# Feeding wild rabbits to dogs



## Konnie Hein (Jun 14, 2006)

I recently "acquired" a couple of recently deceased wild rabbits. Any issue with feeding them to the dogs? I was planning on freezing them for a while before feeding, but wasn't sure for how long.

I did a search here and found a lot of info on feeding domestics, but not wild ones.


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## Lynn Cheffins (Jul 11, 2006)

I'd avoid the wild ones due to tapeworm concerns- but that is just me.


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## Guest (Jul 16, 2009)

Mine got tapeworms from the first wild rabbit he ever had.


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## Konnie Hein (Jun 14, 2006)

Darn! No chance of freezing them to negate the risk?


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## Megan Bays (Oct 10, 2008)

Where do the tapeworms come from?

If they come from the intestines could you remove them and feed it that way?


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## Anne Jones (Mar 27, 2006)

I have heard some say that freezing below 0 for a month or so will kill parasites. But I don't think that I would take the chance. It is my understanding that if rabbits are raised in hutches, above ground, that they will then not have worms. Not sure if this is totally true or not, but I am sure that someone here that raises them for food will chime in.


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## Becky Shilling (Jul 11, 2006)

Here in OK the general rule is to only eat rabbits in months with an "R" in them. And that advice is for human (cooked) rabbit. I'd stay away from them in the summer months.


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## Michael Wise (Sep 14, 2008)

Freezing should do the trick for tapeworms. Ask Maren for sure, though.

The only other thing about wild rabbits that I've heard of is tularemia(rabbit fever).

I believe dogs are naturally more resistent to it, but not entirely immune. Its a pretty nasty disease. Freezing does not get rid of tularemia.

Infected rabbits will have white spotted livers. I do not know if that is a very accurate way to I.D. the disease since that symptom *could* occur at later stages and not be present in a recently infected rabbit. Maren?


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## Michael Wise (Sep 14, 2008)

Becky Shilling said:


> Here in OK the general rule is to only eat rabbits in months with an "R" in them. And that advice is for human (cooked) rabbit. I'd stay away from them in the summer months.


 I've always heard this, too.(for people) More specifically, to only kill them after the second frost of the year.

How does warm or cool weather make a difference in regards to internal parasites?


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## Howard Gaines III (Dec 26, 2007)

Wild ones have worms this time of year. Get outdated chicken instead. Let the dog kill their own eats!


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## Guest (Jul 16, 2009)

Michael Wise said:


> I've always heard this, too.(for people) More specifically, to only kill them after the second frost of the year.
> 
> How does warm or cool weather make a difference in regards to internal parasites?


I'm not sure. Mine got the worms in the grip of February.


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## Guest (Jul 16, 2009)

Yeah, not worth the trouble. Here is thee sushi protocol, the same would apply to rabbit:

"freezing and storing at -4°F (-20°C) or below for 7 days (total time), or freezing at -31°F (-35°C) or below until solid and storing at -31°F (-35°C) or below for 15 hours, or freezing at -31°F (-35°C) or below until solid and storing at -4°F (-20°C) or below for 24 hours' which is sufficient to kill parasites."


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## Konnie Hein (Jun 14, 2006)

Thanks for the input! Maybe I won't feed them to the dogs. Just thought it would be a nice freebie meal. Maybe I'll toss them out in the field for the coyotes to snack on.

One thing is for sure, these rabbits won't be eating the plants in our garden anymore...


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## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

Michael Wise said:


> Freezing should do the trick for tapeworms. Ask Maren for sure, though.
> 
> The only other thing about wild rabbits that I've heard of is tularemia(rabbit fever).
> 
> ...


Yeah, tularemia is bad news. The CDC actually considers it a potential biological warfare agent. Weird but fun fact: you can actually get tularemia from running rabbits over with a big lawn mower and inhaling the bacteria infected bunny particles. Crazy, huh? 

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/345/22/1601 

Our public health professor who specializes in zoonotic disease (anthrax is his favorite area of research) recommended to the rabbit hunters in class to always wear gloves when skinning and field dressing wild rabbits and to always check the liver. I don't know enough on the subject to say one way or the other about a recently infected rabbit as I'm not a microbiologist, but in general, cooking all wild game, particularly if you didn't kill it yourself and you didn't observe the animal's behavior before death, is pretty prudent before you feed it to your dogs and certainly before you eat it yourself. 

Wolves, bears, coyotes, etc etc have all done it before, blah blah blah, but let's not forget the delicious Baylisascaris roundworms in the bear poop Jennifer Coulter shared a while back. :-o There's that "just cause you can, doesn't mean you should..." fine line. :mrgreen:


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## Connie Sutherland (Mar 27, 2006)

_" .... let's not forget the delicious Baylisascaris roundworms in the bear poop Jennifer Coulter shared a while back."_


Ah, yes. That was a great photo.

And Michael, Maren, thanks for the reminders!


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## Michael Wise (Sep 14, 2008)

Maren Bell Jones said:


> if you didn't kill it yourself and you didn't observe the animal's behavior before death, is pretty prudent before you feed it to your dogs and certainly before you eat it yourself.


 That was my guideline. If they *appeared* healthy before I killed them, and the liver wasn't spotted, I fed them to my dog. I'm comfortable with it, but would hate to tell someone it was O.K. and then their dog died from tularemia.

But I don't have to worry about that anymore since the rabbit and squirrel strikes began at my house.:-({|=:|


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## Debbie Skinner (Sep 11, 2008)

What about Ground Squirrels? My friend has trapped about 80 and put them in their walk in freezer awaiting disposal (dump day). I asked her to give them to me for my cats and dogs. But, after this discussion about rabbits I thought I'd ask the question about safety. If it's just worms then I'll go ahead as I worm the dogs and cats routinely and can get droncit for the tapes. Would there be other concerns? These have been frozen for about 2 weeks so far.


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

Doesn't tapeworm come from ingesting fleas off of the critters?


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## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

Bob Scott said:


> Doesn't tapeworm come from ingesting fleas off of the critters?


Darn it, Bob, making me break out my parasitology book.  The rabbit tapeworm (_Taenia pisiformis_) is found in an infected rabbit in the abdominal cavity around the guts and the liver. Tthe rabbit tapeworm embryo form a holdfast organ with the hooks and suckers to attach into the tissue, which the dog eats when it consumes the rabbit. Then the holdfast attaches to the wall of the small intestine of the dog and starts forming its segments. Yum!

The type of tapeworm caused by fleas is _Dyplidium caninum_, where the baby tapeworm eggs are ingested by flea larvae and develop when the flea becomes an adult. So if a cat or dog is grooming itself and ingests a flea with a _D. caninum_ along for the ride inside the flea, that's how they get into the GI tract of the cat or dog. Which is why if a cat or dog has fleas, it's probably got tapes too (at least_ D. caninum_..._T. pisiformis_ is a bit different and doesn't use the flea in the life cycle). Isn't parasitology fun? :grin:


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

Cool!
Always fun to learn. Thanks Maren!


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## Tamara McIntosh (Jul 14, 2009)

Konnie Hein said:


> I recently "acquired" a couple of recently deceased wild rabbits. Any issue with feeding them to the dogs? I was planning on freezing them for a while before feeding, but wasn't sure for how long.
> 
> I did a search here and found a lot of info on feeding domestics, but not wild ones.


Hi there,

I have fed wild caught rabbits to my dogs. Heck my sibe catches mice and eats them (without permission.. lol). Absolutely there is a chance of tapeworm, however they do have wormer for that stuff. 

I also feed moose, deer, elk, bison, pork and horse. They all come riddled with worms encapsulated in muscle. The only way to erradicate the worms is by cooking, which most raw people do not do.

However I would also like to point out that any kind of walks or outdoor work where a dog could be exposed to other animal feces is also an exposure to worms. The worms are resilient little beasties and they are all over in a dogs environment, even in a city. I personally worm my mutts once a year regardless if I think they have been exposed or not.

I would freeze the meat for 60 days and feed it if it were my dogs, IMHO.

Tamara McIntosh


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## Ted Efthymiadis (Apr 3, 2009)

Konnie Hein said:


> I recently "acquired" a couple of recently deceased wild rabbits. Any issue with feeding them to the dogs? I was planning on freezing them for a while before feeding, but wasn't sure for how long.
> 
> I did a search here and found a lot of info on feeding domestics, but not wild ones.



The one time I let my boys eat there kill, they got tapes from a rabbit. 


Anyone know about racoons? My dogs kill those all the time, I'm considering just putting them on revolution and letting them eat the ***** they kill.


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## Lynn Cheffins (Jul 11, 2006)

couple of parasites and things that raccons carry I would avoid feeding them to dogs (unless you cook it and then you hve to bone it out - lotta work)


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