Grasses and Plants Rabbits Must Not Eat

1 Grasses and Plants to Avoid

Never feed these in any form, as their compounds poison rabbits and can be fatal in excess: groundsel, nasturtium, potato vines, tomato vines, wild grape vines, pulsatilla (pasqueflower), larch, larkspur, harmel (Peganum), wild ginger, castor bean, aconite (monkshood), pieris (Japanese andromeda), deciduous azalea, false hellebore, black henbane, white henbane, datura (jimsonweed), wolf poison (Stellera), belladonna (deadly nightshade), and calla lily.

Sweet clover, buckwheat, and rape are toxic while flowering, but safe at other times with no bad reaction.

Flax is toxic when its seeds and bolls mature; sprouted potatoes poison rabbits just as they do people, so keep them out of the feed.

Some plants are unsafe only at certain times. A lactating doe must avoid oxalis (sorrel), wild onion, autumn crocus, wood anemone, stinking mayweed, arcuate rockcress, common bugloss, water hemlock, and reed tansy, or her milk takes on a foul smell and poisons the nursing kits.

Rabbits also should not eat corn seedlings or sorghum seedlings, which easily cause reactions.

2 Grasses Rabbits Like

Alfalfa: weanlings up to about six months and does just after kindling can eat it because its high calcium aids recovery; other ages should not overdo it or urinary trouble follows.

Timothy: best for grown adults; its long stems and few leaves grind the teeth, and its high fiber, low protein suits rabbits of every age.

Sweet buckwheat: mildly sweet so rabbits like it, but it is low in value and high in protein, so not as a staple; offer small amounts when appetite is poor.

Bermuda grass: high fiber eases hairball trouble and aids digestion, good for long-haired rabbits prone to hairballs or overweight rabbits that need to slim.