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Is is ok to feed rabbits cucumber?

gillmanning

Alpha Buck
My two rabbits seem to like the end of the cucumber once in a while - is it ok for them to eat this (I know they shouldn't eat lettuce) ?

Thanks Gill
 
My two rabbits seem to like the end of the cucumber once in a while - is it ok for them to eat this (I know they shouldn't eat lettuce) ?

Thanks Gill


Yep, tis OK to feed as part of a varied Veg diet :)
None of my lot will touch it though :roll:

Janex
 
I have read several places that cucumber in many cases will cause a runny stomach. So it should at least be given sparingly.
 
Deej has cucumber practically every day and loves it, but he loves a wide range of veg and there's very few he won't eat!
 
Mine too! Though I did worry after I 'd given it cos I read they can't have lettuce cos it's all water - well so is cucumber, but it didn't do any harm.
 
diet

Sorry to be a bit of a bore on this one but.......

The further you move away from the diet a rabbit would eat in its natural environment in its natural location the more problems you will encounter.

A rabbits diet in central spain and portugal is scubland and tough grasses and a rabbit is perfectly adapted to this diet and similar( ask any native austalian about rabbits!). This means grass or hay followed by grass or hay and plenty more of the same. Pellet foods have their uses and should only be given in very small quantities.

One point I do make is before changing any rabbits diet to a very high fibre poor quality one in large quantities is make sure the rabbits teeth are in good enough condition to eat it. This will mean a trip to the vets.

Rabbits fed the wrong diet can aquire permanent severe rear teeth problems re- occurring gut problems and stasis, sticky bottoms and a whole host of other problems.

The question should always be....not will my rabbit eat it but should my rabbit eat it.

We over the last ten years have seen so many of the above problems caused by the wrong diet that it never ceases to amaze us that the message still does not appear to have got through and will still read reports of new things rabbits can be encouraged to eat by "caring " owners who want the best for their buns.

A healthy rabbits diet is non negotiable and whilst it seems boring to us it is simple what a rabbit requires to remain healthy.:(
 
Mine only get weeds grass and the odd carrot for a treat. I give pellets but not much oh and endless hay
 
Sorry to be a bit of a bore on this one but.......

The further you move away from the diet a rabbit would eat in its natural environment in its natural location the more problems you will encounter.

A rabbits diet in central spain and portugal is scubland and tough grasses and a rabbit is perfectly adapted to this diet and similar( ask any native austalian about rabbits!). This means grass or hay followed by grass or hay and plenty more of the same. Pellet foods have their uses and should only be given in very small quantities.

One point I do make is before changing any rabbits diet to a very high fibre poor quality one in large quantities is make sure the rabbits teeth are in good enough condition to eat it. This will mean a trip to the vets.

Rabbits fed the wrong diet can aquire permanent severe rear teeth problems re- occurring gut problems and stasis, sticky bottoms and a whole host of other problems.

The question should always be....not will my rabbit eat it but should my rabbit eat it.

We over the last ten years have seen so many of the above problems caused by the wrong diet that it never ceases to amaze us that the message still does not appear to have got through and will still read reports of new things rabbits can be encouraged to eat by "caring " owners who want the best for their buns.

A healthy rabbits diet is non negotiable and whilst it seems boring to us it is simple what a rabbit requires to remain healthy.:(


If its only an ocasional treat surely its ok? my buns have had no problems with health sue to their diet. :)
 
If its only an ocasional treat surely its ok? my buns have had no problems with health sue to their diet. :)

The rule still applies.....The further you move from the correct diet the more problems you are likely to see.

Do'nt get me wrong rabbits love the occaisional treat but consider this..... the average medium rabbit is about 2kg and the average human is 75kg.

If you feed a rabbit one grape you are in effect size for size feeding 35 grapes to it. If you cut a medium banana into 7 peices you are in effect feeding 5 bananas. If you give your rabbit the knob off the cucumber you are in effect probably giving it size for size the equivalent of the whole cucumber.

Our advice is avoid "man made" and grown veg and always offer handfuls of grass small amounts of natural veg i.e dandilion or things like parsley or parcel or other herbs that have large amounts of fibre in them and never fruit.

I see there is yet another thread starting up on feeding veggies to rabbits and yet the message of what rabbits are , where they have come from and what they would eat in the wild in their natural environment seems to be ignored by the majority.

We have been re-homing and specialising in rabbits for the rspca local branch for 10years In that time we have seen 100's of rabbits and whats more we have had the rear teeth inspected both visually and whilst anesthetised at neutering of all of them. I can tell you from our own observations that between 25-30 % of all rabbits that come to us have rear dental problems in the form of spikes ,spurs and rear dental absesses. These in the vast majority of cases are aquired dental problems as a result of the wrong diet.

If you took out of the figures those bunnies born with us or under 4months of age then that % would be higher.

Sorry to rant ....but this is serious and every caring owner should be aware of the serious consequences if you ignore it on teeth alone and thats before you take into account all the other gut problems this can cause together with sticky bottoms, flystrike and whatever.:(
 
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