The amount of time it takes to manage your rabbitry depends on the breeds that you raise. Over the past 7 years, I have done a time study into the number of minutes per day per rabbit. The time includes feeding, watering, cleaning of cans, cages and water bottles, sweeping and mopping the floor. Posing, grooming, trimming nails. You will also spend time picking up feed, ordering supplies, building cages and preparing for and attending shows. Breeding and caring for litters also takes some time.

The time listed is the bare minimum amount of time to maintain a healthy show rabbit. As you can see, a medium-sized rabbitry (50-100 head) is a full time job! As a new rabbit breeder of angoras in 1985, I quickly became overwhelmed. My first litter was a litter of 13 buns!

If you are just starting out with rabbits, you will want to keep in mind how much time you have to care for your rabbits. This may seem insignificant in the beginning, but how would you cope if you went from 2 to 15 very time consuming angoras, coupled with inexperience, I believe this may be the number one reason that new rabbit breeders give up the hobby. My time commitment went from about 30 minutes a day to 5 hours a day.

With experience, I believe that you can cut your time in half. But, in the beginning, you will want to take things very slowly. Also, if you are a parent of a child just starting out with rabbits, you will want to monitor the care of your child's buns. My 9 year old daughter could care for about 9 rabbits without help. More than 9 and she became discouraged and overwhelmed and needed help. My 8 year old son, can only cope with 1 or 2 english angoras.