those of you who feed BARF do you feed rabbits to your dogs, if so what is your source and how do you feed them - whole, gutted and skinned, or minced (pet prize mince)
i can get them from the butchers but one meal would then work out at nearly £20 for three dogs or i can get them from the local game keeper (he shots them then sells them cheap to hawkers etc as well as using for bait in his fox traps)
i would rather feed a whole rabbit rather than mince as even though im veggie a whole rabbit looks far better than the minced stuff for the dogs
tanya

Tanya - our old lab Purdey caught her own rabbits up to the end of last summer!

She would crunch off the heads (sounded absolutely awful as you can imagine) - then eat half of it - and leave the rest for the others.   We would give them the remains - just as they were!

tess loves to chase and catch rabbits but unfortunatley there is a lack of safe places to let her catch them, i would love to let her near work but the game keeper doesnt like people coursing on the land, also as there as peacocks, guinea fowl and other poultry roaming it isnt a good idea, tess does tend to see small things as prey good at times for pest control but people dont like having their chickens killed - cant understand why really ;)
tanya

Tess doesn't understand why either - especially when her daughter is seeing lots of bunnies that she would chase - if only her new Mum would let her off the lead - Granny Purdey & Aunty Gypsy are off the lead looking for bunnies - so why can't she??:D

She would catch them AND bring them back......eventually :D  However, until I am happy that her recall would be that good - I stay on the other end of a 6ft training lead!!!

Actually - we'll be having fun on Sunday = she's entered at her first show - at NOrton Heath - so apologies to other owners of lab puppies in the SWECA show - we'' be the ones with the out of control  labby baby as well as the noisy aussies!

Margot

well she has got to live up to her mums name 'out of control' :D :D

bruce is yet to see wild live rabbits although he does like to 'taste' our pet rabbit, who noe resides in the dog kennel as tess finds every way possible to get to her when she is loose in the rabbit run the kennel is the only safe option for her to get some exercise.

Bo one of the other puppies gets very excited at any thing that moves and quite often tries to 'catch' the harris hawk at work through the avairy (not at all like her mum)

good luck for sunday let us know how you get on

tanya

Tanya, not many falconers would risk feeding shot rabbits to their birds, as the risk of lead poisoning is too great. Whilst this wouldnt be such a big problem in dogs, its still not something I would do. We catch all our own rabbits & once gutted/skinned, remove leg bones & let them have the rest. £20 a meal???? My god, every one round here would pay to have someone catch their blasted rabbits they are such a major problem!

That does happen here Sam.  Eldest son out as we speak!  Anyone want any as he will come home with loads!?

thats what i thought when he said he sells them to falconers/hawkers, i would love to let tess catch her own but lack of safe places for her to hunt means she cant, we used to have alovely field at the back of us running into a nature reserve and fishing lake, a housing company bought hte field, nature reserve and lake, have built a road straight through the field, closed the fishing lake and the only part of the nature reserve that hasnt yet been developed on are the cliffs :( although im sure if they could find a way to move the chalk cliffs and get rid of the lake to build yet more houses they would do, there are plenty of rabbits there but with a road that is very fast and no safety barriers its too much of a risk to let tess off the lead to hunt,
So if i was to gut skin etc and remove the shot part of the rabbit would they be okay?
i bought some home yesturday unfortunely my 5 year old sister didnt listen to my mum when she was told to leave the black bag in the car for me to get, all evening all i had was 'ah those poor rabbits, did you kill them' needless to say mum wasnt impressed at having whole rabbits in the house she thought that they had already been skinned etc, but the bag was met with great curiosity and i have got the 3 best obidience dogs in the country :D they're stuck to me like glue :D
tanya

It's funny but golfers don't like rabbits on their golf course, but neither do they like to be confronted with either exterminators trapping/shooting them or dogs catching them themselves and then crunching them upu fresh in full view of the 14th green or 15th tee

Dogs - they just dont care - if it's a nice fresh rabbit for breakfast/dinner/tea - it matters not that they were fed only 30 mins ago!!!

Margot

I feed my rabbits to my dogs whole, complete with fur coat :D  They are given to me by a chap who goes lamping with his lurcher, unless of course they catch them themselves when they swallow them whole ears first :D

Skin/fur is a valuable source of fibre.  I would never consider paying for them :D

My dogs are good rabbiters, they aren't on the barf diet so I cook the big ones for them but if they catch a baby rabbit I give it to them as it is, fur the lot. Have tried giving them the large ones raw too but they seem to prefer it cooked. After they have had a raw one though, a few days later their coats are lovely and glossy and they are brighter eyed than ever.