I was supposed to get some whole rabbits gutted and ready for the freezer but the gameskeeper gave them to my friend whole. He said he didn't gut them as they didn't have myxi. I was always under the impression that one should never freezer any meat or game that had the guts intact but he told her to chuck them in the freezer as is and they'll be fine. That's how they did it around there.

I haven't a clue how to gut a rabbit myself nor am I up to the task so that's not an option. Any thoughts on whether these will be OK in the freezer?

If it were me I would gut them. Just get a sharp knife and make a slit down it's tummy and then dig deep and rip the guts out ;) You can use a plastic bag over your hand if you can't face using bare hands :D :D

Once you have done one the rest will be peasey ;) :D

To be honest the dogs will prefer the guts and all, just ensure their worming is up to date.  Otherwise keep the liver at least.

I have no problem with them eating the guts - they do frequently on walks. :) They have tucked into more whole rabbits than I can count this year. I just wondered about the freezing intact and I confess Lucy, I am far too squeamish to gut my own. :( Pathetic aren't I.

Oh my God! That is hideous!  One of my boys caught a rabbit on a walk a while back and started to devour it, wouldnt stop despite me yelling and whacking him, in the end I had to run home and he followed with this poor bunny in his mouth, I ran in and shut the door! It was horrid.
Whats wrong with dog food?

What a ridiculous thing to do!

You do realise that perhaps next time your dog WONT bring you the rabbit but will either run off with it and perhaps eat it elsewhere, or play with it and torture it for ages.

If you can't train your dog not to catch rabbits (and you wont acheive that by yelling and whacking him!!!!!), then accept that it is your responsibility to train your dog to retrieve to hand, then YOU can choose if your dog eats it or not.

Whole rabbit is far far better for your dog than dog food, clearly your dog knows that even if you dont.

Quite agree, after my Tula at 5 months killed the budgie because my daughter ran around screaming (she had let it out), I always took care to call her to me and act really pleased and swap what she had (dead things and live fledglings and mice) for a treat.  Worked great.

I have also taken fresh roadkill rabbit home for the dogs tea, though I don't get the chance normally.

Do you know what i never thought of bringing home roadkill. There are millions of bunnies where we are (and im not exaggerating). When ive finished my shift about 0130 i always see a few on the roads. The amount i see weekly i would actually save money if i fed my dogs rabbit.

Good idea, especially this time of year when they will keep fresh.

When it's something I've just seen being hit (or hit myself - very naughty because technically the carcase belongs to the next person, not the person who hit it) then I take it home - for us! Pheasant without the fear of breaking a tooth on lead shot - marvellous! :D Otherwise if I know it's reasonably fresh (ie it wasn't there earlier that day and it isn't flat!) then I take it back for the dogs.

We were just too late to get a deer carcase a couple of weeks ago. By the time we'd parked the car someone else had nabbed it. Curses!

Think that only applies to game, technically rabbit isnt game (ie its a pest) so you can pick up rabbit you ran over yourself.. for deer, pheasant etc then yeah.... should let the person behind pick it up..

*Looks out for JG driving everywhere in convoy*

> I have also taken fresh roadkill rabbit home for the dogs tea, though I don't get the chance normally.

How do you feed it - do you freeze it or skin it or anything, or do you just give it to them as it is and leave them to do the work themselves? Always loads round where my gran lives and I'm going up there for Xmas.

Anything I or the dogs pick up is just eaten as is. They often have whole ungutted rabbits, either fresh caught thmselves or picked up on the way home by me...probably the only advantage to driving home at 4.30am every morning! A friend in work also brings me in sacks of bunnies that he's shot, but these are gutted for the freezer.

If I only have one rabbit I just leave it in the garden and let the boys out, a quick tug of war and they have a piece each :D

As is I let each have what I judged to be a third of it, as at the time I had 3 dogs.

So my piglet of a puppy that ate a whole one herself is as greedy as I thought :) And she expected dinner as well! I swear her sire was a Dyson. :-D

Well I would say my Elkhounds that are 20kg adults half a rabbit would be a days ration, but they can't have as much food as most without gaining weight as the breed are very good doers, they only get 150g to 200g of dry food a day as adults.

It was about a 4 pound adult Bunny.

Good breed for folks on a budget. :) Miss Piggy is still a growing 11 month old. She manages to pack away about 750-800g of food a day but that includes fresh and dry. She's 30-31Kg now and still a bit scrawny so I let her pig out on the bunny. She doesn't get on every day.

I can feed all four of mine on less than that

My friend who mostly has collies and GSD always found it funny that the Elkhound spayed bitch ate half of what the collies ate and about a 1/4 of what the male sheps had.

Wow, is that all? Mine have about 350-400g each daily of dry food! The Dyson is one of Duibh's nicknames, along with Houdini! :D

Hold on a minute, the rabbit was already dead or else I would have made my boy drop the poor thing! My dogs are gentle with all animals hens, allsorts so i was quite shocked he had caught this and was trying to eat it, he wont do it again, at the first sign of chase now he gets a good telling off. I was most upset by this as I had spent the last few months chasing off some gun touting sorts from around here and succeeded , Im against shooting rabbits , foxes and whatever else people like to call sport. Seems most on here are the hunting brigade though

I live in a rural area on a farm and can say we have no trouble with foxes, badgers, rabbits and anthing else, the only species that occasionally causes a problem is Humans!!

Im not getting into a hunting debate Im just stating my opinion and this is it. 

Do you not agree that left uncontrolled Rabbits are a pest. 

I loved the bunnies I used to show, but understand the need to control their numbers on farmland. 

That is one of the main jobs that terriers and Lurcher's are kept for pest control (far better than reintroducing Myxymatosis by over vaccinating a caught rabbit and letting it go to spread this dreadful disease).

Nothing wrong with eating what is caught.  If it had been me I would have rewarded him warmly kept the rear half for myself and given him the front end and guts.

One of the major reasons for the dogs domestication was to use as a helper to hunt.

Doesnt matter if the rabbit is already dead.. the next one might not be. Id far rather have a dog who will bring me anything he has, than one who has learned i will react aggressively and strangely, and learns to avoid me when he catches something.

pro or anti hunting is irrelevant.. training your dog by reacting like you did is a bad idea, attempting to train him not to chase or not to pick up stuff by a 'good telling off' is also a bad idea.

In the long run you will either cow your dog or teach him to run off fast and come back slow.

Yep overjoyed reactions here with one of mine have netted me decomposing pigeon, dead Water vole (a protected species here), live mice, Hedgehogs and fledglings. 

Was able to bin the decomposing and release the live, and she got a treat.  Her Mum would play keep away to eat her prize as I had done the telling off bit when she was young, hence my change of tack with the younger ones. 

Works well with stolen prizes at home too, like the remote or underwear, lots of praise and a swap for an allowed item or treat.

Tis hard sometimes to act overjoyed with what they bring you... Abby retrieves live... usually squirrels she really has a knack for those, and it does take all of my acting ability to be pleased at being presented with a flea ridden treerat who is in VERY bad temper...

To discourage her or tell her off after the event though would really upset her, shes a very sensitive little flower and is clearly so pleased with herself so even if doing so would stop her, I wouldnt.

Ooh brave little soul.  As we have hazel in the garden we have the tree rats living here.  The dogs are funny with them as they ignore them completely even though they are sitting in the Hazel or plum tree right in their bit of garden.  If they managed to get them on the ground though they would be breakfast.  they give chase in the country park if they are on the ground, but as soon as treed they pretend they were not chasing them.

Abby is similar... you would almost think she was entirely unaware of the tree rats presence, and i thnk thats what gets them becuase they come down from teh tree to go 'ner ner ner'..... and BLIZZANG..... saluki/tree rat interface..... she is absolutely 100% aware of where the tree rat is at all times, just knows she cant climb trees so doesnt waste her energies!

The rabbit is their dog food Rupertbear. :) They don't seem to think it's very hideous. My dogs are happy to bring any tasty treats they find to me and if it looks OK, I'm happy to let them enjoy it. By whacking your dog you've only managed to teach him that it's not safe to share with you. I want my dogs to feel safe sharing anything with me - it's the best way to keep them safe. :)

Gosh, I had no idea there were rules about hitting things with cars! :-D My OH would never let our dogs eat raw meat / raw chicken wings etc, I have suggested it. But wouldn't there be a danger of dirt / tarmac / engine oil from roadkill?

I have to say I have no problem with raw feeding but the thought of dragging road kill into the boot is rather mind boggling! Sounds like something out of a horror movie (wasn't there one where they accidentally hit a man and chucked him into the boot to dispose of him?). I think a rabbit would be about my limit. I can just picture you lot out there in the wilderness at 3am with a deer slung across your shoulders

Sorry that reminds me of 'Fried Green tomatos at the whistle stop cafe'!!
Dont ask me why, just the one about the picking up body and chucking in can and eating road kill!!
Lea.

A friend of mine in Alaska feeds her dogs bear meat. They love it according to her. Her dogs also go out and catch salmon from the areas where they sporn each year.
Mine has the odd frog or mouse when he comes across one. I try to get them from him but you hear a crunch and down its gone.
The only thing he will not eat is newts which he picks up and brings inside to show me. Strange really, he has some odd ways :)

Maybe he knows great crested newts are a protected species :D (or at least, that their habitat is protected :D )

I reckon he does. Shame he does not know my sunday roast is protected :-D

I'm thinking the same thing Zarah. There is NO way i would pull over on the side of the road at night,or even during the day, and drag the carcass of a dead animal in my car,and there are many horror movies with such scenes in them :D I sometimes think people post stuff here just for the shock value it will attract ;)

I have nothing against feeding dogs whole rabbits,venison or whatever,but i have yet not reached the point of having to scrape dead ones off the side of the road :)

Delta is partial to fresh rabbit ...or pheasant .....or anything else she manages to catch ;) Mind you, she will kill a rat but not eat it :)

This thread is very interesting,
I would not mind my dogs catching the odd rabbit on a walk and eating it, I feel this is natural for the canine, but alas my dogs have a big disadvantage, despite they my desire to eat a nice fresh rabbit on a walk, they just can't catch them!!! :D :D :D
My breed can be a bit sluggish when it come to running! Although my Pup believes he is a Staffie when we walk over the fields with friends who all have staffies, my pup trys his hardest to join in the the chasing games but he just can't keep up with them! :D
A question: I do feed my dogs raw meats, and keep dwelliing with the idea of giving them each a whole raw chicken, does anyone else do this?  They have fresh chicken legs, wings etc but I have never given them a whole chicken?????

I have fed the carcases as I can't afford to feed them the whole bird, LOL, but I bet they would love you for it.

Yes, occasionally I go into the butchers and buy 3 fresh chickens, I ask them to chop one in half lengthways for me. The boys get a whole one each and the girls half each. It's a rare treat for my lot though as rabbits are free and chickens are not!

My dog has only caught a rabbit once and I believe that it was on its last legs as the myxi was very bad in the local population this year. He was dead chuffed with himself and brought it over with great pride. :) They usually only get what has either died on its own or what another dog has killed but not eaten - or what I've arranged to buy from a gameskeeper.

My friend who died a few years ago had a pack of Finnish Spitz.  It was a bad year for myxi and the bitch whilst in whelp had been catching them for herself, and reared the pups on them too, and they turned their noses up at what the humans offered.  Her girls were pretty primitive always regurgitating for their pups when it was time to wean.  They were very fat and sassy pups with glorious coats.

This used to be more common in our breed too, especially in the days when the dogs lived out more, but I have fortunately never experienced it as mine are reared in the house.

Earlier this year, I managed to catch a litter of feral kittens at about 5 weeks, and brought them inside, to "domesticate/tame" so that I could rehome them.   Mum would come into the porch provided windows were left open - and we were getting up every morning and finding the remains of a rabbit in there - she obviously brought them a takeaway each night !

Dogs enjoyed the leftovers :D

I have no objection to mine catching and eating rabbits on our walks...must be faster than your lot Gemini cos they do catch 'em. but I do object to Merlot who keeps dragging the carcass of a dear out of the woods every time we walk past it, it's got a bit niffy and slimy now and I have to keep chucking it back into the woods, she would drag it home to eat in peace if I let her!!
Pepsi gave a Hare a run for it's money this morning but stood not a hope in H*** of catching that! gave her a good blow out though.
Never thought about road kill, we are always out by 8.30 am and many's the time we see freshly knocked of bunnies...must get my shovel out!!
Aileen