What to Feed Your New Baby Bunny

Many people bring home a rabbit when they are still just a young bunny. But most of the information you find about rabbit care and health is directed toward adult rabbits. You may find very helpful information about how to keep an adult rabbit on a healthy diet, but what about your new baby bunny?

Young rabbits are growing bunnies, and have special dietary needs that differ from adult rabbits. The amount that you feed your rabbit and even the type of food that they need is different. Then, of course, there is a transition period. As your rabbit grows up, they’ll need to be safely transitioned from a young rabbit diet to an adult rabbit diet.

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Young rabbits (2-6 months)

Once a young rabbit reaches 2 months old, they can be separated from their mother and have a diet of all solid food. However, they will still have a diet that differs from adult rabbits. These bunnies are still growing a lot! They need more protein and calcium in their diets to make sure they grow up to be healthy rabbits.

1. Hay: Young rabbits should have alfalfa hay. Alfalfa hay has a much higher amount of protein and calcium, which makes it ideal for a growing bunny. Hay should be a large portion of your rabbit’s diet because it promotes good digestion and healthy teeth. It’s not going to make up as large a percentage of the diet as it does for adult rabbits, but you still want to make sure your young bunny is munching on hay every day.
2. Pellets. Young rabbits should be given an alfalfa-based pellet blend because it will promote healthy growth for young rabbits. You want to make sure to give your young rabbit a healthy brand of pellets. Stay away from any blend that has lots of colorful pieces, or dried pieces of fruits, vegetables or seeds.
   • I recommend Oxbow’s pellets for young rabbits. Oxbow is a well-known and respected brand in the rabbit community.
3. Leafy greens. When a rabbit is about 3 months old, you can start to introduce some leafy greens into their diet. Take it slow and only introduce one type of leafy green vegetable at a time. You don’t want to give your young bunny too many leafy greens at this stage in their life. Their digestion is more sensitive right now. Therefore, you want to very gradually increase the amount of green you give your rabbit until you give them about 1 cup per day
4. Treats. It’s best to avoid giving young rabbits any sweet treats for the time being (including foods like banana, berries, carrots, apple, etc.). Their digestion is still developing at this time and can easily be unbalanced by the introduction of highly sugary foods. 

Transitioning to an adult diet (6 months – 1 year)

After rabbits reach 6 months old, they will need to be slowly transitioned to a healthy adult diet. During this time, the young rabbits are still growing, so they’ll need more food than adult rabbits, however, adjustments should be made to the diet over time and not all at once.

As with a young rabbit diet, you don’t want to make any drastic changes to a rabbit’s transitional diet in a short period of time. You want to make sure that you give your rabbit’s digestion time to adjust to their healthy adult diet.

1. Hay. When your rabbit reaches 6 months old, you’ll want to start to transition them to a timothy-based diet and slowly phase out the alfalfa hay. If your rabbit is being picky about eating timothy hay, try this:
   • Mix in other types of hay. Timothy hay is best for rabbits, but there are other kinds that are also good for a rabbit’s digestion. Add in handfuls of other grass-based hays, such as orchard hay, oat hay, or meadow hay to make the transition more appetizing to your young rabbit.
   • Look for fresh brands of hay. Fresh hay tastes better than old, browned hay. I like to get my hay from an online store called Small Pet Select. They have impressed me with the quality of their hay and I never hesitate to recommend them. Check out their timothy hay for your growing bunny (and get 15% off your first order by using the code BUNNYLADY at checkout)
   • Place the hay near the litter box. Rabbits like to munch and poop at the same time, so placing the new timothy hay near the litter box can encourage them to nibble on it.
   • Hide treats in hay. You can hide dried herbs or pieces of dried fruit in the hay pile. You could even make toys with toilet paper tubes where you hide a treat in the middle and cover it with hay.
2. Pellets. Just like with hay, you’ll want to transition your rabbit from alfalfa-based rabbit food pellets to timothy-based rabbit food pellets. Don’t replace all of your rabbit alfalfa pellets with timothy pellets all at once, since this could be a shock to their digestion. Instead over the course of 3-4 months, you’ll want to slowly decrease the percentage of the alfalfa pellets you give your rabbit and increase the amount of timothy pellets.
   • I again recommend the Oxbow brand. They have Garden Select Pellets for adult rabbits, making it easy to transition from the young rabbit pellets.
3. Leafy Greens. You can also start to increase the amount of fresh leafy greens you give your rabbit on a daily basis. As their digestion is able to handle more variety, you can double the amount that you give your rabbit. 
4. Treats. Once your rabbit reaches 6 months old, you can start to introduce some yummy treats to them. Keep the treats you give your young rabbit to approximately 1 tablespoon or less per day.

What kinds of treats are safe for rabbits?

• Fresh or dried fruits and vegetables (make sure there is no added sugar)
• Baked hay treats. Oxbow has a variety of flavors of baked hay treats. These are especially good because they are hay-based, making them healthy for your rabbit.
• Dried herbs. The only place where I’ve seen herb blends being sold is Small Pet Select. They have a number of herbal blends that also have mild medicinal properties to keep your rabbit healthy. (don’t forget to take 15% off your order with the code BUNNYLADY)
• DIY treats. You can try making your own treats using your rabbit’s pellets and some fresh fruit and vegetables.

Sources:

1. “Rabbit Food.” House Rabbit Society, https://rabbit.org/care/food-diet/.

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