# meat mutts



## scfarmboy (Sep 21, 2011)

hi i know its been talked about on here before but i was wanting to know if some one could post pictures of there meat mutt rabbits as  i have been looking into meat rabbits for a while now but cant find any pure breed meat breeds like nzw or cail. in my area  so looks like i will be starting out  with meat mutts so if anyone with meat mutts  could tell which are the best crosses to use and which  to stay a way from thanks


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## secuono (Sep 21, 2011)

Avoid giant breeds and ones w/large bones. Also the dwarfs and small bunnies aren't a good idea. 
I've read lops are used for meat. Lots of the larger ones are fine. 
I have Silver Fox, they look so pretty, I wouldn't ever thought they were meat a breed.


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## hoodat (Sep 23, 2011)

New Zealand/Rex crosses are great. I use a doe that is a crossed NZ and a buck that is a crossed Rex. The babies they throw are real meat bricks with a fast growth rate. Here are some at about 10 weeks.


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## cottinpickin (Nov 4, 2011)

1st find what is avalible in your area and decied how far you are willing to go and get them.Cal/NZ is most popular and easier to find.
We have done the following crosses all with good results:
Cal buck on nz does- hubby calls these the meat and potatoe rabbits.
flemish buck on nz doe( M80's) then bred to cal buck.The TNT's or triple threats as hubby calls them excellent as meat.put them table week earlier then the others and still a nice dress out.
 trying out flemish/cal doe( cherry bombs) bred to nz buck next.
We also raise champagne d'argents and Silver fox.Champagnes are angus of meat rabbits.And have done crosses with cals with them and nice but not much better then straight of each.
Now Silver ofx on it's own is awsome dress out but they are the more expensive rabbits and so we at this ppoint have only dressed out a few extra bucks.The taste of the meat is a bit different too.more flavor.We also have dome silver fox crosses on nzs and cals that were very too.But really Silver fox by itself i think is best meat.Only thing is they do grow a touch slower but we like a bigger rabbit to eat anyway so I don't mind the extra couple weeks.we don't do 4 pound fyers.we like 5 to 6 pound so have bigger roaster size rabbit.
now we also have Altex and they are great used on nz doe for termials.longer back so more loin and big thoghs and they do well in southern climates.better then the flemish so we are fazing out the flemish and adding more altex.


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## Tracey (Nov 4, 2011)

I've had a few litters of mutts, but one mix that seems to do very well is my dutch (she looks like a dutch - no pedigree) crossed with my smallish NZ white. Babies seem to grow out VERY well, esp compared to some of my other breeds. Will try ad a pic of her current littler soon. Cheers!


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## redhead83402 (Nov 5, 2011)

I have silver fox, & we just dressed out our first litter of kits ( 6 total)  ~ ended up with a little better than 40 lbs of meat!!!  And the furs are simply beautiful.  One really nice thing about the silver fox ( may be with others too, I only know about the silver fox) is that even though we may get to -20*F here in Idaho, it does not seem to faze those buns whatsoever.  Now in the summer they did need their water refilled twice a day(probably got up to about 95*F), but winter was a breeze.  a little straw in the pen & it was all good.  And our pens are out underneath our treehouse, not in a building.
~Red


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## DKRabbitry (Nov 5, 2011)

> Avoid giant breeds and ones w/large bones


I disagree with avoiding Giant breeds... I agree with avoiding large bones.  We havea flemishXdoe that we cover with our NZ and Champagne bucks.  She is a fabulous mother, is good size (12 lbs) but doesn't have huge bone structure.  We do not know what she is crossed with but she produces fabulous meaty kits.  We also raise giant chinchillas.  They are a bit smaller than Flemish Giants and were produced with meat in mind.  They are finer boned than some other giant breeds and produce good meaty kits for our purposed.  Baby (the flemishX) is bred to a giant chin now and we plan on retaining a doe kit for breeding.  Then we will cross that doe kit to NZ and Champagne bucks.

This is Baby.  She cost us $8 and has produced many large litters, always 8+ even her first time.


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## norcal (Nov 5, 2011)

We have Chinchilla does & a NZ/Cali buck right now.   Great mom & great stud.  

We had a doe & buck that were NZ/Cali & they were totally skiddish.   We eventually put them in the freezer.
But our current NZ/Cali buck is an amazing little buck, he does the job & is pleasant.  

I guess there is more to it all than just the breed.


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## Legacy (Nov 5, 2011)

My favored buck is also a flemish cross. I keep saying I am going to retire him and move toward the smaller boned bucks but time and again, I just keep going back to him because he throws such good, strong, healthy,  meaty babies that are not too big boned. His babies, always put the purebreds to shame in strength and health.


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## SlowMoneyFarm (Nov 5, 2011)

I too disagree with eliminating giant breeds. I have MUCH better luck with the giant chins than NZ or Cali - they breed well, grow well, dress out well. They're good to handle and not nearly as much of a spaz as some other breeds I've had.


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