Luhtalan Rabbitry

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Luhtalan Rabbitry I strive to raise quality Flemish Giants mainly for meat purposes. I do not raise for show.

The goal with my rabbits is to improve growth rates, grow thicker bodies and raise good docile temperaments with minimal handling required.

26/02/2025

And this is the second litter I was talking about, for some reason Facebook won't let me share two videos in one post

26/02/2025

I have 2 litters of bunnies that will be available in about two weeks! And two more small litters that were born this week, stay tuned for more updates!

Update: What a sigh of relief 😂🤣I'm going to be honest, I actually don't get spam messages often, I've probably only had...
23/02/2025

Update: What a sigh of relief 😂🤣
I'm going to be honest, I actually don't get spam messages often, I've probably only had about three in my entire life, so this was a bit of a jump scare. Fortunately I didn't click any links, and am glad to report that I am not going to be removed any time soon 🤣😂

How often should you breed you does and at what age do they retire?This is another question that I often see popping up ...
27/01/2025

How often should you breed you does and at what age do they retire?

This is another question that I often see popping up in various rabbit groups and I felt inspired to make a post about it. Truth be told, there really isn't a right or wrong answer, it all boils down to this: How often do you want to replace your does?

On average, a female rabbit will give you about 12 litters in her lifetime. At this point, it's just a simple math problem. If you keep her on a 2 litters per year limit, she can very well continue to produce healthy litters up until the age of 6. If you breed her 3x a year, she will be ready to retire around 4 years of age. (This is my personal preference, replacing my does every 4 years is convenient for me as they get all their babies out while they're still young and they don't need to breed into their middle ages)
If you breed your doe 4x a year, she'll probably stop producing around 3 years of age, etc.
You can breed her 12 times a year if you'd like, it is entirely possible. It may sound harsh and you may find yourself under harassment by other people, but, truth be told, if the doe herself had a choice in the matter, she would be giving birth every 4 weeks. In nature, this is what they do, does are bred the day they give birth, and they have a new litter every 4 weeks, and it makes sense. In the wild, they only live for a year or two. They are on the bottom of the food chain and they know it. In order to prevent from going extinct, they need to pop out as many babies as they possibly can before they get eaten by something. Some people keep rabbits in colony settings, this is a setup that mimics their natural environment as much as possible. Often large 8x10 foot enclosures, some even bigger where each rabbit has enough space to establish their own personal territory and you'll have one buck and a couple does living together in harmony. In these setups, the does are bred almost every 4 weeks with no human interference. If the doe does not want to breed with the buck, she can and will castrate or even kill him, so I can assure you she is not being forced into this. It is not abusive to your does to allow them to breed every 4 weeks, that is what they were literally designed to do. Why don't I do it that way? Because I don't want to replace my does every single year, I personally would rather replace them every 4-5 years.

So, if you are a new breeder and debating with yourself, "how often should I breed my does? And at what age do they need to retire?" That all depends on how often you want to replace them. You want new does every year? Do a colony setup. Every 2-3 years? Breed your does 4-6 times a year, etc. Note, if you only breed her once a year she'll probably die of old age before she gets a chance to retire.

I hope this was helpful! I will ad a disclaimer, I have only ever raised New Zealands and Flemish Giants, I cannot verify that this applies to ALL breeds, but it is a personal observation that has presented itself consistently throughout my rabbits during the past 14 years. It is not a documented scientific fact that your doe is guaranteed to give you exactly 12 litters in her lifetime, but it does tend to be the "trend" so to speak. I have had a doe give me 14 litters before, and I had another retire after her 10th. (I retired that one early after she developed arthritis, but she probably could have had a couple small litters in her). Different breeders may share different experiences with you, this information is based entirely off of the personal experiences and observations that I have made within my own rabbits during my 14 years of raising them. Sorry for the long post, but thank you to all who bothered to read it, I hope it was helpful!

(Picture featuring Momma Dotty, my 3 year old F2 Flemish Giant)

20/01/2025

After randomly stating "It's like 80° in there" in my last video, I got curious to know just how warm was it really? Let's see what my turkey thermometer says!

20/01/2025

People don't ask me this question personally but it is a question that tends to be quite popular in the various rabbit groups that I am in. Questions such as "How do you keep your rabbits warm in winter?"-"it's going to be 20° this week, should I bring them inside?"-"is it safe to breed during the colder months?" Etc. and the answer is simple, rabbits handle cold temperatures a LOT better than you give them credit for. It's the summer heat that you want to worry about, not the winter cold. Here I have some 3 day old naked little baby bunnies in 8° weather, and they are doing just fine. This video is mainly about how to prepare a nesting area for the momma to have her new babies in. If your adult rabbits are dry and out of the wind, proving them with straw and food/water is really all you need to do. The momma will take care of the babies, I do not need to intervene, I just need to provide her with the necessary materials such as food, water, windbreak, and a dry place to kindle.

12/01/2025

And some written instructions on how to get tallow in the first place. I will hopefully make some videos on this in the future.

To render the raw fat into lard (or tallow) is very simple, all you really need is a crockpot and a few mason jars. Take a large amount of fat, enough to fill your crockpot, and chop it up into small pieces, the smaller the better. You can use a knife, some people put it through their food processor or a blender or cheese grater, whatever you have on hand. If a knife is all you have a knife will work.
Ad some water to your crockpot (enough to cover the bottom with at about 2cm of depth) and a sprinkle of salt (I never measure this, seriously just sprinkle it in there) and this will help remove the smell. Warning, it smells BAD.

Fill your crockpot with the chopped fat and set it on low then just let it cook down overnight or while you're at work. This can take anywhere from 10-24 hours depending on how much fat you have in there.

When the fat is all melted, pour it through a mesh strainer to remove all the cooked bits of flesh floating around.

After that you should be left with a hot golden oil. Pour it into a heated mason jar until it is about 3/4 of the way full. Fill the rest with hot water, (to the brim) secure with lid and shake well. Set in your refrigerator up-side down and wait. As it cools, the tallow and water will separate, the tallow will float up while the water will settle at the bottom. All of the impurities and any little bit of anything that would rot or spoil will leave the fat and sink into the water. This is why it is important to leave the jar upside down. Once cooled and the tallow hardens, you now just need to remove the lid and dump out the water with all its impurities and what's left behind is your nice clean tallow. Tallow can be used for multiple purposes such as lotions, soaps, candles, cooking oil etc.

12/01/2025

4th and final part: Making eczema cream out of deer fat!

I will also type up some written instructions on how to turn the raw fat into tallow so that you don't have to wait a month for me to make it again. Enjoy!

12/01/2025

Part 3: Making eczema cream out of deer fat.
I did end up adding a few more drops of essential oil to it as the scent wasn't very strong and that is the droplets you see on the top right there in the beginning of the video.

12/01/2025

Part 2: Making eczema cream out of deer fat!

12/01/2025

Part 1: Making eczema cream out of deer fat

11/01/2025

Not rabbit related but tonight I am planning on making some eczema cream out of deer fat for a friend. Is this something people would like me to try and record?

Last call! Just a reminder these three little ladies are still available. They hit 7lbs by 10 weeks which is a perfect g...
11/01/2025

Last call! Just a reminder these three little ladies are still available. They hit 7lbs by 10 weeks which is a perfect growth rate for meat breeds, but if they get any bigger their meat will start to get tough and lose quality so I will be harvesting them soon. These are purebred Flemish Giants, excellent quality for any meat or pet home, both parents maxed out at 18lbs. Asking $60 each, they will not be available for much longer, please pm me if interested.

11/01/2025

Sadly I made this a while ago and didn't have the opportunity to record the instructions, but this wet cat food is some leftover rabbit scraps from my most recent harvest. I do not like to be wasteful and will find a way to utilize every last remaining bit of the animals I butcher.

After harvesting the meat from the carcass for myself (and my dog) the leftover bones go into the crockpot to make bone broth (something I imagine most of you all already know how to do). After straining out the broth I am left with all the soft bits such bone marrow and the flesh between the joints and any other crevices too small for my knife, etc. This gets frozen into small containers and viola, free cans of cat food. No, I do not feed my cats exclusively rabbit meat, they do get other sources of food on top of that, but the rabbits do make up a large chunk of their diet which reduces my grocery bill significantly.

And the people have spoken! So the few people who responded to my previous post all voted for more educational content. ...
10/01/2025

And the people have spoken! So the few people who responded to my previous post all voted for more educational content. I am fairly excited about this and have a little more confidence with the idea of posting about what happens to the rabbits that don't sell. However, most of the work I do with harvesting and utilizing the rabbits is a two hand job and I don't have a third hand available to hold the phone so I am not sure I will be able to come up with detailed videos, but I will do my best. Most will probably just be step by step pictures with written instructions/explanations until I can figure something out. As for the content itself, I don't have an established plan on what I will teach and when I will teach it, I will probably just share about the project as they happen and will just take advantage of opportunities as they present themselves. I am very excited about this, I hope I can provide some helpful information to the few of you who actually pay attention to my page, and if not that maybe it'll at least be entertaining for you. Until my next bunny project, please enjoy this picture of some of Momma Dot's babies

Marcy's babies are officially available to claim. They are 9 weeks old. I won't be available to meet for pickup until Ja...
26/12/2024

Marcy's babies are officially available to claim. They are 9 weeks old. I won't be available to meet for pickup until January, but come January I am available most Mondays and Sunday afternoons.

All three are does, $60 each. Both parents are 18lbs. Mom came from a show breeder, she is color correct black out of blue lines. Dad is my home grown buck, NOT color correct, he has Sandy, Chinchilla, Blue and Fawn in his family tree

These are pet and meat quality only, I do not raise for show. Please feel free to PM me for any questions or inquiries.

Pickup location will be at the Speedway gas station in Lake Odessa

7051 Saddlebag Lake Rd, Lake Odessa, MI

I do not require holding deposits, you can pay in cash in full at pickup, you will have the opportunity to see and handle the rabbit yourself before choosing to purchase.

It's been a while but I have some updates!
17/12/2024

It's been a while but I have some updates!

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Sunday 14:00 - 17:00

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Videos

And this is the second litter I was talking about, for some reason Facebook won't let me share two videos in one post

I have 2 litters of bunnies that will be available in about two weeks! And two more small litters that were born this week, stay tuned for more updates!

After randomly stating "It's like 80° in there" in my last video, I got curious to know just how warm was it really? Let's see what my turkey thermometer says!

Winter Nest Box
Winter Nest Box

People don't ask me this question personally but it is a question that tends to be quite popular in the various rabbit groups that I am in. Questions such as "How do you keep your rabbits warm in winter?"-"it's going to be 20° this week, should I bring them inside?"-"is it safe to breed during the colder months?" Etc. and the answer is simple, rabbits handle cold temperatures a LOT better than you give them credit for. It's the summer heat that you want to worry about, not the winter cold. Here I have some 3 day old naked little baby bunnies in 8° weather, and they are doing just fine. This video is mainly about how to prepare a nesting area for the momma to have her new babies in. If your adult rabbits are dry and out of the wind, proving them with straw and food/water is really all you need to do. The momma will take care of the babies, I do not need to intervene, I just need to provide her with the necessary materials such as food, water, windbreak, and a dry place to kindle.

4th and final part: Making eczema cream out of deer fat! I will also type up some written instructions on how to turn the raw fat into tallow so that you don't have to wait a month for me to make it again. Enjoy!

Part 3: Making eczema cream out of deer fat. I did end up adding a few more drops of essential oil to it as the scent wasn't very strong and that is the droplets you see on the top right there in the beginning of the video.

Part 2: Making eczema cream out of deer fat!

Part 1: Making eczema cream out of deer fat

Homemade wet cat food
Homemade wet cat food

Sadly I made this a while ago and didn't have the opportunity to record the instructions, but this wet cat food is some leftover rabbit scraps from my most recent harvest. I do not like to be wasteful and will find a way to utilize every last remaining bit of the animals I butcher. After harvesting the meat from the carcass for myself (and my dog) the leftover bones go into the crockpot to make bone broth (something I imagine most of you all already know how to do). After straining out the broth I am left with all the soft bits such bone marrow and the flesh between the joints and any other crevices too small for my knife, etc. This gets frozen into small containers and viola, free cans of cat food. No, I do not feed my cats exclusively rabbit meat, they do get other sources of food on top of that, but the rabbits do make up a large chunk of their diet which reduces my grocery bill significantly.

And the purebred Flemish Giants! Only 5 days old and going strong!

F3s are doing great! Will update on the purebreds soon!

Happy Thanksgiving everybunny!

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