The decision to have animal pets comes with a huge responsibility. You’re expected to treat your pets the way you will treat your offspring, right from their living condition and healthcare to their feeding.
For someone who owns a rabbit, special cognizance should be taken to their living condition, healthcare, and diet. Rabbits are very fragile animals with super sensitive gut systems. Therefore, you need to give special attention to their handling and ensure a healthy balanced diet.
Meals To Feed Your Pet Rabbit
If you are thinking of owning a rabbit or you have one already, you should consider these diets:
Fresh Hay
The bulk of your rabbit meal should be made of fresh hay. Hays contain essential fiber that rabbits need for easy digestion. Similarly, fresh hay helps to wear down a rabbit’s teeth and develop healthy dentitions.
If you own a rabbit, you should get a litter box and create a section at one end of the litter box. Since rabbits are always looking for hay, they will go there, eat the hay and use the litter box for excretion. This way, you’re keeping healthy hygiene for the rabbits.
Grass-based hays are also essential for your rabbits. They contain fiber and protein that helps habits to regulate their digestive system and gut flow. It is advisable to give rabbits a diet that includes 80% of hay. Hays have been shown to improve rabbits’ health and keep their incisors worn down.
Asides the fresh and grass-based hay, other types include timothy, bluegrass, herbal, marsh, meadow, oat, etc.
Vegetables
As in humans, vegetables are also very good for rabbits. You should always include a variety of vegetables in your rabbit’s daily diet.
While there are various types of vegetables in the market, it is advisable to go for fresh vegetables free of pesticides. When you are switching from a kind of vegetable or trying to introduce a new variety, give it to the rabbits in bits.
When you feed new vegetables to your rabbits in small quantities, you can easily identify whether the rabbit reacts well or not. Should the rabbit react well, you will keep increasing the quantity; otherwise, you should stop immediately.
Some healthy vegetables for your rabbits include basil, bok choy, broccoli leaves, celery, cilantro, clover, mustard greens, lettuce, water dress, etc.
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Treats
Once in a while, you should give your rabbit a nice treat. Occasionally, some meals are treats and should be fed to your rabbits.
The best option when giving your rabbit a treat is fruits. However, these fruits should be given occasionally and in small quantities because they contain sugar. Some fruits you can always add to your pet’s treats include strawberries, bananas, pineapple, apples, etc.
It is advisable not to give several commercially sold bunny treats that are rich in fat and sugar to your rabbits. Similarly, chocolates should be avoided as they are toxic and can trigger misbehavior in your rabbits.
It is important to know that while sometimes you get these fruits from stores and roadside vendors, you should always remove pips or stones that could become choking hazards to the bunny.
Pellets
Most people who own rabbits make the mistake of when and when not to give pellets to their pets. When the rabbits are young, you should give them pellets as often as possible. However, as they grow old, you should reduce their pellet intake.
Pellets are high in protein and can lead to obesity in older rabbits. However, they help in healthy growth for little ones. So if you notice that your rabbit is growing bigger, endeavor to reduce its pellet intake.
Conclusion
Some decades ago, rabbits were considered wild animals. Nowadays, one of the most domesticated animals is the rabbit. This is due to their intelligence, cognitive and social skills.
If you own a rabbit or intend to own one, asides from the meals listed above, always make clean water available for them. It is advisable to give them treated and purified water, free from mold and algae.
