How To Start A Profitable Rabbitry [Actually Raise Rabbits For Profit]

Wondering if it is possible to have a profitable rabbitry?

The short answer is yes. You can have a profitable rabbitry.

BUT!!!! You have to go into it with intentionality and being very strategic with what you do.

It can be an expensive hobby if you let the cuteness of babies and that one special color you just have to have take over your judgment.

But if you use these tips to be intentional about your rabbitry you can turn a money-sucking hobby into a profitable business.

Rabbits are not easy to raise and even harder to breed and have successful litters. But if you love it you can stick out the hard times and have a profitable rabbitry. Imagine if you could get your rabbitry to not only pay for itself but put a little extra money into your pocket.

How To Find A Breed That Will Make You A Profit

When you are getting started there will be a lot of breeds that seem interesting that you might want to try. But don’t spend your money on two or three rabbits of five different breeds. Stay focused on one or two breeds. This will help you have a more profitable rabbitry.

You will be spread too thin and won’t be able to focus on promoting the breeds you have. When continually changing breeds or not being focused on one or two breeds people don’t know how to refer others to you.

There is a saying in the entrepreneur space. “If you try to speak to everyone you will speak to no one.” It works the same way for rabbits in the sense that if you try to be known for too many breeds you won’t be known for any.

How To Research And Find A Rabbit Breed That Will Make You A Profit

Write down your top 5 rabbit breeds on a list.
Start with breed #1 and search [breed name + your area] in google search.
Write down any prices you are able to find. Both low and high. ( Take note of the type of rabbit raiser they where. Meaning where they raisng them for show? Was their webiste or social media account up to date and informative. Or did they seem like a back yard breeder that was just doing it for fun and no real prfeshionalizem.)
Do the same on social media. More and more people are using a facebook page or insagram account as the main way too promote their rabbitry.

Start Your Rabbitry Small

Large numbers do not necessarily mean high profits. Start with a trio or two breeding pairs to get started.

It’s not going to be easy at first and you may not have a buyer for each rabbit before they are ready to leave at 8 weeks. It could take 10 or even 12 weeks before they all sell. And you will likely have to work for it.

But as your rabbitry and your name grows it will get easier and easier. As the demand grows you can add more animals.

One way I try to avoid the long periods of having rabbits past the 8-week point is having some form of a waiting list.

Add more breeding animals as you are able to sell more and be strategic about the breedings you do so you can build your herd by keeping a few babies. Even if people don’t recognize the rabbit’s conformation very well they will have this sense when looking at them that they are well put together and are of good quality.

Start Your Profitable Rabbitry On A Budget

In order to have a profitable rabbitry, you have to have a pulse on your rabbitry’s income and expenses. At first of course you are not going to have as much of an income but you need to create the habit of income and expense tracking early.

Rabbitry Starting Budget

Ideally, you should save enough money for 3-5 rabbits plus 3-6 months of feed depending on the year. Because you have to assume you won’t get litters right away. The stress and pressure to turn a profit will come when you don’t give yourself enough time.

How To Budget Your Rabbitry After You Are Making An Income

For most rabbitries, income is seasonal. If you can figure out a way to have rabbits available all year long you would not have to hold back as much money to pay for the feed bill.

But assuming you are making money 6 months out of the year you need to save back enough money for the other 6 months of feed and expenses. Make sense?

Let’s use a rabbitry that goes through 1 50-lb bag of feed per week as an example.

Figuring Out How Much Feed You Will Need

As you will see I have three different equations to help you. It can feel stressful to be thinking you have to save that yearly bill. But if you break it down it’s a much easier mountain to climb. Plus if you are just saving enough to get you through to the next time you have rabbits available. Say from late fall to the following spring. That is only 6-7 months. Not a full year.

1 bag = $18

Monthly Feed Bill

$18 x 4 (bags) = $72

Qurterly Feed Bill

$18 x 12 (bags) = $216

Yearly Feed Bill

$18 x 52 (bags) = $936

When it comes to cages, supplies, and other expenses you have to be the one to decide how much to save back. But at least $50 would be advisable. And if you want to make or buy new cages quite a bit more.

This is where planning ahead will do you a lot of good. You have to think through your projects and when would make the most sense to do them. So in turn you can save money for each project.

How Much You Have To Sell Your Rabbits For To Make A Profit

There are two ways you can figure out one, how many rabbits you have to sell. Or two, how much you have to charge for each of your rabbits.

How Much You Have To Charge To Cover Expences?

Let’s say you are trying to cover the annual expense budget of $1000 and you can have on average 8 litters per year.

The litter can be as few as 3 kits per litter or as many as 8-10. You don’t want to overestimate because that will leave you in the red if you don’t end up with enough young rabbits to sell.

So let’s say your average is 6 kits per litter.

6 babies x 8 litters is 48 babies.

1000 divided by 48 = just over $20

So you have to sell each jr for at least $21 to break even.

Make sense?

How Many Rabbits Do You Have To Sell?

Let’s flip this around. Let’s say you know you can charge $50 per head and you have a bill of $1000 per year to cover expenses. Let’s figure how many sales it will take to make that amount.

1000 divided by 50= 20

So you have to sell 20 rabbits to cover the cost. Anything over that is a bonus.

20 rabbits divided by an average of 6 kits ber litter means you have to have 3 – 4 litters per year to cover the coast.

You Have To Treat Your Rabbitry Like A Business To Raise Rabbits For Profit

When it comes to making money and raising rabbits for profit you have to be very strategic with everything from which animals you buy to finding deals on cages and supplies.

If you have a soft heart and give people discounts and have a hard time bot buying a rabbit that is “just so cute”. You will have to learn to become stronger in your goals and drive to make the rabbitry profitable.

Set boundaries ahead of time. Know how far you will go and be willing to put the breaks on for something that will cost too much.

Save Money On Supplies To Have A Profitable Rabbitry

To have a profitable rabbitry you have to be careful with your money.

Sure you can buy quality tools and the things that will make your life easier. But save money where you can and get scrappy with the things that don’t need to cost as much.

Shop around. Try to find the best deal or ways to save money or getting cashback from places like Rakuten.

Saving Money On Cages

The best way to get started is to find old cages on Craigslist. They might need some work but you can do it. Just make sure when you do the repairs that there are NO sharp points anywhere.

If you have skills with power tools you can look for things that could be turned into a hutch.

What to look for/think about when looking to buy a rabbit cage.

No solid floors. This is very unhealthy for rabbits.
Size of the rabbit and if you will breed your rabbit. If so you will need space for the babies.
Find more tips on buying rabbit cages here.

Where to buy a rabbit cage.

There are really only three options.

Buying from a rabbit supply seller like this one here. I personally buy my cage floor wire from them and they are wonderful.
Tractor supply or another farm store that is great.
Make it yourself. When you have a large breed sometimes you have to make the cages yourself. You are just not going to find what you need.

Rabbitry Supplies

Don’t buy from the rabbit section in pretty much any store. The supplies are much smaller and are priced ssssssooo much higher.

Go to the dog section or even the horse/livestock section if the store has them.

Before I found my favorite black rubber bowls for the rabbits I used to buy these bowls from the dollar tree. They are great for the winter and the ice can be easily broken out of them.

Things like nail clippers are a lot more durable for dogs but for cats and rabbits, they are so much cheaper in quality. So that is another way to look at it. The better quality the tool the longer it will last.

Here are a few of my favorite tools for rabbits.

Find A Way To Be Unique

To raise rabbits for profit, you have to find ways to stand out. Yes, you may have found a breed that is not super common but there are still other rabbit raisers out there. Why should people buy from YOU and not the other person?

Some of the best ways to stand out are free.

Check your messages often.
Find ways to look profeshional.
Keep your social media and website very clean and neat.
Be very informative.
Be willing to say when a breed is not right for someone.
Create an experience for your buyers. Make them want to come back to you and sing your praises to those they meet.

You Have To Promote Your Rabbitry For It To Be Profitable

To raise rabbits for profit people have to know that you exist. Buying a few rabbits does not mean you will have customers.

To get people to find out about your rabbitry you have to promote it.

Talk about it where people are spending their time. Most often it is on that little device in their back pocket using these little apps we call social media. It might make you cringe and you might want to drag your feet. But do you want to raise rabbits for profit? Or do you want to just have fun raising them and barely make anything?

Choose One Platform To Promote Your Rabbitry

Start with one platform or method to promote your rabbitry with the goal or working up to at least two.

One might be a social media platform. And another could be going to rabbit shows. Or building a website to be found in search. Eventually, word of mouth will become an option but you have to get people to know you exist first.

Get creative and use the platforms that people are using. The popular social platforms today won’t be the same in 10 years. The users will change and the way they use it will change also. Check out this post to learn more about social media.

A Profitable Rabbitry Needs A Home Base

Social media is not our own. The creators can change the rules any time they want and you could lose all of your work and follow in an instant. Which is why I recommended you work your way up to at least two methods of promotion. If one goes out you still have another.

80-90% of my rabbit sales come from people finding me on google and getting on my email waiting list.

If you are going to stick with it for a while need a home base off of social media.

I used a free website for over 5 years before switching to a hosted (paid) website.

Having a website gives you a level of authority and the freedom to use other methods like money. Like selling your own products and making affiliate income. Which will give you more income than just livestock sales.

If you want to learn more about turning your money-sucking hobby into a business check out my business book for rabbitry owners here. Profitable Rabbitry Playbook

You can do anything you set your mind to. Get creative and try things that others are not doing. Give it time to build momentum and think of it like an experiment not a failure. If something doesn’t work figure out why and what you can do differently.

You can raise rabbits for profit if you are willing to do the work and stick with it. Got questions? Drop them below.