Rabbit Farming

[FarmerJoe]

Does anyone know where I can purchase rabbits to raise for meat? I have raised them with some success in the states and would like to do so here in Thailand. Any thoughts on it being a profitable enterprise? They would be raised and slaughtered on the same premises. How would I go about marketing it? Would I need a special license? And would I be able to sell the Fur? Any advice would be appreciated.

[kayo]

I nearly thought that I had some helpful advice for you, yet, upon reading the specifics, I can honestly say that I am not sure how to help.

I imagine there are other on here who know more than I do, of that which you are interested in.

[Gary A]

I think you better research your market first. My wife wouldn't even consider eating dog BUT she would eat dog before she would eat a rabbit. Rabbits are for pets and NOT for eating.

[slapout]

Right on Gary. I suggested goats or even cattle in our lamyai so we did not have to cut grass, but when I answered eat them to her question of what about when they get big. She informed me quickly that she did eat goat and would not eat beef if we raised it. Rabbits are pets to her also. I am still wondering why no one that I heard about raise Bull frogs, and I mean the Arkansas bull frog. I had them going good in the states at one time.

[chownah]

Slapout,

People here raise frogs...they're called "kobe". You eat the entire thing...although they do at least partially gut them first and people usually don't eat the head.

Chownah

[seykota]

Farmer Joe,

If you 'google' rabbits and Thailand, you should find some information about a number of European countries that have investigated Thailand a as source of rabbit meat eg. setting up purpose built rabbit farms and processing facilities. They did not receive much interest and I certainly agree that except for a very limited farang demand there would be no local market opportunities. The fur has some possiblity, however several provinces in China are producing rabbits for fur and thus making it an uneconomical venture for others.

[slapout]

Farmer Joe: Just heard this morning about a possible contact for your inquiry. I am awaiting contact name etc of a man who has gone from fish farming to rabbits and says he is making more with the latter. As soon as I get detail will post.

[joeuk1]

I am sure i read an artical on the phukett Gazette a few years ago of a rabbit farm that was doing very well and demand for rabbits was far outstripping supply .When i am in Thailand full time i will get a couple of NZ whites breed them and the offspring will go on the dinner table fonce a week fried or in stew

JB

[ozzydom]

I am sure i read an artical on the phukett Gazette a few years ago of a rabbit farm that was doing very well and demand for rabbits was far outstripping supply .When i am in Thailand full time i will get a couple of NZ whites breed them and the offspring will go on the dinner table fonce a week fried or in stew

JB

Fricassee or braised bunny,! Theres not a nicer bit of meat to sit down to.

[sigmondfreed]

I raised rabbits for profit as part of our family farm business several years ago and can only offer this...rabbits do not do well in extreme heat.

I would suspect that this could require some attention due to the climate here.

Just a thought.

[joeuk1]

My family are from Malta , a lot hotter than Thailand summer months extreme heat , and Rabbit is the eaten everyday served up in homes and resturants , i used to sit watch my granmother skin one near everyday for cooking , have you ever heard of Maltese rabbit stew ? Fried Rabbit is my favourite meat to eat .

JB

[FarmerJoe]

Thanks for the input guys. I would house them in a cement building which would be well ventilated with fans which would also keep out the local dogs and what have you. Maybe have recirculated water running over the roof when it's too hot. Back in the states and Austalia which can be hotter than Thailand there isn't too much of a problem with overheating under the right conditions. There's also rabbit food sold in all the big pet shops around Chiangmai where I'm at but no one knows where to buy them except Warorote Market and near the airport. And those are just the family pet kind. Maybe I will have to go to China to get them or get them sent from New Zealand. My wife, who comes from a village of dirt farmers says they would do very well selling in the back country for the right price. Before they were hunted to depletion she said many villagers ate them. If the bird flu ever came back(God forbid) it would be an excellent alternative meat source. I guess all I can do is try. As my father once said. Sometimes ya gotta have more balls than brains to make things work. Hope this is one of them. If not, at least I tried and I'll always have food on the table.

Thanks for your help checking it out for me Slapout. And thank you too Seykoya.

F.J.

[joeuk1]

Thanks for the input guys. I would house them in a cement building which would be well ventilated with fans which would also keep out the local dogs and what have you. Maybe have recirculated water running over the roof when it's too hot. Back in the states and Austalia which can be hotter than Thailand there isn't too much of a problem with overheating under the right conditions. There's also rabbit food sold in all the big pet shops around Chiangmai where I'm at but no one knows where to buy them except Warorote Market and near the airport. And those are just the family pet kind. Maybe I will have to go to China to get them or get them sent from New Zealand. My wife, who comes from a village of dirt farmers says they would do very well selling in the back country for the right price. Before they were hunted to depletion she said many villagers ate them. If the bird flu ever came back(God forbid) it would be an excellent alternative meat source. I guess all I can do is try. As my father once said. Sometimes ya gotta have more balls than brains to make things work. Hope this is one of them. If not, at least I tried and I'll always have food on the table.

Thanks for your help checking it out for me Slapout. And thank you too Seykoya.

F.J.

Fj

They must have big rabbits in Thailand already , keep us posted how you get on , i bought dvd of bantam chickens they have shows in Thailand i would bet they have rabbits too .

JB

[Zeid]

Right on Gary. I suggested goats or even cattle in our lamyai so we did not have to cut grass, but when I answered eat them to her question of what about when they get big. She informed me quickly that she did eat goat and would not eat beef if we raised it. Rabbits are pets to her also. I am still wondering why no one that I heard about raise Bull frogs, and I mean the Arkansas bull frog. I had them going good in the states at one time.

goats and fruit trees?

i am not sure what kind of goats you have but the ones i see the stretch so high up it is amazing i even saw goats climbing trees.

[slapout]

Zeid: They are lamyai trees and yes I used goats to keep weed with grass down in a previous life and that was a concern I had that goats eat what they want where ever they want. Sheep would be ideal in another climate, I just cannot get ready for sheep due to shearing, sickness potential, lack of me being there every day, etc.

[Zeid]

i guess they are big ones your trees that is.

[Badbanker]

I sadly have to live in Bangkok in one of the lesser populated areas. One one of my nightly walks I came accross an abandoned walled plot of land. Looking through the hole in the gate i could see a huge population of Rabbits that live on this plot of land. There where huge big rabbits and tiny little one and literally hundreds of them in there.

I know there are big rabbits in Thailand and I am sure you cans get them from Chatuchak Market for a 100 baht piece or you could import good breeding stocks and start again!

BB

[Crossy]

I sadly have to live in Bangkok in one of the lesser populated areas. One one of my nightly walks I came accross an abandoned walled plot of land. Looking through the hole in the gate i could see a huge population of Rabbits that live on this plot of land. There where huge big rabbits and tiny little one and literally hundreds of them in there.

Does the fact that there were any potentially edible animals left on an abandoned plot suggest that the locals won't eat them?

Personally I love rabbit, but my other half won't touch it (it's a 'pet'). Oddly, she was more than happy to eat horse when we were in Belgium.

[joeuk1]

I sadly have to live in Bangkok in one of the lesser populated areas. One one of my nightly walks I came accross an abandoned walled plot of land. Looking through the hole in the gate i could see a huge population of Rabbits that live on this plot of land. There where huge big rabbits and tiny little one and literally hundreds of them in there.

Does the fact that there were any potentially edible animals left on an abandoned plot suggest that the locals won't eat them?

Personally I love rabbit, but my other half won't touch it (it's a 'pet'). Oddly, she was more than happy to eat horse when we were in Belgium.

I would guess that this is a breeding ground that one or maybe more of the chatuchak guys use , in chatuchak there are stalls some that must have 200 plus baby rabbits for sale on a sunday morning .

JB

[Nignoy]

We bred Rabbits for Feed animals in the zoo in Aachen where I was Curator, we used Belgian Flop eared Giants, with a dressed weight (slaughtered skinned and gutted) of 8 to 10 lbs after 140 days, was such a success local butchers would buy them too, back legs and Saddle meat were the popular buys , good quality skins, heads and forequarters finely ground and freeze dried , makes an excellent additave free fish food Nignoy

[FarmerJoe]

The stall at Chatuchak market has a website called Boonsongs Rabbit farm. Project 13 Soi 6. But they only advertise pet rabbits on it. I'll have the wife contact them and see if they they can get their hands on some. Thais, near our house sell dog on a stick at their B-B-Q stand so I don't see why they would shy away from rabbit. But seeing the way they treat their dogs in Thailand I guess they don't consider them pets.

F.J.

[frikkiedeboer]

The stall at Chatuchak market has a website called Boonsongs Rabbit farm. Project 13 Soi 6. But they only advertise pet rabbits on it. I'll have the wife contact them and see if they they can get their hands on some. Thais, near our house sell dog on a stick at their B-B-Q stand so I don't see why they would shy away from rabbit. But seeing the way they treat their dogs in Thailand I guess they don't consider them pets.

F.J.

in a country where dung-beetle larvae are considered a delicacy, i doubt whether there will be any serious resistance to the consumption of rabbit meat. in my experience, the rural people will eat anything that moves, including roadkill (mostly dogs), and i even found a market for the diseased, rotting catfish i had to throw out after following thai fishfarming advice (10 baht per kilo!). i had no shortage of neighbours wanting to buy my childrens' pet rabbits for consumption. i think the key is to avoid the cute, white kind with the albino eyes. the same thing happens with dogs. cute, toy-type dogs do not get eaten, but mangy soydogs, especially the black ones are a welcome addition to the menu in some parts. brown, wild-looking bunnies would find their way into the pot quite easily, i should think. you could try cut off the head and feet and sell them as fresh, skinned puppies...........

[ozzydom]

Unless you were looking at the restruant trade as a market IMO the ordinary domesticated grey rabbit would be the go,dressed weight about 1kg or a little under.

Can you imagine trying to sell Thais a 10 lb carcase,a 4-500 baht feed of bunny would be hard to justify for a thai family.

Try selling 1-2kg fish and you will realise the difficulties,I guess the Thais follow the old adage "good things come in small packages"

[Lickey]

Sunday winter days in th UK were spent looking for fallen trees/old trunks ect, anything that would burn to keep us warm and do the cooking, if my dad spotted a rabbit warren, he would light a parrafin soaked rag and put in the hole, while we sat and waited for the rabbits to come out, he would say, "now boys, we want a rabbit with a hump on its back, this will hold the middle of the pie up!also one with good eyes, this will see us through the week!" That was my dad, jovial til the end,

As a kid i was never keen on the rich gamey taste of rabbit,pheashant and ducks, when my mrs was in UK last year we very often saw rabbits at night, I asked her if she would like to buy from butcher and cook? NO was the answer, they are so pretty and nice, why you want to eat? I think most of you know what Issan familes eat, once a week, my mrs eats chopped raw pork with some herbs ect.

I really dont know what the answer is, but perhaps breed the rabbits and sell the young as pets, and when the buyers kids are fed up with the pet, offer to buy them back same price they buy, then you can fatten them up quickly for oven ready rabbit,

Just an idea, Lickey.

[FarmerJoe]

I would kill, skin and dress them myself until I show a worker how to do it. I can sell them live for a cheaper price or sell them whole or cut up in pieces. I can always sell the cuter ones as pets too, but if I sell them dressed already no one will know if it was a cute little white bunny or a average brown one. I can probably show someone how to tan the skins for use and sell them to him. Don't know what they could be used for accept decoration though.

F.J.

[Carmine6]

I would kill, skin and dress them myself until I show a worker how to do it. I can sell them live for a cheaper price or sell them whole or cut up in pieces. I can always sell the cuter ones as pets too, but if I sell them dressed already no one will know if it was a cute little white bunny or a average brown one. I can probably show someone how to tan the skins for use and sell them to him. Don't know what they could be used for accept decoration though.

F.J.

I asked about farming rabbits over a year ago as my mother's family used to raise them in Hawaii to eat. General consensus was that the wild ones are eaten, but the pet ones are not. Although I still believe that if you had something up and running, people would buy them to eat. Although likely at a lower price than say chicken.

But if you could hook up with some distributor to pubs, maybe you'd have a good start.

[brahmburgers]

breed 'em to sell as pets - but don't breed them for meat.

[IMA_FARANG]

Does anyone know where I can purchase rabbits to raise for meat? I have raised them with some success in the states and would like to do so here in Thailand. Any thoughts on it being a profitable enterprise? They would be raised and slaughtered on the same premises. How would I go about marketing it? Would I need a special license? And would I be able to sell the Fur? Any advice would be appreciated.

I don't think Rabbit is a meat that Thais know. Haven't seen much of it in Thailand. I would also be worried about disease in Rabbits raised in a warm climate, there are diseases that Rabbits get in a warm climate. But if you've had experience raising them, you probably already know more about that than I do.

Before you even think about getting started make sure that it is legal under Thai law. I think the agriculutural business may be prohibited for farangs.Check before you put money into it.

Having said that Rabbit is a good meat, and would be a good product, but I don't think Thais would go for it.

P.S. My cousin tried raising Rabbits when he was a teenager. Biggest problem: finding enough customers to sell them. The meat is really good. Unfortunately they breed like....Rabbits.

Edited August 3, 2007 by IMA_FARANG

[Nignoy]

The larger breeds of rabbits are easily and economically dressed into small marketable pieces, and frozen rabbit legs supplied courtesy of the australian government in our army rations were a big hit as Maiow Yang in the villages of yasothon province in the early 60,s, in fact 2 vendors at Warin railway station were selling Rabbit legs as Gai Yang for years, our supply NCo got busted for selling it to them. Nignoy

[Naam]

Unfortunately they breed like....Rabbits.

unfortunately? don't you think you had enough booze today?