What Do Baby Rabbits Eat? Feeding Guide For Your Pet Bunny

Baby rabbits may be adorable but feeding them is quite a task.

Baby rabbits have been popular as pets since time immemorial. However, they have a very specific diet that must be looked after adequately.

Same as in the case of human babies, baby rabbits have their own choices and requirements when it comes to feeding.

There are only a few things that you can feed baby rabbits, mainly because of just how tiny and fragile these animals are.

A growing bunny not only requires ample nutrition in order to develop into a fully healthy and happy adult but also has a very narrow list of things that it can eat. Baby rabbits are born with very sensitive digestive tracts, and hence, they mainly depend on their mother's milk till the age of eight weeks.

However, in some cases, if they don't have their mothers around, the baby needs to be taken care of by its human friends.

Baby rabbits start feeding on alfalfa hay and pellets from the age of around three weeks.

At this age, hay is introduced in small amounts to make sure that the animal is not resistant to such a crucial element of its diet at the later stages of its life.

The carrots and cabbages that we always assume rabbits to be munching on actually make their entry into the animal's diet way after the hay has been established as the hero ingredient.

To know more about a baby rabbit's diet, keep reading!

If you enjoy this article, why not also check out what do pigs like and what do iguanas eat here at Kidadl!

How To Make Baby Rabbit Food

It is very special to have a young rabbit as a pet, however, it is equally important to make sure that the animal is healthy from an early stage so that it grows up to become a healthy adult that can keep you company for years and years to come.

Baby bunnies do not eat any solid food and survive on the milk of the mother rabbit till their digestive systems have formed completely.

Mother rabbits and their milk is the only thing that a baby bunny can digest effectively.

However, if you have found a baby rabbit that does not have the mother rabbit around and want to take care of its diet and wellbeing on your own, the first thing to know is what a rabbit's diet looks like when it is still young and what you should be providing it with in order to make sure that the little animal develops to become a strong adult rabbit.

Baby bunnies do not eat any solid foods while they are under three weeks of age.

At three weeks or even four weeks in some cases, you may start feeding your babies some amounts of hay and pellets every day.

Although, milk replacer or the mother's milk should constitute the major section of the diet since this is what these animals would eat in their natural, wild habitat.

In fact, some parts of the world have even illegalized the adoption of rabbits till they are two months old since such tiny babies hardly make it to their adulthood and die from a shortage of the kitten milk that they so require.

However, while most baby bunnies do not survive if they don't feed on their mother's milk, there still remains some chance that you will be able to get your bunny past this crucial age by feeding the right foods at the right time.

Rabbit milk is the best for the survival of baby bunnies.

However, there is a product known as milk replacer which you can be used instead. This formula will ensure that your pet rabbit has access to all the nutrients that rabbits need when they are young.

If the formula is not available, baby rabbits can also feed on goat milk when they are around three weeks old.

Although, it must be kept in mind that cow's milk should never be given to these babies since they will be unable to process the nutrients.

Once your baby bunnies are a little older and are more than eight weeks of age, you may start giving them alfalfa hay and other hay pellets.

The trick here is to make sure that the rabbit eats its previous diet during the transition period.

The digestive system is such that when you start introducing new foods, the rabbit's digestive will be unable to accommodate the sudden change. This can mean that the bunny will soon experience digestive troubles and may soon even start refusing all food.

Feeding a baby bunny is therefore quite a task since their diet requires very close attention and supervision - quite like human babies, who have sensitive digestive systems and are given only a specific amount of nutrition per day.

Suitable Food For Baby Rabbits

It can be quite confusing when it comes to feeding young rabbits since they have different dietary requirements than most other animals. For the first few weeks of their life, it is best if the babies are allowed to feed on the mother rabbit's milk.

This milk contains all the nutrition that the animal would require at that stage of their lives, and hence, also agrees well with its sensitive digestive tract.

A domestic rabbit is quite beautiful and its eyes open at about two weeks of age. You can tell a rabbit's age by its developmental stage.

At this age, pet owners should ideally start introducing them to different kinds of leafy greens, vegetables, hay, and pellets. This would ensure that as an adult, the pet bunnies would accept such a diet twice a day. It is also essential since they should only be feeding on their mother's milk till the age of about two months.

Introducing fresh vegetables and hay is probably one of the most tedious tasks when it comes to raising domestic rabbits since the process is pretty time-consuming and has to be spread out over a period of a few weeks.

This would mean that you start with the smallest portions of alfalfa pellets in order to make sure that the animal has its portion of calcium whilst also making sure that the serving size is not so big that it would upset other metabolic processes.

Rabbit milk also contains calcium, but since mother rabbits only feed their young ones for a certain period of time, caution and care are required to avoid any gruesome dependence on the part of your baby rabbit.

Before your baby rabbit reaches this age, if it so happens that the mother rabbit is not around, make sure that you don't start with the adult diet straight away. Newborn baby bunnies eat no hay and would be completely dependent on milk and such replacements.

If you have to manually feed your rabbits, it would be best to start with around 0.8 oz (2.5 ml) per day.

At around the age of a week, this portion size can be doubled. Once your pet rabbit is around three weeks old, it can have around 0.4 oz (12 ml) of milk or formula, coupled with very small amounts of timothy hay or alfalfa hay.

Eventually, as your rabbit's age increases, it can start eating fresh leafy greens and vegetables if they have been introduced in the correct way. A healthy diet for baby and adult rabbits would contain hay (alfalfa or grass), pellets, and fresh vegetables.

Such a diet can not only sustain the life cycle and metabolic processes of the animal but can also make sure that the bunnies are healthy.

What Not To Feed Baby Rabbits

The items that we consider to be 'health food' do not have the same connotations in rabbit terminology. Rabbits and their babies have a very particular diet, which should not be confused or mixed up with the diet of any other animal.

Food that human babies commonly feed such as cow milk is to be kept away from rabbits since their digestive tract would hardly be able to survive such alien nutrients.

It must also be understood that wild rabbits have a very different feeding chart and in its natural habitat, a wild rabbit would never be able to get access to cow milk or bread. Hence, sweet treats such as cookies should never be given to these animals either.

Cookies and other human treats often contain artificial flavors and processed sugars.

While these foods are very appealing to humans, their taste buds, and even their stomachs to a certain extent, will struggle with such foods. Even if your pet makes the most pleading faces and asks for a little crumb of the cookie that you are enjoying, never give in to the temptation.

Such an act can not only affect the rabbit's health but can also earn it a visit to the veterinarian doctor's clinic.

In fact, all baked goods are problematic when rabbits eat them by any chance or mistake. Baked goods such as bread not only lack the nutritional value that your bunny would get from some grass hay but also create issues such as diarrhea in wild rabbit babies.

While a case of diarrhea is not as threatening for humans, it is actually quite a grave condition in rabbits and can even be fatal in severe cases.

A rabbit's diet is open to fresh vegetables and leafy greens but fresh produce can only be a part of the feeding schedule of these animals once they have reached a certain age.

Adult rabbits readily eat some arugula or cabbage, however, the same solid foods would be anything but healthy to a baby rabbit whose digestive tract only looks forward to milk.

Nuts and any fruits that have seeds would also be problematic if your rabbits eat them, since these foods may create a choking hazard. Since these animals are so small, their esophagus or food tract is also narrow. When these foods are not chewed and broken down adequately, the young rabbit may choke.

Chocolates, onions, and garlic are also potentially toxic for rabbits. Hence, be cautious while feeding your bunny any of these vegetables.

It is commonly assumed that all vegetables are healthy for young rabbits and that they would be able to digest any raw foods. However, wild rabbits only like certain kinds of vegetables and steer clear of still others.

Hence, it becomes the responsibility of pet owners to be mindful of the kind of food they put in the nest of their dearest bunny.

How To Feed A Baby Rabbit

If the tiny rodent buddies that you have at home haven't had the chance to feed on their mother's milk, it is best if you feed the bunnies with some formula, goat milk, or milk replacement.

In such cases, since these animals wouldn't be familiar with the idea of drinking milk from a bowl at such a tiny age, feeding with a syringe would be the best option.

Understandably, it would be a very time-consuming process, however, there can be no joy that compares to raising a young rabbit.

When feeding the babies, make sure to understand their age and the amount of food that they would require accordingly. At the age of about a week, a baby bunny only requires around 0.08 oz (2.5 ml) of milk.

This portion size may vary if you notice that the bunny is craving for more. Until the age of about two months, the babies go through continuous and vigorous growth. This also means that they would require the nutrients that would support and enable such growth.

Once your bunny has grown a little, you may start doubling the amount of milk that you give the animal over the next few weeks. In fact, at about three weeks of age, the baby rabbit should also be introduced to pellets and hay.

Pellets and hay form the major part of a healthy rabbit's diet and hence, they should be introduced to the foods by always having access to some in the nest.

If you have been trying to introduce a certain food item such as oat hay, carrot tops, or timothy hay, it would be best to place some near the potty spot of the nest. This might sound absurd, but young rabbits rather like munching on some food while they poop.

Hence, this is not just a great way to feed baby rabbits, but also helps the animal in acquiring a certain taste!

You may feed baby bunnies twice a day if they have been having enough portions of hay and pellets as well. Some occasional treats such as fruits and sweet-tasting vegetables would also be great, although, they should be provided in limited quantities to avoid any adverse effects.

Alfalfa hay and alfalfa pellets are usually sweet-tasting, and since a baby rabbit starts its journey with this variety of hay, it can be quite difficult to switch to grass hay or timothy hay.

Make sure to ease your pet into the process by spreading the transition over the course of a few weeks.

You may be able to tell a rabbit's age by its development. In addition to timothy hay and pellets, your baby rabbit's nest should also always have enough water so that your rodent friend is hydrated and happy!

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for what do baby rabbits eat, then why not take a look at what do insects eat or European rabbit facts?