What's Cookin', Doc? - Part II of III: All Day, Every Day

All Day, Every Day

We pet owners often get away with feeding our cats and dogs once, or maybe twice daily, no matter what the "experts" might want to tell us about that. But as I mentioned in the last post, constant movement is a necessity of the lapine (rabbit) digestion system, and one of the secrets to a good bunny diet is allowing them to graze throughout the day on the foods that are good for them.

It just so happens that "grazing" is actually a great word to describe it. A rabbit's staple food is not your salad minus the dressing, and it's not carrots even if you leave the greens attached, though some of our gardeners out there may beg to differ. Sorry, Bugs Bunny fans, but that wascally wabbit is doing the rabbit equivalent of eating nothing but steak. Not the best diet ever, no matter how tasty it sounds. 

Those foods I mentioned - besides the steak, which I will now be craving the rest of the post - are all good rabbit foods in their own way, but the #1 Bunny Health-Food is... *drum roll please* ... Hay!

That's right. The stuff horses eat. How is a rabbit like a horse? They both primarily eat hay.

Start Zippy off with a handful of hay in his dish every morning, and whenever you've noticed that it's gone, replace it with another. Timothy hay, especially, is just calorie-poor enough that most rabbits can't really eat too much, but it has all the cellulose and fiber they need to keep things moving, and some good mineral content as well.

You can find bags of timothy hay in the pet section of Wal-Mart, among other places, as well as in the pet stores around town where it tends to be cheaper per pound. If you have the storage space, though, it's cheapest to do as we do and buy it by the bale at one of the local tack & bridal stores. Store it in a dry place so it doesn't mold - a plastic garbage can, without a lid, kept inside the garage or utility room works just fine.

One nice trick to promote litter box use is to put some hay in the corner of the box, just a bit for decoration. Our buns seem to like that. I don't know. Maybe it's like the rabbit version of a Reader's Digest on the back of the commode. (*shrug*) They won't eat any of the hay that gets messed up, and you can just throw it out whenever you change their litter.

        "Brush Your Bunny's Teeth With 'HEY!'-brand Timothy Hay!"

Since a bunny's teeth grow throughout their lifetimes, it's important to keep them well-worn at all times, and it's one of the reasons rabbits are notorious for finding things to chew on. If their teeth get too long, the pressure of biting down on something can cause pain in the jaws, eventually making it too painful to eat. As previously discussed, this is a bad thing, and we never like it when our Lovies are hurting anyway.

Constant grazing on hay not only provides the substance and fiber crucial to bunny digestion, it also helps keep their teeth in good wear. Carrots are also good for bunny teeth, though a bit high in sugar to give more than one or two a day (another way bunnies are like horses). Celery sticks are very good, and so are wooden pet toys or wicker baskets. Even leftover cardboard toilet paper or paper towel tubes are okay, as long as they don't have huge gobs of adhesive left on them; some leftover staining is okay, just take off any actual hunks of glue.

Just like our own teeth need daily cleaning, you can think of it like keeping their bunny teeth brushed. Make sure they have something crunchy to chew on every day. Follow it up with a sprig or two of cilantro, and their breath will be super-sweet, too.

Incidentally, keeping something toothsome in reach will help discourage the otherwise normal, but undesirable tendency for rabbits to find other things to chew on. Like books. Or bookcases. Or baseboards. Or X-Station controller cables. You get the idea.

Speaking of sweets, next time we'll finish up with what to serve for dessert.

Questions for Pat regarding rabbit health foods or feeding strategies? How is your pet like a horse? IS your pet a horse? Let us know in the comments below!