Rabbit Bones

[Ardina]

So this prey-model-raw thing is going pretty well - Saipha and Mishka have been devouring their chunks of chicken and beef and are even eating liver and lamb kidneys without complaining much. A couple of weeks ago, I decided it was time to add another protein and luckily managed to find a butcher nearby who sells whole rabbit. I basically stripped the carcass and used it for boneless meat.

Now I'm thinking, hey chicken wings are a pretty expensive source of bone. What if I fed them some of the rabbit bone-in? Anyone have an idea of whether rabbit bones are small/soft enough for cats to eat? As a reference, my cats can easily manage chicken wings and necks, but they struggle with even small pieces of beef bone (too hard?). I'm fairly sure they can manage the ribs and probably the feet, but not sure about the legs. And anyone have a good source for the bone percentage of various rabbit parts? Doing the math might be the hardest part actually. Or maybe I can use this next rabbit for boneless meat again but do a little measuring to figure out bone percentages...

 

[kittyluv387]

Yes rabbits have softer bones that cats can eat. The whole ground carcass rabbit minus the stomach and intestine says it’s 10% bone. But it probably varies. If you experiment to find out on your own let us know the results!

 

[Wile]

I think it was @mschauer who mentioned in another thread that bone percentages for rabbits vary with breed, so you might have to calculate the percentages yourself unless you know the breed that you are buying.

 

[Ardina]

Huh it never crossed my mind to think about what breed it is. I'll see if the butcher knows, but I might have to just measure a few rabbits myself and determine it empirically.