I enjoyed eating rabbit as a child and lately I've had the craving for it. I'm going to hunt for it this Fall and Winter. My only concern is disease and parasites. Is it safe to eat wild rabbit? Are there any special precautions I should take? I would appreciate any advice.

Normal sanitary precautions. Wear gloves.

I had this when I was a kid.

They say that if you wait till after the first overnight freeze you should be safe because, theoretically, if there's any with a disease, that will kill them by morning. They need to be in tip top health to survive an overnight freeze.

We always followed the old wive's tale that if the month you kill them in has an "R" in it, then you would be OK (i.e., don't kill them for food in May, June, July and August). I'm still alive and with no known ill effects from rabbit meat . . .

It all comes down to final cooking temperature. Once you get get the meat hot enough to kill any living organisms it doesn't matter as much. Handling infected meat at room temperature and the risk of cross contamination is a different story.

Yeah, that's pretty important, too. We always fried the parts and then steamed in the oven for a good long while, mostly to help make it tenderer (is that a word?) but it also got the internal temp up to "safe" levels. Made rabbit pot pies in my Dutch ovens on a campout last year, they didn't last long and this thread is getting me ready to go get some fuzzy tails . . .

We were just talking about wabbits the other day around here.

Think we'll give them a try here.

The old wives tail about no months with an R is the rule we followed as well. I always checked for spots on the lungs and livers, and when there rejected the rabbit. You can eat tame rabbits butchered any time of the year.

Randy formerly posting as medicman

Ditto! Just check for spots on the lungs and liver real close. As far as cooking that depends if your getting cottontails or snow shoe hare. Cotton tails are easier to prepare but snowshoe hare you need to slow roast or even pressure cook for hours before you will be able to sink a tooth into them. They're tough as nails. Good when you get them tender but just keep in mind it won't be a quick meal.

we hunt em' and eat em' every year. we don't usually begin hunting until sometime in oct (except when they get too plentiful in the spring and start eating soybeans). we always fry them first, then into either the pressure cooker or oven for a spell. i am aware of the diseases and parisites associated with rabbit, but have never even heard of a case around here. perhaps it has somwething to do with "country cooking". we started wearing gloves 10-12 years ago.

The old tale about only taking rabbit during months with an "R" has more to do with the presence of bot fly larva ("wolves" in Texas). These may be found under the skin of the neck or back during warm weather months....the first frost of the year (or possibly just the time of year....as "first frost" in Texas may be in late December some years) causes them to mature and leave the rabbit.

The larva are ugly but harmless and are btween the skin and meat.....not "in" the meat.....and easy to remove when skinning. I knoiw there are suposed to be some diseases that rabbits have (rabbit fever), but never knew anyone who contracted such......and we always have eaten rabbits 12 months out of the year. Maybe we were just lucky, but I'd not worry too much if I wre you.

By the way, older cottontails and swamp rabbits CAN be pretty tough. We always boil them (or pressure cook) first.....then batter and fry. Or, just use the half-grown ones for fryers and use the older rabbits in stews and soups.

One of my grandma's nephews caught "rabbit fever" when I was a kid. I remember the family saying he was really sick with it.
Wild rabbit on the menu disappeared for a few years after that. The only time I've ever heard of it until this thread.

Funnily enough the "only when there's an R in the month" approach is traditional over here too, but I always thought it was to avoid shooting milky does??

As far as I know we don't get Tularemia in wild rabbits in the UK and I first heard about it while on a course in the Royal Welch.

Its seen as a potential bioterrorist weapon:

BBC Article

FWIW:

ALl the bases have been covered. I eat cottontails as CHILI.

Yep, Rabbit chili (boil the meat down to stew meat) and eat with Cornbread.

BMT

My experience... YES













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Sorry shrapnel...I didn't see the 50BMG head shot rascal in there!

Nice work!

Shrapnel

Are you under gunned? You would probably have better luck catching snipe with a sack than hunting rabbits in my part of KS anymore. We shot tons of them in the 50's and sold them for $.25 a piece. Most were shot with .22 shorts (.25 per box vs .40 for LR's). We never hunted them until after the first hard freeze, and always washed our hands with rubbing alcohol after gutting them for sale. Two families that I knew, crated them gutted in the fur, and shipped them to New Orleans by rail. I think that they got about $1 each.

I had an older uncle that coon hunted with dogs all of his life. After he was too old to walk for coon in the night, he got beagles and hunted rabbits with a shotgun. If we still had rabbits, I would probably have beagles now. Life is good.

Here are 2 of the hefty 50's in action...lookout rabbits.

Tularemia is transmitted by fleas. My cousin in Beacon, New York was a big rabbit hunter and he would say that you could see the fleas hopping off the dead bunnies. He'd stick them in the snow and pick them up on the way back to the car. He was genuinely afraid of it.

also transmitted by getting blood on an open wound...which is how I acquired it

Right On!

Luv that BAR shrapnel! I cooked a young cottontail in the crock pot yesterday with a can of cream of celery soup and it didn't last long,lol. We're still alive.

If you harvest a rabbit in the summertime where I live, they are usually covered with flea's and have some bot fly larvae living inside of them.

Once the first frost hits them, the bot flies larva either dies or goes away because the lumps disappear.

Tularemia is the biggest concern. It is more of a problem in warmer states than colder ones. When I was in school taking epidemiology many years ago, Arkansas was the tularemia hotspot of the US. I think there are far fewer cases now as fewer people subsist off the woods.

I used to not worry about catching anything until I got into healthcare and actually started seeing people with diseases from wild animals. I still trap and hunt as much as I used to, but now use gloves when skinning fur bearing animals and small game. I don't worry about deer.

I also try to limit when I contact these small, furry animals to winter time. Hopefully they have less fleas and ticks on them at that time, thereby decreasing the chances of getting something. Chances are pretty low, by the way.

So in answer to your question, yes, rabbits are safe to eat. Take some small precaution when handling them and you will be fine.

Funny, that's where I was when I got it. Doctors originally diagnosed it as childhood leukemia. I thought that was cool, as my father had cancer and we could go to treatments together.

Never stopped me from eating rabbits later in life. In fact, I'd love to eat one right now.

They always say after the first frost, I always wait until after the first snow, seems to work.

Man how soft America has become! Never thought I'd see hunting/shooting people afraid of eating rabbits.
There's ALWAYS stuiff you can catch from animals.
I remember back in nursing school that there are approx 50 diseses/parasites that you can catch from dogs and 52 that you can catch from cats. How many of you have a dog or cat? How many have a dog or cat living inside with your family? How many let them lick them in the face? Your kids face?
It's a wonder there is anyone left alive.........Laffin.

Maybe you just let the dog in with months that have a R in it.

BTW,
The month with the "R" in it thing comes from the days of no way to keep meat cold. As in they had no fridge and months without a "R" are the hottest.

It's the months oysters are good though not the best at either end.