I was looking at getting into Silver Foxes this year and was very surprised after hearing so many youtubers talk about how they are more rare to find that here in Utah they are all over KSL (our local version of Craigslist) Seems like they are not nearly as rare as they used to be. Still looking at getting into Silver Foxes.
Sound advice! I agree 100% to all! I have been in it for a year. Started small with NZ ish mutts. I kept 2 of them for breeding and grew out the others for our first freezer camp. By June I got my first Rex trio with pedigrees! I love them so much! We haven’t shown any yet but have some 2 wk kits that are looking promising!
Love my purebred Californians and New Zealands. Selling is a flop though. No demand for purebreds locally. Craigslist full of 12-16 week old mutts for $5. I can’t compete with that. $5 doesn’t even cover feed to 12weeks much less the time. I don’t understand how/why so many folks are selling them so cheap. Thanks for sharing!
That’s insane to me. A cull buyer would pay at least 5 a pound and that would cover feed. Ours pays 8.50 a pound but geez people are offering muts for that cheap?
@@IB_Homestead_Committee Yes ma’am! Multiple Craigslist ads for $5 meat mutts. Purebred sellers offering trios of NZW for $30. It’s insane. Last year trios were going for $70. So a major market shift in pricing has occurred in the Appalachian region. I’m not even trying to sell ATM. Just breeding for meat and gifts to friends/family. FYI, also locally you can get a 16-20 week old laying hen for $10. So even chicken breeding is not profitable on small scale locally. Always enjoy your content, keep up the good work! 👍
Feed costs are going up and rabbits costs are all over the place. I'm seeing culls at 10 and I paid 45 for a single frozen without the extra giblets. I'm just trying to get into rabbits, this is highly discouraging.
I like to just do pure bred if I can just because I always end up selling more than I butcher but if I'm just breeding for my freezer than it doesn't matter to me.
I actually did this breeding (lmao): I bred my Continental Giant female to my family's meat mutt buck ( cregslist buy: Am/cal mix 13lbs). Males were butchered at 13wks old and I let the females grow out until they were almost too heavy for me to broomstick (17wks?). The litter was designated for dog food. The idea was that: more bone = more collagen gel. I also figured I could grow out the females long enough to make the meat to bone ratio a bit better. The younger males weren't good in their meat to bone ratio as the much larger/old females were, the females actually had good fat development. Most of the babies ended up being females and there was WAY more collagen gel in the crockpot. I got bigger pelts to try out and the dogs and cats (even some ducks lol) are getting fed. We kept a female to raise up to breed back to dad ( she's 15lbs at 6months with her first litter). Their fantastic mothers, babies are large and very well fed. 8-9 kits per litter, no runts, cute coat pattern. I don't recommend them and I don't sell them, but I like them for my family 🤷 their personalities are so fun to work with, their sweet, gentle giants with shaggy fur lol. Thank you for the video, I enjoy your discussions.
I managed to find a pair for breeding 5 days ago and so far so good, calm as can be expected and getting friendlyier everyday (sunchoke treats helping lol).