You’ve done some reading and background research, and now you’re ready for meat rabbits. But where are you going to find them?
Where do you buy meat rabbits?
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There are several places to find meat rabbits for your foundation breeding stock. Some of us are luckier than others and have better local sources than others. Since rabbit meat isn’t as mainstream as it used to (or should) be, many of us are not as close to quality breeders and breeding stock as we’d like to be.
Still, no matter where you live, you can find quality breeding stock to start your rabbitry. Let’s look at some options (listed in order of preference/recommendation).
Jump to:
- First Choice – Best Places to Find Meat Rabbits to Buy
- Local Breeders
- Rabbit Shows
- Breeder Directories
- Breed Clubs and Associations
- Next Best – More Good Places to Find Meat Rabbits for Breeding
- Rabbit Transport Service Sites and Groups
- Social Media Groups
- Online Listing Sites
- Third Resort – An Okay but Riskier Option
- Auctions and Livestock Dealers
- Online Search Tips for Buying Meat Rabbits and Breeder Meat Rabbits
- Check Out All Potential Meat Rabbit Breeders and Sellers
First Choice – Best Places to Find Meat Rabbits to Buy
Local options are the easiest to deal with, and they are the best way to see and inspect potential rabbits without committing to a long drive or to having a rabbit transported and paid for without you being able to see and touch it first. If you can, buy local.
Local Breeders
Buying local would be the first choice and is the advice of many rabbit raisers. Why? For one thing, you and your rabbits won’t have as far to travel. That will reduce stress on both of you.
Another reason to buy a local breeding stock if you can is that if you can identify a good local meat rabbit breeder, you may also find yourself a mentor, or at least a person who will be happy to let you bounce questions off them. A local breeder should offer you at least some support after you buy rabbits from them. It may be unreasonable to expect this to go on forever, but if they aren’t willing to field a few calls or messages in the first month or two, you might move on to a different breeder or seller.
How do you find local breeders? If you know anyone else who keeps or sells meat rabbits, start by asking where they buy breeding stock. Look for signs and ads with people selling rabbit meat (though admittedly, this is not all that common). And use the following listed sources, focusing on those that are most local to you.
Local livestock or farming clubs like 4-H or FFA may also have some leads for you. Attend a show or event, or send an email to the group or its leaders and see if anyone has some names to share.
Ask at your local feed store
People with meat rabbits are feeding them. Unless they are growing and mixing all of their own feed, they’re buying feed somewhere. Ask at your local feed store counter. Those who run the register know who is buying a lot of rabbit feed!
Also, see if they have a community board advertising meat rabbits or breeding stock. You might get lucky!
One thing to remember—just because it’s close by doesn’t necessarily mean the stock is quality or well cared for. It doesn’t mean it isn’t, either, but the bottom line is that no matter where you buy your rabbits from, make sure the animals are healthy, humanely kept, and meet your standards for breed and quality.
Rabbit Shows
You might not think it, but rabbits are often sold at rabbit shows. However, you do need to keep in mind that these rabbits have recently been in a community with other rabbits, so you should quarantine them from any rabbits you currently own and watch them for health and signs of illness for two to four weeks before breeding.
This is not to say that rabbit shows are harbingers of disease, but any time animals are transported and congregate together, there is some risk of exposure. That said, good rabbit shows should be following and maintaining standards for health and cleanliness, and animals should be inspected before they are allowed entry.
Even if you don’t buy directly at the rabbit show, you will definitely find a gathering of breeders and growers. This is a network of like-minded individuals who will know many other like-minded individuals, all with rabbits on their minds.
Choose a show that has meat rabbits, preferably meat rabbit categories (such as “meat pens”). Look at the program or schedule and make sure they at least list meat rabbit breeds. There’s not much sense in attending a show that only has pet breeds, which will not make good meat breeding stock for you. Also, you don’t need to put yourself in a position of judgment with people who think rabbits should only be kept as pets.
Breeder Directories
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You can find meat rabbit breeder directories in many places. There are some good ones online maintained by breeders and informational websites. You can search by location and find nearby rabbit breeders, hopefully with rabbits ready when you are (or in the not-too-distant future).
The American Rabbit Breeders Association and other breed-specific rabbit clubs often maintain directories, too.
Directories may require people to pay for a listing, or they may be voluntary. As with all sources, you will need to vet the breeders and do your best to inspect the stock when you arrive.
Look for a directory that seems to be more interested in supporting healthy, humane meat rabbit raising, and not just a website that is there for the site traffic. How do you do this? Look for more robust sites that include information and articles. Look for quality writing and information.
Here are a couple of examples of breed directories on sites offering more than just a paid listing:
- https://breeders.homesteadrabbits.com/
- https://www.raising-rabbits.com/rabbit-breeders.html
Look for directories that are focused on meat rabbits or your selected breed. Look for sites that, if not entirely focused on meat rabbits, at least recognize this use and offer information and listings aimed at meat rabbit growers.
Breed Clubs and Associations
Breed clubs and associations may maintain breeder listings of their own. They also often send out newsletters and emails, which may include information or ads and listings from breeders and rabbitries. It’s worth signing up and/or joining a breed-specific club, state or national rabbit association, meat rabbit group, or wider rabbit association(as long as it includes meat breeds).
Livestock conservancy sites are good places to check out, too. Spend some time, learn about how you can support an endangered breed and help make it useful again, and use the site to find information on specific breeds,breed specific clubs, directories, breeder listings, and more.
Next Best – More Good Places to Find Meat Rabbits for Breeding
If you can’t find anything workable locally, move on to these sources. You may be buying or deciding sight-unseen or by photos and email conversations, which is less ideal, but these are good places to at least locate rabbits and then go from there.
Rabbit Transport Service Sites and Groups
You may not know it, but there are also transport services that offer transportation of rabbits from one location to another. Though they do come at a cost, it is often much less expensive than taking a long trip and finding overnight accommodation to get your rabbits.
These services and their social media profiles and websites can also be good places to find rabbits for sale. People will often list rabbits they have available to the group to generate sales. You can find these services online and on social media.
Before contracting with a transporter, check out the service, its reviews, policies, and services provided. Use a rabbit transport service with high standards and one that will inspect the rabbits(s) for health, age, and general condition before accepting it.
Also, check out the breeder you are buying from. Find out what their refund policy is or if they offer any guarantees. Poke around the site and see if anyone else has purchased, complained, or complimented them and their rabbits.
If you use a rabbit transport service, make sure that the rabbit seller will refund the price of your rabbit if the transporter declines to transport it. Transporters don’t decline rabbits for no reason—they are in the business to move animals, not deny them, so the odds are that if they are refusing a rabbit at pickup, there is a good and obvious reason.
Social Media Groups
There are several social media groups dedicated to raising meat rabbits. If you read our article on the 13 Things You Should Do Before You Buy Meat Rabbits, you might have joined some of these groups through the links listed there. Facebook and other platforms have some excellent, informative groups.
These are good places to find breeders, to put out a request, or see offerings and listings. On some platforms (like Facebook), sellers may be vague or masking their listings as conversation because Facebook doesn’t love animal-selling links, but there are usually some rabbits “up for discussion” or “offered for consideration,” or at least people who will answer or allow you to private message them to discuss further. Other social media sites, like MeWe, are more accepting of livestock sales listings.
If you’re looking for meat rabbits on social media, you may want to go both wider and narrower in your search. What that means is that you may want to narrow your outreach and look for regional or local meat rabbit groups, but you may also want to widen your reach to farm and livestock groups near you.
Online Listing Sites
Online sales and listing sites like Craigslist are good places to find meat rabbits for sale and/or meat rabbit breeders. Many sellers advertise here and on similar sales/listing sites. You may need to play around to find what you want, but there are usually a fair number of listings for meat rabbit breeds.
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If your local Craigslist doesn’t return a result, search in nearby areas and on nearby Craigslists. Widen your distance criteria (“within X miles”). Search adjacent states.
Third Resort – An Okay but Riskier Option
This would be the least recommended option because there are a lot of variables and unknowns. Depending on what else you can find, and considering that some of the options include buying sight-unseen, this may be something worth considering.
Auctions and Livestock Dealers
This would not be the first recommendation for finding meat rabbits for breeding and building a foundation stock or program from, but it is an option, and it may be the best option for you, depending on your location and what’s available near you.
It’s not uncommon to find meat rabbits and/or meat mutts at a local livestock auction or through a dealer who frequents such auctions. However, this is a case of buyer beware, and you have to accept some risk and accept that you may have to go through a few animals before you find something good for you.
On the other hand, auction rabbits and livestock dealer offerings will often be cheaper—but also, don’t overpay for this stock. Remember that cheaper breeding stock is not cheaper if you lose animals or have to run through a lot of breeders before you find animals that can breed and that breed good meat stock.
Price and availability are the only real reasons to consider this option. Some of the disadvantages include:
- No knowledge of parentage or ancestry
- No guarantee an animal is of a specific breed or purebred—any rabbit without a known lineage should be considered a cross breed or “meat mutt”.They may still make good meat animals and good breeders, but you can’t ethically say they are known purebreds, which may affect future sales if you want to sell offspring. (That said, my best breeders and harvested grow outs are mutts.)
- Rabbits have been exposed to others and present some health risk
- Care in transport and holding may have been less than ideal, which may result in stressed, hungry, and thirsty animals
- Rabbits may be culls intended for harvesting
- Breeding ability may be unknown, and it is possible you will buy animals that can’t or won’t breed
- Age is almost certainly unknown unless obviously young and not yet mature
Most people assume that if a rabbit is at the auction, there’s a reason, and it’s a cull or inferior rabbit. This isn’t always true. Sometimes, a rabbitry is just overrun and needs to quickly reduce numbers. Sometimes, they’re just trying to make a quick sale and some quick cash. Sometimes, their breeding was a little too successful, and they didn’t have other markets for the grow outs. It happens. You just don’t usually know why a particular animal was sent to auction, so you’re taking some chances.
Though this is not a recommended source for your rabbits, and especially not the best way for a beginner to start, I can say I have successfully purchased, selected, and bred rabbits from auctions. But the time and money investment were factors. Still, if this is what you have to do to get started, don’t write it off completely. But we would recommend you exhaust all other, better sources first.
If you do buy auction animals, get them into comfortable cages with good pellets, hay, and water only (even if you intend on a fresh diet—wait and make that transition later). Quarantine them for 30 days away from any other rabbits you already have (this is good practice for any new rabbit coming into your rabbitry).
Observe for health and well-being for a month before breeding. Breed the best and cull or harvest the rest for eating.
Online Search Tips for Buying Meat Rabbits and Breeder Meat Rabbits
Here are a few tips and tricks to help you find meat rabbits online:
- Start with more specific terms to weed out pet breeds and others. Try terms like
- Meat rabbits
- Meat rabbit breeders
- Meat rabbits for breeding
- Breeder meat rabbits
- Try searching specifically for the breed or breeds you are interested in. Many sellers and breeders list by breed without thinking about adding in broader terms like “meat rabbits,” and this can cause some listings and ads to get lost. For example, you might try:
- New Zealand rabbitsCalifornian rabbitsRex RabbitsChampagne d’Argent RabbitsSilver Fox Rabbits[Breed Name] meat rabbits
- …Etc. – any breed you have decided on
- Add qualifiers to help narrow and focus your search. Terms like,
- “For sale” = “Meat rabbits for sale”
- Meat rabbits for sale near me
- Breeder rabbits for sale
- Meat rabbits for breeding near me
- You might also add in or try “buck” and/or “doe.” Combine this with other terms above
- Example: “meat rabbit doe,” “New Zealand rabbit doe,” or “buck meat rabbit for sale”
- If these don’t yield results for you, try searching for a rabbit farm or rabbitry instead.
- It’s not that likely that there will be more than a couple of meat rabbit breeders in one town, so you may need to broaden searches beyond your local town. Drop the town name and see if that helps.
Check Out All Potential Meat Rabbit Breeders and Sellers
No matter where you find a meat rabbit seller, do what you can to check them out. See what people are saying about them online or in groups. See if they have reviews (not all that common, though).
See what people are saying about the rabbits they bought from them (but do be fair and consider the source and what may or may not have been the buyer’s versus the seller’s fault).
Look beyond any pictures of individual rabbits they send and see what the cages, barn, and conditions look like. Ask questions.
Most importantly, go with your gut when you get there. Biosecurity measures are fair, but be wary of people who don’t want you to see anything. Check the animal over, which is the most telling part. Look for discharge from the hind end and reproductive parts, as well as the eyes, nose, and mouth. Listen for sneezing, wheezing, or respiratory problems. Coats should be healthy and full. The rabbits should be free from excessive insect bites and scabs or cuts.
Use your own good judgment and just know that just because someone says they are knowledgeable or the best of the best, that doesn’t make it so. Seeing is believing.
This is not to say that meat rabbit breeders are sketchy or unclean, just that all sources should be open to some reasonable level of scrutiny, and the condition of the rabbits is your most telling factor.
Start with good, healthy stock. Keep them well. Feed them well, and you will be well on your way to a solid start with meat rabbits.
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