Pet Safe Plants

You CAN effectively feed your rabbits with fresh-gathered rabbit food, and keep your rabbits healthy. It helps to gain a little knowledge ahead of time.

• Know the nutritional needs of your rabbit, so you will know which pet safe plants can fill those nutrient needs. This is where an excellent nutritional resource like Rabbit Production comes in reeeally handy. We highly recommend this scientific resource, and if you know of any others, please drop us a note!
  
  
• Don't poison your rabbit! That's where this page comes in -- we think we've compiled a very useful list of pet safe plants that can guide you in your quest to safely feed your pet rabbit, show rabbit, meat rabbit or wool rabbit.

Our list of 'probably' pet safe plants is drawn from many many sources, including our own experiences and those of other rabbit breeders with whom we have communicated.

We cannot certify the following list as being infallibly safe. Please implement at your own risk. Nevertheless, we believe we would be willing to feed any of these pet safe plants to our own rabbits:

PET SAFE RABBIT FOOD LIST:

• Alder
• Alfalfa
• Apple, fruit, twigs/branches and leaves (not seeds)
• Artichoke
• Ash twigs/branches
• Asparagus
• Banana
• Basil and blooms
• Beets and tops
• Birch twigs/branches
• Blackberry, brambles, leaves, berries
• Black cherry
• Black Oil Sunflower Seeds
• Blueberry, and bushes
• Bluegrasses
• Bok choy - limit due to possible gas build up
• Borage and blooms
• Broccoli - limit due to possible gas build up
• Brussels sprouts - limit due to possible gas build up
• Calendula (pot marigold)
• Caraway
• Carrots and tops (limit - high sugar content)
• Cauliflower - limit due to possible gas build up
• Celery
• Celeriac
• Cereal grains
• Chamomile and blooms
• Chervil
• Chicory
• Clovers and blooms
• Coltsfoot
• Comfrey
• Coriander (Cilantro) and blooms
• Corn (IF you can find or grow it nonGMO.) Go easy on corn.
• Cowberry, and bushes
• Crabapple, all but the seeds
• Crabgrass
• Curly dock
• Daisies and blooms
• Dame's Rocket
• Dandelion, whole plant and blooms
• Day Lily and blooms
• Dewberry
• Dill and blooms
• Dogwood
  
  
  
  
• Endive - limit due to possible gas build up
• Evening Primrose
• Fennel and blooms
• Fireweed
• Gallberry
• Garden Cress
• Garden Nasturtium/Indian Cress
• Gladiolus blooms
• Goutweed
• Grains (wheat, oat, barley, milo, millet)
• Grapes, vines, leaves (organic only)
• Great Plantain and blooms
• Great Willow Herb
• Hazel twigs/branches
• Holly
• Horse nettle
• Huckleberry, leaves, berries,
• Hyssop and blooms
• Jalapenos
• Jasmine blooms
• Jerusalem Artichoke
• Juniper twigs/branches
• Kale (curly and fodder) - go easy, due to possible gas build up
• Kohlrabi - limit due to possible gas build up
• Kudzu
• Lady's Mantle
• Lavender (plus, may facilitate kindling)
• Lemon Balm
• Lespedezas
• Lettuce - dark green varieties are by far the best
• Locust
• Lovage
• Mango
• Maple twigs/branches
• Marigold
• Melon
• Mulberry, branches and leaves
• Mustard Greens and flowers
• Nasturtium
• Nettles, dried (but doesn't seem to bother the rabbits when fed green)
• New jersey tea
• Oats, whole, crimped or rolled ('old fashioned')
• Okra
• Oranges
• Orchard Grass/Hay
• Oregano
• Oxeye Daisy/Marguerite
• Panicum
• Papaya (if fresh, contains helpful enzymes that can help reduce fur block)
• Parsley and parsley root
• Parsnips (go easy on account of high sugar content)
• Paspalum
• Peach
• Pear fruit, twigs/branches and leaves (not seeds)
• Peppermint and bee balm (but dries up a lactating doe)
• Peppers (green, etc)
• Pineapple (if fresh, contains helpful enzymes that can help reduce fur block)
• Plantain and blooms
• Poison ivy
• Poplar twigs/branches
• Pot Marigold
• Pumpkin
• Radishs and tops
• Ragweeds
• Raspberry and leaves
• Red maple
• Romaine Lettuce (and other dark green and red lettuces)
• Rose, canes, leaves and blooms
• Rosemary and blooms
• Rucola
• Safflower
• Sage and blooms
• Salad Burnet and blooms
• Sassafras
• Sedges
• Sheep sorrel
• Small burnet and blooms
• Spinach
• Spruce twigs/branches
• Strawberry, and plants
• Sumac
• Sunflowers and blooms
• Tarragon
• Thyme and blooms
• Timothy Hay
• Tomato (ripe fruit only)
• Turnip and tops - limit due to possible gas build up
• Vetches
• Wheat grass
• White oak
• Wild carrot
• Wild lettuce
• Wild Pansy
• Wild rye
• Willow (twigs and leaves in moderation)
• Wood Cranesbill/Woodland geranium
• Zucchini

Find pictures for some of these plants HERE

WARNING:
Pet safe plants may be pet-safe, but if you feed too much, you can still upset your bunny's guts and create a potentially lethal case of diarrhea.

Obesity is a huge health problem among pet rabbits. We suggest knowing your rabbit's breed and ideal weight, and then resolving to not go overboard on treats. At the very least, know which of these pet safe plants are low in energy and carbohydrates, and choose these for treats instead of, say, apples and bananas.

If you are eliminating commercial pellets either partially or entirely, these plants will be even safer, as you will have reduced the possibility of carbohydrate overload at least a little bit, simply by reducing the pellets.



UNSAFE PLANTS FOR RABBITS LIST:

Since we found so many plants that are SAFE to eat, we decided to not post an exhaustive list of unsafe plants. One reason for this choice are the many discrepancies across sources as to which plants were poisonous and which were not. Some plants were either toxic or safe depending on the source, and most resources didn't give any reason for why they listed the plant either toxic or nontoxic.

We did find one website that seemed more reliable than others. Additionally, they offer pictures of the plants on their list. If you wish to identify a particular plant as being toxic or not, we suggest starting with the Medirabbit website.

If you live in eastern Canada or in cold climates, try also checking here.

Nevertheless, we are unable to verify the accuracy of the information, so please feed or not feed plants to your rabbits at your own risk. When in doubt, do your own due diligence and research it.

But besides simply sending you away to another website, we'd still like to offer a few pointers as to various problematic veggies and/or seeds and trees:

JUST SO YOU KNOW ABOUT THESE POSSIBLE RABBIT FOOD PROBLEMS

• Cucumbers and light green lettuces, such as iceberg lettuce, can trigger diarrhea (dysbiosis) in some rabbits. Additionally, they have minimal nutrient levels and very high water levels.
• Too much cabbage regularly given might enlarge the thyroid and give digestive problems
• Rabbits don't do dairy products, as a rule, and especially not pasteurized products. This includes yogurt.
• Too much of these at one sitting can upset gastrointestinal health. The problem is these contain high levels of plant sugars and starches, and even moderate amounts can result in too much sugar in the rabbit's hind gut (cecum). The result is dysbiosis, or an imbalance in unhealthy bacteria. Enterotoxemia resulting in diarrhea and death is possible, especially in youngsters:
  • Whole seeds
  • grains
  • nuts
  • corn
  • peas
  • lentils
  • beans
  • potatoes
  • bamboo shoots
  • Don't feed raw beans (lima, kidney, soy)
• Onion, leeks, chives, garlic - these can suppress the immune system, cause blood cells to break open (hemolysis), and can even trigger anaphylactic shock in susceptible rabbits.
• Rhubarb leaves are toxic
• Chocolate (cocoa) is toxic to rabbits
• Avocado is considered toxic
• Most large and small fruit seeds (including apples and pears) are toxic (not counting berries)

Tree Branches:
Twigs/branches of safe trees are listed above in our long list of safe plants for rabbit food. DON'T give twigs/branches from these trees:

• Plum
• Cherry
• Apricot
• Peach

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