Health Benefits of Rabbit Meat

Rabbit meat is really turning out to be a great choice for homesteaders for a ton of reasons. It's easy to grow, has very low cholesterol and fat, lots of vitamins and minerals, and is super easy to handle and cook. I'll summarize everything I've found about its benefits and potential as a health food.

Since it is not a mainstream food in the US, the USDA has not issued a mandatory inspection process but has provided a voluntary set of rules for rabbit meat sold in stores. Under these rules it can be graded as either A, B, or C and is safe to prepare just as you would a chicken as long as the inside temperature reaches 160 degrees F during cooking. Common sense handling like refrigerating leftovers quickly and washing hands after touching raw carcasses eliminate any risk of contamination. Great info is available at the USDA's website (http://www.fsis.usda.gov/factsheets/Rabbit_from_Farm_to_Table/index.asp).

The health benefits of rabbit meat far surpass those of other foods like chicken and pork. A blog named The Rabbit Wrangler (http://rabbitwrangler.wordpress.com/health-benefits/) has assembled a panel of health information citing the USDA. Rabbit meat has higher protein than other foods while containing substantially less calories. It has 8g of fat, 82mg of cholesterol, 47mg of sodium, and 29g of protein in a 3.5 ounce serving. The same serving size also offers greater than 10% Daily Value of the following vitamins and minerals: riboflavin, niacin, b6, b12, iron, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, and selenium. The b12 content is a whopping 138%. Very few foods available offer such a wide variety of nutrients and taste so good.

Hope this encourages someone to take the plunge and start their rabbit herd!

Purchasing Rabbits

About six months ago, I started reading into raising rabbits for meat and manure for the garden. I was intrigued by the usefulness of the droppings and the nutrition of the flesh. After researching for a few weeks, I decided on purebred New Zealand White rabbits from the best shown parents I could afford. I wanted purebred so I had a very good idea of how they were going to perform based on their parents. Purebred rabbits all have pedigrees that show three generations of lineage and the prizes and shows that each ancestor has won. Pairing that with records that the breeder has kept on litter size, litter weight, parenting ability, and feed conversion gives a good set of traits to expect from your rabbits. I chose New Zealand Whites because they are the most widely kept rabbit in America and their superior meat quality. Since so many people grow this breed, I thought it would be easy to find high quality breeding stock.


So began the search for a breeder. Phone calls to my county extension agent rang unanswered and the American Rabbit Breeders Association’s (http://www.arba.net/) list of breeders provided little help. After countless Google searches I stumbled across a very simple website with a few pictures and a phone number. I called this breeder and spent an hour allowing him to tell me about his rabbits, whom he claimed were the best in the country. Feeling pretty comfortable, I scheduled to visit his home and look at his newest litter. The drive was three hours but well worth it. When I arrived, he walked me down a rolling hill to a plain privacy fence nestled between the backyards of his two neighbors. Only after he opened the doors did I realize that this was his rabbitry. No smell, unsightly manure piles, or flies were anywhere around.

During the grand tour, he pointed out his two grand champions and told me that the litter that was for sell were descended from both and that there was no way to go wrong with these rabbits. I asked to see the best breeding pair he had for sale. After hours of looking over every feature on each one, he decided on a pair that he thought were right for me. I bought these two immediately for $50 each. In November, my pair will have reached breeding age and I’ll be ready to produce my first litter of meat rabbits. I plan to feed with all organically grown vegetables and greens. Resources are scarce for this feeding plan but a thread at http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/ provides the most tested and reliable information that I could find, including a safe food list. I’ll soon add pictures of my semi-free-range rabbit hutch and more info on breeding/feeding/caring for rabbits.