"Grow" your own raw?

A combination of the cancer in dogs and the "Quail" thread made me wonder, how many people breed their own raw food, and how many would be prepared to do it if they could? I admit that it's crossed my mind once or twice - I saw a forum thread elsewhere about a young girl in England who decided to breed her own rabbits for food, and she did everything from birth to dinner plate, breeding and raising them, killing, preparing, everything. I was quite in awe of it but I'm not quite sure I could do it myself, which I suppose makes me a bit of a hypocrite as I pay for someone else to. Does anyone here do it/has anyone thought about it?

Hmmm, Rabbit is something i'm very keen on my dogs eating but for me, it's hard to come across a regular cheap supply. I suppose breeding your own to feed your dogs (or yourself) is very cost effective but I would find it hard to breed these animals knowing that their only purpose is for food, especially as they would be confined too.

Wild rabbits are a different matter. They've been allowed to live a totally normal, free range life and that eases my conscience.

Furthermore, I couldnt kill them myself, i'm an absolute coward when it comes to that.

But the chicken I feed, the beef, the lamb, etc. has been bred only for food. There's the option to buy freerange but ultimately it's all going to have been bred for the only purpose of ending up in a stomach as food.
I don't think I could do it, my dad always used to put the rabbits with myxi out of their misery but I can't bring myself to do that so don't think I'd be able to kill a healthy bun but it has made me curious. Now would be an ideal time for me - huge garden with room the keep the animals seperate from the dogs, and I know the only neighbour I have wouldn't be upset by it (whereas in a regular neighbourhood people might be a bit put out by seeing rabbits/chickens in my garden and noticing the adults disappearing), infact he'd probably do the job of killing them for me. I don't think OH would like the idea of it though - I grew up on a farm so I've seen animals growing up and being carted off to be made into burgers but I think he's a little more sensitive!

I wouldn't be against it on principle but you'd surely have to have a lot of them just to feed one dog? If you had one large dog and fed it half a rabbit per day for example, that's still a lot of rabbits to feed and a lot of poop to clean

I couldn't do it. Neither could my OH. I own rabbits so it'd be a bit weird to kill them. Didn't they ban people breeding or feeding live rats to their snakes?

I don't know - I wouldn't be for or against it, but I suppose you'd have to look at the breed - I'm on a rabbit forum where someone rescued a Mini Rex from being food and he is so adorable - my comment was, why would anyone want to eat that face?

I could probably breed chickens for the purpose - but I tend to get attached to animals so I don't think I could try it.

You can't live feed (unless the snake really won't eat nything else) but you can breed your own. Some of the mouse/rat setups I've seen are luxury compared to what the frozen rats/mice you buy in petshops have to endure!

I suppose a dedicated owner of whatever animal would want to ensure the food was healthy and well looked after though..

I still couldn't kill an animal though. I couldn't kill a rabbit thats for sure - unless I had too. I don't get how the girl you mentioned earlier can do it, especially as she's brought them up. But then again people see different animals differently..I guess

I have tryed it.
I aquired some hutches & a dozen rabbits, But it didn't work out. The time cleaning them out, buying hay, bedding & The cost of a sack of rabbit food is around £12. this only lasts about 1 to 2 weeks with a dozen rabbits to feed. I asked a grocer to save me greens for them but sometimes he forgot/I forgot/not enough, etc. consiquently a few died of malnewtricien (sp?)
I did neck a few of them but my dog wont eat them (he cared for 3 young bunnys & since then he wont eat rabbit) I've eaten them though, saved the pelts, (washed & salted, ready to be tanned when we get a few days of nice weather.)
I just have 2 rabbits left & no grass, & no clothes prop! (washing had only been out an hour then I noticed the prop on the ground with the bottom few inches chewed through) It sertanly opens your eyes to how much damage rabbits can do!
I wouldn't recomend it to anyone.
(Though domestic/farmed rabbit tasts like chicken but drier, no gamey flavour)

It realy does work out cheaper to get wild rabbits.

What breed did you have? Rabbit I mean

Bitsa's. (bit's of this breed, bits of that) No breed, Just pets that other people didn't want anymore.
I went into it like a caring farmer might, got good sized hutches (lined up in the lean-to so out of the bad weather), loads of hay, straw, quality food, etc. Spent a fortune! The young bunnys stayed indoors in a huge rat cage untill the weather eased up a bit (it was winter)

I feel I should add: I didn't plan to kill them all so soon. A foster dog killed one, wounded another, Then a couple died of unknown circumstances (either not enough food or the sudden cold snap over a weekend) One morning I found a youngster laid on it's side still alive but unable to move & grunting, so I put it out of it's misary.

Now the two that are left have the free run of the back garden & there hutch's are left open so they can hop in & out at will.

Before I got them I did quite a bit of research & it's recomended you use 'New Zealand Whites' as these rabbits grow, mature & breed eficiently.