7 Tips for Feeding Wild Rabbits Safely

I always get a little sad thinking about wild rabbits in the winter since I know the scarcity of resources available means many won’t make it through to spring. Still, it’s usually best not to feed wild rabbits directly, because it will make them wholly dependent on humans for food and can actually attract other animals that end up preying on the rabbits (such as raccoons)

Those of you who live in areas where the wild species of rabbits are endangered or threatened may be especially concerned about the wild rabbits in your neighborhood. For example, European Rabbits have been the subject of a couple of different very contagious diseases over the past decades, causing their numbers to dwindle. They have recently been categorized as Near Threatened. Other species, such as the New England Cottontail, are also being subject to conservation efforts to help increase the wild rabbit numbers.

The best way to help wild rabbits have food resources is by planting shrubs and greenery that will live through the winter. This will make more resources available while also working with a wild rabbit’s natural foraging instincts. You can also grow a variety of plants year-round to give wild rabbits more nutritious options.

• Related Reading: What to do if you find a baby rabbit nest on your lawn

What do wild rabbits normally eat?

Rabbits are natural foragers. They will eat just about any kind of plant material they can find. Throughout most of the year, this will consist of grass combined with leafy plants they can find naturally, such as clover and wildflowers. 

Examples of a natural wild rabbit diet include:

• Grasses: wheatgrass, meadow grass, fescue, bluegrass, ryegrass, Bermuda, orchard, timothy, etc. Typical lawn grass is edible for wild rabbits but is less nutritious than wild grasslands.
• Weeds: dandelion, clover, crabgrass, ragweed, nettle, chickweed, etc.
• Bark and twigs: Willow bark and twigs, apple tree sticks, raspberry and blackberry bush twigs, birch, poplar, rose bushes and twigs, maple, cottonwood, etc.
• Flowers: Roses, daisies, sunflowers, marigold, lavender, chamomile, violets, pansies, etc.
• Herbs: Cilantro, parsley, basil, mints, oregano, sage, thyme, rosemary, dill, etc.

When they are available, wild rabbits will also eat fruits and vegetables from gardens or bushes. However, these are a much smaller part of their natural diet than most people think. Flowers, leafy plants, and grass make up the vast majority of what wild rabbits eat on a daily basis.

In the winter, when plant life is scarce, wild rabbits need to be a lot more creative in order to survive. The rabbits need to compete for limited resources such as bark, twigs, and evergreen and pine needles from trees and shrubbery that live through the winter. This is always a time of year that is most difficult for rabbits.

Is it okay to feed wild rabbits?

There is nothing wrong with feeding wild rabbits in your yard. Rabbits do not spread disease and aren’t generally a nuisance knocking over garbage cans or being destructive toward people’s homes and furniture. However, if your neighbors are trying to grow a garden, they may get annoyed at you for feeding and encouraging the rabbits to stick around, since rabbits can chew up and destroy gardens.

If you do want to feed the rabbits in your community, the best thing to do is try to feed them naturally with your own garden and lawn. However, if you want to do more, there are plenty of healthy foods you can leave out for wild rabbits to help feed them. You might be more inclined to do this in the winter when overall food resources are scarce.

1. Gardening for rabbits

Planting some vegetables or herbs is way to help feed wild rabbits in a natural and nutritious way. You just may have to accept that the wild rabbits in the neighborhood might eat these plants when they are still growing before you have a chance to use them for yourself.

Most plants are safe for wild rabbits to eat. They have a pretty hardy stomach for anything fibrous and leafy. However, plants that you might want to avoid include potatoes, tomatoes, rhubarb, and anything in the onion family (including garlic). Probably the wild rabbits will simply ignore these plants.

2. Lawn care for rabbits

The best thing you can do for your lawn and garden to help wild rabbits is to make sure you don’t use any kind of pesticides with dangerous chemicals. These can end up poisoning rabbits and other animals in the area. Try to treat your yard like an organic garden so that you can keep all the plants safe for wildlife.

You can also allow your garden to grow like a meadow, instead of making it always look like pristine astroturf. You can let wildflowers grow in your yard, instead of pulling them out like weeds. Dandelions and patches of clover are nutritious for rabbits and excellent for them to eat. Letting your grass grow longer without frequent mowing can also encourage rabbits to come and forage.

3. Plants to feed rabbits in the winter

If you’re thinking about wild rabbits in the winter, you’ll want to provide them with woody and twiggy bushes and shrubbery that they’ll be able to eat. Good plants include berry bushes, such as raspberry or blackberry plants. Some trees, such as oak, sumac, and dogwood are also good options to give rabbits, especially if they are younger trees. Young trees tend to have softer bark, which is more appetizing to rabbits.

Planting tall evergreens and evergreen bushes is another option that can be beneficial to wild rabbits. They can chew on the branches and eat the needles, and these trees and bushes also give rabbits places to hide and take cover during the winter.

4. Water in dry climates

If you live in an area that has a particularly dry climate or is going through a dry spell, it’s okay to leave out bowls of water for rabbits. To make sure mosquitos don’t nest in the area and bacteria don’t start to accumulate in the bowls, you’ll want to replace the water every day or so and occasionally clean out the bowls or water trough completely.

5. Vegetable scraps

The odds and ends of many fruits and vegetables used in cooking can be collected and scattered in the yard for wild rabbits. This is probably the easiest way to feed wild rabbits since you probably already throw away or compost these. However, this is also the riskiest method since it’s the most likely to attract other types of animals to your yard, which may include rabbit predators.

I recommend not putting it all in one pile in the yard, since this is more likely to attract predators. Place a couple of pieces here and there around the yard to give the rabbits a chance to forage for the yummy treats you left for them.

• Check out this list of foods that are safe for rabbits to eat

6. Hay or dried grass

If you want to go out and purchase hay from a farmer or pet store, this can also be a healthy food to provide for wild rabbits. They might ignore this kind of food offering in the spring and summer since they usually have enough grass available, however, dried grass or hay can be a good substitute for wild rabbits in the rough winter months, especially if you live in a dry climate where the hay won’t get spoiled by rain.

7. Commercial dry rabbit food

The other thing you can do to directly feed wild rabbits is go out and purchase a bag of rabbit food from a pet store. I recommend getting a brand that is made up of plain brown pellets and doesn’t have many extra colorful or fruity bits. The plain kinds are usually higher quality and more nutritious. They contain less added sugar, which can be detrimental to a rabbit’s health overall.

Again, I recommend taking handfuls of pellets and spreading them across the lawn or yard instead of placing them in a single bowl for rabbits. This will help to encourage the natural foraging instincts of wild rabbits.

Should you worry about plants and flowers that are toxic to rabbits?

In general, there’s no need to avoid planting flowers that might be toxic to rabbits. Wild rabbits have excellent instincts that help them to discern which plants are edible and which are not. In addition, rabbits are much more capable of digesting high-fiber plant substances than other animals. They have a unique digestion that takes fiber and quickly pushes it through their digestive system. So for the most part, you can plant what you want without worrying about poisoning your local wildlife.

The only times I would hesitate to grow something that might be poisonous to wild rabbits is when it’s a plant that is not native to the region you live. In most cases, the rabbits just won’t touch these, since they tend to be abundantly cautious, however, they also don’t have the instincts to know if these particular plants are bad for them. In winter months or when food is scarce, the rabbits might try to eat these plants, which would not be good.

• Learn more about what plants are poisonous to rabbits

Sources

1. Allman, Molly. “How to Make Rabbits Come to Your Yard.” SFGate. December 19, 2018. https://homeguides.sfgate.com/make-rabbits-come-yard-52448.html 
2. B. D. Cooke. “Daily food intake of free-ranging wild rabbits in semiarid South Australia.” Wildlife Research 41, pgs 141-148. June 2014. Accessed: https://www.publish.csiro.au/wr/wr14003.
3. Duggan, Graham. “Rabbits at risk: Some species are among the most endangered mammals on the planet.” CBC. https://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/features/rabbits-at-risk-some-species-are-among-the-most-endangered-mammals-on-the-p.
4. Halls, Amy M.Sc. “Nutritional Requirements for Rabbits.” Nutreco Canada Inc. ResearchGate.net. October 2010. Pg. 3.
5. Miguel Delibes-Mateos, Steve M. Redpath, Elena Angulo, Pablo Ferreras, Rafael Villafuerte. “Rabbits as a keystone species in southern Europe.” Biological Conservation. Science Direct. June 2007. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006320707000572.
6. “Orphaned Baby Bunnies: Wild and Domestic.” House Rabbit Society. May 12, 2020. https://rabbit.org/care/feeding-caring-for-orphans/.
7. Pollack, Christal DVM. “Basic Information Sheet: Cottontail Rabbit.” LefeberVet. March, 2013. https://lafeber.com/vet/basic-information-for-the-cottontail-rabbit.