Commercial Meat Rabbit Growth Rates

To raise meat rabbits economically, growth rate is very important. Rabbits from good meat lines give you more meat in less time on less feed. Some show rabbits take forever to grow and eat a ton.

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.

Good Meat Rabbit Bloodlines

What are good meat lines? They are rabbits that have been selected over generations for fast growth rate, thriftiness, and good meaty body type. The resulting offspring tend to be uniform fast growers. A quality commercial meat rabbit will have small to medium bone. Foot size is a good indicator.

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 8-12 pounds at maturity.

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 will have hardly any meat on their huge frames. They will eat you out of house and home before they have enough meat to justify butchering at 5-6 months old. Remember, rabbits grow bone before they put on meat.

New Zealand and Californian rabbits tend to be the most popular breeds of rabbits raised for commercial production. The have been selected for large litter size and fast growth.

Personally, I feel that heritage breeds are better suited to backyards and small farms. Click to view the Top 10 Meat Rabbit Breeds for the homestead. We raise Champagne d’Argents. They have more manageable litter sizes (6-8 kits), sweet temperaments, and are good mothers to their kits. Dark eye color also makes them better candidates for pasturing as opposed to Californians and New Zealands which have pink or red eyes.

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#	3-3.25#
8 weeks	4#	4.25-5#
10 weeks	5#	5.5-6#
12 weeks	6#	6.5-7#
16 weeks	7#	7.5-8.5#

Hybrid Vigor

A discussion about meat rabbit growth rates would not be complete without mentioning hybrid vigor. If you breed 2 purebred commercial rabbits of different breeds (for example a Californian buck & a New Zealand doe), you get hybrid vigor in the first generation. Those kits will grow fast and be ready to dress out very quickly – assuming the parents are from good meat lines.

A familiar example of hybrid vigor is commercial broiler chickens. Broiler chicks are the result of crossing purebred Cornish with white rock chickens. The resulting chicks grow rapidly and are ready for butcher faster than any other breeds. However, broiler chickens often suffer health problems due to their rapid growth rate. 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 of the vigor gained in the first generation is deducted from the second generation. That is why this is 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. Pairing rabbits for hybrid vigor may be a good choice if you raise rabbits strictly for commercial meat production.

HYBRID VIGOR CONS: You can’t perpetuate the herd from your starter rabbits. You need to purchase purebred replacement breeding stock. Since you are only raising one generation, you lose the ability to select for better strains over time. It is critical that you start with rabbits from good meat lines or they will have nothing to contribute to the offspring.

More info on judging quality meat rabbits:

Selecting Meat Rabbit Breeding Stock
Posing Commercial Breed Meat Rabbits

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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…