Introduction
There is a wide variety of plants you can offer your rabbit, whether from the supermarket or in the wild, you can even grow them in your own garden to save money, this is why FiverPet brings you our guide to the different plants rabbits can eat.
1- Root vegetables
it’s no secret that rabbits love carrots, something we often see in popular culture, however, it’s essential to know that root vegetables such as carrots parsnips turnips, and beets are foods with high sugar content, in addition to providing them with a lot of energy they increase the risk of suffering from obesity problems, diseases associated with being overweight colic and stomach bloat, for this reason, it’s best to offer them a very small portion from time to time, not on a daily basis they often work best as a rare reward.
2- Shoots and leaves
it’s highly recommended we add green leaves and shoots to our rabbit’s diet on a more daily basis, unlike fruit or root vegetables which store sugar shoots and leaves have a very low caloric intake and are also high in fiber, this will benefit your bunny’s digestive health also providing their body with the nutrients their bodies need, many of the vegetables you give your rabbit have parts which we often throw away since humans don’t consume them, usually as they are too fibrous or resistant, for a rabbit which eats hay all day they can be both beneficial and very tasty, among the plants that you can offer daily we find root leaves such as carrot or radish, endive, arugula, lamb’s lettuce, watercress, and romaine.
we should point out rabbits should avoid eating iceberg lettuce the plants that you can offer occasionally meaning one or two times a week, are celery, broccoli, chard, spinach cauliflower, artichoke, red cabbage, and asparagus. there’s also the possibility of offering your rabbit dehydrated food, but these should be given in small proportions mixed with fresh food, this is because dehydrated food reduces its amount of water and has a higher concentration of nutrients, among which we can highlight sugars therefore dried fruits and vegetables contain more calories and are not recommended in excess.
3- Wild herbs
the diet of a wild rabbit is essentially made up of grasses and weeds from fields forests and mountains, this explains why your rabbit should eat unlimited hay, a good initiative to enrich your rabbit’s diet is to offer them other variants of herbs, which you can buy in stores collect in the wild or grow yourself if you have the means if you collect them from the wild be respectful of the environment cut the plant without uprooting it so it can grow back, also you should take into account that the plants you collect need to be from areas free of contamination.
finally, always wash them before giving them to your rabbit otherwise they could become intoxicated, in the same way, do not collect grass from parks and areas where other animals tend to urinate and defecate, the herbs that you can offer your rabbit include mint, peppermint, rosemary, sage, thyme, fennel, dill, coriander, parsley, basil, and clover, among others.
Do you have a rabbit and have trouble feeding them? tell us about it in the comments, and we’ll see you next time.
