Commercial Meat Rabbit Growth Rates

Growth rate is very important if you want to raise meat rabbits economically. Rabbits from good meat lines give you more meat in less time on less feed. In my experience, rabbits from show lines or non-selective breeding grow slowly.

Quality breeding stock from thrifty lines quickly pay for themselves in feed savings alone. Purchase rabbits from a breeder who keeps good records. If they can’t tell you what their kits weigh at 8 weeks, look elsewhere. Ideally, kits should weigh about 4 pounds at 8 weeks, but 5 pounds by 10-12 weeks is an acceptable place to start.

Good Meat Rabbit Bloodlines

What are good meat lines? Large breed rabbits that have been selectively bred for fast growth rate, thriftiness, and meaty body type. The resulting offspring tend to be uniform fast growers.

To raise rabbits for meat, choose a large “commercial” rabbit breed with fine bone structure. These rabbits produce fast growing offspring with a good meat to bone ratio, usually 60-65% dress-out rate. Adults usually weigh 8-11 pounds at maturity. When selecting breeders, look for ones with smaller/narrower feet. Large wide feet indicate big bone.

Don’t make the mistake of adding large boned rabbits (such as Flemish Giants) to your breeding program to try to increase growth rates. If you do, you may get 5# fryers at 8 weeks, but they’ll eat you out of house and home before they have enough meat on their huge frames to justify butchering at 5-6 months old. Remember, rabbits grow bone before they put on meat.

The safest and most reliable way to increase growth rates is with good genetics. Start with the best stock you can. Weed out slow growers and keep your faster growers for breeders. However, once you’re getting the growth rates you want, don’t keep saving your fastest growing kits for breeders or you may push the growth rates too far. Paring your biggest, fastest growers, with your biggest fastest growers will eventually produce rabbits with big bone. If you do this, you may inadvertently start breeding towards rabbits with big bone (like Flemish). You want fast-growing meaty kits with fine to medium bone.

Meat Rabbit Growth Rate Chart

This chart shows the ideal meat rabbit growth rates for commercial rabbit breeds such as Californians, New Zealands, and Champagne d’Argents. Use these guidelines to see how your stock measures up. Weight is shown in pounds.

Age	Good Growth	Excellent Growth
6 weeks	2.7 lbs.	3-3.25 lbs.
8 weeks	3.5 lbs.	4-4.25 lbs.
10 weeks	5 lbs.	5.5-6 lbs.
12 weeks	6 lbs.	6.5-7 lbs.
16 weeks	7 lbs.	7.5-8.5 lbs.

Monitoring Growth Rates

It’s impossible to know if your rabbits are producing meat efficiently without weighing them.

If you’re serious about raising good stock, invest in a quality scale (like this one). I put a carpet square on top then tare it to weigh my rabbits. As a minimum, know the weights of your 8-week old kits (ideally 4 pounds) and breeding stock (ideally 8-11 pounds). A scale also allows you to accurately monitor the health and condition of adult rabbits.

When I first got started and was trying to get my growth rates up, I tracked kits bi-weekly weights from 4-16 weeks on our Litter Growth Record. This info helped me better understand the growth patterns of my lines. Here’s an example of one filled out.

After years of selective breeding, our Champagne d’Argent kits consistently hit 4 pounds by 8 weeks. Now I just weigh at 8 and 12 weeks and record the info on ‘Rabbit Tattoo Log’ sheets in my Rabbitry Records Binder.

Hybrid Vigor

A discussion about meat rabbit growth rates wouldn’t be complete without mentioning hybrid vigor. If you breed 2 purebred commercial rabbits of different breeds, you get hybrid vigor in the first generation (F1).

Many commercial operations breed Californian bucks to New Zealand White does to produce fast growing kits that are ready to dress out very quickly. This combination blends the Californian’s wide meaty body with the large litter size of New Zealands. These F1 kits grow fast and reach market weight earlier than either parent. To maximize these benefits, breeders must start with purebred stock from good commercial bloodlines or they’ll have nothing to contribute to the offspring.

A familiar example of hybrid vigor is Cornish Rock chickens. Purebred Cornish are crossed with white rock chickens to produce broiler chicks that reach butcher weight faster than any other breed. However, broilers often suffer health problems due to such rapid growth. Heart and joint problems are common as well as weak immune systems.

Never make the mistake of saving fast-growing hybrid kits to use as replacement breeders. All the vigor gained in the first generation is deducted from the second generation. That’s why it’s often called a “terminal cross”. Crossbred kits from purebred parents are raised strictly for meat and all of them should end up in the freezer.

HYBRID VIGOR PROS: Fast growth rates. It may be easier to put together unrelated pairs of parent stock. May be a good choice if you raise rabbits strictly for commercial meat production.

HYBRID VIGOR CONS: You can’t perpetuate the herd from the resulting crossbred kits. Since you’re only raising one generation, you lose the ability to select for better strains over time. You need to find quality purebred breeding stock to start and periodically buy new rabbits to replace retired breeders.

Can you push growth rates too far?

Can you get kits that weigh 5 pounds by 8 weeks? Yes, but realize that it comes at a cost. If your sole purpose is to raise fast-growing fryers for meat, consider using the hybrid vigor terminal cross stated above.

If you’re raising a heritage breed like Champagnes, don’t go crazy trying to make the breed be like modern animals that gain really fast. If you do, you may lose valuable disease resistance and hardiness traits.

“Bad things always happen when an animal is overselected for any single trait. Nature will give you a nasty surprise.”

― Temple Grandin

After a couple generations of selective breeding, I got my Champagne kits to hit fryer weight (4.5-5 pounds) by 8 weeks, which is considered top growth rates for New Zealands. However, I found that those fast-growing kits had less disease resistance and were more likely to get sore hocks. I realized I had pushed the growth rate too far. Just like broiler chickens, if rabbits grow too fast, they do so at the expense of their overall health. Once I discovered this, I backed off the growth rate. Now, our kits consistently weigh about 4 pounds at 8 weeks. They are hardy, disease resistant rabbits that thrive on small-scale homesteads.

All things should be done with respect to balance and the whole picture in mind.

More info on judging quality meat rabbits:

Selecting Meat Rabbit Breeding Stock
Posing Commercial Breed Meat Rabbits
Printable Rabbit Records Binder

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How do your meat rabbit growth rates measure up? Do you cross purebred rabbits for hybrid vigor? Tell us about it below…