Author: Carolyn McInnes

Rabbit Nutrition in a nutshell.

So, Rabbit Nutrition is currently where bird, cat & dog nutrition was 40-50 years ago & we need to fix this!

40-50 years ago, we could only buy the basic foods for a dog or cat in the supermarket. PAL, Kite-Kat & Whiskers was about the extent of it & the odd bone for the dog from the butchers. 

If our pets were being fed that was all that mattered.

We have since learnt that the nutritional value of what we feed them has a direct impact on their health & wellbeing, which is why we now have companied making foods specifically for the needs of the animal based on age, gender, breed as well as health issues.

As an example, cats are naturally from arid areas, water is scarce so a cat needs a balanced diet to get the moisture it needs for healthy kidney function. In nature a cat would not just eat the flesh of its prey but the internal organs as well. This is where the moisture in their diets come from.

Good old Kite-kat & whiskers have been shown that the high salt content has an impact on the kidneys, the lack of moisture is what causes a smelly litter tray from cats. Give them a healthy diet & you can barely sell anything.

In the same way, we now understand that birds need far more than just bird seed: they need greens etc to stay healthy, Dogs need a balanced diet as omnivores.

In years gone by a cat might live to 12 but now with better veterinary knowledge & a better understanding of their dietary needs they are living longer, up to approx. 20 years.

We also cater to health issues, cats & dogs with skin, renal disease, heart issues, diabetes etc can all be prescribed food from a vet to assist in them having a healthier life & probably live longer & in less discomfort.

The same cannot be said for the nutritional needs of a rabbit. Cats & dogs have been domesticated for thousands of years but bunnies are only a very recent addition to the pet repertoire, maybe a hundred years, therefore very little work has been done on the dietary requirements of pet rabbits. 

Rabbits come from the northern hemisphere, & it is thought that they may have originated in the region of Spain, but that is speculation. We really don’t know for sure. We do, however, know that rabbits are European & in nature would forage for all kinds of grasses, weeds, blackberry leaves etc.

In the last few years with the advance in Veterinary knowledge, rabbits are living to 12 & 13, which for a bunny in the wild would be unheard of. A rabbit in the wild would probably be lucky to reach 2 years. Not only because of predators but also the viruses released by man to limit population numbers.

From where I sit, as I look back at what would be a natural diet for rabbits, we are in fact heading away from the natural & using what I call “Mr McGregor’s Garden”. Mr McGregor’s garden is the fruit & veggie market or the supermarket. We are getting what is convenient to us, not necessarily what’s best for our bunnies.

Bunnies need the micro-nutrients from the wild vegetation, but they aren’t getting it. Plantain, dandelion, milk thistle, sow thistle, blackberry etc are the basics of a natural bunny greens diet. These plants all have medicinal qualities & a bunny in the wild knows if it needs plantain or blackberry. These wild greens are also balanced when it comes to the micro-nutrients. They don’t contain the large quantities of calcium that greens like Lucerne, Kale, Mint, Rocket & most herbs contain. They also have much higher fibre than Celery, Cos & romaine lettuce etc.

It is my belief that as buns are living longer, they are now acquiring the same diseases that cats dogs & humans get. Things like kidney disease are becoming far more frequent, but there is no specialised pellets or supplements to accommodate the accompanying dietary requirements of these diseases. 

We are also noticing an increase in buns with gut issues, a bit like what we would call an IBD in humans. These buns react very badly to any sugar in the diet so cannot have the low fibre greens & definitely no mass produced rabbit pellets.

So, what is the importance of pellets in a rabbits diet?

We all know that buns predominantly eat grass & dry grass is hay so add water & you have a good basic diet for buns. As our buns are generally indoor pets & are fed greens from a human array, they are often missing vital ingredients.

The range of Pellets, which are supposed to be a supplement & help us check the welfare of our rabbits, start at the mixes etc that you buy in a supermarket. They are cheap & nasty & not designed with the health of your bunny in mind. Many have a variety of seeds & corn etc in them which are not good for your bunny. Then we move to the big bags of Meat rabbit pellets. In rescue we need to use these pellets as rescues simply cannot afford the good quality brands, they are simply too expensive. These tend to be wheat based, which is not a standard bun dietary grass & have many ingredients designed to fatten up the meat rabbits so that they are ready for slaughter at a much younger age than they would be ready if nature took its course. These have the absolute basic nutritional additives included but very little else. They are ok as a stand-by but aside from helping with early warning they provide no real nutritional benefit to your pet rabbit.

Next in line are the brands that although often grass based, have other items like lucerne added in quantities that may affect an older bun & in turn bring on an earlier onset of kidney disease. Lucerne is great for kits & nursing mums as it’s like a vitamin D/Calcium supplement to help with bone development. Once babies are weaned, mum no longer needs the extra calcium. Babies are still growing till they are approx. 1 year. Oxbow is the only pellet manufacturer that recognises this, hence their Junior Rabbit pellet having lucerne added to it. The Adult does not. Again some of these mid range pellets are better than others with the additional micro-nutrients added but not as good as the 2 premium brands available here in Australia.

Many cat & dog rescues are able to provide the good foods for their rescues as the pet shops & manufacturers send them the out of date or damaged, bags so its affordable when free. A rescue would only ever be given the cheap an nasty boxes (we have received them ourselves) but never the good stuff. Much of this goes to our chickens so its never wasted, but it’s not for the rabbits, even the rescues in our care.

The 3 best brands of pellets are produced by Burgess (UK), Bunny Nature (Germany) or Oxbow (USA). There are other brands available overseas but these are the only 2 available out here.

These 3 brands are the only ones that try to cater to age needs with Oxbow producing Junior & Adult, Bunny Nature dealing with age & dietary needs while Burgess produces adult, junior & over 5 years.

These 2 brands cost approx. 0.30cents a day per bunny to give a good vitamin supplement to at the same time as doing our welfare check. If you need to save some money & are able to forage then grass & weeds are a great alternative to the expensive greens we buy currently.

If you think about it, Rabbits also need to have a better range, but they are just not worth the investment of funds. If someone spends $100,000 on a horse, they will but expensive food & provide premium housing etc, a $4000 dog or $1000 specific breed cat will have more spent on it (as a general rule) but so many still think that a bunny isn’t worth it. We need a specialist vet for our rabbits so why can’t we also have specialist food for our rabbits. Mine are worth it, aren’t yours?