Pics of the rabbits i raise (pope rabbits)

[Ole Mule]

These are the type of rabbits that I raise for my pup starting pen. I also butcher some for eating to. The black rabbit can change directions in mid air he can stay ahead of the pups and put a show on. I only use black in the training pen. hey are a cross of Flemish Giant and Dutch Rabbit.

[span870]

These are the type of rabbits that I raise for my pup starting pen. I also butcher some for eating to. The black rabbit can change directions in mid air he can stay ahead of the pups and put a show on. I only use black in the training pen. hey are a cross of Flemish Giant and Dutch Rabbit.

What is it about the black ones? I raise and sell redbacks and I have to say the black ones run better than the others. In my running pen I have all wild cottontails and one black one. I can't seem to catch him and he will outrun the wild ones. Can't get anyone to buy the black ones though. Seems if they aren't brown they don't think they'll run. The pics the op posted have quite a bit of dwarf in them.

[Chevy10]

I'd like to buy 10 rabbits to turn loos in the wild. How far r u from London ky

[wildcatfan0309]

3 hrs from london

[warddog]

I raise rabbits too and they are a 4 way mix of rocky mountain, Missouri cottontail, swamp rabbit and Belgian hare. I don't have a pen but my friend had a 3 acre starting pen and he said these run pretty good. What I do know is that when raising rabbits and the young are weaning off they eat like HOGS and one litter of 6 can about eat you out of house and home. I also have had little luck in selling them to beaglers in this area as they do not want to pay $10.00 per head and if raising them to butcher these breeds are the wrong ones as they are NOT bred for being meat rabbits and take time to get any size on them. I would actually say they are NOT for raising to butcher as by the time you raise one to a good size you have way too much money in it to be cost effective. I do eat them when I have them with nothing else to do with them but they are like eating gold with the amount of feed money put into them let alone the time. the only reason I have kept them is in hopes that I get my pen built and have the rabbits to keep it stocked and I think I'm gonna name mine GREEN BACKS because that is what it takes to raise these kind of rabbits.

[wildcatfan0309]

Wardog
Lol i like the name greenbacks
You are right
A 30 day old rabbit can flat put the feed away
When its time to wean em u have to sell em
And kills your profit when u have to hold them for a week for somebody
Like right now i got 30 rabbits sold that was spoken for last saturday but they cant pick em up till
This weekend

Your cross sounds good
I was wanting to cross belgian hare with mine but i read that hare and rabbits cant cross
Good to know that they will

[S.R.Patch]

Heres a pic of the rabbits i raise
Some people have ask for pics so here they r
We turn them loose in our 40 acre running lot
And i used to sell them some getting ready to start selling them again
These rabbits saved us
We was bout to give it up because we have no rabbits around here
And now with these rabbits we r putting 20 + miles a night on our trial dogs
These rabbits are as close to wild as u will find
Ive seen some of my buck rabbits run even better than wild cottontail
And the dogs seem to act like there is no scent difference from my rabbits an wild rabbits also

I raised rabbits looked just like these. Got 2 does & buck from Joe Sturkis around 1990. Knotheads and some redbacks in the breeding. Bred from the original 3 offspring for over 15 yrs. They was good for starting pups but i couldn't compare them to wild rabbits. Raising them on the ground was the best for developing running ability and being fearful.
Take a old trampoline and wrap it in 1"X 2" wire. Great for raising rabbits or puppies on the ground. Easy to move onto fresh grass, clean and cheep food for bunnies and pups. They loved the dandelion and clover in the back yard. No need to buy all that feed in the summer.
I think there is still some of that blood around the house, the neighbors dog liberated the few rabbits I had left but she kill most of them. I still see a couple with the bigger heads and heavier rear quarters that I think are some of that blood.
As far as crossing, you can cross a horse and a donkey but the offspring are sterile. Joe said he had turned loose a number of does at his house and his driveway was always lined with little rabbits. He said he knew they would cross because of this, but whether the offspring were sterile I don't know. I do know saying you've got a wild X domestic rabbit sells more bunnies.

[wildcatfan0309]

Good idea on the trampoline

Wild x domestic rabbits "will not " cross
Different chromosomes
Studies say that they dont even recognize each other as the same species

[BCBeagles]

We r going to try something later this summer before my pen is built.

We r going to fence in an area, 100 ft. by 50ft. with pen wire and make a "half way house" for the young rabbits. We are going to put cover and refuge areas and feed them some. Letting them browse on grass mostly. Hoping this will condition them to be more active then we will go back and use a fishing nets to catch them out to go to the big pen upon completion. I would think it would get there legs under them and make them more "wild".

We will see how it works out...worth a shot.

[wildcatfan0309]

Jim,
I pretty much do the same thing
I just turn em in our running lot and shut it down for a month or so
Them when we opening it back up its none stop running
Your idea will work great
We r planning to do the same thing that way we dont have to shut the lot down to get rabbits ground condition n ready for dogs
Have to watch the hawks n owls though
They will zero in on the small pen n make it hard on em

[span870]

That is a misconception that I also bought into until I did some studying on the subject. A hare and rabbit WILL interbreed but the offspring will be sterile. Same as a horse and donkey.

[warddog]

The Belgian hare is actually a breed of domestic rabbit bred originally in Belgium and then went to Europe where they bred them to resemble the wild hare. They are European rabbits and evidently have no problem crossing and producing non-sterile offspring as I have had these crossed up rabbits for probably 6 years.

[cris axtell/coal hill ken]

I raise Belgian hare crosses and the offspring are not sterile. I agree with calling them greenbacks. I go through 150 lbs of pellets a week to feed 40 some rabbits.

[hskennels69]

I haven't bought any of these rabbits but I'm sure they are terrible runners and the guy who owns them can't be very smart he's a Wildcat fan lmao...You had to know it was comin!!!!

[fulcount]

span870
What studies did you make on crossing a rabbit and hare?
What do the offspring look like ,a hare is born with fur and near ready to eat grass
a rabbit is born looking like a litter of mice no fur so which one will
the offspring resemble?
I would like to read the study you did on cross breeding a HARE with a Rabbit
Cant be done if they do breed it would be just for fun

John O