# Breeding...



## Mia (Oct 4, 2010)

I have been thinking of breeding African Soft Fur Rats for my cats, for prey model raw.

I'd love to do my own rabbits, quail.

What does everyone thing about breeding your own meat for your dogs/cats?

I could even try and sell and make a little profit at the same time?

Just something I have been tossing in my head lately.


----------



## RawFedDogs (Jun 16, 2008)

Rye&Ted said:


> What does everyone thing about breeding your own meat for your dogs/cats?


I think its a great idea.


----------



## Mia (Oct 4, 2010)

Good, wanna help me set up LOL.
I wonder if it's expensive. Probably is to start up anyways?


----------



## bumblegoat (May 12, 2010)

I think it is a great idea. My dream is to be able to raise rabbits, quail and chicken for my pets. I will probably find even more animals I want to raise, haha. I'm going to end up with a huge farm, just to feed my pets and myself...


----------



## Mia (Oct 4, 2010)

Do you think it would totally out weigh the cost of buying? Even with all the expenses of raising, keeping them?


----------



## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

i'm good right up to the killing part...

i was talking to someone about raising rabbit and she was saying the reason they are so expensive is because of what goes into raising rabbits...
then slaughter and skinning, etc..

but if you're raising rabbits, not killing them, let's say....building a pen of sorts, letting the rabbits and the dogs loose....then certainly you'd save money on the slaughter and skinning parts...


----------



## SamWu1 (Oct 15, 2010)

It doesn't get any better than raising and eating your own meat. The place that I bought a few feeder rabbits from euthanize them by putting them in a large bin layered with hay, then they apply C02 and apparently the rabbits just fall asleep permanently. Sounds pretty humane.


----------



## candiceb (Jan 22, 2010)

What I've read is that the most expensive part about keeping and breeding rabbits is feeding them. So, one day in a bookstore I saw this great little gem Keeping Poultry and Rabbits on Scraps, and I snatched it up! I thought it was pretty useful.

One day, I'd like to have my own little backyard homestead, so I can raise meat for my dogs and my family, grow fruits and vegetables for us, and use the scraps for composting and for the chickens and rabbits. Too bad right now I'm stuck with an apartment patio that doesn't receive direct sunlight.


----------



## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

Once we move up to Idaho and have space we will raise rabbits for meat for the dogs (and us probably!) as well as chickens for eggs.


----------



## CorgiPaws (Mar 31, 2009)

I fully intend to raise my own rabbits for meat for the dogs- too bad it's too low fat to be the main staple.
My brother raises chickens, and I don't think I'd enjoy that.... but I have thought about doing guinea pigs, and am currently considering doing rats and getting pinkies for the cats.


----------



## sarweim (Jan 2, 2011)

I've thought about it. My village doesn't allow "live stock" though, and that includes food rabbits. Wonder how they'd know if they were food or pets... :wink:

Skinning them is no big thing. Once you get the hang of it, you can skin small animals in five minutes or less. Rodent family is particularly easy - skin's very loose and the connective tissue from skin to muscle is soft and pliable. Buy some environmentally safe chemicals from a taxidermy supply, and you'll have all the furs you could possibly want! Those can go for $5 to $10 a piece, if you're inclined. Or even a couple bucks each raw hide at a fur auction, as long as they're stretched properly while they dry.


----------



## Mia (Oct 4, 2010)

I think we may try it once the weather hits to be warmer. Right now it's too cold. I heard that rats and mice can really really reak too.


----------



## Cliffdog (Dec 30, 2010)

I think it's a great idea.

Just remember- they aren't JUST prey, they are animals, as well. Do not be inhumane. Buy multiple females and allow them to breed cyclically. Making one female pump out baby after baby after baby is cruel. Also, please, please, _please_ do not overcrowd your rats. I understand that it is not feasible for feeders to have large luxuriant cages or roaming space, but since they have to live in a box, try not to crowd that box. And remember, just because they're feeders, doesn't mean they aren't living beings.

Also, CO2 euthanasia is affordable and humane, and doesn't taint the meat your dog eats. My snake eats CO2 euthanized rats only, most other methods are inhumane. Head trauma is also humane if done right but requires you to actually physically kill the animal and many people prefer not to do so.


----------



## Spaz (Sep 3, 2009)

I was doing some research yesterday on the whole C02 method. I might be able to do it. I also read that C02 should only be used on animals under a certain amount of weight I can't remember exacts but I'm pretty sure rabbits were out. Does any one know how true that is?


----------



## Cliffdog (Dec 30, 2010)

I don't know... I've never heard that, but then I've never fed animals larger than a mouse.


----------



## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

wouldn't goats be fairly easy, too?


----------



## MollyWoppy (Mar 19, 2010)

Another angle to consider - having kids could pose a bit of a problem. 
I know when we were kids, our parents had a self sufficient little farm. They got various animals with the intention of having them for Xmas dinner and stuff. But, they forgot to fathom in the attachment us kids made with the animals. Hence the best pet pig in the world Tutai, (oh God I loved that pig) our pet chickens, our pet ducks etc etc etc.
There is a chance you could end up with a lot more pets than you ever bargained for!


----------



## RachelsaurusRexU (Sep 4, 2010)

SamWu1 said:


> It doesn't get any better than raising and eating your own meat. The place that I bought a few feeder rabbits from euthanize them by putting them in a large bin layered with hay, then they apply C02 and apparently the rabbits just fall asleep permanently. Sounds pretty humane.


It's not that peaceful. They basically suffocate (eyes bulging, gasping, the whole deal), it takes a long time for them to lose consciousness and if you don't leave them in for long enough they can absolutely regain consciousness when you take them out of the chamber.


----------



## RachelsaurusRexU (Sep 4, 2010)

As long as you keep their housing clean there is virtually no foul odor.


----------



## Cliffdog (Dec 30, 2010)

RachelsaurusRexU said:


> It's not that peaceful. They basically suffocate (eyes bulging, gasping, the whole deal), it takes a long time for them to lose consciousness and if you don't leave them in for long enough they can absolutely regain consciousness when you take them out of the chamber.


I have seen it done many many times (and have done it myself) and saw no eye bulging, gasping, or anything else. I also actually held my face into the tank with the CO2 mixture for a few moments and experienced no pain other than watering eyes. I saw a bit of labored breathing but it was mild as the mice fell asleep. They never regained consciousness because we left them in the tank for about half an hour after losing consciousness. Now we buy mice, but I feel confident enough in this technique that I would use it on my personal pet rats if the need ever arises (as opposed to injection which is *extremely* inhumane for small animals).

A more humane method would be, as I said, head trauma, because it is instant, leaving no time for pain. One person I know uses it. He puts the mouse (or gerbil, as he uses now instead of mice) in a bag and swings them full-force into the wall, killing them. I, personally, am incapable of doing this, but for those who can, that's fine. But he has also experienced mice/gerbils who did not die immediately on impact and for those few it was excruciatingly painful.


----------



## RachelsaurusRexU (Sep 4, 2010)

It may very well be because mice are so tiny... But I've seen it done on rats and rabbits and it was pretty awful 

I've had to do it with one of my own rats who was dying in the middle of the night and, even though she was already on her last leg, it took forever and looked very uncomfortable. 

I agree that injection is worse as I've also had rats euth'd at the vet that way. Come to think of it, I've seen many animals euth'd that way and it seems like it's very seldom that they just peacefully fall asleep and slip away unless they're already in pretty bad shape... Maybe our vets just scrimp on the drugs?  I remember reading something somewhat recently about a discovery that the drugs used for human lethal injection are quite painful. If so much thought was put into those drugs and they're still very painful, I can only imagine that animal euthanasia is quite possibly much worse. 

Sometimes the most seemingly brutal methods are most humane, I guess. Decapitation and cervical dislocation come to mind. I don't think I could ever do it, though. Hell, I could barely cut open a frozen/thawed mouse for my cats...


----------



## Cliffdog (Dec 30, 2010)

I agree, it's hard to know... that's why I felt I needed to test it, even for a short moment, on myself to know what happened to the mice.

And yeah, it's hard to be "brutal" even when doing so is the kinder thing... I always had a hard time feeding mice just because they make me think of my rats. I'm glad I don't feed rodents anymore.


----------



## werecatrising (Oct 15, 2010)

As somebody who has been involved with hundreds of euthanasia I can say that for the most part they go very peacefully.


----------



## richie (Jan 30, 2011)

*carbon dioxide*

First I want to say that I have no experience with euthanasia (well except the time my dog didn't finish off a toad -=- when I heard it squealing I crushed it with a huge rock so it wouldn't have to suffer.) 

However, I find it hard to accept that carbon dioxide is a pleasant way to die. It is only found in trace amounts in the air, and when it builds up in the blood, the body reacts by gasping to try to get rid of the excess CO2 and take in oxygen. 

As an experiment, put a bag over your head, and as the CO2 level builds you will feel uncomfortable and will rip the bag off and gasp for air. My understanding is that this panic feeling is caused by buildup of carbon dioxide, NOT the depletion of oxygen.

!!! (don't try this alone!!!) !!!

Where I work, we get dry ice (solid carbon dioxide) delivered every week in 500 pound bins. A couple times, when I was shoveling some out when it was near the bottom, I got a couple breaths -- VERY uncomfortable! 

I suspect asphyxiation with Nitrogen would be much more humane -- for one thing it is already the major gas in our air, and the body has no warning signal associated with breathing it. From reading about some accidents where people died breathing it, they had no idea anything was wrong until they dropped dead. I think one example was in 1981, during NASA training exercises on the ground. 

I haven't done any research on this, but nitrogen is cheap and should be at least as easy to use for euthanasia as CO2 (although since it is less dense than air, it would not lay in a bin, you would need a fairly air-tight chamber.


----------



## Boxers&Pom's Mom (Jan 17, 2011)

We use to raise rabbits when we were in Cuba and it was our only meat source for many years. My daughters grow up eating rabbit meat. Delicious meat. 
I had noticed that our rabbits were big and fat that what I see here in the market.


----------



## SilverBeat (Jan 16, 2011)

As much as I love my pet rabbits, being a farmer has been my dream for some time, and I've done quite a bit of research about raising and slaughtering their lagomorph brethren. I think for a while I'll be sticking with larger beasts though. Living with prey animals for several years has taught me a lot about them and I can tell you, raising them can be a challenge. Personally, if you're going to be raising them outdoors, I'd say chickens will be easier to feed and house cheaply than will rabbits. You can feed chickens any of your kitchen scraps [raw] and most of the time they'll thrive on it. I recommend the book Chicken Tractor, it's a great read if you're considering free range, urban "farming," building raised gardens--or any kind of garden really], etc. Also check out 
Chicken Tractor Gallery compiled by Katy
Rabbits are a bit more high-maintenance and IMO harder to kill. Because everything scares them. Everything. Seriously. Plus they can be vicious if not properly handled. Chickens, you put them in the cone [this almost always calms them], let the blood drain, boil & pluck them, and there you go.


----------

