Raw rabbit holds a singular and foundational place in Aajonus Vonderplanitz's dietary framework and personal history. It was the first raw meat he ever consumed, eaten in September 1976 in the California desert near the Salton Sea below Palm Springs, and it was this single meal, approximately three to three and a half pounds of raw jackrabbit, that catalyzed his entire understanding of and commitment to raw animal foods. He describes this event across dozens of seminar transcripts, each time with considerable detail, making the raw rabbit story the origin myth of the Primal Diet as a lived, embodied practice.

Aajonus describes raw rabbit as a white meat, categorizing it alongside fish, seafood, and poultry based on its flesh character, though he notes that the rabbit spine specifically is a white meat. He had been a vegetarian and fruitarian for approximately six and a half years prior to eating this rabbit, and had previously refused all raw meat despite being urged to consume it by multiple indigenous peoples including the Mayans in the Yucatan, the Yaqui in northern Mexico, the Sioux in North Dakota, and the Inuit in Alaska. The raw rabbit was not a planned dietary experiment, it was presented to him by a pack of coyotes in the desert while he was attempting to fast himself to death due to bone cancer and years of accumulated illness and suffering.

The experience of eating that rabbit, and surviving it in perfect health despite being warned his entire life that wild rabbit would kill him within 48 hours if eaten raw, was the foundational empirical event that broke his conditioned fear of raw meat and sent him onto the path of the Primal Diet. He states clearly: "Eating raw meat only since 1976, September of 76, when I ate that rabbit. My introduction."

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Aajonus describes the physical effects of eating that first raw rabbit in remarkable detail. After approximately ten to fifteen bites, having initially vomited the first several bites back up due to psychological resistance, the rabbit began to taste delicious. He then consumed the meat ravenously. Within the same night and through the following three days, he experienced the following:

• He felt good almost immediately after eating, and describes this feeling as analogous to near-death experiences, the only other times in his life he had felt good. "I knew I was dying because I felt good. Never felt that good in my life except when I was in near-death experiences."
• The following morning, instead of requiring two hours of sunlight on his sleeping bag before he could move due to joint pain and bone cancer, he was able to get out of the sleeping bag after only 45 minutes. He had previously been so cold and in such pain that even at 40 degrees at night he was frozen to the bone, chattering and shaking.
• He experienced no stomach cramping, no indigestion, no constipation, no diarrhea, no illness of any kind from the rabbit meat. "I've got no stomach cramping, not one indigestion. I didn't get constipated from the meat. I didn't get diarrhea from the meat. I had no signs of any illness from that rabbit."
• He felt more energetic and less pain for three full days on only that one meal of approximately three to three and a half pounds of rabbit. He ate nothing else during those three days.
• He was energized and satisfied in a way he had never experienced from food: "I felt good and satisfied for the first time in my life. Eating something that completely satisfied me was this rabbit."
• He distinguishes the energy of raw rabbit from that of raw dairy: "Having raw cream and raw milk was pretty good back then. But it didn't give me that energy... it gave me that kind of energy [relaxed and sleepy]. But the rabbit , " implying the rabbit gave him something qualitatively different and more activating.

Across multiple tellings, Aajonus consistently notes that he felt better for three consecutive days after eating three and a half pounds of that single rabbit, without eating anything else. This is presented as evidence of the density of nutrition in raw meat, specifically the rabbit, and its ability to sustain the body without additional food intake. "I ate about three and a half pounds of my first sitting of raw meat and I was charged for three days without eating anything else."

He notes explicitly that the rabbit digested without triggering the extreme hydrochloric acid response he associated with cooked food: "That rabbit digested just like that. No hydrochloric acid. How could it do that? Well, I didn't know that we have a small amount of hydrochloric acid that dumps in the stomach. But we secrete hydrochloric acid all throughout the small intestines."

He draws a specific contrast between raw rabbit and raw germinated pinto beans, which he had eaten previously and which nearly killed him with severe diarrhea every hour, splitting headaches, and extreme cramps for an extended period. The rabbit "did just the opposite. It made me feel good in my intestines and everywhere else. So beans are not an avenue for us. Raw meats are."

He survived without a single symptom of the parasitic or bacterial illness he had been told his whole life wild rabbit would cause. "No worm came out my ear or my nose or my eye or anywhere. So I had no problem with the rabbit. And I said, what is all this myth? Everything is a myth with the medical profession. Everything they teach you is garbage."

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Aajonus is explicit that raw, fresh, unfrozen rabbit is the correct form. In a broader discussion about frozen versus unfrozen meat documented in the transcripts, he references his research with animals showing that frozen meat causes skin disorders, while non-frozen raw butter healed those disorders in approximately seven days compared to five times longer with frozen butter. By extension, he applies the principle that frozen food is categorically not preferable to fresh raw food. The rabbit he ate was warm, fresh, just-killed, as described repeatedly: "warm and moist as if it were alive," "raw, fresh, warm, bloody rabbit," "it's all warm and it's raw."

Aajonus describes a consistent and reproducible taste transformation that occurs after approximately ten to fifteen bites of raw rabbit. Initially, to a conditioned palate, raw rabbit is described as: slimy, squishy, raw, pink, mushy, awful, warm, bloody, unpleasant. After ten to fifteen bites, across every version of the account, the taste crosses a threshold and becomes delicious, prompting ravenous eating. This transformation is documented as occurring reliably and suggests that the body's recognition of the food's nutritional value overrides initial psychological resistance once a sufficient quantity has been consumed.

Specific descriptions of the transition point across different tellings: - "After about 10, 12 bites, it became delicious" - "After about ten bites, holding it down and everything, it started tasting delicious" - "After about 10, 15 bites, it started tasting good" - "After about 15 bites, it started tasting delicious" - "After about 10 or 15 bites, it became delicious" - "After about ten, twelve bites, it became so delicious, I became rabid"

The language describing the post-threshold eating style is also remarkably consistent: "ravenously," "devoured," "rabid," "like dogs do," "consuming massive amounts, big bites and chewing it very little and swallowing it," "feral."

The rabbit in question was specifically a jackrabbit, described as approximately seven to seven and a half pounds as an adult specimen. Aajonus estimates it was about one year old based on its tenderness: "About a year old because it was pretty tender." The coyotes had ripped it open from the throat down the stomach before placing it at his feet, making it accessible for eating. He ate approximately three to three and a half pounds out of the approximately seven to seven and a half pound animal, with the coyotes consuming the remainder.

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Aajonus explicitly addresses the quality problem with commercially available or farm-raised rabbit. He states:

"Rabbit spine is a white meat, but they're usually fed processed alfalfa pellets. So I stay away from it, because they usually don't take anything fresh. So they put them in these big cages with no grass and just throw in processed alfalfa pellets, that's all they eat, they're all live, processed food."

He distinguishes this from the acceptable standard: "Unless you know some farmer who's raising media grass, and that's mainly what they're eating is grass and vegetables."

His conclusion is that he avoids farmed rabbit unless the source is a known farmer raising rabbits primarily on fresh grass and vegetables. This means that for most people in most situations, commercial farmed rabbit does not meet his sourcing standard.

Wild rabbit, as demonstrated by the jackrabbit in the desert, is nutritionally superior by the account of his own experience. The jackrabbit he ate was wild, freshly killed, unprocessed, fed entirely on natural desert vegetation.

Raw rabbit requires no preparation whatsoever. It is eaten exactly as it comes from the animal after being skinned and opened. The coyotes ripped the rabbit open from throat to abdomen to expose the meat. Aajonus simply picked it up and ate it bite by bite. No seasoning, no marinating, no processing of any kind. The only "preparation" described is the psychological preparation he had to do internally, drawing on childhood memories of sitting at the dinner table and forcing down food he didn't want, to overcome his conditioned revulsion at eating raw meat.

One of the versions of the uncle's warning includes the detail: "they had to skin it thoroughly, make sure no hair was on it." This was presented in the context of the cooking warning, but the principle of skinning before eating is implied.

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In the foundational rabbit-eating event, Aajonus ate the rabbit entirely alone, with no paired food whatsoever. He makes no mention of needing a fat buffer with rabbit in the way he does with some other contexts of meat eating. The rabbit appeared to contain sufficient fat on its own, it was a wild jackrabbit that had been feeding naturally in the desert. He consumed it without butter, without cream, without any additional fat source.

In a broader discussion documented in the same transcripts, Aajonus states that raw butter can protect against skin disorders that result from eating frozen meat: "If you have at least the butter with the frozen meat it will protect you from having skin disorders and problems resulting from frozen meat." This is a general principle applicable to all frozen raw meats and would extend to frozen rabbit if that were ever the form being consumed, though he is clear that frozen is never preferable.

In a clinical context documented in the book passage (the Jeff hospital scene), raw ground beef was being fed with butter, and then honey was suggested as an addition to make it more appealing. While this was beef not rabbit, the principle of honey and butter as accompaniments to raw meat is part of Aajonus's broader framework.

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Aajonus ate approximately three to three and a half pounds of raw jackrabbit in a single sitting, his first ever raw meat meal, spanning approximately 45 minutes. This quantity is documented consistently across all tellings: "I ate about three and a half pounds," "I ate about three, three and a half pounds," "I ate about three pounds," "I ate 3½ pounds of this jackrabbit." He identifies the total weight of the jackrabbit as approximately seven to seven and a half pounds, meaning he consumed roughly half the animal.

Three to three and a half pounds of raw rabbit provided three full days of improved energy, reduced pain, and satiation without any additional food being needed. This is a specific data point about the caloric and nutritional density of raw rabbit relative to cooked or plant foods.

Despite being told his entire life, by his uncle, his father who was a doctor, and other family members with medical backgrounds, that wild rabbit eaten raw would kill him within 24 to 48 hours from a microorganism or parasite that would take over his digestive tract and cause excruciatingly painful intestinal cramping and death, Aajonus experienced absolutely none of these effects. He waited three full days after eating the rabbit before concluding he was safe, and during those three days:

• No cramps
• No diarrhea
• No constipation
• No vomiting (after the initial psychological vomiting during eating)
• No parasites
• No infection of any kind
• No intestinal distress
• No fever
• Feeling better than he had felt at any other point in his life except during near-death experiences

His conclusion: "What is all this myth? Everything is a myth with the medical profession. Everything they teach you is garbage."

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The primary and founding preparation documented is plain raw rabbit, eaten exactly as it comes from the animal, warm, fresh, unprocessed, unseasoned. No recipe, no additions. This is both the most documented preparation and the one Aajonus implicitly endorses as the default for raw rabbit.

In a passage about garlic and onion as "seasoning" for raw meat meals, Aajonus mentions: "If you're only eating 2 tablespoons per meat meal as a seasoning as a flavoring, wonderful, they increase digestion. However if I eat garlic and onion together I get too horny, it distracts me, so you have to be careful." While this is stated in the context of his first raw rabbit meal discussion, it is a general note about seasoning raw meats rather than a specific rabbit recipe.

Aajonus documents a related preparation from Moorea (French Polynesia) where he was first served raw poultry commercially, "they marinate in lemon or lime juice with tomato and some onion." While this was chicken, not rabbit, and rabbit is categorized as a white meat alongside poultry, this citrus marination technique exists in his documented experience as a preparation method for white raw meats. He does not explicitly apply it to rabbit.

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One of the most extensively documented elements of Aajonus's raw rabbit teachings is his detailed account of the warning about wild rabbit that he heard throughout his childhood and that turned out to be entirely false. This warning was delivered by:

• His uncle, to his brothers and cousins before rabbit hunting trips
• His father (described in some versions as also a doctor)
• Other family members with medical backgrounds, at family reunions

The specific content of the warning, as reconstructed across multiple versions:

Version 1 (core version): "Wild rabbits have an organism that will infect your body and your intestines especially first. It will kill you with incredible intestinal pain within 48 hours."

Version 2: "Wild rabbits have a microorganism in them that will take over in your body, and you'll have very painful disease, intestinal disease, for 48 hours, and you'll die, absolutely die. It's worse than uncooked pork."

Version 3: "There is a parasite or bacteria... it will kill you within 48 hours with very, very painful stomach cramps."

Version 4: "Wild rabbits carry an organism that will make you deathly ill, cause intense stomach cramping, and you'll die within 48 hours."

Version 5: "There's a microbe in wild rabbits that will take over your digestive tract and in excruciating pain you will die within 48 hours."

Version 6: "They contain an enzyme which can kill a human being in a very, very gross way in 24 to 48 hours."

Version 7 (most specific cooking instruction): "You have to cook it until it's completely dark on the inside. Can't be any pink because wild rabbits contain a microbe that will take over your intestines and very painfully and kill you within 48 hours. And you won't be able to get back to civilization from the woods unless somebody else goes for you. And if you all eat it, you're all going to die together."

Version 8 (cooking instruction with technical detail): "They had to skin it thoroughly, make sure no hair was on it, and they had to cook it until it was dark inside... Because there's a microbe in wild rabbits that will take over in the digestive tract and 48 hours and kill you in 48 hours and it's excruciatingly painful."

Pork/Trichinosis Parallel: In one version, Aajonus notes: "They said the same thing about pigs. They'll get trichinosis." This places the rabbit warning in a broader context of meat-fear mythology that he considers medically fabricated and systematically false.

Across multiple versions, Aajonus documents the specific cooking instruction as not merely "cook thoroughly" but rather extreme burning: "It has to be burnt, not pink or white on the inside. It has to be dark on the inside," "It's got to be black on the outside and no pink on the inside," "You have to cook it until it's completely dark on the inside," "Brown it. All the way. Everywhere. Every part of it." In one version, the method is: "You had to cut it in half and skewer it and then cook it that way" or "put a stick through it and roll it all over the fire for five or six minutes."

Aajonus explicitly and repeatedly frames his survival of eating wild raw rabbit as direct empirical evidence that the medical profession's claims about raw meat are mythology designed to keep people afraid of unprocessed animal food. His exact words in one telling: "What is all this myth? Everything is a myth with the medical profession. Everything they teach you is garbage. So I got very angry again, and I started eating meat after three days. I said, that's it."

The context of the rabbit experience also serves as Aajonus's documentation of the failure of vegetarianism and veganism as health protocols. He had been vegetarian/fruitarian for approximately six and a half years, during which time his health continued to deteriorate. He was fasting himself to death in the desert, having given up entirely on recovering from bone cancer and years of illness. He weighed very little, he describes "getting seven pounds of nuts a day and waking up a quarter of a pound lighter the next day," indicating severe malnutrition and inability to absorb plant-based calories. A single meal of three to three and a half pounds of raw rabbit reversed this trajectory within 45 minutes and sustained improved energy for three days.

Multiple indigenous peoples had told Aajonus to eat raw meat before the rabbit event: - Mayans in the Yucatan told him raw meat would fix him - Yaqui in northern Mexico told him raw meat was what he needed - Sioux in North Dakota told him raw meat was what he needed - Inuit in Alaska had tricked him into eating high meat (raw, fermented caribou buried for six weeks), which was his actual first raw animal food, though he did not know it was raw at the time

He rejected all of these recommendations until the rabbit event, stating: "I said, no, it's not spiritual and it's gross. It forms lots of uric acid and all other kinds of toxins." The rabbit event empirically refuted all of these fears at once.

The circumstances of the rabbit acquisition are presented by Aajonus as a factual account, not metaphor. A pack of approximately eleven coyotes had been visiting his campsite nightly for approximately two weeks, playing games with him and apparently recognizing him as a dying entity in need of intervention. One night they hunted a jackrabbit cooperatively, described in the book passage (We Want to Live) as a coordinated half-circle hunt that paralyzed the rabbit, and then the female coyote ripped open the rabbit's torso and placed it on his bare feet as a direct offering. He describes receiving a repeated psychic or intuitive message during this event: "This is what you need, this is what you need." This event is the foundational founding moment of the Primal Diet.

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