# Feeding Rabbits Garden and Kitchen Scraps



## Haven (Aug 16, 2010)

Please post here if you feed your rabbits garden and kitchen scraps. Would love to compile a list of acceptable scraps they can eat.

My compost pile is near the rabbits and I often wonder if certain fruits or veggies that are going into the pile could be fed to the rabbits to help reduce feed costs and add a more nutritionally varied diet.


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## MaggieJ (Feb 6, 2006)

Many fruits and vegetables can be fed to rabbits in moderation. There are also many common weeds that are even better free food for them, however. See the *Natural Feeding * and *Safe Plants* stickies at the top for ideas. 

The most important thing to remember when making *any* changes in a rabbit's diet is to make the changes slowly, starting with a small amount of the new food and working it up from there. It is sudden changes that cause the problems, not the greens themselves. This goes double if you currently feed only pellets.


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## Haven (Aug 16, 2010)

Yes, mine eat a varied diet with lots of grasses, plantains and dandilions. The Weed sticky is great.

I'm curious what can be fed that comes out of the kitchen and garden. I often toss out onions, carrots, potatoes and all kinds of cooking scraps.


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## akane (Jul 19, 2011)

Most everything can be fed it's just the amount. Onions and garlic of all species are an exception and most beans should not be fed raw. Also depends greatly what your rabbits are used to. If they never get fruit even if they get other greens I wouldn't go give them a chunk of apple or pear which are the hardest on the digestive tract. Berries, kiwi, and banana would be a better starting place since they are more balanced and easier to digest leading to less chance of bloat or diarrhea from sudden bacteria blooms in the intestines. 

Mine used to get all the peels and leftovers from the following:
frozen mixed raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, & blackberries
cantaloupe
orange
red apple
papaya
cucumber
butternut squash 
bok choy
red bell pepper
frozen vegetable mix of peas, green beans, carrots, & corn
jicama
sweet potato
turnip greens
okra
mustard spinach
mango
snow peas
pole beans
melons

That was all required to feed our sugar gliders a properly varied diet from month to month. Often we couldn't buy exactly the amount we'd use or there would be peels the gliders wouldn't eat so the rabbits got a feast about 3-4 times a week with the glider food mixed monthly and the extras frozen until they could be fed to the rabbits in those smaller meals. Each rabbit made off with one piece of something or a couple small pieces that equaled about the size of their head each time. Even in winter they still will eat the banana and kiwi peels frozen. Now that we only have 1 glider though we cheat and use baby food for some of it plus making her eat the same food longer before switching to another so there is less waste and little goes to the rabbits.

Now they only get kiwi peel, banana peel, and excess berries I make my smoothies out of plus a little red bell pepper or some pole beans or snap peas from the birds' veggie mix.

Also my rabbits get unlimited hay, branches, raspberry canes (stuff has gone wild and surrounds 3/4ths of the property), and other high fiber foods with minimal pellets. I would not feed kitchen scraps to a rabbit on pellets only or that just occasionally gets high fiber foods.


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## pancho (Oct 23, 2006)

The list would be much shorter if it was a list of things rabbits could not eat.


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## Haven (Aug 16, 2010)

So pretty much anything but onions and garlic. :]

Thanks.


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## MaggieJ (Feb 6, 2006)

No onions, garlic or *beans*. 

Be very careful with the brassicas: cabbage, kale, cauliflower etc. All the gassy ones! Some rabbits can handle them in moderation after an appropriate introduction to fresh foods. Others seem to have problems... and you don't want bloated rabbits! Feeding hay and tree branches from safe trees helps a lot, as Akane has already said. 

It can't be said often enough: go slow and watch how your rabbits are doing on the fresh foods. They need time to adjust.


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

No cabbage or other brassicas 2-3 weeks before butcher unless you like the flavor or smell while cooking. Change diet slowly and a wide variety is better than 1 or 2 things. Some will not eat some things, others will.....James


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## akane (Jul 19, 2011)

Some beans are fed raw without problems. Green beans which includes some beans often called pole beans and bush beans (the type we would eat in the pod still green, fresh or maybe steamed some), adzuki beans, chickpeas which are also called garbanzo beans, mung beans, lentils... Small amounts like everything and they shouldn't be a problem. I haven't fed most of those to rabbits specifically so I don't know what they'd like except pole beans and chickpeas (fresh not dried). I feed all of those raw; fresh, dry, and sprouted, to my birds, gerbils, and hamsters.

On the definite to avoid and never eat raw list are Anasazi, Black, Fava, Kidney, Lima, Navy, Pinto, and Soy.


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