best rabbit breed for meat and heat tolerance

Hello all. Iam interested in growing meat rabbits for the first time. I need something heat tolerant. What breed would you suggest? Iam completely new at this and am learning any other information and recipes would be great. Thanks.

Welcome, Silvanus.

Without knowing where you are, I suggest you take a look at what rabbits are being raised successfully and without a lot of air conditioning in your area. If you can't find anyone doing it and you are in a warmer climate, it is possible that it is too hot for rabbits.

Most rabbits' ideal outdoor temperature range is between 12 C to 21 C, about 55 to 70 degrees, and will withstand temperatures up to 30 C, about 85 degrees, but anything above that increases the chances of heat stroke.

I have heard that Californians are good, and Cali NZ crosses, and that there are breeders working towards heat tolerance, but I think it's mostly self-preservation.

I have also heard that things like keeping them out of direct sunlight does wonders (they need light, but not direct sunlight, so if they can get away from it at need, all the better), and that radiant barrier is truly game-changing, and has the same thermal effect as a concrete slab when standing under it. Keeping a patch of ground from getting any solar gain at all would keep it relatively cool.

Looking forward to some good answers in this space. Let us know how you proceed, and good luck.

-CK

We always had New Zealand does with a California buck. They stayed in a building with no heat/cooling and they always did fine. We live in the Midwest where summer temps are routinely 85+ F everyday with humidity. We just keep a fan on them in the summer.

I live in Mississippi. It's usually hot and humid or wet and mild. Actually I ain't seen a patch of dry ground since November😁 But I do have plenty large pecan trees for shade.

Brazilian rabbits and TAMUKs are both able to handle heat better than most breeds. Brazilians can handle a lot of humidity, too. I have no idea if the TAMUKs can.

I've kept rex's, cali's, NZs, lops, and crosses thereof with flemish in them, and all have seen temps over 100º and as low as -20º.  The only time I had a problem was a dumb buck who hid under a piece of tin sheeting in 100º heat and roasted himself.  I've also had bucks go sterile in the 100º heat when they couldn't get underground to cool off.  They were isolated in pens they couldn't dig in.  The heat sterility only lasts like 3 months, it's not permanent.  
Then again, I've never kept rabbits in cages.  They've always had bare earth to access.  When it's hot they can press themselves into the cool earth, even if they can't burrow.  Cool bare earth in a shady nook makes a world of difference!  If you're in a hot climate, design an outdoor run where they can burrow.  If they can burrow freely, you have nothing to worry about temperature wise, one way or the other.  They will not die of heat or cold if they can dig deep.  They can continue to breed year-round if they have agreeable temps and dry conditions.  Cages make this harder to achieve.  Most the folks I know that keep rabbits in the desert keep them outdoors on the north side of a building where they never get direct sunshine.

TAMUKs and their cousins, the Composites, were bred in South Texas. TAMUK is Texas A&M University - Kingsville. They were bred to withstand the heat, and the bucks don't go sterile in the summer. They have a lighter coat, and less fur on their ears to help dissipate the heat. They regularly throw large litters with great grow out times. They reach 4-5 # in weeks.  There are FB and MeWe groups for both if you need a local breeder.

Being in the hobby for a couple of decades, and serving on the board for the East Texas RBA; I get asked this question often. Here is my typical response. Hopefully it'll be helpful

The Californians & New Zealands are generally going to be the most reliable for, both, meat production and heat tolerance. They also have the best feed to growth ratio of the commercial breeds. Personally, I've found the TAMUKs to be quite overrated, as have others I've spoken to about them. They are basically a landrace, composed of many breeds, that was developed to thrive in the Kingsville, TX environment, which may not have the same environmental conditions or microclimate as other locations where people attempt to raise them. Also, unless you buy them directly from the college, there's no guarantee that the line hasn't been altered (for better or worse) by someone adding new stock in a breeding program at some point.

When someone wants to start a successful breeding program, it's usually best to develop your own line of stock which is especially suited for your specific environment. I generally recommend starting with a trio (1 buck, 2 does), preferably from a breeder with an established line from somewhere with a similar environment. From there, the "key" to getting your line going is to start inbreeding/ linebreeding heavily. This is where a lot of breeders fail, as they associate the term "inbreeding" with negative images of mutated animals running around with 2 heads, or something, which definitely not the case with rabbits. (Instead of going into detail here, I'll try to make a new post, later, about the benefits of line/inbreeding & how it emulates nature).
Basically, you breed the buck to both does & only keep the most vigorous offspring, then breed them to the original trio and each other. Then just repeat, culling the undesirable traits & selecting for the desired traits from each litter and breeding them to the relatives who compliment them best. As you see improvement in each generation, you remove the older stock from the program, replacing them with the offspring which are better adapted to your rabbitry microclimate (like heat/cold, humidity, etc.). After 4-5 generations of close line/inbreeding you'll start seeing much more consistency in your litters, as many of the hidden undesirable genetics have been culled out, and the line is mostly homozygous for the desired genetics. That's when you do a thorough evaluation of the line and identify the biggest area of need in the herd, and bring in something new/unrelated which is strong in that area and introduce those genetics to the line. Then its just a matter of repeating the linebreeding process for another 4-5 generations to remove any unwanted genetics introduced by the new animal(s) and spreading the desired traits across the herd; followed by the evaluation to determine where the most improvement is needed and finding something new to introduce the desired trait. After a few years of repeating this process, you should have an established line which is homozygous & adapted to your local conditions. From there, as long as you consistently cull anything weak from the herd, you should be able to linebreed indefinitely without having to introduce anything new, which is exactly the way mother nature does it.

If you haven't joined the ARBA (https://www.arba.net) I highly recommend it. Members receive a copy of the ARBA guidebook, which is like the bible of rabbit breeding, as well as a subscription to the bimonthly magazine that has lots of great articles (plus new rabbit recipes in each issue).  

Sorry for the long post but hopefully it will be of help as you get your program going.

-KCS

Kc Simmons wrote:Being in the hobby for a couple of decades, and serving on the board for the East Texas RBA; I get asked this question often. Here is my typical response. Hopefully it'll be helpful

The Californians & New Zealands are generally going to be the most reliable for, both, meat production and heat tolerance. They also have the best feed to growth ratio of the commercial breeds. Personally, I've found the TAMUKs to be quite overrated, as have others I've spoken to about them. They are basically a landrace, composed of many breeds, that was developed to thrive in the Kingsville, TX environment, which may not have the same environmental conditions or microclimate as other locations where people attempt to raise them. Also, unless you buy them directly from the college, there's no guarantee that the line hasn't been altered (for better or worse) by someone adding new stock in a breeding program at some point.

When someone wants to start a successful breeding program, it's usually best to develop your own line of stock which is especially suited for your specific environment. I generally recommend starting with a trio (1 buck, 2 does), preferably from a breeder with an established line from somewhere with a similar environment. From there, the "key" to getting your line going is to start inbreeding/ linebreeding heavily. This is where a lot of breeders fail, as they associate the term "inbreeding" with negative images of mutated animals running around with 2 heads, or something, which definitely not the case with rabbits. (Instead of going into detail here, I'll try to make a new post, later, about the benefits of line/inbreeding & how it emulates nature).
Basically, you breed the buck to both does & only keep the most vigorous offspring, then breed them to the original trio and each other. Then just repeat, culling the undesirable traits & selecting for the desired traits from each litter and breeding them to the relatives who compliment them best. As you see improvement in each generation, you remove the older stock from the program, replacing them with the offspring which are better adapted to your rabbitry microclimate (like heat/cold, humidity, etc.). After 4-5 generations of close line/inbreeding you'll start seeing much more consistency in your litters, as many of the hidden undesirable genetics have been culled out, and the line is mostly homozygous for the desired genetics. That's when you do a thorough evaluation of the line and identify the biggest area of need in the herd, and bring in something new/unrelated which is strong in that area and introduce those genetics to the line. Then its just a matter of repeating the linebreeding process for another 4-5 generations to remove any unwanted genetics introduced by the new animal(s) and spreading the desired traits across the herd; followed by the evaluation to determine where the most improvement is needed and finding something new to introduce the desired trait. After a few years of repeating this process, you should have an established line which is homozygous & adapted to your local conditions. From there, as long as you consistently cull anything weak from the herd, you should be able to linebreed indefinitely without having to introduce anything new, which is exactly the way mother nature does it.

If you haven't joined the ARBA (https://www.arba.net) I highly recommend it. Members receive a copy of the ARBA guidebook, which is like the bible of rabbit breeding, as well as a subscription to the bimonthly magazine that has lots of great articles (plus new rabbit recipes in each issue).  

Sorry for the long post but hopefully it will be of help as you get your program going.

-KCS

Thank you so much for the information!!