What Am I Talking About Today?
Today I am talking about what foods you can feed rabbits other than hay and pellets. If you have followed me and looked at all my posts, you will know that I have talked about how to feed rabbits in What We Feed Our Rabbits blog post. If you have not seen that blog post, check it out.
Safe foods for Rabbits
There are lots of vegetables and garden weeds that rabbits can safely eat and that make a great addition to their diet. Today I am going to share 7 common ones with you that we feed to our rabbits.
1 – Carrots
I know it is commonly said that rabbits eat the orange part of carrots, not the tops (leaves), but that is wrong. Which is easier, to just nibble the top of the carrot or to dig a hole and eat the root? Just to eat the top right? In fact, the bottom part of the carrot is sugary so they shouldn’t eat too much of it. It is fine to feed the roots in moderation in winter but in summer I would stick to the tops. Our rabbits love the leafy tops and prefer them to the roots.
2 – Plantain
This is a very safe food. Rabbits can have as much as they like of it. Another thing that is good about plantain is that it is a common garden weed that can be found all year round. There are 2 main types which are ribwort (which has thin leaves like in the picture) or broad leaf plantain which obviously has wider leaves. I have put here a photo of ribwort plantain. This is not to muddled with banana look-a-like plantain and which looks like a banana.
3 – Dandelion
This is good for rabbits to eat. They can eat the whole plant, none of it is poisonous. Again it is an easily obtainable garden weed. Dandilion leaves are great for nursing does because it helps them to produce milk.
4 – Kale
This is another vegetable that rabbits like. You can buy it from the supermarket, or you can grow it in the garden, so it is very easily obtainable. We feed lots of kale in winter when other greens are hard to get hold of.
5 – Lettuce
Rabbits can eat all kinds of lettuce except iceberg lettuce. We often feed romaine lettuce to our rabbits but as I said iceberg lettuce is poisonous, so we don’t feed that to them.
6 – Blackberry Leaves
Blackberry leaves are really safe so rabbits can eat as much as they like. It is easily foraged around the area you live in. Just watch out for the thorns! It is better to harvest fresh growth for your rabbits because it is not quite so spikey!
7 – Strawberry Leaves
Strawberry leaves are another really safe option to feed your rabbits and well we all know where those come from!
The End
And we have come to the end of our list for today. Over the next few weeks, I will be posting more blog posts on the subject so keep checking for the next ones. Now it is your turn. I hope this has armed you with knowledge to start feeding your rabbits veggies. Also, if you have any questions on the topic, please feel free to ask in the comments below. See you next time. JK
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