How to Choose a Healthy Diet for a Pet Rabbit

Wild rabbits find healthy food throughout their environment, but you need to provide the right diet for a pet rabbit. Use these tips to choose a healthy diet for your pet rabbit.

Things You'll Need

  • Hay
  • Rabbit pellets
  • Dark leafy vegetables
  • Root vegetables
  • Vegetables with vitamin A
  • Wood to chew on
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Instructions

    • 1

      Add fresh hay to the cage each day so that your rabbit can continually eat it. Hay may be the most important food item because it helps the rabbit's digestive system.

    • 2

      Choose rabbit food pellets with fiber. Younger rabbits need more fiber than older rabbits. Give the rabbit dark leafy vegetables such as clover and carrot tops or root vegetables like carrots.

    • 3

      Hang a water bottle in the cage so the rabbit can drink at any time.

    • 4

      Treat rabbits to one vegetable containing vitamin A each day. These include broccoli, carrot tops, dandelion leaves, parsley and spinach leaves.

    • 5

      Give rabbits stuff to gnaw on like wood because it's good for their teeth. Their teeth grow continuously, so rabbits need to work them down.

    • 6

      Baby rabbits need mother's milk for at least the first 3 weeks. Then they will start with little nibbles of food. This often begins with the baby rabbits eating from their mother's dish. Start baby rabbits on pellets after the mother's milk, but wait until 12 weeks to start vegetables.

    • 7

      Feed elderly rabbits pellets so that they maintain their weight. Add a vitamin supplement to their diet if they aren't eating properly.