The Real Cost Per Pound to Raise Rabbit Meat (Full, Transparent Breakdown)

What is the real cost per pound to raise rabbit meat? Is it worth it or just more work? The reality is, the cost and effort all depend on the size and set up of your rabbitry. But this is an honest cost breakdown per pound of meat per year in a small backyard set up.

*This post may contain affiliate links. See our disclosure policy.

1. Your Set Up

The cost per pound to raise rabbit meat will adjust based on how many breeding rabbits you start with. To begin breeding meat rabbits, you will need one male (buck) and one female (doe). However, to get the most out of breeding rabbits, I recommend having two or more females that can be bred on rotation. In our family, we have one buck and four does.

A doe can be bred again once she has given birth, but to maintain the health of your rabbits, I recommend giving her a month off before breeding her again. This is why multiple females bred on rotation is helpful.

cost of meat rabbit Cost Per Pound to Raise Rabbit Meat

Your set up will determine what you rabbits eat. If you have enough space to allow your rabbits to forage, it will cut down on feed costs. Otherwise, you will need to by rabbit pellet food and hay for all of your rabbits.

2. Start Up Costs (One Time)

The start up cost for meat rabbits will cover the meat rabbit essentials, food, hay, and a breeding pair. It costs approximately $400 to get everything you need to raise meat rabbits.

This price will vary, however, and there are ways to save money on start up costs.

Start Small – Don’t feel like you have to buy several rabbits and create a huge elaborate set up right off the bat. Start small and create a set up that you can afford. Get just one breeding pair and add more females to your rabbitry as the budget allows.

Build it yourself – If you are handy and able to build a hutch yourself with wood you have laying around or scrap wood somewhere else, you can save money by not buying a brand new hutch or cages. For our set up, my husband built our nesting boxes out of scrap wood.
Find A Friend – Find friends who are looking to get rid of supplies that you could use in your meat rabbit set up. For us, we were able to get many supplies from friends who no longer raised rabbits.
Facebook Marketplace – Check Facebook Marketplace for meat rabbit essentials that others might be selling for cheap.
Facebook Groups – Join local meat rabbit Facebook Groups to ask around for the best local places to buy supplies or buy supplies off of someone else. You are often able to find people to buy rabbits from on Facebook Groups as well.

3. Ongoing Costs

The ongoing cost of maintaining meat rabbits is the cost of rabbit feed and hay. Here is the cost breakdown to determine the cost per pound to raise rabbit meat.

Hay – Hay is vitally important to the digestive health of rabbits. The constant nibbling of hay keeps their digestion moving so that they do not become bloated and sick. A bale of hay costs approximately $13 at a farm store such as Tractor Supply. A bale of hay should last 1-2 months depending on how many grow-out litters you are feeding.
Rabbit Feed – A 50 lb bag of rabbit feed from a local farm store such as Tractor Supply costs approximately $25. Each adult rabbit gets feed about 3/4 – 1 cup of feed per day (not including free feeding for new moms). In a 50 lb bag, that is approximately 175 scoops which is $0.14 per scoop. We have 5 adult rabbits which means its about $0.71 a day to feed all of our rabbits and the bag of feed lasts about 1-1.5 months. The amount of feed you use will change when you are feeding grow-out litters, but the feed cost averages out by the end of the year during the slow seasons.
Soy-Free Rabbit Feed – A concern when raising meat animals is the type of feed they consume because it affects the meat we eat. If you are looking for a high quality, soy-free rabbit pellet, New Country Organics offers a great rabbit feed. The bag, however, is expensive at $40 for a 50 lb bag. The cost break down is approximately 175 scoops (a 3/4 cup scoop) divided by $40 comes out to $0.23 per scoop. This cost will increase when you are in the thick of breeding season.
Total – If you were to buy a bag of rabbit pellets and a bale of hay every month on average, your yearly maintenance cost would be about $456 per year.

meat rabbits weight Cost Per Pound to Raise Rabbit Meat

4. What You Get Out of It

For such an undertaking, the question everyone asks is “what am I going to get out of this experience?” Besides an opportunity to control a portion of your food supply and the quality of your meat, here is what you can gain from raising meat rabbits.

Litters – An average litter for a meat rabbit is 5-7 kits. This number can vary (we’ve had a litter of 1 and a littler of 10!). Each season you can expect to lose a litter or two, unfortunately. First-time mothers often lose their first litter because they do not know how to care for their kits. A doe can be bred immediately after birth, but for the health and longevity of your doe, I suggest breeding her 6 weeks after birth. To keep the litters coming, get multiple does an rotate their breeding schedule.
Meat – A rabbit is ready for processing at 12 weeks. From breeding to processing, the time is approximately 16 weeks (4 months). The live rabbit weight should be about 5 lbs and their dressed down weight (a fully processed rabbit) is about 2-3 lbs of meat. A litter of 5 could yield approximately 10-15 lbs of meat. We breed 4 rabbits on rotation so that we can process two litters every 6 weeks between November-May. On average, that is 6 processing days times 10 rabbits each time (two average litters) is 60 rabbits total for the season which is about 120-180 lbs of meat.
Other Benefits – Rabbit poop is a free and great garden fertilizer if you also have a garden along with your meat rabbits. You can also save the pelts of the rabbits and learn how to tan hides. these rabbit pelts are soft and can be sold or used in projects.
Life Skills – Overall, you will learn life skills such as caring for a meat animal, breeding an animal, and processing meat. These skills are invaluable and a lost art today.

5. Cost per Pound of Rabbit Meat

What does the cost per pound to raise rabbit meat come down to? Does it save any money to actually RAISE your own rabbits? Let’s break down the cost.

The start-up cost is about $400 and the annual cost for feed and hay is $456 totaling $856.
If you breed 4 females on rotation (two and two), you could get about 60 rabbits to process.
60 rabbits converts to about 120-180 lbs of meat from November-May.
$856 divided by 120 lbs of meat equals about $7.13 per lb (on the higher end) for Year 1.
By Year 3, the start-up costs would have been absorbed and you will operate on $456 on annual cost.
$456 divided by about 120 lb of meat is $3.80 per lb (on the higher end) by Year 3.

The key to raising meat rabbits (or getting any homestead animal) is to stick with the process. Meat rabbits will be most expensive in Year 1 as you build your infrastructure. Once the infrastructure is build, you will only have the annual feed cost, making each pound of meat that much cheaper.

7. Honest Downsides and Hidden Costs

As with any venture, there are always downsides and hidden costs that need to be accounted for before beginning a new project.

Your Time – Raising meat rabbits will cost time including the daily chore of feeding and watering the rabbits (unless you use an automatic watering system), breeding rabbits, and processing the meat.
Low Yield – As with raising any meat animal, there is always a chance that there will not be as much yield as you had hoped. The reasons for slow breeding, small litters, or loss of a litter will vary, but there is always a chance that you will spend money to maintain meat rabbits but you will not get as much meat as you were hoping for.

8. Is it worth it?

Raising meat rabbits isn’t for everyone, but if you value clean, ethically raised meat, meat rabbits may be a great option for you! While it’s nice to source food from local farms, the cost can be hard to maintain for the average family. Raising meat rabbits allows you to build food sustainability, security, connect with your food, monitor the health and living condition of your food, and stock your freezer, all from your own backyard.

You can lower the cost of raising meat rabbits by giving your rabbits food to forage, shopping secondhand, and building the set up yourself.

meat rabbit cost Cost Per Pound to Raise Rabbit Meat

9. Next Steps

Now that you know the cost involved with meat rabbits, its time to get started! Check out my complete beginner’s guide, Raising Meat Rabbits, that will walk you through the entire process from set up to processing.