24 Jun 2024

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Rabbit Awareness Week 24th-28th June

This year’s Rabbit Awareness Week (RAW) key focus for the 2024 campaign is to highlight the importance of rabbits’ diet, which is why this year's theme is “Healthy Diet, Happy Bunnies”.

This year's chosen theme follows the latest PAW report that found that only 73% of owners feed hay as one of their rabbits’ main foods - inadequate hay provision is linked to rabbit obesity - and 13% feed muesli mix as one of the main types of food that their rabbits eat. Such diets have been linked to a variety of health problems, including obesity, dental disease and gastrointestinal issues. ( https://www.ed.ac.uk/vet/news-events/archive/2013/rabbit-muesli )

Rabbits are herbivores, which means they need a plant based diet with lots of fibre as this is a key part to their diet, and keeps rabbits’ digestive system healthy and moving which in turn prevents illnesses such as gut stasis.

Your rabbits’ diet should be 85%-90% high quality feeding hay or fresh grass, supplemented with nuggets and fresh greens, as well as fresh water and the occasional treat. Other tasty goodies they can have include:

  • Basil
  • Broccoli
  • Celery
  • Coriander
  • Curly kale
  • Dandelion leaves
  • Mint
  • Parsley
  • Thyme
  • Watercress 

 

However, not all greens are safe for bunnies! These are:

  • Begonia
  • Buttercup
  • Carnation
  • Cowslip
  • Daffodils 
  • Foxgloves
  • Hemlock
  • Holly
  • Ivy
  • Nightshade
  • Primrose
  • Poppies 


Find out more information here: https://rabbitawarenessactiongroup.co.uk/