Urban Survival Livestock: Raising Rabbits Part 4

[ayahuascacha]

Really a great job on the video and information! I'm wondering if you have a video on how you make your pets food with the organs and if not would you be open to making one.... I enjoy the way you teach and have been dehydrating livers as treats. I am a bit apprehensive about how to go about grinding up, feeding, and storing raw meet for my dog and cat. Thank you kindly :-))

[EverestParkourTeam]

it looks like the rabbit is already dead when you put it on the killboard

[chris42259]

Thank you for putting this information up. I can't think of a simpler, more humane way to kill a rabbit.

[PainShatrick]

Best video I've seen all day.

[Warsrogue]

Rabbit livers, kidneys & onions are yummy :).. also english muffin,egg ,cheese, liver... Egg McRabbit :)

[dlvmark]

So what is the cost to raise a rabbit to the point of harvesting? What does it cost to keep your breeders? Thanks in advance.

[dlvmark]

Sad but that Is the circle of life.

[CTrabbitry]

Awesome killing method!!!!!

[froyboy4life]

I have not seen a quicker cleaner rabbit killing on youtube. Superb!!!

[bear09871]

Wow!! I have killed a lot of our rabbits but never one that fat!! I bet the dogs love you!! :)

[marohl1]

Enjoyed the video, im all for being self sufficient, just bought our first house, was dreaming of one in the country so i could raise a feeder steer, goats and poultry, but we bought just outside the city limits on only 1/2 acre. I have been brainstorming on what i could raise & keep our property acceptable (lol) to our very close neighbors...rabbits, and a few hens for eggs it will be! Thank you!

[survivalyongsters]

wow i wiald rabbit is not fat

[survivalyongsters]

its was a guy rabbit

[Juicylov369]

I though this was going to be about bunny care not bunny killing :(

[mycolts88]

The kill board is a good idea, good job! Keep making videos, they are very helpful!

[TNGun]

your kill board is a great idea, thanks for sharing.

[chickenosm]

just wondering but how hard was it to kill your first rabbit I mean that seams so... I don't know

painful to do

[henryzimmer]

And thanks for saying the simple truth about dog and cat food! My god, todays domestic animals gets diabetic!!! Thanks again!

[henryzimmer]

Thanks for respecting the animal and for doing a really good video! =) Very informative! Keep up the good work. Cheers from Sweden!

[wetmittens0]

Just pull the skin off like you're pulling off a sweater.

[Marcellone86able]

farewell bugs bunny

[Onyxaxe]

I was fine til you showed the head. I guess I wasn't expecting the head to be down there :(. I still appreciate your humane approach to killing the rabbit and the vids. Thank you.

[boonedocksSt]

When u cut the skin down to the anus, do u cut around it. And do u remove it through the inside like a deer?

[Suntabarbara]

Why did u start by showing how to raise them ! u should start by the killing first OHHHHHHHHHH poor bunnnnyyyy ohhh))))) plzzz kill me instead :(

[keithunknown]

That was very fast and humane, Thanks for the videos and the knowledge. ..-Keith

[kattykillfish]

i very much like your method of kill. very quick, fast and humane. I've kept chickens for meat and thought about keeping rabbits but had no idea what kill method should be used. I'm impressed!

[mikemorrison281]

thanks for promoting the raw food diet for dogs and cats!

[MrAnthonyRizzo]

I know with chickens they still twitch awhile after killing them. I didn’t see that with the rabbit. Does that mean that breaking its neck is quicker than cutting its head off?

[chiprommel]

If you get a large harvest of rabbits, do you ever make steak and kidney pie? M cousins in England are crazy for that. Or maybe Rabbit Pate'?

[punkarchy1]

The most humanely made video I've seen about killing rabbits. Nice video. How much would you say it costs you a month to raise rabbits? How do you know for sure that it's the achilies tendion?

[Dhragonfly]

due to my ignorance, i was creeped out at the beginning of this video. but to be honest, this was a rather informative video.

[ChuckCh9]

Thank you

[thelister4910]

The inside of this rabbit looks nothing like that of a wild rabbit with respect to the fat. I don't remember seeing any fat at all inside a wild rabbit. Am I correct in assuming one could eat this fat if cooked or use it for grease etc? Thanks.

[chiprommel]

@thelister4910 I was thinking the same thing mate. Plus the meat is dark when I get wild rabbits around here (New England)

[kellydjelly]

my mom and dad love rabbit meat, i haven't tried it yet, but i know if worse came to worse i would eat it. if it's me or the rabbit, the rabbit got to go.

[clydester124]

how do you tan the hides what do you use to tan the hides when you butcher the rabbit and take off his fur. I would like to know all about tanning and making stuff out of the rabbit hide but i have no clew on how to tan the hide.

[thenewsurvivalist]

@clydester124 Get a good book such as "Tan Your Hide."

[undoingcat03]

how do you teach your bunny to drink from a water bottle please answer??????

[thenewsurvivalist]

@undoingcat03 You don't have to teach them to drink from the water bottle. They will figure it out very quickly when they get thirsty. They can smell the water and will lick it by instinct. Licking it automatically releases the water which reinforces. Presto.

[1985aberry]

Thank you for sharing this. Alot of videos stop at the slaughter and start up with a neat, cleaned and gutted rabbit, and yeah, there are books tell you how, but if you're a visual learner, this helps alot!! The commentary helped out to understand what you were doing.

[Ebrech]

I guess there are many ways to do this... me and my mom when I was younger had a rabittry and it would take us only 10 min each bunny. I'd love to do a video on this but I don't think our landlord would appreciate XD

[jmercer1820]

Thanks for the great videos - very informative and helpful.

Just wondering - could you slaughter under 8 weeks (like 4 or 6 weeks), if you only wanted a smaller meal for one person ?

I mean would the meat be the same ?

[thenewsurvivalist]

@jmercer1820 Yes

[BlackVolchitsa]

you dont need to grind it for the dogs/cats, i give it to them whole (its better because the meat isnt as exposed to as much oxygen/air, so less nutrients are destroyed).

[xdogish2]

@thenewsurvivalist...excellent videos! thank you so much! and as for the "animalovers" out there... we will see how much they love animals when the dollar collapses. "mmm that tastes good" ))

[randomchubbykid]

i like the way that you use the board to break the neck. Im considering making one but i have a question, have you ever had a rabbits head slip out of the V when you pull its legs?

[thenewsurvivalist]

@randomchubbykid No, this will not happen if you get the v small enough. Go ahead and make it very small. That way it will self adjust to the rabbit's neck. Pull it in very snug.

[saprater25]

How much force do you have to use to break the neck? It looks very humane, and should I ever decide to try my hand at rabbit meat production, it would be what I would want to use, but I get nervous about not pulling hard enough and causing pain to the animal. Also, it looks like this method produces minimal nervous twitches afterwards (versus shooting the animal). Is this the case or were the twitches occurring off-camera?

[thenewsurvivalist]

@saprater25 Use enough to break the neck the first time. That is the most humane way. Don't use enough force and the animal will suffer and you will have to do it again. There is some twitching but not that much. It is an involuntary reflex that occurs from the spinal cord when the connection to the brain is severed. There is minimal suffering and it is quick.

[mrouterrim]

at 8 weeks are they as heavy as they will ever be? it seems soon to me

[thebrizzell]

Why are you having such a time with the guts? You seem to be taking a lot of time to do it but are not telling why? - thank you

[youknownoyuno]

Does it have diseases you should watch out for?

Since you're raising them yourself, not exposing them to other disease filled animals and environments, would they be (very) safe to handle or should I still watch out?

[thenewsurvivalist]

@youknownoyuno There is a disease to watch out for. Read the book. I have raised rabbits for years and have never seen it nor used any preventative drugs for it. Diseases are something that are a problem for factory-raised animals raised in unhealthy conditions. Diseases are not transmitted to humans. They only affect your livestock. A healthy liver means a healthy animal. (Have you looked at the livers of factory raised chickens? YUK!) If kidneys and liver look good, you have a healthy animal.

[IanCanefire]

The only thing I don't like about your method is that you don't let it bleed out. I prefer to hang the animal upside down for a little while and then I make sure I have a basin underneath them or a drain of some sort. Then I remove the head and hold the body so the blood doesn't end up every where. This allows the blood to drain out of the animal. I find the meat tastes better this way.

[thenewsurvivalist]

@IanCanefire Au Contraire, I completely bled out the animal. You must have missed it. Watch the video again. When you cut off the head and hand it upside down it bleeds out very quickly and completely.

[Twisted86]

@thenewsurvivalist

What week do you harvest your fryers, your last video left off at 8 weeks so I imagine 8 or 9? Also any advice on best type? I was told New Zealand White and Californian and crossbreed them made the best meat rabbit for quick 8 week harvests.

[wcfdemt]

i have raised rabbits since i was a kid, and like you skinned out using that technique. but there is a much easier and faster way( if your arent gonna sell or tan hides...just grab a fold of skin midway on the backmake a slit and simply peel the skin half going the head, the other half tword the tail...even quicker if you have another person

[ptvids1]

is rabbit fur valubal?

[thenewsurvivalist]

@ptvids1 Yes. If you can find a buyer you can sell them for extra money. Of you can tan them and use them yourself. That is the reason for the albino breed. Solid white fur is the most desirable because it can be dyed any color.

[ptvids1]

now heres a question when you pull off the skin do you know how to make the hide to keep as like pelt

[raw5069]

very well done !

[Benable7]

Very interesting

[amiable519]

we hereby hang Willey T. rabbit for the crime of incest......hahaha

[amiable519]

one part of me is going ewww......one part of me is going MMmmmm.....

[artconva]

why did you raise the rabbit for as long as 3 years ? isn't that expensive and inconvenient?

[MrStr8diesel]

Are those wind chimes i hear in the back ground? What a peaceful and serene setting for survival foor prep.

[thenewsurvivalist]

@MrStr8diesel Yes, wind chimes. And thanks for your comments. (My beard has been called many things-some bad but mostly good. "Epic" is a brand new and original one! Thanks.)

[MrStr8diesel]

Thumbs up for creativity.  Cheap culling tool.

[marlin187]

Great method.

[thenewsurvivalist]

@Armandocoolio Take is someone else pansy this isn't the site for you!

[flamedrag18]

you know that you can add the fat to the soups or stews you make, the you get the necessary fat in your diet so you don't need to worry about rabbit starvation or protein poisoning.

[hollyscarper]

i suggest that if you keep the animals in the garage. they will of probibly have inhaualed alot of feums so i would not eat it.

[PorscheORviper]

Awesome informative videos.

[chinbunny1]

Great video. You have a lot more guts when doing this then I do. I have to have someone else butcher them for me. Can't stomach it.

[kaldicuct]

how hard do you have to pull to do the deed?

[thenewsurvivalist]

@kaldicuct Pretty firmly but not excessively. It isn't that hard to do with the right equipment.

[kaldicuct]

@thenewsurvivalist so a good comparison would be like pulling a tough weed perhaps?

[thenewsurvivalist]

@kaldicuct It should be a quick jerk. It is harder to break an animal's neck than you might think, although this device makes it so easy anyone can do it. It is better not to have to do it a second time, so until you get the feel, don't hesitate to give it a good jerk. "Overkill" is an appropriate description here.

[kaldicuct]

@thenewsurvivalist now that really answers the question because i need to be able to do something mentally before i can do the physical part, know what i mean? and ill mentally go over it before i do something, basically a mental prep because ive never done something like that before. my kills consist of gophers in victor traps and a crowbar, then when one got away with it *bought some since* i would stand over the hole with my pellet gun, and nail them between the eyes. and even then i preped.

[thenewsurvivalist]

@kaldicuct If you can I recommend you visit a local rabbitry and see if they will demonstrate. Just do it! Experience is the best teacher.

[kaldicuct]

@thenewsurvivalist i would but we dont have any here unfortunatly. i could prolly get someone in my family to teach me, when my mother was younger they had rabbit fries. just gotta ask around. ill let you know how it goes btw

[reighmey]

wouldn't it be best to drain the blood before butchering?



[thenewsurvivalist]

@reighmey I killed the rabbit and immediately cut off his head and hung it upside to drain the blood. What part of that did you miss? It doesn't take but a minute or two to drain the blood. It was complete before I finished skinning the animal, as you can see when I butchered the animal there was no blood.

[reverendxlt]

Do you keep track of the feed conversion for the Florida White? I know they are smaller when full grown, but I am looking for info on dress out at 70-90 days?

[thenewsurvivalist]

@reverendxlt No, sorry, I don't keep those records. Thanks for watching.

[japanlove4rmcali]

that was kinda weird......the rabbits head looked like a stuffed toy in a bucket.

[56animallover]

How could u kill them after raising them?! I raise show rabbits and I get so attached to them after 3 weeks It would hurt me inside to kill them. :'(

[thenewsurvivalist]

@56animallover These animals are meat rabbits, not pets. Unless you are a vegetarian, you either kill animals or you pay someone else to do it for you. If you pay the factory farms to do it, I guarantee you that they will not be raised humanely and the meat you eat is filled with toxins, antibiotics, is possibly GMO and who knows what else. The only way to insure that your meat is raised and killed humanely is by doing it yourself or buying it from a family farm rather than from Big AG!

[dendog21]

@56animallover why would you watch this video knowing what he was gonna do if you love animals so much? In the first video he explains that these rabbits are for food. I think it was obvious that this was the logical progression of the video series. After watching part 2 i thought maybe part 3 will show how to prep/butcher the rabbit but no. . . had to wait till part 4. Maybe he'll show how to make a tasty meal in part 5.

[Suzanne42]

I'm glad you killed him quickly and humanely. I only wish all other animals could be sacrificed this humanely. Thank you for doing what you do with dignity.

[reverendxlt]

At what age did you butcher this rabbit? I know you have Florida Whites so they are probably a bit smaller... this one looked like a good size rabbit

[thenewsurvivalist]

@reverendxlt I don't recall the age of that rabbit but I remember that it was an older doe, at least a year old if not two.

[ronaldoelpaso]

why don't you eat the heart and liver? it's the healthiest part.

[thenewsurvivalist]

@ronaldoelpaso I didn't say I don't eat them. I eat the liver. The heart is so small I don't bother with it. The animals enjoy it so much.

[ronaldoelpaso]

@ronaldoelpaso Does the liver taste like a chicken liver? All ive ever had is chicken, beef, and pork liver

[thenewsurvivalist]

@ronaldoelpaso Yes, the liver taste like [healthy] chicken liver. But the chicken livers I get from the grocery store are diseased (cirrhosis, fatty, yellow spots and just overall yucky looking) due to the high dosages of drugs that factory farms expose their animals to. The livers from healthy animals that you raise yourself are healthy looking, good for you, and delicious.

[ronaldoelpaso]

@thenewsurvivalist Yeah, i wouldn't buy ANY organs from the store. I was raised on farm chicken

[ZachAhhLack65]

man all i want to say is THANK YOU for your videos.THERE IS NO need to go to grocery store when you own land.When man owns land then you have no neeed for goverment and goverment has a hell of a time with you because you pay very few taxes when you "live off the land" when my restaraunt opens its going to be sustainable food that i grow my self and livestock i grow myself.Very little purchases are needed.pleasee keep up the videos man.Great work.

thanks zach from florida

[FishyMoe]

its amazing the moral debate arising from this simple act. Life means death, a simple fact. all we can do is accecpt it and live by the golden rule, treat others as they way we would want to be treated. Regarding other beings, make their journey as swift as possible, as you would want to be taken. in return we give them the exchange of having offspring and passing genes on to the next generation. as with all things, they want to live, we and take their life in a mutually beneficial relationship.

[TheRabbitWringer]

All I'm basically saying is that did not look like a clean kill.

[thenewsurvivalist]

@TheRabbitWringer About as clean a kill as I have seen.

[TheRabbitWringer]

@thenewsurvivalist Did not see the dislocation, all I'm saying.

[thenewsurvivalist]

@TheRabbitWringer Well after the kill the rabbit's neck was about an inch longer than it was before, and the rabbit was dead as a doornail. It's hard to capture every detail in a video. I guess I could have yanked harder and separated his neck further, but that would be overkill, no pun intended.

[flamedrag18]

@TheRabbitWringer I seen it and I've seen your equipment and your method, you basically tear the rabbits head off when you pull, no need for it.

[thenewsurvivalist]

@TheRabbitWringer I'm sure you are not saying that just because you sell a very expensive "Rabbit Wringer" ($44.95 plus $11.95 S&H) and a processing station (another $44.95 plus $11.95 S&H) and I have described how to make simple devices FOR PRACTICALLY NOTHING that work JUST AS EFFECTIVELY!

[breakneck14]

@thenewsurvivalist I've seen the wringer vids before and also questioned how much more money he wanted to add to a 5 dollar piece of metal. How many rabbits can you get for $60 bucks? Your device worked fine in my opinion.

[Canoots]

@thenewsurvivalist just saw the ''rabbit wringer'' omg, looks like a lot of wasted material, and time. I mean a bold gun for a rabbit? you have got to be kidding me. Your method rocks! Haven't people heard the acronym K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple Stupid. It works with just about everything.

[thenewsurvivalist]

Anon: How do I over come the fear/anxiety/"feelings" of it all?

Get someone with experience to help you the first time.To overcome your aversion make the kill quick & humane. Killing an animal is never easy (unless you are shooting one from a distance) but it is a job that has to be done unless you are a vegetarian. (Even if you don't do it yourself you are paying someone else to do it ) Whether bludgeoning or breaking its neck, it is not as easy as it looks on TV, so use a lot of force.

[strykersigma]

people should learn this when they are young, alote of this knwoldge has been lost do to bleeding heart libirials.

[tinsnanna]

thank you 

[nbr3223]

I like the hook system, and the kill system. As a child the adults would shoot them and I would be the chump holding the legs over a five gallon bucket. I love your videos

[NewHeathen78]

Hey Doc. Do you have any plans on showing how to tan the hides? If not, then could you please recommend any books? Thanks.

[thenewsurvivalist]

@NewHeathen78 I haven't gotten into tanning yet. Haven't read any books but one I plan to check out is "Tan Your Hide." Sounds like there's a video in there some day.

[RichTheRidgeHunter]

Great Video! Thank you for showing. Wonderful work Doc, please keep them coming.

Thanks, Rich

[Warsrogue]

Nice Vid, I like the board idea I have 9 fryers to do next couple of days I might try to make one.

[mikebius]

You have definitely got this down to an efficient process. I've heard of "rabbit starvation" - that a person will starve if they have only rabbit to eat because the meat is so lean... However, it looked like this rabbit had a good amount of fat on it.

[erfrye]

your vid is going to be pulled you need to take out the killing part but all an all good vid

[zameul35]

@erfrye Go to Mcdonalds and buy your quarter pounder hypocrite. Liberal want a burger?? Liberal want a burger??

[erfrye]

@erfrye A I like your vid. I like the killing board method I was just saying it's going to get pulled as soon as these vegeheads animal lovers o don't eat them poor little breading machines need to be free sees it.