Rabbit Food List: What’s safe for my Rabbit to eat?
From original article, Rabbit Food List: What’s safe for my Rabbit to Eat @ BunnyLowdown.com
I heard the shouting from the kitchen, but I only caught the end of it.
“Ronnie! No!”
It was my wife.
In the living room, she was making a gorgeous handmade Dreamcatcher, whilst I was making a fantastic Spaghetti Bolognese (if I do say so myself) to tea.
Our tiny fluff monster, Ronnie (a far too cute Netherlands Dwarf), had been allowed to roam the living room and it seems he’d taken advantage of our attentions being elsewhere.
Oh my god! I thought. What has the little *bleep* done now?
I rushed into the living room to see a guilty-looking Ronnie tightly grasped in my wife’s arms.
He was doing his best cute impression in attempt to binky his way out trouble and trying desperately to not look like the kind of rabbit who’d eat absolutely anything if you weren’t watching him.
I could see by the look on my wife’s face, there was no getting out of this one for the little guy.
“He’s eaten it,” she simply said, holding Ronnie in the air a bit like Simba in the Lion King.
My eyes quickly scanned the room, looking for carnage. But I couldn’t find any. “Eaten what?”
“Tell daddy what you’ve eaten,” my wife said, pointing Ronnie in my direction.
At this point, it’s clear that whatever he’s eaten it’s definitely something of mine so I react like I always do, “What’ve you eaten this time you little sh–monkey?!?!”
Ron just stared at me blankly with that cute face of his and after a while (too long) we realised rabbits can’t actually talk.
“He’s eaten the sleeve of your jacket,” my wife told me, beginning to succumb to Ronnie’s undeniable (and unbearable) cuteness.
“The entire sleeve???” I was more impressed than angry.
“Of course not,” my wife said, shooting me that You’re an idiot look she’s mastered (she has to do it a lot). “Check the cuffs.”
My jacket hung on the banister from its hood; the sleeves dangled down to perfect bunny height. I drew closer to get a better look, already knowing it wasn’t going to be good news.
The closer I got, the more I could see the carnage through the staircase spindles. The material was cast across the stairs, still wet and chewed and no longer a part of my new Khaki bomber jacket.
I grabbed at sleeves of my jacket and raised it for closer inspection. The elasticated cuffs of the jacket were torn to shreds at the end, with little nibble marks dotted around everywhere.
“The little b*********!” I yelled.
By now my wife was cuddling the rabbit: Ronnie had successfully won her over.
“Serves you right for leaving it there,” she told me, kissing Ronnie on the forehead. Now, it was all my fault. Of course it is (to be fair, most things are). I wish I was cute enough to weasel my way out of trouble that easily.
I make a mental note to remind her of that the next time we catch him eating her plastic flowers, before stomping upstairs to put my jacket someplace safe and rabbit-free.
Does any of that sound familiar?
I suspect most rabbit owners have experienced this type of scenario in one form or the other by now. I also suspect that most of us realise our little fluff monsters will eat pretty much anything they come across, most of which isn’t on any safe rabbit food list.
So the questions on all our minds are: what do rabbits eat? what should they be eating? What are rabbits allowed to eat? Is that a safe rabbit food list? Do Khaki bomber jackets feature anywhere on that list?
Before I answer those questions and delve into the ultimate rabbit food list, I think it’s a good idea for me to first discuss what a healthy diet is for a pet bunny.
I feel it’s important because it’s a very good idea to know exactly what is safe for your little fluff monsters to eat, but it’s equally important to know how much of these safe foods to give them.
“What Do Rabbits Eat?” A Healthy Rabbit Diet
I delve a little deeper into a healthy Rabbit Diet in this post, but I feel it’s important that I go over the basics here before we take a look at the fruit and vegetables rabbit food list.
The most important thing for a healthy rabbit diet is hay. Hay should be the primary source of a rabbit’s diet, in fact, it should make up as much as 80% of their food intake.
This is because hay is very good for a rabbits digestive system, it helps maintain dental health and provides a large chunk your bunny’s nutritional needs.
Rabbits should also be given pellets as they are high in fiber and contain an even spread of nutrients, but no more than a handful a day.
Fruit and vegetables, however, are considered to be treats for rabbits. They should be given to your little fluff monster in moderation, again, about a handful a day is generally recommended.
Now that we know how much fruit and vegetables to give our bunnies as part of their healthy diet, let’s take a look at what’s safe for them to eat here in the ultimate rabbit food list.
“What do Rabbits eat?” Ultimate Rabbit Food List.
So what do rabbits eat? Let’s just jump right into the rabbit food list:
- Parsley
- Spinach
- Mustard greens
- Beetroot greens
- Swiss chard
- Radish tops
- Sprouts (from 1 to 6 days after sprouting as sprouts have higher levels of alkaloids)
- Carrot tops
- Cucumber leaves
- Endive
- Ecarole
- Frisee lettuce
- Kale (all types are allowed)
- Mache
- Red or green lettuce
- Romaine lettuce
- Spring greens
- Turnip greens
- Dandelion greens
- Mint (any variety)
- Basil (any variety)
- Watercress
- Wheatgrass
- Chicory
- Raspberry leaves
- Radicchio
- Bok Choy
- Fennel (the leafy tops as well as the base)
- Borage leaves
- Dill leaves
- Yu choy
- Carrots
- Cucumber
- Broccoli (leaves and stems are allowed)
- Celery
- Bell peppers (any colour)
- Chinese pea pods (the flat kind without large peas)
- Brussel sprouts
- Cabbage (any type)
- Broccolini
- Summer squash
- Zucchini squash
- Cauliflower leaves
- Apple (any variety, but without the stem and the seeds)
- Cherries (any variety, without the stones)
- Pear
- Peach
- Plum (without the stone)
- Kiwi
- Papaya
- Mango
- Strawberry
- Strawberry tops
- Blackberries
- Blueberries
- Raspberries
- Pineapple (make sure you remove the skin because if you don’t they might find it difficult to swallow :-) )
- Bananas
- Melons (any type of melon is fine and you can include peel and seeds if you like)
- Star Fruit (don’t worry, this isn’t made of real stars. I checked. :-P )
- Apricot
- Currants
- Nectarine
- Tomatoes
Rabbit Food List: What does Ronnie love to eat?
Wowzers! I think we can all agree: that’s a BIG list! It contains some fruit and vegetables that I’ve never even heard of before, never mind tasted.
But fans of our little fluff monster, Ronnie (pictured above demanding head scratches), may be wondering what his favourite fruit and vegetable treats are.
As a rule, we tend to give Ronnie whatever we already buy for day to day cooking. That mostly consists of a healthy selection of strawberry tops, Banana, Spinach and Broccoli.
The only thing we buy especially for Ronnie is Curly Kale. He LOVES that stuff more than anything.
And you can tell.
Whatever else we give him, he usually leaves for a while. He’ll eat it when he’s good and ready and not a moment before at some point in the day or night.
But Curly Kale is a whole different ball game.
He gobbles it down as soon as it’s given it to him. In fact, in the morning he’ll wait by his food bowl with both paws inside hoping it’s Curly Kale time and won’t budge an inch when you drop it in his cage for him. This leads to him being covered in Curly Kale most mornings.
Now, he’s conditioned.
Every time the little dude hears a bag rustling, he adopts that same paws-in-food-bowl position, forever hopeful that it’s Curly Kale time.
One Last Thing About Rabbit Food List…
Another quite important thing to remember about this rabbit food list is that it shows you what is safe for the rabbits to eat, but that doesn’t mean your little fluff monster will eat these foods.
We’ve tried Ronnie on a couple of items on that rabbit food list and he won’t touch it. Carrot tops, turnip greens and dandelion greens he took one sniff of and left them — wouldn’t even take a nibble.
The fussy little monkey.
So, what do Rabbits eat?
Let’s round this awesome rabbit food list / what do rabbits eat article up with the most important fact:
All of the above fruit and vegetables are safe for your rabbit to eat, but always in moderation.
Rabbit Food List: Further Reading
There are a couple of questions I see asked over and over again about specific foods rabbits are allowed to eat, so I decided to create a couple of in-depth articles focused on this.
Hopefully, this should dispel some rumours and provide definitive answers to put people’s minds at ease.
You can check out these articles below:
Are you looking for more definitive answers about a food that doesn’t appear on the list above? Let me know via Facebook and I’ll look right into it!
Sources: Rabbit.org
