It may be out there and I just don’t realize it, but does anyone make a rabbit based bait? I’ve seen bobcat, mouse, and a number of other concoctions, but I can’t recall a rabbit based bait. I don’t have a large population of rabbits around my house, and I can’t help but think it is because they are tasty to every thing (I mean I have never heard reference to a rabbit being against reproducing). So my thought is that a rabbit should be good bait for all predators, right?

Night Owl Lures makes a Rabbit based bait.

Predators eat what is usually the most available and easiest to obtain with the least amount of work. Not necessarily what is their favorite. Take for instance, around here when the corn gets to roasting ear stage the coyote droppings will be completely full of corn for a couple weeks. Same with mulberries. Ive played with mulberries based baits and mulberries as a side odor and its only tested fair at best. Never tested rabbit besides some of my favorite bases but I would think if it was great their would be a lot more talk about it or their would be more old time recipes recommending it. Comparative testing besides a know attraction is how I determine how good something is.
My 2 cents

Angela Hawkins, ( sweetpea on T-Man) makes a rabbit bait that is top notch and one I've used and would highly recommend.
It is made 100 % FROM BABY STILL BORN RABBITS OR YOUNG RABBITS THAT DIE AT HER RABBIT FARM.
They are ground into a paste and sold in pint wide mouth jars for I believe $10 a pint.
It comes in two odors, one being plain, the other 'spiked', both of which work well.
I use it in a 'grass nest' set, which works really well.
You can contact her also on FB under her name.

Once the base bait Is spike does It matter what the base Is? Rabbit meat In my opinion has little or no odor.
Now a muskrat has a very strong odor.

Every time I've seen someone ask about rabbit in bait here it seems to come down to the fact that they meat itself does not have much odor. As Beav pointed out. It's a staple of our animals survival here. I've had success using full rabbits for baits in live traps etc here but I believe it was visual as much as the meat itself. We can't use exposed bait here with footholds so I've never been able to try rabbits down a hole. Without the fur etc. I'm not sure it would have as much success as I've had using full rabbits.

Rabbit,like muskrat or partridge is a poor bait in the north,after the cold sets in.It freezes hard as a rock and doesnt give off any odour-no fat in the meat.
In the fall its fine,just as good as muskrat or partridge.

I bought some from Jaime a few yrs ago
PM him
ADC is his handle

Sometimes.
That’s when tainting comes into play.

Nosir
She is yotetrapper30

Come on bunny hangers from montana chime in, I know your out there.

I lost my supplier of rabbits traprjohn, so I discontinued that line of bait, actually a few years ago. I appreciate you thinking of me though.

As to the OP rabbit makes a good base meat for prepared predator bait. Be sure your rabbit supplier doesn't use antibiotics or other non-organic supplements. It's not legal here to sell wild rabbit meat if I've read the regulations correctly so I used domestic meat rabbits.

So if rabbit meat itself has little to no odor, what would you suggest to add to the ground meat to "spike it up"? BTO or castor?

https://trapperman.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/7450555/re-muskrat-meat-bait#Post7450555

There's some info I posted in that thread. You're only limited by your imagination, but everything likes castor and muskrat glands.

Websters predator control has one

Night owls rabbit bait is a very subtle smelling bait. Its also very dry and flakey, almost like a paper kind of material. I made a few sets with it and i think caught one coyote. It probably had canine call alongside it, so who knows what worked.

Well I guess ima rabbit hanger from Montana. Not sure about smell but I pick up lots of road kill rabbit and hare and use it for bobcats. I use a quarter or half a rabbit in cubby sets and smear lure on the bait itself. I imagine I is primarily a visual attractor, especially before it snows much.

Domestic rabbit meat is best if used as table fare. It's delicious... the better white meat.

I would imagine that
Yotetrapper30 is not Hawkins.

I would imagine that rabbit based baits had an issue, commerically , with supply issue. You basically would have to raise your own or have access to a rabbit fur farm who treats the meat as a waste product. Wild rabbit based baits would be impossible en masse

I got my rabbits from culls that were too old for breeding. I could make a lot of bait from wild rabbits if it were legal. My son is a rabbit slayer. 40 gallons a year would be easy for him. Properly set 110's would supply a lot of them too, IF it were legal.

I box trap wabbits and am considering using patches of the hide in the dirt holes for fox, over/under the bait as a visual in place of the wool that I see many use.
A spoon of bait on the fur side, folded over and tucked in the bottom of the hole might preserve the bait for a long time ?
I also collect the urine to spritz at the boxes. Maybe a little wabbit pee at the set would help ?
Just wondering ......

I've heard noting but great things about all their baits and lures. https://www.nightowllures.com/ this would be a great time of year to help out a smaller supplier with a small order too. Spring rats and beavers, just around the corner.

I’ve been trying to get in touch with her I’ve tried to send her a friend request and couldn’t I’m surprised she doesn’t have an online site at this point she’s really knowledgeable!

On the wild road killed rabbits, the guts definitely aren’t mild smelling and can be incorporated into the sets. Anything in the woods knows rabbit guts. The fur, heads and feet make eye appeal that can’t be beat.

One of the best fur seasons I ever had for coyotes (numbers wise), the bulk of which were caught on a hunk of cottontail either down a hole or staked down. These were whole (band sawed into quarters), organs and guts included.

Very few other smells used and those were mostly at remakes.

Huge pain in the rear working with compared to a pint jar.

But it was more or less free and it worked.


To this day, if I’m working on a truly “tough” coyote, all natural is the way to go.

I have used rabbit many times when I am trapping in the West, particularly for cats and coyotes. I prefer chunking up the whole rabbit with a hatchet usually 4-6 pieces depending upon the size. It does as good as anything but I use a call lure/LDC and some urine with most set ups. The more rabbits that are available in some areas the higher the response to the bait it seems.

Haven’t had much luck with rabbit based bait, but like Mr Jameson said, road kill rabbits chopped in chunks with hair and guts will catch. The head goes down a hole with the ears barely seen. The tail goes down with that cottontail barely seen. The middle parts just chunked in. I’ve even used rabbit feet sticking up out of pipe and caught. I seem to catch more cats than coyotes with rabbit though.