How to Prepare to Butcher Meat Rabbits
Preparing to butcher meat rabbits for the first time takes careful planning and gathering supplies. Here’s what you need to do to prepare to butcher meat rabbits! Want to learn more? Check out my complete beginner’s guide to raising backyard meat rabbits!
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When are rabbits ready to butcher?
Meat rabbits are ready to butcher around 12 weeks old or 4-5 lbs. Twelve weeks is the perfect age for harvesting a good amount of meat, but young enough to where the meat is tender and delicious.
What to feed rabbits for best meat?
For high quality meat, it is best to avoid feeding your meat rabbits a pellet diet containing soy. However, soy-free pellet feed is EXPENSIVE!
A helpful solution is finishing your rabbits on soy-free feed. Traces of soy will process out of rabbits in about two weeks. As the young rabbits grow, feed them regular pellet feed that may contain soy.
Two weeks before butcher day, switch to a soy-free feed to ensure the best quality meat for you and your family.
Butchering Supplies
- Large cooler and ice: After the rabbits have been processed, leave the meat in a cooler full of ice and water until the next day before packaging and storing. The cold water cleans the blood from the meat and allows rigor mortis to set in. This is an essential step!
- Butcher table: A butcher table with a drain and raised sides will make the processing quick and easy, ensuring that your meat stays on the table and doesn’t slide off.
- Two hooks with rope: In order to process rabbits, you will need two hooks and rope with slip knots or some other way to hang the rabbit by its feet while you process.
- Two buckets and a hose: One bucket will be placed under the drain of the table. The other bucket is like a “trashcan” for all of rabbit parts that you will not keep. It is also important to have a hose on hand for spraying down meat, the table, your hands, etc.
- Butcher knife, shears, fish bat: It is important to have a sharp butcher knife. Make sure your knife is sharpened for quick and humane processing. The shears will be used to cut the legs and arms of the meat. Simple garden shears work great! A fish bat works best to stun the rabbit before culling.
Set Up to Butcher Meat Rabbits
Overall, when you set up your butcher station, you want all of your supplies close together. Speed up the process and minimize the mess by keeping all of your supplies within steps of each other.
Be sure to have quick access to water the whole time to keep your station clean throughout the butchering process.
How to Butcher and Debone a Rabbit
Ready for the next steps? Here are step by step picture guides to learn how to butcher rabbits and how to debone a rabbit for a beginner.
Preparing to butcher meat rabbits is exciting because you finally get to stock your freezer and see the fruit of your hard work!
