How to meet our rabbits’ need for a suitable diet
What is a suitable diet for rabbits?
Health problems associated with a poor diet
What is a suitable diet for rabbits?
Today, experts recognise that the best diet for domestic rabbits is one which reflects that of their ancestors, wild rabbits. Wild rabbits are herbivores (plant eaters). They spend most of their waking hours eating large amounts of low-quality fibrous vegetation, mainly grazing on grass but also foraging for leaves, shoots, and roots. Therefore, high-quality hay (or grass) should make up the bulk of our pet rabbits’ diet, supplemented by some fresh greens, and a small portion of pellets (measured according to their body weight). Their diet should consist of:
· 85% fresh hay or grass
· 10% leafy greens, vegetables, or herbs
· 5% pellets or nuggets (not muesli-type food)
A high fibre diet is vital – it keeps rabbits’ teeth in trim, reducing risk of dental disease, and is essential for their digestive system. A rabbit’s digestive system relies on a complex strategy – caecotrophy – to gain important nutrients from this high-fibre, low nutrient diet. Eating its own soft droppings – ‘caecotrophs’ – not only ensures that the rabbit absorb extra nutrients, but it also means their gut flora is maintained. An unsuitable diet can cause disruption to the delicate balance of a rabbit’s gut flora (a population of microbes which aids hindgut fermentation and normal digestion), and lead to serious health problems, including diarrhoea and gut stasis.
Sadly, many domestic rabbits have a completely unsuitable diet, and, as a result, suffer poor health and wellbeing. This is a consequence of the way in which rabbits have traditionally been kept, primarily by those breeding them for meat. They were housed in small hutches and fed a high calorie, low fibre diet, to fatten them up. Still today, most pet rabbits are cruelly housed in hutches, and feed a diet of commercially produced food and shop-bought vegetables. This diet is unsuitable for rabbits – it’s nutritionally rich and low in fibre, which causes health problems, often reducing their lifespan.
Rabbits can live into their teens, yet a recent study revealed the mean average lifespan to be just 4 years and 4 months!
If we are responsible for a rabbit, we must ensure that its “need for a suitable diet” is met (the second Welfare Need listed under the Animal Welfare Act, 2006). Read on to discover how to provide a suitable diet for rabbits.
Hay and grass
The value of unlimited and good quality hay or grass in a rabbit’s diet cannot be over-emphasised. It’s vital, not just for their health but also their welfare. Wild rabbits eat mostly fresh grass, but, for our pet rabbits, good quality hay is an excellent substitute. Every day, they need to eat a bundle of hay at least the size of their body.
Eating hay or grass benefits rabbits in many ways:
· Perfect nutritional value – more so than any other food they can eat, due to the high fibre and low sugar/fat/starch content.
· Keeps teeth in trim – rabbits chew hay and grass in a certain way, unlike for any other food, and this action wears down their teeth perfectly. This is essential, as their teeth never stop growing, so this chewing action helps to wear down any sharp spurs and to avoid the many problems associated with spurs or overgrown teeth (see our page about dental disease).
· Contains ‘long fibres’ – these fibres, which are in all good hay, long or short stem, require that beneficial chewing action which wears their teeth so perfectly. The silicas, which cover the blades of grass/hay, also have the perfect abrasive action on the rabbit’s teeth.
· Encourages normal behaviours – rabbits enjoy taking time to snuffle through hay or grass, picking out the best stems to chew. It’s a fulfilling natural behaviour, important for a rabbit’s health and wellbeing.
Rabbits should have a constant supply of good quality hay or grass. If they’re not interested in eating hay, it’s probably because they’re eating too many pellets, veggies, or treats (read about selective feeding under the ‘Health problems’ heading below), so reduce feeding of those to increase rabbits’ hay consumption.
Always check that hay is dust-extracted, and that it smells sweet and fresh. It’s important to offer different types of hay, so rabbits have a choice. Fresh, hand-picked grass can be fed, but never feed grass cuttings from the mower, as they ferment very quickly, making them hazardous.
Bunnymad’s useful links page lists our bunnies’ favourite hay supplier!
Greens
As well as grass, wild rabbits eat weeds, herbs, twigs, roots, and bark. Our domestic rabbits can eat a wide range of plants, vegetables, and herbs (always wash before feeding). Although they will happily eat shop-bought vegetables, many of these, fed in excess, can cause digestive, urinary, or weight-related problems.
Instead of shopping for greens, a healthy and more natural way to feed our rabbits is to forage for leaves, twigs, and other vegetation their wild ancestors eat (ensure they’ve not been treated with pesticides or herbicides, or contaminated with exhaust fumes or by fox or dog waste). We also feed our bunnies herbs and safe weeds from the garden. Some can be fed fresh, and any surplus can be dried for the winter.
We recommend the books by Dr Twigs Way – ‘Foraging for Rabbits’ and ‘Gardening for Rabbits’ (available from the RWAF bookshop). There are also many small businesses selling wonderful ranges of dried forage – visit our useful links page to see a couple of our favourites. The RWAF has a list of recommended vegetables and herbs on its website.
Not carrots!
In the wild, rabbits don’t eat root vegetables, fruit, or cereals. The enduring image of a rabbit eating a carrot is thought to date to the 1940 Bugs Bunny spoof of Clark Gable. The well-known character of Bugs Bunny, often seen standing and chewing a carrot, is believed to have been inspired by a scene from the film ‘It Happened One Night’, in which Clark Gable’s character stands eating carrots and talking with his mouth full. The popularity of Bugs Bunny conditioned people to think bunnies should eat carrots, a misconception that many still hold today.
Rabbits do love carrots, fruit, and cereals, but they’re not good for them – the high sugar content can upset the balance of a rabbit’s gut, and increase the risk of obesity. They should be avoided – or fed sparingly. Many commercially available treats are also too high in sugar, and may contain seeds, nuts, and corn, which can cause choking and gut impaction.
Pellets
Feeding a small amount of high-quality extruded nuggets or pellets ensures that our rabbits receive beneficial nutrients and minerals. However, pellets or nuggets should form only 5% of a rabbit’s diet – an average-sized rabbit should be fed only about an eggcup of pellets per day (about 25g of nuggets per kilogram of rabbit per day). Over-feeding of pellets reduces rabbits’ appetite for hay, which is far more important for their health, and can increase risk of obesity and dental disease.
Muesli-type commercial food (seed and flake mix) should not be fed, as it encourages selective feeding and has associated digestive and dental problems.
See our useful links page to discover our bunnies’ favourite pellets.
Water
Rabbits must always have access to fresh, clean water, preferably from a bowl, which is a more natural way for them to drink. It’s important to change their water and clean the bowl at least daily. For outdoor rabbits, check their water frequently during winter, to make sure it hasn’t frozen, and ensure water is free of algae during warmer months.
It’s important that rabbits are well hydrated – it helps to keep their guts moving, and flushes out excess calcium which can cause health problems. Elderly rabbits’ guts often slow down, so it’s even more important to make sure they are hydrated – if they don’t drink enough, it’s a good idea to soak their greens and their pellets.
Rabbits’ daily water intake should be around 50-100ml per kilogram of rabbit, but it varies –it may reduce, if they’re consuming moist fresh grass or leafy vegetables; rabbits fed mostly hay and dried forage will drink more. If a rabbit drinks more than usual, it may be a sign of pain, stress, or illness, so it’s best to check with a vet.
Ensuring all Welfare Needs are met
To meet their dietary needs, we must also provide for our rabbits’ other four Welfare Needs:
· Environment:
o Providing a spacious home will enable rabbits to enjoy foraging more widely for their food, and hay to be fed in more than one place.
o Checking rabbits’ enclosures daily helps to ensure any fresh food that has been left uneaten can be removed, before it goes mouldy (risk of illness or gut stasis if consumed) or attracts flies (risk of flystrike).
o Ensuring the environment is safe and free of hazardous/toxic items is crucial – rabbits are physically incapable of vomiting, due to the strong cardiac sphincter (muscle) at the top of their stomach. So, it’s important that rabbits do not eat anything toxic or dangerous – unlike a cat or dog, they cannot be induced to vomit in an emergency.
o Scatter-feeding and hiding food, rather than placing it in a bowl, encourages rabbits to be active, keeping them busy and entertained. It also helps to avoid the risk of choking, which can happen if they eat too quickly.
o Providing hay in several areas, or allowing rabbits to graze on grass, encourages them to eat more naturally and healthily.
o Wild rabbits graze and forage in groups, and our rabbits will also enjoy eating with their companion(s).
o Rabbits tend to eat more hay if they live with another rabbit.
· Healthcare:
o Routine vet visits can help to detect any diet-related health issues and to make dietary adjustments before they become a problem.
o Monitoring rabbits’ appetite – especially any changes in hay consumption – can help with early detection of health problems requiring veterinary attention (eg. dental disease or gut stasis).
o Checking for any changes in droppings or caecotrophs can help to identify if a rabbit’s diet needs adjustments. Very runny droppings, tiny droppings, or droppings strung together with hay or fur could indicate a problem with the diet. Uneaten caecotrophs (either left on ground or stuck to rabbit’s rear end) could indicate that the rabbit is unable to reach them (due to mobility problems or obesity), but it could also show that too many are being produced, or they don’t taste or smell right, due to a problem with their diet. The cecum is delicately balanced, and if there’s an imbalance (caecal dysbiosis) the bad bacteria overtake the good bacteria, causing serious problems. It’s vital for rabbits’ health that they consume their caecotrophs (click here to find out more). In an emergency, if a rabbit is not producing caecotrophs, another rabbit’s caecotrophs can be fed to the poorly bunny.
o Vets and vet nurses can help with dietary advice, especially if changes need to be made.
o It’s important to know your rabbit’s healthy weight, and slowly adjust their diet if they become overweight or underweight, to avoid the risk of obesity.
Meeting these welfare needs can help to ensure rabbits’ have a suitable diet.
Health problems associated with a poor diet
In the wild, rabbits cover vast areas as they graze, and have a low energy, high fibre diet – their digestive systems have evolved to maximise the energy from this low nutrient diet, and they will naturally select the higher energy vegetation first. Our domestic rabbits will also practise selective feeding, preferring to eat higher energy commercial foods and treats over hay or grass. So, if we feed them bowlfuls of pellets (or, even worse, muesli-type mix), large quantities of fruit and carrots, or unhealthy treats, they will become overweight from selective feeding, and can quickly become obese, especially if they’re kept in a restricted space. Rabbits have a particularly delicate digestive system, and a poor diet can upset the balance of their gut. The normal bacteria (digestive flora) will be disturbed, and the rabbit will become unwell from the overgrowth of gas/toxin-producing bacteria. Health issues associated with poor diet include:
· Obesity
· Urine scalding and uneaten caecotrophs (which can lead to flystrike)
· Imbalance of the gut bacteria (dysbiosis) and diarrhoea.
It’s important for our rabbits’ welfare to ensure they are provided with a suitable diet.
Any changes to a rabbit’s diet must be introduced slowly and carefully – only introduce one new food at a time, in small quantities, and monitor for any effects on their health, especially changes in their droppings. Sudden changes to their diet can upset the delicate balance of a rabbit’s gut.
We’ve introduced some core ideas for providing a suitable diet for rabbits. There’s plenty more information available on the RWAF website, including lists of safe and unsafe foods, and suggestions for foraging. Also remember that diet may need to be tailored to individual rabbits, to consider age, lifestyle, and any health conditions.
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