Diet

Suggested Veggies

NOTE: It is always preferable to buy organic produce if at all possible. If collecting wild foods such as dandelion greens, make sure they are from a pesticide-free area. All fresh foods regardless of the source should be washed or scrubbed (in the case of hard vegetables) before serving them to your rabbit.

LEAFY GREENS

These foods should make up about 75% of the fresh portion of your rabbit’s diet (about 1 packed cup per 2 lbs of body weight per day).

Leafy Greens  (low in oxalic acid)

  • Arugula
  • Carrot tops
  • Cucumber leaves
  • Endive
  • Escarole
  • Red or green lettuce
  • Romaine lettuce
  • Spring greens
  • Turnip greens
  • Dandelion greens (free in your yard if you don’t spray)
  • Mint (any variety)
  • Basil (any variety)
  • Watercress
  • Wheatgrass
  • Chicory
  • Raspberry leaves
  • Cilantro
  • Radicchio
  • Bok Choy
  • Fennel (the leafy tops as well as the base)
  • Borage leaves
  • Dill leaves

Limited Leafy Greens  (high oxalic acid content, no more than one of these should be fed at a time.  We do not recommend spinach at all due to high oxalic acid content)

  • Parsley
  • Mustard greens
  • Kale (all types)
  • Beet greens
  • Swiss chard
  • Radish tops
  • Sprouts (from 1 to 6 days after sprouting, sprouts have higher levels of alkaloids)

NON-LEAFY VEGETABLES

These should be no more than about 15 % of the diet (About 1 tablespoon per 2 lbs of body weight per day).

  • Carrots
  • Broccoli (leaves and stems)
  • Edible flowers (roses, nasturtiums, pansies, hibiscus)
  • Celery
  • Bell peppers (any color)
  • Chinese pea pods (the flat kind without large peas)
  • Brussel sprouts
  • Cabbage (any type)
  • Broccolini
  • Summer squash
  • Zucchini squash

FRUITS

These should be no more than 10% of the diet (about 1 teaspoon per 2 lbs of body weight per day). NOTE: unless otherwise stated it is more nutritious to leave the skin on the fruit (particularly if organic), just wash thoroughly. IF you are in doubt about the source of the fruit and you are concerned about chemicals in the skin, then remove it.

  • Apple (any variety, without stem and seeds)
  • Cherries (any variety, without the pits)
  • Pear
  • Peach
  • Plum (without the pits)
  • Kiwi
  • Papaya
  • Mango
  • Berries (any type)
  • Berries (uncooked)
  • Pineapple (remove skin)
  • Banana (remove peel; no more than about 2 1/8 inch slices a day for a 5 lb rabbit…they LOVE this!)
  • Melons (any – can include peel and seeds)
  • Star Fruit
  • Apricot
  • Currants
  • Nectarine

Extras

Our monsters LOVE cookies.  Seriously, a few of them would eat through your hand if they didn’t think you were giving up the cookie fast enough.  But you can’t just go giving rabbits cookies all willy nilly.  They have to be rabbit cookies.  Human cookies are SO BAD to give them.  So, when we say cookies, we mean THESE.  And no, we don’t get kickbacks for linking that.  I honestly don’t even know how to do that.  But these things are like freaking gold in our house. You’re welcome.

Dried fruit is chill for a treat, but only if you either dehydrate it yourself, or get lucky enough find it at a store where they don’t have sugar and preservatives added.  Good luck with that, but if you wanna find it at a store I would say a hippie dippie health place is your best bet, like Ann Arbor or Ferndale markets, probably.