Why can't rabbits eat vegetables long-term? An analysis of the reasons

If rabbits eat vegetables long-term, they will develop fiber deficiency. As winter approaches, green feed gradually becomes scarce, so many rabbit keepers feed their rabbits fresh vegetables such as cabbage, garland chrysanthemum, rapeseed, or their trimmings, and the rabbits enjoy eating them, but their weight gain is slow, and the rabbit herd also suffers sporadic deaths from time to time. This phenomenon is usually fiber deficiency caused by a lack of crude fiber in the rabbit's diet.

Crude fiber plays an important role in maintaining the rabbit's normal digestive function, keeping the consistency of the digesta, the formation of hard feces, and the process of digestive transit. Too little crude fiber supplied in the diet will cause digestive dysfunction in rabbits, with symptoms such as diarrhea and death. Although those fresh vegetables are very palatable, their crude fiber content is very low, so they cannot be fed long-term.

In practice, we can make up for the insufficient crude fiber in the rabbit's nutritional intake and improve the nutritional value of the feed by feeding peppergrass (also known as cat's ear greens, frost-proof greens), which has a higher crude fiber content. To improve the palatability of peppergrass and reduce its cooling nature so that rabbits like to eat it, brown sugar can be added to the rabbit's diet.