daily diet for a rabbit

Hi, what is the daily diet of your rabbit?

I had to wean evie of a food that the breeder was feeding her and move her onto junior pellets. I keep a bowl of the pellets out 24/7 for her to pick at, she also eats a lot of hay.

I've introduced her to fruits & veg recently, she loves raspberries, strawberries, apple and carrots so far. How often should I feed her fruit and veg and what quantity? For example, should she have her pellet food available all day and be fed some strawberries and carrot in the afternoon?
(She is a young holland lop)

Thanks in advance for ur input.

Well buns should have only have a handful of pellets a day (or twice once in the morning and evening not sure but I'm sure someone will correct me soon) and yeah unlimited hay.
When introducing veg do it over the span of a week, starting off with only one new type a week and only a very small amount (like the size of a 50p) and let it get bigger each week.
A good sign that a bun has had too much veg is runny poo's in which case stop the veg for a while and give tons of hay :wave:

I had heard from someone else as well that the pellets should only be given morning and evening but then I was worried that she wouldnt eat enough because she picks at them every now and again, not really at a particular time.

Oh, just seen ur from belfast, same here

heatherlea said:

I had heard from someone else as well that the pellets should only be given morning and evening but then I was worried that she wouldnt eat enough because she picks at them every now and again, not really at a particular time.

Oh, just seen ur from belfast, same here

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:thumb: bout ye??

I think it's morning and evening, also you see 90% of their diet is hay

The majority of their diet should be hay, so far as the pellets go make sure you're feeding no more than an egg cupful a day. It's great that your rabbit is getting a variety of fresh foods, but take care not to give them too higher quantity of sugary foods, this includes fruits and carrots. If their diet is too high in sugars they are more prone to diebetes.

My bun loves the baby sweetcorn, curly kale and the occasional cherry tomato. Perhaps you could try those with your bun? But take care to only introduce one new food at a time and in small quantities

Mine have three types of veggies in the morning i.e. spring green/cabbage, basil/parsley and rocket or spinach beet and timothy hay available all the time. Wesley has a small handful of science selective pellets in the evening and Honey has six Science Selective Mature pellets. They also have grass, plaintain and dandelions, or clover in their litter trays when they are changed and treat hay separately in a basket in the evening at the moment it is Burns Oat Hay and Oxbow Timothy. They do have a weekly piece of carrot and some tops as a treat and some dried herbs.

Amos has a small handful of a variety of veg in the morning usually spring greens, carrot and spinach. He then has a very small handfull of excel pellets maybe 3 quarters of an egg cupfull about 6. he then has a small bowl of veg in the evening. He has unlimited excel hay

Interesting thread. Being a newbie to owning rabbits (since 2 months ago) I have just gone along with what the breeder told me. ie that they need hay for digestion. So I was not of the understanding until reading this thread that hay actually forms a large part of their diet! I have been giving my three babies the dry feed 24/7 (and the breeder tells me it's her own mix which has probiotics in it). Then they get a fairly large amount of fresh vegetables morning and evening ie .. carrots with the tops still on (they LOVE the tops) .. broccoli .. and very recently dark green cabbage which they devour. Apple sometimes though they not crazy about it. They have had banana and 'sort of' like it .. well the Rex that is. Anyway .. I must ensure they get more hay then. Also .. how long does the hay stay fresh in the plastic bag? My rabbits go into a fairly large run everyday (weather permitting). I bought them a 7 foot long .. 3 foot wide galvanised wire run. This is on my lawn and they get to eat a lot of grass too. Their stools are always formed but more moist due to all the vegetables. At night I put them back into their hutch. I saw some rabbits in a pet shop yesterday and all they had was water and hay. I thought the owners were being cruel by not giving pellets .. but I guess not now after reading this

My buns have this daily diet

7.00am: Half an egg cup of SS pellets each.
All day: Unlimited and reguarly topped up hay and some grass.
7.00pm: Veggie time. Usually 2 different veg and some herbs. Tonight they had spring greens, small amount brocolli and parsely.
9.00pm: Half an egg cup of SS pellets each and more hay to see them through the night.

This sounds good (above) I will give that routine a go!

My buns have handful of pellets each at around 7am and a large pile of hay before i go to work at 8am
They get another pile of hay at 5pm, they then have veg (spring greens, curly kale, corriander, parsley, cabbage, brocolli, cauliflower etc pieces of 2 or 3 different types each day) and a small piece of sweet fruit/veg (eg one piece of carrot, banana, apple etc) each evening at 7pm with yet another big pile of hay at 9pm before bed, at this time they usually get 'special hay' not just the meadow farm bale (ie the expensive stuff timothy hay or hay with peppermint etc)

My buns get:

An eggcup-ful of science selective/excel adult (50/50mix at the moment as i am in the process of changing them both onto ss) at 8am.

A handful of varied fruit/veg/herbs at 9pm. They get either greens, kale or spinach, with broccoli, mint, basil and either carrot (+ tops) or cucumber. They both get pineapple too, as they seem to be having hairball problems just now!

They always have stacks of meadow hay, excel herbage and readigrass to munch on throughout the day!

8.30am - small amount of pellets. Handful of greens such as spring greens/dandelions/herbs.

Unlimited hay during day.

5.00pm
Same as breakfast.

9.00pm
Couple of pellets and a little treat such as a mini Shredded Wheat or little bit of carrot.

I go in in the morning and fill their hay baskets and boxes.

They get an odd treat in the middle of the day if i am around (dried banana or a grape or little bit of apple, sometimes weetabix which they love but only occasionally)

At 8pm they have their pellets (i feed wagg optimum, only small amount)

Then around 10/11, whenever i go to bed i take in their veggies - usually brocoli, small amounts of carrot, carrot tops, herbs, kale, spring greens etc... and refresh the hay (they always have unlimited hay, these times are just when i normally have to refresh it - they get through loads)

Ours get their SS pellets (about 1/4 of a cupful) in the evening at about 9pm. Through the day they get unlimited Timothy Hay, Readigrass, fresh meadow grass (dependent on whether the farmer has cows in the field or not lol). Accompanying the pellets on an evening they get the following from the garden.

Fennel leaves
Rosemary
Thyme
Strawberry Leaves
Blackberry Leaves
Sage
Lavender
Apple mint
1/2 a brocolli leaf from the allotment
1/2 a cabbage leaf from the allotment
Celery
Rosebay Willowherb
That weed with the sticky leaves and balls (can't remember the name off the top of my head, but they absolutley love it)

For treats now and again

Parsley
Kale
Carrot
Strawberries
Apple
Coriander
Raspberry
Swede

Our buns are most definatley of the "herbal" variety

Charlie won't eat most fruit/veg, so he doesn't get it every day or he's be getting too much sugar too.
He gets dandelion every day though in his bowl with a few pellets, and some more pellets in his treat ball so he'll be working for the majority of them
He always has hay

My rabbits are 6 months old. Does that mean they need a larger amount of pellets as they're still growing? They're mini lops, so they might be fully grown already, I don't know. I give them an eggcup each of pellets at the moment and they gobble them up in a few minutes, so they must be desperate for them. Other than that they get unlimited hay, and a bunch of grass and herbs (mint, borage, dandelion, parsley, fennel etc) from our garden.

lis said:

My rabbits are 6 months old. Does that mean they need a larger amount of pellets as they're still growing? They're mini lops, so they might be fully grown already, I don't know. I give them an eggcup each of pellets at the moment and they gobble them up in a few minutes, so they must be desperate for them. Other than that they get unlimited hay, and a bunch of grass and herbs (mint, borage, dandelion, parsley, fennel etc) from our garden.

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No 6 months is adolescent heading into adult hood, they do not need any more pellets than you are giving them at all! They only gobble them up cos pellets are like sweeties to rabbits
What you are doing is PERFECT! :wave:

Buns, if possible, should be encouraged to eat a good variety of veg daily. Only fruit is high in sugar and starchy root vegetables e.g carrots, all other safe veggies can be fed daily as long as you have built up tolerance slowly over a few months.
Neither coriander or rapsberry leaves need to be fed as a treat btw as both are safe as a daily feed if so wished.
The weed with the sticky balls is 'cleavers' or goose-grass

Thank you!