Well, I had a nice little drive down to Kent today to pick up some raw minced rabbit from a game dealer. I am hoping that the beasties approve, and if so I might make it a regular trip ( anyone interested in sharing a job lot let me know, I am in East London )
Now, I think I know I need to add extra taurine, maybe also some fish oil....Hobbs, yoohoo! How much please?
Also......I bought from the game keepers wife who was lovely but not able to answer a couple of my questions.
Rabbits are rifle shot....what happens to the pellet? Is it taken out when animal is gutted as I presume otherwise it would break the grinder, or is there a danger of it still lurking around? Is this a risk for a cat....I presume that as they don't have molars to grind they should not break their teeth on it, but will it pass through the gut without danger or not?
She did say it was the whole rabbit....I am hoping this includes the head as well, what do you all think?

__________________

Nellie Paddy Mitzy Milo Peggy Murphy

Millie and Monty, the White Devils!

You could add taurine if you are worried, its water soluable so no worries about excess, should be fine without if your feeding varied diet, and wild rabbit is naturally high in omega 3.
Rifle bullets can be quite large and hopefully he is a good shot, normally to the head which means the head is removed. I get wild rabbits skinned gutted and headless they have very rarely been mishot and I think the velocity pushes the bullet right through, at least there has never been a bullet found and I have checked, gunshot is a different kettle of fish and sometimes there are pellets in pigeon and the like, most rabbits I think are shot with rifles and so no lead pellets, be careful with waterfowl which are still sadly, despite the ban, being shot with lead.
Also whole could include the guts in the mix and the fur, different people mean different things when they say whole, might be worth double checking with him, I've heard of people using ground totally whole, guts and fur and head from farmed source, where its been fed to very poorly cats with IBD and its pulled them round.
Anyhow I am waving my hand to share if it looks like a winner!

I've been interested to find a rabbit supplier around here where abouts are you based? Unfortunately it will not be a huge amount as I only have a small freezer!

__________________

I'm near Clapham Junction, don't have any spare at the minute, you could try local butcher, one near me does wild £6 each the other does farmed £8.50kg They are available from Smithfield market but have not yet plucked up the courage to venture up there but surely would be much cheaper!

I wondered if the man in Kent would do them whole?

I get a lot shipped in at once, so if your near happy to share Would hopefully be next couple of weeks and cheaper than the butcher!

There is also the online supplier "Woldsway" who offer rabbits for pets (either whole minced or chunks) I believe. There is another farm/farm shop down the Kent way (Osney Lodge Farm) who sell rabbits with fur on etc for a decent price (but it all depends on availability and it isn't really game season)

I think that's from the game dealer I get the rabbit from too? I've been meaning to ask them the same question about shot but always manage to forget. All I can tell you is that the friend who recommended it to me has fed it for about 10 years and I have for the last two years and we've never found any shot in it and between the two of us, must have gone through hundreds of packs of the stuff over the years. I (perhaps stupidly) wondered if they have some sort of magnet in their mincing machine which picks it out

Well it is time for me to re-stock my freezer so will be driving down to Kent some day next week to pick up a load of this rabbit. If anyone is interested in trying some, and can pick up from me in East London, just let me know. I have plenty of cool boxes courtesy of NI so it should be ok to stay frozen in them for a few hours. It costs £1 per 'sausage' so pretty cheap.

__________________

Nellie Paddy Mitzy Milo Peggy Murphy

Millie and Monty, the White Devils!

Hi,

I'm interested but not sure how close I am to you from Hornchurch RM11.

Many thanks

__________________

I live on the Kent border - whereabouts is the supplier? I'd be interested in going there. Thanks x