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What do I like to eat? Although you can safely buy ready made rabbit food from a pet store, you can also feed your rabbit very successfully on 'home made'. When you get a new rabbit make sure you find out how he or she has been fed. Rabbits are prone to tummy upsets if their food changes dramatically. It's best to keep them to the same diet for a while and do any change over gradually.
Hay is the most essential part of a rabbit's diet and must be fed ad-lib. It provides the fibre they need and chewing it helps to keep their teeth short. A couple of little hay racks, one inside and one out are ideal - if you put the hay on the floor it gets soiled. The hay must be the very best available - absolutely clean - that means there is no dust (which would cause breathing difficulties and could prove fatal) and also that it smells 'sweet' - the new mown hay smell is lovely but hard to describe. That's how it should be anyway, nice and dry and crunchy. Any damp or mould and discard immediately.
The hay you buy in chopped packets from the pet stores is fine but a bale of good meadow hay is hard to beat and will be cheaper and last a long time.
What about the lettuces Peter Rabbit used to steal from Mr.McGregor? Yes, a few leaves are certainly very palatable but only after your rabbit is around four months old. Apples and carrots are also well liked and provide chewing exercise. Dandelions and fresh picked grass are excellent - and they're free! Make sure they're from a clean area that hasn't been sprayed and is away from the contamination of roads and cars.
Don't feed frozen veg to your rabbit. His diet has to consist of fresh food only. Introduce green food slowly and avoid digestive upsets. When your rabbit is used to his 'salads' you can increase the amount of natural food to appetite. It's surprising how much grass and dandelions one bunny can get through. A small feed of oats is often liked, especially in winter. A small dry crust of wholemeal brown bread? Yum, yum. Crunchy, crispy food is usually liked - no potato crisps though. Just like it is for us, salt is bad for animals. If you feed tasty food as tit-bits you'll soon have a very tame furry friend.
We don't use plastic feeding bowls - the heavy pot ones are best, they don't spill and are more natural. Fresh water must be provided at all times and changed daily, twice daily in warm weather. If you're using one of the convenient rabbit drinkers that attach to the side of the hutch, give them a good wash out regularly, making sure not to leave any soap residue inside. Pot dishes can be washed, rinsed and left to dry in the sun which is a natural cleanser.
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