Feeding rabbits, step by step
Interactive lesson: hay ad lib, greens without diarrhoea, branches and tree hay, mixes and pellets, how much for whom and changing feed.
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The whole lesson as text
1. How a rabbit eats
A rabbit is a herbivore with a caecum: it lives on fibre, and its gut has to keep moving all the time.
- Hay ad lib — Hay every day, all year round, in a rack outside the hutch or above the floor, so it doesn't fall into droppings. It is the base of the ration, not an extra.
- Little and often — A rabbit eats many times a day, mostly in the evening, at night and at dawn. Water always: without water a rabbit doesn't eat.
- Teeth keep growing — Teeth grow all its life, roughly 2 mm a week. They wear down only through long chewing of hay, grass and branches.
- Two kinds of droppings — Hard, dry pellets are normal. The rabbit eats the soft clusters itself early in the morning; if you find them uneaten, it is getting too many pellets or too much sugar.
Why: Bacteria in the gut digest the fibre from hay and grass. A rabbit without hay can go into gut stasis within 12–24 hours, and a sudden lot of grass, pellets or bread brings diarrhoea that in youngsters often ends in death.
- The order is always the same: for a rabbit, fibre first, then water, and only then grain.
- A rabbit fed only pellets and soft food gets overgrown teeth, drools and stops eating.
2. Hay
Hay is food number one, summer and winter.
- Meadow hay — Early-cut, green, sweet-smelling meadow hay is best for every day and for all rabbits. An adult rabbit eats roughly 150–250 g of it a day.
- Lucerne and aftermath — Aftermath (second cut) and lucerne hay have more protein: for nursing does and growing youngsters. Only a little lucerne for adults.
- Mouldy for nobody — Mouldy, dusty and heated hay goes into the compost or the bedding. Wear a mask while you carry it.
- Stock for winter — Roughly 40 kg per doe, 30 kg per buck and 3 kg per grower, plus 20 % as a reserve. Let new hay rest for 4–6 weeks.
Why: An adult rabbit of 4–5 kg eats roughly 150–250 g of hay a day alongside pellets, and more without them. Bad hay carries disease: mouldy hay and silage can bring listeriosis and botulism.
- Never silage or haylage. If you find a dead animal in a bale, throw the whole bale away, not just the part around the carcass.
- Fill the racks morning and evening. Stalks the rabbit leaves go into the bedding, not back into the rack.
3. Grass and greens · Locked
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4. Branches and poisonous plants · Locked
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5. Mixes and pellets · Locked
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6. How much for whom, and changing feed · Locked
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