Feeding Rabbits
for Health

Feeding rabbits is relatively easy. Rabbits are herbivore so basically rabbits eat plants. Rabbits sometimes called as pseudo-ruminant, which is herbivore that can’t digest fibers well. Sounds contradictive, isn’t it? :) To understand why it could happen, you may want to learn about rabbit digestive system just for reference.

We can say rabbits eat all the time although mostly are just before sun rise and after sun set. However, rabbits are considered picky for what they want to eat. Rabbits may eat a whole day – not continuously of course – for food they really like but may refuse foods we give by pushing them with their mouth. Funny thing to see when rabbits do this :)

Like other animals, rabbits also need foods with balance nutrition that consist of carbohydrate, protein, fat, minerals, vitamins and water. In the wild, rabbits choose its foods based on their instinct of survival and food availability in their habitat. But rabbits in our house do not have this privilege. They depend on us for foods, and proper diet including regular schedule is essential for rabbits in order to grow optimally and stay healthy.

Other than fresh products of plants, what can rabbits eat for our choices to feed them in their diet? Many kinds of rabbit foods are available in pet shops, with variations of food ingredients. There are many choices of rabbit hay, which are dried grasses such as Oat hay and Timothy hay or dried plants such as alfalfa hay. There are also pellets specially made for rabbits.

So, there are many choices what to feed our rabbits. Some people choose to feed only greens for reason of they are natural food of rabbit, some choose only pellets for practicality reason, and some people choose to combine between greens, hays and pellets. The most important to remember such foods are loved by rabbits because it will influence rabbit’s “mood”. Other considerations are availability in your neighborhood, practicality, and may be price? But, whatever reasons, it must be consist of basic nutrition required by your rabbits to stay healthy.