some degree .then you'd still to contrubit to the breed and improve your stock ,or to have some purebreds to sell .I always recomend raiseing pure breds .wheather it be cattle ,dogs 'or chickens .or at least stay within a type .for hybreds


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## Honorine (Feb 27, 2006)

Complete and total waste of time and resources. Flemish are not a meat breed, they stamp themselves on their offspring in the first cross, they are gangly, big bones, all head and ears, no meat, and they eat like pigs. While all of the meat breeds are busy putting on weight and meat Flemish and Flemish crosses are growing frame. Fryers are considered prime for butchering at 10 weeks, Flemish aren't ready until their 4-5 months old. Do a search on this forum, this question comes up all the time, I wish they would pick one of the better threads and make it a sticky. In this case bigger is not better, and its not until the f3 cross that you'd get good results.


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## Wildfire_Jewel (Nov 5, 2006)

I will be the voice of dissent here - We did not use Flemish but Giant Chinchillas who have a similiar body type. They did NOT eat that much more food than our Californians and when crossed onto a Californian we had outstanding fryers and roasters which won many grand champion and reserve awards at the 4-H competition here in our county.


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## no1butcherman (Sep 6, 2007)

I killed off all my flemish this year. Feeds to high - not enough offspring.


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## Shayanna (Aug 1, 2012)

Unrelated question about my Flemish/rex/califonian mix doe. She is a somewhat timid rabbit, likes her back scratched but never let me palpate her. She stiffens up and tries to hide her belly. When we bred her we put her in the bucks cage for an hour, and it seemed the job was done, then the next night we put her in again to be sure and she decided to stay in there over night. So I had no doubt in my mind that she was pregnant. She even started doing the "I'm fat and pregnant and laying on my side" thing. But yesterday was day 31 from the first time we put her in, and she hasn't even pulled fur (has a huge dewlap). The only thing different I'm noticing the past couple days is her appetite is increasing. Is this just wishful thinking? Or is she not pregnant? How overdue can they get?


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## lastfling (Jun 23, 2011)

I have one doe who has consistently overshot the 31 day timeline. She was 35 days once and 38 days another. On the 38 day adventure it took another visit with the buck to shake things loose otherwise I might still be waiting. :spinsmiley:


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## Shayanna (Aug 1, 2012)

Ok. Just wondering if I should be worried.


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## arnie (Apr 26, 2012)

. Keep the nest box in. With her for a few more days she may be a few days over . If not try to rebreed her soon as you can she may have to be put on a limited feed diet if she has gained weight in order to re breed, does have been known to go through a false pregnancy if the. Buck was sterial for some reason



Shayanna said:


> Unrelated question about my Flemish/rex/califonian mix doe. She is a somewhat timid rabbit, likes her back scratched but never let me palpate her. She stiffens up and tries to hide her belly. When we bred her we put her in the bucks cage for an hour, and it seemed the job was done, then the next night we put her in again to be sure and she decided to stay in there over night. So I had no doubt in my mind that she was pregnant. She even started doing the "I'm fat and pregnant and laying on my side" thing. But yesterday was day 31 from the first time we put her in, and she hasn't even pulled fur (has a huge dewlap). The only thing different I'm noticing the past couple days is her appetite is increasing. Is this just wishful thinking? Or is she not pregnant? How overdue can they get?





Shayanna said:


> Ok. Just wondering if I should be worried.


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## Shayanna (Aug 1, 2012)

Yes but as far as rabbits go, this one doesn't eat much at all. maybe 3/4 to 1 cup per day? And no worries about the nest box. its attached to her cage so its not going anywhere. I mean we CAN remove it if it needs cleaned, but for the most part its part of her home.


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## Shayanna (Aug 1, 2012)

Good news! Misty pulled her fur last night and made her nest, so the litter should soon follow. Now if they get blood and stuff in the nest, like on the fur and straw, should I be cleaning it out? Will she pull more fur if I do have to clean it out?


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## Caprice Acres (Mar 6, 2005)

The fur shouldn't be soiled too extensively. I rarely throw any out. If the straw/hay you used for nest gets soiled, replace the soiled stuff.


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## jolly rabbit (Apr 30, 2012)

i would just like to point one thing out about the counting of days and this is from experience also. you had mentioned she was late. but my first three litters were "late" then i realized i was counting wrong lol. we would mate them about 5pm but they dont really take until 10 to 12 hours after mating so you typically need to count from the next day! :happy2: SSSoooooo they may not really be late.


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