When it comes to what rabbits eat, most people think of carrots. Actually, besides grass as their staple food and carrots, there are other fresh fruits and vegetables that rabbits can eat. Below, Dr. Pet lists some common foods suitable for rabbits to help them grow healthily.
1. Foods Rabbits Can Eat
- Vegetables: Cabbage, carrots, sweet potatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, radish leaves, leafy greens, etc. All these vegetables can be fed to rabbits, but make sure to wash them and drain off excess water before feeding.
- Fruits: Apples, grapes, oranges, bananas, strawberries, etc. However, when feeding fruits to rabbits, you must control the amount—feed them sparingly. Reduce the rabbit’s water intake appropriately when feeding fruits to balance the body’s water content.
- Grasses: Timothy hay, dandelions, plantain, etc.
Rabbits should mainly eat grasses, and other foods should be fed cautiously and in moderation. Although rabbits can eat vegetables, it’s not recommended to give them to young rabbits, as it can easily cause enteritis. Only when they reach adulthood, generally after 6 months, can you supplement their diet with some vegetables. At that time, you can feed them some in the morning and evening, but be sure to transition their food gradually.
2. What Feeds Do Rabbits Eat
In daily life, the food fed to rabbits is generally divided into three types: concentrated feed, roughage, and juicy feed. Concentrated feeds are mostly rabbit-specific pellet foods; roughage mainly refers to hay; and juicy feeds are some common and suitable vegetables, fruits, and some root and stem plants.
- Concentrated Feed: Concentrated feeds contain appropriate amounts of protein, fat, minerals, amino acids, and other substances, which can well meet the daily needs of rabbits. Currently, most rabbit pellets on the market are complete foods, formulated according to the appropriate proportions of all the nutrients rabbits need. So theoretically, this kind of rabbit food can well meet most of the rabbit’s nutritional needs without the need to add supplements. However, to prevent rabbits from getting tired of their food, it’s good to change up their diet occasionally.
- Roughage: The main role of roughage is to meet the rabbit’s daily intake of crude fiber, and secondly to supplement some proteins and amino acids. However, the nutritional content and palatability of different types of hay vary. Legume hays generally have better palatability than grasses; fresh hay is usually more palatable than dried hay. In terms of nutritional value, young hay has higher nutritional value but lower crude fiber content; conversely, mature hay has higher crude fiber content but lower nutritional value.
- Juicy Feed: Juicy feeds mainly provide rabbits with daily vitamins and water. Similarly, the nutritional content of different fruits and vegetables varies, but the vitamin content is generally equal to or higher than that of hay.
Dr. Pet’s Warm Reminder:
A reasonable diet is very important for rabbits. I hope owners will be more cautious and strict when feeding their rabbits to prevent them from eating moldy food that could harm their health.
