Update August 2018: We are taking a break from breeding Silver Fox rabbits. I have left this page up as a resource for those who may have rabbits descended from our last batch of breeding stock, but we do not have rabbits currently.
Are you interested in raising meat rabbits? Silver Fox Rabbits are a beautiful heritage breed known for its great flavor. Our rabbits have great silvering, they’re calm from being frequently handled, and we can provide you with a pedigreed breeding stock to kick-start or enhance your own rabbitry. Our rabbitry includes all four of the Silver Fox colors (Black, Blue, Chocolate, and Lilac)! Our rabbitry is unique in that we are able to provide our customers with genetically diverse combinations of rabbits, allowing our customers to just visit one rabbitry to kick-start their rabbit breeding operation with unique lines that serve them for generations. We have sold rabbits to customers all across the east coast, from the Carolinas to New York. Located in the heart of Loudoun County, we are conveniently located for Silver Fox rabbit customers in Virgina, Maryland, DC, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania.
Read on for general information about raising Silver Fox rabbits.
Our rabbits typically sell at 8 weeks of age for $50 (including pedigree). Prices vary for the less common colors and proven breeding stock. Discounts available for larger quantities.
We maintain all of our rabbit pedigrees with Global Pedigree. You can get a free trial account by clicking this link.
We write about our rabbits frequently, click here to read all our Silver Fox Rabbit posts.
Here are some tips to help you get started raising rabbits.
Housing
We prefer welded wire cages as they are cost effective and easy to keep clean. Hutches with wood components can get saturated in urine and chewed up by the rabbits. Wire cages keep the droppings and urine away from the rabbits and can be easily cleaned with wire brushes and/or a torch. We use a propane powered weed burner to sanitize cages when needed, most of the time just making sure any “hangers” are knocked off with a stick or brush is sufficient.
Bass Equipment Rabbit Cage
Our cages are all from Bass Equipment. We have a mix of the 24x24x18 for our bucks or junior rabbits and 36x24x18 cages for our breeding does. We use the larger 36x24x18 cages for does because it gives them room when they have nesting boxes or a litter of kits running around. If you get cages elsewhere, make sure you get ones where the doors open inwards, as seen in the picture on the left. That way if you forget to latch the door the rabbit won’t be able to push it open!
We found buying these cages was most economical and efficient. When they arrive they are broken down in flat sections. You just use a pair of J-Clip pliers to assemble the pieces of each cage together. Bass Equipment is very good about including ample J-Clips with these cage kits so you don’t need to buy extra, just make sure you have a good pair of J-Clip pliers.
The feeders we use attach to the cages, but you have to cut out sections where the feeders will go from the side of the cage. We use the 4FX model for our single cages and the 3FX model for the larger cages where multiple kits may be eating at once.
We hang our cages in a double stack configuration. In between the two rows we use Rabbit Trays from Tractor Supply to capture all the droppings and waste. These trays allow us to easily save all the valuable rabbit manure so we can use it in our garden.
The watering system is probably the most complex and labor intensive part of having rabbits. Because our rabbitry is outdoors it is subject to the temperature extremes of our local climate, meaning the water freezes in the winter. In the summer we use an automatic watering system where we hang 4-5 gallon buckets at the end of each row of cages and connect it to an “Edstrom” watering system. You have to check the nipples at each cage regularly as they may get clogged if you don’t keep the water in your bucket perfectly clean. These nipples are easy to clean though, they unscrew and you can flush all the components. In the winter we turn off the automatic system and switch to using water bottles that hang on the cages, swapping them out twice a day when they freeze. The frozen bottles we leave in a bucket by the fire in our house to thaw out so they can be refilled as needed and redeployed.
Feed
Our rabbits are fed only the highest quality feed available. We use Pen Pals Professional 16%, delivered from Farmers Coop. In the past we have used rabbit feed from Highland Naturals and New Country Organics (formerly Countryside Organics). Both of those also worked well. We do have extra bags of feed on hand so you are welcome to stop buy our farm to buy rabbit feed. We occasionally supplement the rabbits with orchard grass or timothy hay.
Independence Homestead RabbitryLeesburg, VA
You can find us listed on the following pages:
