Here you will find a basic guide to feeding your rabbit. This chapter will be divided into 5 parts: Staple Foods, Supplements, Treats, Medicinal Foods, and Poisonous Foods. You can read basic descriptions of the 5 types of rabbit foods on this page, but you can also click on the title of any of the sections to read more about that food type in detail.
Staple Foods: This section is made up of foods that should make up the main part of your rabbits diet - staple foods. There are only 2 types of food in this section; rabbit pellets and hay. Rabbit pellets are a combination of different grains, vitamins, minerals and hays, and contain most of what your rabbit needs to consume to keep healthy. Access to unlimited hay should also be allowed, as the fibre is a very important part of a rabbit's diet. Without fibre, a rabbit would not be able to digest any of the essential vitamins or minerals, and so it would not be able to survive.
Click here to read more about Staple Foods for your rabbit:
Suppplements: While rabbit pellets and hay should be the main constituents of your rabbit's diet, your rabbit will be healthier and happier if these are occasionally supplemented with other foods. Supplementary foods should be a regular part of the rabbit's diet. Hay should be regularly supplemented with fresh greens. Here is a brief list of edible greens that are suitable for feeding as supplements:
- Grass
- Blackberry leaves/stems
- Rosebush leaves
- Leaves from Deciduous Trees
- Common Garden Weeds
- Sunflower Leaves/Stems
- Marigolds
- Lucerne/Alfalfa
- Clover*
*Clover is very rich and should not be fed in excess, otherwise the rabbit will get diarrhea. Regular over-feeding of clover will also result in an overweight rabbit, due to clover's high protein content.
You can also feed certain vegetables to your rabbit. Here are some of the vegetables that are healthy to feed to rabbits:
- Silverbeet
- Radishes
- Potato/Carrot/Pumpkin Peels
- Lettuce*
- Beetroot
- Pak Choi
- Broccoli
- Cabbage
- Cauliflower
- Kale
*Lettuce has a high water content and overfeeding will result in diarrhea, and possibly bloat. Bloat is an imbalance of chemicals in the digestive system which results in extra production of gas, and is very often fatal in rabbits. Iceberg Lettuce has an exceptionally high water content, so it is safer to not feed this type of lettuce.
Treats: Some foods are edible for rabbits, but should only be fed as treats. This is because these foods contain certain amounts of minerals that can have an unhealthy effect on a rabbit if eaten in excess. Therefore, it is best to only feed these foods in small amounts once in a while, as treats, because they DO contain some beneficial vitamins or minerals. Here is a list of foods that come under this category:
- Carrots
- Banana Peels
- Apple
- Apricots/Peaches/other stone fruits
- Mango Peels
- Strawberry Tops
- Mandarin Skins
- Rolled Oats*
- Sunflower Seeds*
*These are very high in protein, and sunflower seeds are high in fat, so care must be taken to not feed them in excess. The best way you can feed these treats is by adding a pinch of rolled oats and/or sunflower seeds to your rabbit's daily ration of pellets. Rolled oats are irresistible to most rabbits, so are very useful for making fussy eaters consume their pellets.
Medicinal Foods: Here you will find a list of foods that have such a nutritional content that they can be fed as medicinal foods. Some of these foods should be fed regularly to keep your rabbit healthy and prevent disease. Others can be fed to cure certain illnesses. Each food serves a particular purpose, and we highly recommend that you click here to view this list in greater detail.
- Banana/skins
- Garlic*
- Pineapple & juice
- Sow Thistle
- Milk Thistle
- Blackberry/raspberry leaves and stems
- Mint
- Basil
- Rosemary/Lavender
- Parsley
- Thyme
- Sage
- Fennel
- Marjoram
*Garlic should only be fed in very moderate quantities.
Poisonous Foods: Here is a list of foods that you should never feed your rabbit because of the harmful affect it can/will have. Those marked with an asterisk * are deadly when eaten in sufficient quantities - all other foods are generally less harmful.
- Any part of any bulbous plant
- Tomato/potato stems, leaves, or flowers*
- Most evergreen shrubs or trees
- Nightshade*
- Capeweed
- Foxglove*
- Oleander*
- Paterson's Curse or Salvation Jane
- Rhubarb Leaves
- Rhododendron* and Azalea*
- Yew*
