I am totally new to blogging so this should be great or horrible. A little under a year ago I started raising rabbits. Originally for meat and all mixed breed rabbits now we are up to spending and selling for 100 usd and up per rabbit. I will be using my blog to from here on out talk about troubles and fixes we run into so that i can maybe help others breeding rabbits be it for meat show or just as having one as a pet. So if you are looking for that hopefully i will be able to shed some insight.
First thing I want to talk about is probably going to be more of a rant than anything. I understand the want for organic and GMO free products but here is the deal unless you are keeping 1 maybe 2 rabbits and not breeding so you stay on a small scale forever. There is going to be 2 things that for sure happen in your rabbit herd. You are going to get ear or fur mites and you are going to at some point need to medicate. Ear mites are a nasty thing that will eat the ears clear off of a rabbit if left untreated. Everyone has opinions on how to treat this but they boil down to 2 different methods. Rubbing a oil or waxy substance to suffocate the mites or using a medicine called Ivermectin to treat them. I personally prescribe to the ivermectin school and let me tell you why. Depending on the time of year i can have upwards of 100 rabbits or as low as 20. In those numbers I do not have the time to go to each rabbit 3 times a day every day for 30 days rubbing oil in its ears all the while the rabbit is itching and scratching for over a month. With Ivermectin I get a bottle from my local farm store and some light gauge needles and it take me probably a total of 20 mins to an hour to get every rabbit treated.
Ivermectin kills both Mites and eggs and does so in 3 days. The 3rd day you check the ears for mites and can give a small booster dose. This not only kills off the mites from my herd but protects the ones that dont have them and makes the rabbits deadly to any new mites that have been missed and hatch. I want to ensure all of my rabbits have a happy healthy life even if most end up food and letting them suffer for over a month and not protecting new infestations while treating is not the way for that to happen.
I hope you guys come around for more upcoming adventures from my little urban homstead,
The Bigbadbunnyman