Eating grass during winter

Hi

Any advice on the following would be much appreciated please. My rabbit doesn’t eat much hay and has over the summer compensated by eating grass. According to my understanding, though it is difficult to get a straight answer from the vet, rabbits should not eat grass after there has been a frost. This morning we had the first frost of the season. Does this mean that grass should not be given to rabbits until spring or is it okay to feed them grass once the frost has melted off the grass?

The RSPCA information sheet simply says: “Never feed greens or vegetables that are frosty or frozen, these could harm your rabbits“.

While that is clear enough my question is once the grass is not frozen and the frost is gone later on in the day, is it than okay to continue feeding him with grass. My rabbit is always in and out of stasis so I am anxious not to feed him something that could make him worse.

Thank you for any advice.

Christine

I think you've misunderstood. You shouldn't feed foods that are actually frozen but grass that has had a frost on it but then thawed in the winter sun is absolutely fine :thumb:. Mine have access to grass 24/7 and I've watched them eating grass when it's frosty too, the same as wild bunnies do. But given a choice, they would normally wait for it to defrost.

Readigrass is a good substitute in winter and a small handful can safely be fed every day. As with any new food, introduce it slowly to your bunny's diet.

Yes, I second that, it's fine for him to eat grass over winter. I also second the rec for readigrass - my bun finds this almost as acceptable as fresh grass. Another option is you could try drying fresh grass now for over winter if there is somewhere you can pick a lot from. You'll need to do it inside but you just spread it out somewhere warmish and dry and it will dry out in about a week.

Mackers said:

I think you've misunderstood. You shouldn't feed foods that are actually frozen but grass that has had a frost on it but then thawed in the winter sun is absolutely fine :thumb:. Mine have access to grass 24/7 and I've watched them eating grass when it's frosty too, the same as wild bunnies do. But given a choice, they would normally wait for it to defrost.

Readigrass is a good substitute in winter and a small handful can safely be fed every day. As with any new food, introduce it slowly to your bunny's diet.

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Thank you for your answer I had the feeling that that was the case and that he could eat grass once the frost had gone but just needed to make absolutely certain as he has frequent bouts of stasis and is going through this right now so did not want to make things worse. Unfortunately he only nibbles on readigrass.

Thank you once again, much appreciated.

Tamsin said:

Yes, I second that, it's fine for him to eat grass over winter. I also second the rec for readigrass - my bun finds this almost as acceptable as fresh grass. Another option is you could try drying fresh grass now for over winter if there is somewhere you can pick a lot from. You'll need to do it inside but you just spread it out somewhere warmish and dry and it will dry out in about a week.

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Thank you for your reply. I think I just needed assurance as with our bunny being in and out of stasis I get concerned about feeding him something that will aggravate this. He is a difficult little rabbit to feed, if only he would eat hay there would not be such a problem with getting suitable grass. The idea about drying grass out is a good one thank you.

Many thanks for your help.

Christine