Rabbits N'Rodents
Got Rabbits, Hamsters, Guinea pigs, gerbils?
Believe it or not, wild rabbits didn't have any salt licks, popcorn sticks or yoghurt drops! Nope, instead they had a diet consisting of various grasses, wild herbs, occasional flowers and of course any farmer's crops they were lucky enough to stumble across. This provided them with the high fibre, low protein diet they are built for.
Of course we cannot feed our pets a totally natural diet, so instead we need to try to get it as 'natural' as possible, which isn't very difficult, but takes more time and thought than picking up any old bag of food and throwing it in their dishes.
A basic diet should consist of the following:
70-80% Fresh grass hay (not alfalfa)
20% Vegetables
10% Pellets
The following sections go into more detail about each of these elements, and important points are listed below:
- Fresh clean water must always be available
- Rabbits must have free access to food 24 hours a day, and must never be starved
- They need a high fibre diet, which is why hay is so important
- A diet to high in carbohydrates can cause obesity and soft poos, so avoid over feeding pellets and don't feed bread etc
- Rabbits are vegetarians, so never feed meat, fish, eggs, milk or other dairy produce
- Petstore treats shouldn't be fed as they are too high in sugar (carbohydrates)
Importance of Hay!
Hay, hay and more hay!
Yes, you got it, hay is vital in a healthy rabbit's diet because it is basically just dried grass! Also rabbits have a very long and delicate digestive tract, that is designed to digest high fibre foods, so that is why a low pellet diet is required. Hay also requires the rabbit to chew properly, keeping teeth grinded down, whereas pellets are chewed differently, which can result in teeth that grow too long if they are a major part of the diet.Hay is the best food for your rabbit as it is high in fibre and low in protein and calcium! Perfect, in fact so darn good that it should make up to 70-80% of an adult rabbit's diet!!
There are a lot of hays out there, but which one to choose? Well before we go there, make sure the hay is clean, mould free and smells sweet. The hay must be of high quality. Oxbow products are more readily available in the USA (see the site for details), if however you live in the UK or elsewhere, you may have to order online. For all you British and Irish bunny owners, check out these fantastic UK companies The Hay Experts , Bunnybazaar or bunnybasics.
The base hay should be either Timothy or meadow, timothy is much more preferred as it requires the rabbits to chew more, helping to grind down teeth. In the UK Timothy can be hard to find, so meadow often has to do, just make sure it isn't yellow and brown, as its too old to be of any use. Babies (under 6 months) can have alfalfa as part of their hay ration, but not adults, as alfalfa hay is too high in calcium and protein for full grown adults. It can however be given as a treat once and again in very small amounts.
So you are probably thinking 'what a boring diet' well, in the wild it was mainly just grass, but you can add in other hays, mine love getting some orchard grass, rye grass, dried grass, oat hay or brome hay which are 'treat hays' as they are just a subsitute to the diet, the main bulk being timothy and meadow.
Dry Feed
Pellets or a rabbit mix?
This is one choice many owners fail miserably in, I did as well. Fact is, although mixes may look more appetising, they should be avoided as they don't contain enough fibre, make rabbits picky eaters and the seeds can sometimes get caught in their teeth causing nasty infections. They are also ludricously high in sugars, protein and calcium. So please buy a good quality pellet brand, ideally one that uses Timothy hay and not alfafla (which is too high in protein and calcium). The pellet brand I recommend is Oxbow Bunny Basics/T. These pellets can be hard to find in the UK and ordering online can be expensive, but they are worth it if you can. However, excel lite, Science selective by Surpreme or Allen and Page Rabbit Pellets can be used instead. Allen and Page tends to be the best UK alternative to oxbow, with Science selective coming in second and then excel, due to its lower fibre content comes in third.
Unless you have very young rabbits (under 6 months), you should limit the amount of pellets to about 1/4 cup per every 6lbs, so weigh your rabbit's total weight and work out how many pellets they need daily. Too many pellets can cause obese bunnies, overgrown teeth and mucky bums! Pellets should only make up around 10% of your adult rabbit's diet.
If you have a very large rabbit who does not run around as much you may need to limit the pellets if they become fat, and if you have one of the very small breeds who are very active you may find they require slightly more to a stay healthy weight.
You may be wondering, why feed pellets? Well unfortunately some nutrients found in pellets are needed and are hard to require in domesticated rabbits, Vitamin D for example as most rabbits do not recieve adequate sunlight, so small amounts of pellets are beneficial to avoid any deficiencies.
Water
It is important that rabbits have access to fresh clean drinking water at all times! Water is needed for a wide variety of bodily functions and it also provides rabbits with important water soluble vitamins.
Water should be supplied in a clean water bottle and always test the bottle is working each time you change it. Like us, rabbits tend not to drink as much as they should, especially in warm weather, so by providing a shallow heavy non-tip bowl of water you can encourage to get them to drink more, although it is not essential. Water should be changed everyday and the bottle and dish need cleaned regularly. If you do provide a water dish, it may need changing more than once a day as it is often quickly soiled with bedding.
A healthy diet of hay, vegetables and some pellets should provide your rabbit with a healthy diet, so vitamin drops do not need to be added to the water.
Fresh Foods
Fruit and Vegetables
Fruit isn't really necessary as it is very sugary, but it can be fed as a treat and most rabbits love 1 small piece every other day. When I say small, I mean small, no more than about the size of 1 or 2 raspberries and it is best not to feed everyday. Please avoid dried fruits as they contain even higher levels of sugar than fresh.
Vegetables should be fed daily and rabbits who are used to regular vegetables should receive about 3 different types daily so as they get a range of nutrients. Fresh food should make up around 20% of your adult rabbit's diet!
Introducing vegetables into the diet
It must be remembered that rabbits have a delicate digestive system and any attempts to introduce vegetables should be done so gradually. If you do not know if your rabbits have never had fresh foods, assume they have never and start right from the beginning.
For young rabbits wait until 12 weeks before fresh foods are introduced, unless you know they have been weaned onto them along with hay and pellets. Start off by choosing ONE vegetable that isn't very watery, so celery leaves are good starter, and totally avoid watery vegetables like cucumber and all fruits for now. Offer a small piece, no more than a few mouthfuls in the morning/evening and if there appears to be no diarrhoea, do so again the next morning/evening, using the same vegetable. Try this for several days and so long as there are no problems you can gradually increase the amount. If any diarrhoea appears, leave for 3 days and start again, if it occurs for the second time leave for another 2-3 days and start from the beginning. If all goes well with no problems for over a week, you can try one new vegetable and so long as their are no problems you can continue to feed both types, still gradually increasing the amounts and stopping for 48-72 hours on the first sign if diarrhoea. Then you can add in different types off the safe food list. An adult rabbit of over 6 months should be getting around 2 cups per 6lbs of bodyweight daily. **It is very important to only feed one vegetable at a time so as you know which vegetables may cause problems, of course all vegetables fed should be from the safe food list.
Suitable fruits are:
- Apple (seedless, as seeds are toxic and green apples can cause colic in young rabbits)
- Banana (should be limited to a rare monthly treat as it is too sugary and in excess upsets the gut flora)
- Blackberries
- Blueberries
- Pear
- Raspberries
- Strawberries
Suitable Vegetables and plants are:
- Bok Choi*
- Broccoli
- Brussell Sprouts*
- Cabbage* (savoy)
- Carrots- including tops
- Camomile
- Cauliflower greens*
- Celeriac
- Celery- cut small to avoid choking on stringy bits and include the leaves
- Chervil
- Chicory
- Clover (white, NOT red)- limit, part of clover is used as rat poison, so small amounts
- Coltsfoot
- Cucumber
- Dandelion*
- Fat Hen
- Fennel
- Groundsel*
- Goosefoot
- Goosegrass
- Hedge Parsley (not fool's parsley)
- Kale *
- Pak Choi
- Spinach*
- Spring greens
- Tomato (feed sparingly)
- watercress
Suitable Herbs are:
- Basil
- Coriander/cilantro
- Dill-usually not the most favoured, but some like it
- Heather
- lavender
- peppermint
- oregano
- parsley* (not fool's parsley!)
- Rosemary
- Sage
- Thyme
* means that these veggies should be strictly limited to no more than 2 or 3 portions a week as they are either very gaseous (cauliflower, cabbage etc), very high in calcium (parsley, cabbage etc) or they are oxalates which can be toxic if fed in large amounts of a long period of time (ie spinach and kale etc). I choose not to feed kale or spinach because of the oxalates.
Safe Flowers
- Carnation
- Hollyhock
- Marigold
- Nasturtium
- Rose
- Sunflower
Safe plant leaves (rinsed and young- do not feed old, decaying leaves)
- Apple
- Blackberry
- Pear
- Raspberry
- Strawberry
Safe wood
- Apple
- Birch
- Maple
- Pear
- Willow
AVOID
- Azeala
- Beetroot leaves
- Bigwort
- Blubous Plants
- Bluebell
- Buttercups
- Clover(red)
- Clematis
- Cherry tree wood
- Corn
- Cowslip
- Crocus
- Daffodil
- (Deadly) Nightshade
- Dog's Mercury
- Evergreens
- Fool's Parsley
- Foxglove
- Grapes, not toxic in small amounts, and some people feed them, but they can cause adverse effects, especially red grapes
- Hemlock
- Holly
- Ivy
- Lemons and limes
- Lettuce (causes tummy upsets, contains no nutritional benefit and can cause diarrhoea)
- Milkweed
- Mistletoe
- Peas
- Peach leaves and wood
- Plum leaves and wood
- Poppy
- Potato
- Primrose
- Ragwort
- Raw Potato and potato leaves
- Red Clover
- Rhododendron
- Rubarb including leaves and stalk
- Snowdrops
- Sweetcorn
- Tomato leaves
- Woodsorrel
- Yew
- Anything else you are unsure about - If In Doubt, Leave It Out!
Feeding through the lifestages
Feeding Young weaned rabbits (8weeks- 6 months)
Babies should be fed whatever they have been fed up until now which is usually hay and pellets. If you are unsure what they have been fed ask the shop owner/rescuer/carer/breeder and continue to feed what they are used to. If however you have no idea, then keep the diet very basic by providing just plain pellets and hay- no vegetables. Rabbits up until 6 months should have an unlimited supply of pellets and hay as they are growing and developing rapidly.
There is a debate going on about when to introduce vegetables, some say wait until 12 weeks as the babies have very delicate stomachs, whilst others say feed younger as they would eat fresh foods in the wild from very young kits (baby rabbits). ONLY if the previous owner has fed them vegetables from when they were weaned can you do so, if not you must wait until 12 weeks before you attempt feeding vegetables.
To properly introduce rabbits to their first fresh foods at this age, read the above section on fresh foods. Also, baby rabbits can have limited alfalfa hay, which is too high in calcium for adults.
Feeding Adults (7 months onwards)
Alfalfa hay should not be fed as it is too high in calcium, so switch to all timothy hay. Other hays like oat, brome and orchard grass can also be fed in small amounts to add variety. Alfalfa hay can only be fed in small amounts as a treat. Pellets should be decreased and hay should gradually make up 70-80% of the diet. The pellets should gradually be reduced to 1/4 per 6lbs of body weight. Vegetables can be gradually increased to 2 cups per 6lbs daily and fruit can be fed in small amounts (1 teaspoon) every other day.
Senior Rabbits (5/6 years and over)
Provided the rabbits seem fine on their adult diet, there should be no changes, but sometimes older rabbits need a small increase in the amounts of pellets. If your rabbit loses condition suddenly or you are unsure, consult a rabbit savy vet