when is it ok to eat rabbit I hear they should not be eatten

[spark22]

till winter becauce of worms but there is no closed season here in North central Texas and does the same go for squirrels

[WesCombs]

Folklore says not to eat rabbit until after the first snowfall...but I can see where that might cause discrepancies in some regions. I'm no expert, but I'd say you should at least wait until it's been cold enough to snow for quite sometime. Rabbits carry many diseases that can wreak havoc on humans...so, just be careful. Sorry if this scares anyone away from consuming them, because I know they're tasty...I'm just the type of guy that enjoys my health.

[Progun]

Garry, the thing about rabbits is they always carry worms and other parasites regardless of the weather or time of year. Some will have more severe cases than others but they all do to some degree. A rabbit sits on the ground 12 months of the year and it is this soil contact to their derriere that creates the avenue for transmission to their digestive tract.Yep, the worms are in the soil. Once they get them they have them 'till they die. Rabbits don't have hop-in clinics to get worm medicine so it goes untreated.So the likelyhood is that the rabbit you shoot whether July or January will have worms in their digestive tract. No worries,just wear rubber gloves when you dress them which will protect you from rare cases of tuleremia(rabbit fever).Now one good thing about waiting 'till colder weather to harvest is the botflies are no longer a problem and the ticks and fleas might be gone too.Just realize that rabbits have been eaten for probably eons and they like us, are still here.So don't be a worryin'. Squirrels don't seem to get the internal parasites like rabbits do but the botflies tear them up in the warm months.If your states hunting season is open then harvest and eat the bounty.Just remember the rubber gloves.

[tinbender]

In the southwest my grandfather taught not to hunt rabbit in any month that did not have an "R" in it. Parisites as I can recall were part of it.  It seems the off months reflect the breeding/rearing season here to. Except once when young I always respected what he taught me. From personal experience I can tell you gutting a pregnant rabbit will spoil your afternoon :)

Dave

[longislandhunter]

I've eaten plenty of winter rabbits and summertime rabbits,,,,, both were delicious.  I have run across a few summer rabbits that did indeed have a botfly under the skin, however even though the sight of one can be disturbing if you've never seen one before all you have to do is cut away the portion of meat containing the botfly and the rest is safe to eat.  I've never been able to detect any noticeable difference between the taste of summer vs winter rabbits and enjoy both. Of course it goes without saying that both should be cooked properly and thoroughly.    

Jeff

[kiwi]

Hi..I have found that Doe's "Female" in the breeding session are not great eating.
We are lucky out here no virises etc to be overly concerrned about.

[rusty124]

Hi,
My dad told me many year ago not to shoot rabbits untill after the first frost and not to shot them if they did not run. We always wore rubber gloves when we cleaned them.

[spark22]

I was realy worried about,and because it hardly ever snows here and winter is so short and there is lots of rabbits. I just wanted to be safe! Now since I got my disco .22cal I'm having a real shortage on squirrel I think they have passed the word out on me because every one of them run like hell from my bucket truck when I came down the road and have not seen any in my bird feeders in so long the seeds gone bad had to dump it and fill with fresh seed for my blue jays. I had one the other day chasing my cat from my neighbor behind me but stopped befor crossing over into my yard had him in the crosshairs and he just sat there like he knew I couldn't shot him the neighbors next to me are animal rights freaks and have called the cops because my cat was killing lizzards what do you think they would do finding a squirrel with a hole in his head in their back yard?

[gamo2hammerli]

Hi Rusty124 and Spark22....I see you guys are new here...so a Big Welcome to the GTA family.  Yep them varmints remember who their friends and enemies are!!!!!  Maybe the rabbits that don't run is because they think their camouflage are hiding them.....or as your elders said....somethings not right with their head.

[shadow]

Like Jeff I've also eaten Rabbit year around with no ill effect's but each time I always inspect and clean em up real good.:) Ed