What do Rabbits eat?

Submitted by Admin on 03/04/2009

With your rabbits digestive system somewhat fragile what you feed your rabbit is very important. Naturally rabbits pass their food from the stomach into the small intenstine, and through in a large sac at the top of the large intestine this is called the caecum. Rabbits dont have the right enzymes to break down the plant matter in their food, to get around this rabbits pass the food out their bodies in the form of pellets they then eat these pellets and absorb the nutrients via the small intestine.

The most likely thing to cause upset to a rabbits digestive system is a sudden change to their diet. As bacterica forms a large part of the rabbits digestion syste rapid diet changes mean the bacteria are unable to adapt in time, this causes the upset. For the first 3 weeks or so you should keep your rabbits diet stable then you can slowly introduce new items to the diet.

There are a huge range of rabbit foods on the market today, most are mixes based on cereals and pellets. Recently, there have been reports that locust beans have caused the death of some rabbits so these have been removed as a precaution from many manufacturers rabbit foods.

If your rabbit has been used to manufactured foods, introduce natural food very slowly giving your rabbit time to adapt to the change in diet. You can feed your rabbit a wide range of natural food including carrots, cabbage, grass and dandelions. If you are moving a rabbit outdoors for the first time its advisable to slowly introduce grass to their diet prior to moving them outdoors, rapid introduction to grass can cause diarrhoea which can be fatal.

If you decide to feed your rabbit predominantly manufactured foods its unlikey they will need much else as most commercial rabbit mixes contain all the nutrients they require. You can occasionally offer them treats, just be careful they do not start showing signs of obesity. Rabbits that are kept outside are likely to require more food than indoor rabbits as they will use more energy.

It's fun for the children to hand feed the rabbits just be sure they dont hold on to the food for too long as once the rabbits finish the food they may continue to nibble at the fingers!

Here are some ideal food options for rabbits: Seed sticks, carrots, rabbit mix, bran mash, rabbit biscuits, apples, and cabbage.