Correct Technical Methods for Feeding Rabbits Vegetables

Vegetables have a water content of about 85%, low crude fiber content, and good palatability, so rabbits tend to overeat them. Feeding vegetable leaves to young rabbits under 90 days of age will cause diarrhea in just a few days. If rabbits develop diarrhea after eating vegetables, stop feeding vegetables, increase the feeding of green hay and dry leaves, and mix 2% charcoal powder or 2% medicinal charcoal into the mixed feed or compound feed for treatment.

When vegetables are grown in soil heavily fertilized with nitrogen, treated with herbicides, or affected by pests, drought, or insufficient sunlight and turn red, their nitrate content increases. Rabbits overeat vegetable leaves and take in more nitrate, which irritates the gastric mucosa and can cause gastroenteritis. After vegetables are affected by pests, trampled, frosted, piled up, and transported, especially in a damp and stuffy environment, the nitrate they contain can easily become the more toxic nitrite. A rabbit can be poisoned by eating just 100 grams of such vegetables, so these vegetable leaves should be fed with caution.

Cruciferous vegetables such as mustard greens, rapeseed, and radish contain glucosinolates. Under the action of myrosinase, they can produce toxins such as nitriles, which can damage the rabbit's liver and kidneys. Therefore, cruciferous vegetables should be fed as little as possible. Feeding rabbits vegetables damaged by aphids and cabbage caterpillars can cause conjunctivitis, stomatitis, gastroenteritis, rhinitis, vaginitis, abdominal pain, and diarrhea in rabbits.

While correctly feeding rabbits vegetables, feed should also include some feed with low water content (bran, etc.) and feed with high crude fiber content (dry leaves, etc.). Vegetables fed to rabbits should be fresh and free of dew.