# Rabbit Farming



## solar 17 (Nov 9, 2009)

*I stumbled on a show yesterday on ABC1 12.00 midday [Landline] about rabbit farming [in Australia] according to the presenter there are half a dozen serious farms with one in Kyogle [northern NSW....near Byron Bay] using A.I. in their breeding program, this program is repeated today at 11.00am [for those interested] and l suppose you might be able to catch it on the net somewhere.....for those curious its well worth a look.....cheers solar 17 [Baden]*


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## Wild~Touch (Nov 9, 2009)

Thanks for that info.....will hopefully remember to watch

Cheers
Sandee


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## Just_Joshin (Nov 9, 2009)

solar 17 said:


> *I stumbled on a show yesterday on ABC1 12.00 midday [Landline] about rabbit farming [in Australia] according to the presenter there are half a dozen serious farms with one in Kyogle [northern NSW....near Byron Bay] using A.I. in their breeding program, this program is repeated today at 11.00am [for those interested] and l suppose you might be able to catch it on the net somewhere.....for those curious its well worth a look.....cheers solar 17 [Baden]*


 Thanks for the heads up!


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## beeman (Nov 9, 2009)

There are 2 very large operations here in vic, great thing to have a look at and very 
expensive to establish. most of the cages used are imported from either Italy or Spain.


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## Walker (Nov 9, 2009)

Yea i saw that to yesterday it was pretty interesting well worth a look!


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## gavinator (Nov 9, 2009)

solar 17 said:


> *I stumbled on a show yesterday on ABC1 12.00 midday [Landline] about rabbit farming [in Australia] according to the presenter there are half a dozen serious farms with one in Kyogle [northern NSW....near Byron Bay] using A.I. in their breeding program, this program is repeated today at 11.00am [for those interested] and l suppose you might be able to catch it on the net somewhere.....for those curious its well worth a look.....cheers solar 17 [Baden]*



cheers Solar17 watching it now


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## boxhead (Nov 9, 2009)

not much in for reptile keepers . but interesting all the same .
try ABC.net .au / landline .


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## Sock Puppet (Nov 9, 2009)

Didn't see the show, what are they farmed for, the pet trade (to be kept as pets), pet food, or the meat (human consumption) industry? Or even the fur trade (rabbit pelts = Akubra hats)?

Had a rabbit pasta recently at a restaurant called Solitary at Katoomba (used to be called, amusingly, The Fork 'n View), it was absolutely outstanding, loved it.


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## solar 17 (Nov 9, 2009)

*Rabbits*

*boxhead, l think you may well be surprised how herpers keep and feed rabbits to their snakes....cheers solar 17 [Baden]*


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## Jay84 (Nov 9, 2009)

I saw the show on Saturday, was very interesting.




Tonksy said:


> Didn't see the show, what are they farmed for, the pet trade (to be kept as pets), pet food, or the meat (human consumption) industry? Or even the fur trade (rabbit pelts = Akubra hats)?
> 
> Had a rabbit pasta recently at a restaurant called Solitary at Katoomba (used to be called, amusingly, The Fork 'n View), it was absolutely outstanding, loved it.



Tonksy, they are bred for food. Concentrated farming in the way forward apparently, they were actually kept very well on the farms the story was about. The farmers initial outlay was huge, importing the cages from Italy as Beeman said. They used the waste from an Aqua farm (fish) to feed the lettuce etc to feed to the rabbits. Was all a great system, and alot better for the environment than rearing cows etc.


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## Rainbow-Serpent (Nov 9, 2009)

My Grandma lives on the road to Kyogle (green piegon), and about a mile up the road from her place is the Rabbit Farm, long way out but apparently it's huge inside, with like 5 greenhouses.


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## pinkmus (Nov 9, 2009)

Tonksy said:


> Had a rabbit pasta recently at a restaurant called Solitary at Katoomba (used to be called, amusingly, The Fork 'n View), it was absolutely outstanding, loved it.



I love pasta with rabbit sauce yum! When I was still living in Malta (small island to the south of sicily) rabbit is the national dish and many people breed their own. We used to have these commercial cages that are stacked with the 5 female breeders in large cages at the bottom and two tiers of growing out cages on top moved slightly back. We used nozzle drippers connected to the mains or to a large bucket. we only had 1 stud male and we kept New Zealand whites but the stud was a hybrid animal bred specifically for higher meat yield/gains. We often had 55+ rabbits from this system with rabbits culled at 2-3months. around 5 years ago these cages cost around $500 however its pretty easy to knock up a few all wire enclosures using thick parallel running mesh for the flooring so as not to harm the rabbits. I was a bit interested in breeding for snakefood but to keep them in a suburban environment is too much work for me. just make sure to keep the temps under 25 degrees preferably.

-Will


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## Sock Puppet (Nov 10, 2009)

Jay84 said:


> I saw the show on Saturday, was very interesting.
> Tonksy, they are bred for food. Concentrated farming .........


Cheers, thanks Jay84! 



pinkmus said:


> I love pasta with rabbit sauce yum! When I was still living in Malta (small island to the south of sicily) rabbit is the national dish and many people breed their own.


Sounds pretty full on! Although, if I could have that pasta more often, it'd be worth it, yummo.


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## redbellybite (Nov 10, 2009)

I love eating rabbit ..we can buy it here in QLD ..just not allowed to keep our own supply ... 
I use to have rabbits in NSW when we lived there ,wish I could keep them for snake food ,they breed better then guinea pigs ,more offspring in one hit ...but as that wont be an issue ..will be sticking with GP s and rats ,who have just given birth to a litter of 10 pink moorish appetizers..


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