My rabbits are eating cat food!

[Sandstorm495]

So our rabbits eat cat food. Is this ok for them? Thoughts on this?

 

[chews chooks]

the biscuits or the meat in jelly. i dont think eather will be good for them cause cats are carnivors and the food is made for ther need and rabbits eat grass and vegetables not meat i dont you should continue to feed this to him it could result in nutritional deffitioncy's eather whay it wont be good for them cat food is for cats and rabbit food is for rabbits

 

[jak2002003]

Don't let them eat that cat food. It is very bad for them. A rabbits digestive system is not meant for meat! They have very sensitive digestions and if they get a stomach upset it can be hard to fix and they might die.

I used to work in a pet shop and one lady delighted in telling everyone about her house rabbit aht ate roast dinners and also chocolate bars.

Well she only had it a couple of months and next time she came into the shop she was upset because it died. It was not a surprise to me - I always told her to stop feeding the rabbit those foods.

 

[Bunnylady]

If this is dry cat food that came from the grocery store, the first ingredient is probably corn.

As others have said, cat food is not good rabbit food. Even without looking at the fact that it contains animal products, the balance of nutrients is way off. Rabbits have a lot of bacteria that live in their digestive systems; a good bit of the nutrients in their food becomes available to them due to the action of these bacteria. Feeding rabbits inappropriate diets can encourage the growth of the wrong sorts of organisms in their digestive systems, leading to chronic diarrhea or worse.

 

[Sandstorm495]

thanks for your comments. I was not feeding the rabbits cat food, they were eating it themselves. They absolutely love it! It was dry cat food they were eating-they weren't around to eat the wet-.
bunnylady-is corn bad for rabbits? Is that what you were saying in the previous post?

 

[punk-a-doodle]

I think what she was saying is corn is not great for cats. But, it is usually recommended that corn products not be fed to rabbits either.

The diet that I see most often recommended is ad lib (always offered/as much as they will eat) Timothy hay (or other grass hay, but not alfalfa for adult rabbits) with measured amounts of a Timothy hay based commercial pellet such as Oxbow. There are also lots of rabbit safe veggie lists online, but some lists contain foods that will upset the stomach of a rabbit prone to digestive issues. Rabbits have very delicate digestive systems, and GI stasis is a big killer. Even bad gas can kill a rabbit if the pain causes them to stop eating. Even if a rabbit has a particularly strong digestive tract, obesity is another big killer of pet rabbits, which is another reason why it is very important to limit access to what and how much a rabbit eats.

 

[Bunnylady]

bunnylady-is corn bad for rabbits? Is that what you were saying in the previous post?

Some people might argue that corn is bad for everything - but I'm not going there.

No, the point I was trying to make was that it isn't as bizarre as it seems that a rabbit would eat cat food. Cats are obligate carnivores, so we naturally assume that their food is meat. Since most commercial cat foods are grain-based, it isn't strange that a rabbit would be attracted to it.

 

[yinepu]

Rabbits WILL eat meat. One of the things we always did for a first time doe about to kindle was to give them a chunk of salt pork. They would eat it instead of killing their kits. We would only give it for a day or two right before delivery.. but that's all they needed.

I know it sounds crazy.. but it's something a lot of the old timer rabbit breeders would do.. and it works
You can argue that it has minerals in it that the doe craves.. or maybe extra protein.. And to be honest I don't know if anyone ever did a study on it or not.. but for the does that didn't NEED it it would be left alone and untouched.. others would eat every scrap..

 

[Bunnylady]

Rabbits WILL eat meat. One of the things we always did for a first time doe about to kindle was to give them a chunk of salt pork. They would eat it instead of killing their kits. We would only give it for a day or two right before delivery.. but that's all they needed.

I know it sounds crazy.. but it's something a lot of the old timer rabbit breeders would do.. and it works
You can argue that it has minerals in it that the doe craves.. or maybe extra protein.. And to be honest I don't know if anyone ever did a study on it or not.. but for the does that didn't NEED it it would be left alone and untouched.. others would eat every scrap..

You know, I've heard people say this for almost 30 years (some recommend part of a hot dog); the logic of it has always been to keep the doe from eating her kits. I have never given meat of any kind to any of my rabbits. While I have had a few does that chewed an ear or a foot off when cleaning the kits as they are born, of the hundreds of does that I have bred over the years, I have only had 1 doe to intentionally savage her kits, and that was after I moved them from the rabbitry into the garage.

Obviously, since this is done as a preventative measure with animals that have no "track record", it's impossible to say what a doe would have done if she hadn't been given the meat. I have even heard one school of thought that holds that this practice may be detrimental. As each kit is born, the doe eats the membrane the kit is born in, the umbilical cord, and the placenta. A rabbit placenta is a spongy, bloody chunk of tissue about as long and as thick as your thumb - a bit like a piece of hot dog. The thought is that there are hormones that the doe absorbs from eating the placenta that are involved in milk let-down. A rabbit that doesn't eat the placentas may have a problem with milk production. Eating the meat instead of the placentas could therefore cause the doe to produce little or no milk.

 

[yinepu]

Quote:
Lol.. you don't give them a giant piece.. maybe a cube about 1" square.. even at that, most f them won't eat all of it.. some won't even touch it.. but there have also been several who ate all of it.. and i would rather they eat the salt pork and not their kits

Over the years we did have first time does eat their young (feet and ears.. even the entire head on one).. but it was never a problem with a first time doe who had the salt pork available.
And we've never had any issues with them not having enough milk or leaving placentas behind.