Raising rabbits for meat - Géant Papillon ( Checkered Giant Rabbit ) Large Rabbit Breeds
Like 2 Dislike 0 Published on 7 Jun 2020
Raising rabbits for meat started for us this year during the lockdown and we have recently bought a new male rabbit, a Géant Papillon also known as a Checkered giant rabbit.
The Géant Papillon Lapin is one of the largest rabbit breeds, with a minimum weight of 6 kgs going up to 10kg for some Géant Papillon's.
Originally the Géant Papillon was breed for meat and was breed specifically for size ( Meat) but around the mid 19th century the distinctive patterning of the Géant Papillon was focused on, a white body with black markings consisting of its butterfly marking on its nose and a black line down its back.
Only 50% of kits in a litter are born with the distinctive Géant Papillon markings while the other kits remain black with white markings.
In America, the Géant Papillon lapin is known as the Checkered giant rabbit and is a recognized rabbit breed for showing - in English Géant Papillon lapin means giant butterfly rabbit and it gets this name due to the butterfly marking on its face.
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We have named our Géant Papillon Français Rex because of his potential size ( T Rex) the giant checkered rabbit is France's answer to the Flemish giant rabbit.
We have found it very difficult to find rabbits to buy and our initial rabbits all came from the same farm, 2 sisters and a brother.
After researching on the internet we saw many comments saying do not breed brothers with sisters but also some saying it was OK.
What came across to us it all depends on the genetics of the rabbits to start with, you can have non-related rabbits that are bred with bad faults and their offspring will carry those bad faults in the same way related rabbits with good genetics will pass those on.
As we were not looking to show our rabbits and we are just raising rabbits for meat we were not that concerned that our initial rabbits so closely related but opted for buying our Géant Papillon to increase the size of our meat rabbits and to introduce a new bloodline into our rabbit breeding.
Our géant papillon français prix was 34 euro from a pet shop, but our Géant Papillon does not have the distinctive show markings.
Because of the size of the Géant Papillon, you need a minimum of 5 square feet as floor space within its hutch, we opted for our Géant Papillon to build a rabbit hutch with a meter square floor space which is just under 11 square feet.
In the last 6 weeks, we have been busy building all our rabbit hutches, we have now built 4 rabbit hutches plus a rabbit long tractor.
The cost of construction for all 4 rabbit hutches and a 3-meter long tractor was no more than the cost of a single rabbit hutch sold in a pet shop and I know my hutches are built to last.
A rabbit long tractor is a rabbit run that allows the rabbits to eat fresh grass and every day it's moved around the garden to give the grass a rest and the rabbit's new pasture.
The dimensions of our rabbit tractor are 3 meters long by 75 cms wide and the use of a rabbit long tractor is of great benefit as it reduces the feed cost of your meat rabbits dramatically and gives you free range rabbit meat.
In addition during the lockdown, the rabbits and the construction of all the hutches have given us plenty to do and lots of fun as a family.
I hope you enjoyed this update on our raising for rabbits and the addition of our Géant Papillon to our rabbit herd.
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