Why we stopped breeding Satin Rabbits
When we first embarked on our big plan, we put in months and months of research into how we were going to fulfill our big vision. The idea of living off of the land as homesteaders was never a delusion that we entertained, however, we wanted to set ourselves up in a way that should we ever need to - it might be possible. Might being the keyword here.
When we lived in Northern California, we were excellent gardeners. (Everyone that lives in N California is an excellent gardener.) So we arrogantly checked that one checked off the list!
Chickens were first on our radar for eggs; rabbits seemed like a logical next step for meat; goats for milk and we were all set.
We learned that gardening in the extreme temperatures of Texas is a crapshoot, the chickens worked out great, the goats are amazing but we didn’t have the stomach for meat rabbits - although in concept, it was still brilliant.
The five reasons we got out of breeding rabbits.
We are terrible farmers and can’t stand “harvesting “the cute bunnies we raised from kits.
We watched our bonded buck and doe raise their kits and then live with them in a family style run as they grew out. Harvesting them left a visible impact on those left behind.
I believe a solution to this would be to keep them caged and treat them more like livestock (well cared for, but with an end purpose of profit) but we didn’t have the heart for this either.
Because we kept our rabbits outdoors, they did not get handled frequently or have enough human interaction so they were not friendly. Half feral rabbits are very difficult to contain and maintain because they run from you. This made controlling breeding and separating genders quite difficult.
Texas gets brutally hot in the summer and the only place the rabbits are safe from the heat is underground - creating a separate underground space for each animal or need was unmanageable without separating them all the time. Rabbits are social animals and they need others with them to thrive.The alternative to letting them go underground is bringing them frozen bottles of water once or twice a day and that just also becomes unmanageable.
The pet rabbit market for Satin Rabbits is not thriving - they are not a common breed and most pet seekers want lops.
We tried showing for a minute - our rabbits didn’t behave very well (no surprise there) but we also didn’t enjoy the process as they are not a particularly exiting animal to us! While our rabbits place well, and we were able to sell Satins for show - again it is not a highly show breed so it just wasn’t enough ROI.
In the end, it just became more work than reward as we didn’t have friendly animals - rabbits are really unfriendly if not thoroughly socialized) and we could not harvest them, yet they required a lot of attention and work.
I would summarize by saying that the only way to breed rabbits is to do it with a couple dozen separate cages so that you can control your breeding schedule and your babies. You must have an indoor facility or otherwise accommodate the terrible heat as rabbits are not very heat tolerant. Simply providing them shade is not enough. You must really love rabbit meat or have a client base to sell them because rabbits as we all know multiply rapidly. There is more supply for pet rabbits in my area than demand.
Satin rabbit breeding may be for you, but after 5 years it definitely didn’t work out for us.
