Small Pets

Safe and Unsafe Foods for Rabbits: A UK Feeding Guide

By Matt Garnett, founderLived-experience guidance, not medical advice

The quick answer

A rabbit's diet should be about 85% hay or grass, 10% leafy greens and herbs, and 5% pellets. Safe greens include kale, spring greens, broccoli, parsley, coriander and dandelion leaves. Feed carrots and fruit only as tiny occasional treats. Never feed muesli mixes, iceberg lettuce, rhubarb, avocado, chocolate, onion or lawn-mower clippings, as these can be toxic or dangerous.

Get a rabbit's diet right and you prevent most of the health problems that land them at the vet: dental disease, obesity and a dangerous slowdown of the gut called stasis. The good news is that a healthy rabbit diet is cheap, simple and mostly made of hay. Here is exactly what is safe to feed, what to limit, and what to keep well away from your bunny.

The one rule that makes everything else simple

The UK's leading rabbit charities all agree on the same rough balance. The Rabbit Welfare Association & Fund, the RSPCA and the PDSA recommend a diet of around 85% hay or fresh grass, 10% leafy greens and herbs, and 5% pellets (nuggets).

That 85% is the part people get wrong. Hay is not bedding your rabbit happens to nibble; it is the meal. Rabbits' teeth grow continuously throughout their lives, and only the sideways grinding action of chewing long-strand hay wears them down evenly. Skimp on hay and you get overgrown teeth, painful spurs, and a gut that stops moving. Give unlimited hay, or at the very least a bundle each day roughly as big as your rabbit.

Hay/grass: unlimited timothy, meadow or orchard hay. Not the hay you use for bedding — feeding hay should smell sweet and green.
Greens: an adult-sized handful of leafy greens, herbs and veg twice a day.
Pellets: about one tablespoon of good-quality nuggets once daily (twice daily for rabbits over 3.5kg). RWAF puts this at roughly 15g per kg of body weight.
Water: clean, fresh water always available. A bowl is easier to drink from than a bottle.

A quick reality check: if you are buying more pellets than hay, the ratio is upside down. A single rabbit should get through far more hay than anything else in the hutch.

Safe greens, herbs and vegetables to feed daily

Variety is the aim. Feed several different greens each day rather than a big pile of one thing, and keep portions of any single plant small. The list below is drawn from the RWAF's recommended greens and the RSPCA's diet advice.

| Safe leafy greens | Safe herbs | Safe veg & tops | | --- | --- | --- | | Kale (curly kale) | Basil | Broccoli (and leaves) | | Spring greens | Coriander | Cauliflower leaves | | Cabbage (spring/savoy) | Parsley | Celery and celery leaves | | Watercress | Mint | Courgette | | Rocket | Dill | Carrot tops | | Spinach (small amounts) | Fennel | Radish tops | | Salad greens | Thyme | Pepper (a small piece) |

Safe garden and hedgerow plants include dandelion leaves, bramble (blackberry) leaves, raspberry and strawberry leaves, apple and pear leaves and twigs, hazel, plantain, and roses. If you forage, only pick from places you know are free of pesticides, weedkiller and dog wee, and be certain of your identification.

Greens to feed a little more carefully

Lettuce: darker leaf lettuces are fine in modest amounts, but too much can make droppings soft. Avoid iceberg and other pale, watery lettuces — they offer almost no nutrition.
Spinach, kale and cabbage: brilliant foods, but high in things like oxalates or, in the case of brassicas, prone to causing wind if overfed. Rotate them rather than feeding the same one every single day.
Sprouts and sprout stalks: safe, but the stalks are very tough — offer sparingly.

Treats: fruit and root veg in tiny amounts

Here is the myth worth killing: rabbits do not need carrots, and they are not a staple. As the RWAF bluntly puts it, only cartoon rabbits live on carrots. Carrots and fruit are high in sugar, and too much sugar disrupts the delicate balance of a rabbit's gut.

Treat these as occasional extras, not daily food:

Carrot, apple, banana, strawberry, blueberry, melon, pepper: a piece around one cubic centimetre, once or twice a week at most.
Carrot tops and herbs are a far better everyday "treat" than the carrot itself.

Skip the shop-bought yoghurt drops, honey sticks and seed-and-nut treats aimed at rabbits. They are the sweet equivalent of feeding a toddler nothing but biscuits, and rabbits cannot digest them well.

Foods that are never safe

Some foods are dangerous enough that a nibble can cause real harm. Keep all of these away from your rabbit entirely.

| Never feed | Why | | --- | --- | | Muesli-style rabbit mixes | The RSPCA and PDSA advise against them. Rabbits pick out the sugary bits and leave the fibre, driving dental disease, obesity and gut problems. | | Iceberg lettuce | Very low in nutrition and high in water; can cause digestive upset. | | Rhubarb (leaves and stalks) | The RSPCA lists rhubarb as poisonous to rabbits — all parts can irritate and harm when eaten raw. | | Avocado | Contains persin, widely recognised as toxic to rabbits. | | Chocolate and any sweets | Toxic; rabbits cannot process the compounds in chocolate. | | Onion, garlic, leek, chives | Alliums can damage red blood cells. | | Potato, potato leaves, raw beans | Contain compounds unsafe for rabbits. | | Bread, biscuits, cereal, pasta, crackers | High-starch human foods that unbalance the gut. | | Meat, dairy, eggs | Rabbits are strict herbivores and cannot digest these. | | Lawn-mower clippings | Ferment fast and heat up, growing bacteria that can cause a fatal gut upset. Hand-picked fresh grass is fine; mown clippings are not. |

Poisonous plants in the garden and hedgerow

If your rabbit has access to a garden, know what is growing in it. The RWAF's poisonous plants list is long, but the ones to be most alert to include:

Anything grown from a bulb: daffodils, tulips, bluebells, snowdrops, crocuses, hyacinths.
Common garden killers: foxglove, buttercup, delphinium, hellebore, ivy, yew, privet, holly, lily of the valley.
Hedgerow hazards: ragwort (still toxic when dried in hay), hemlock (easily confused with cow parsley), nightshade, bryony, arum.
House plants: the RWAF advises treating all house plants as toxic, since so few are safe.

Many plant poisons build up in the organs rather than causing immediate collapse, so by the time a rabbit looks ill it can be too late. If you think your rabbit has eaten something toxic, phone your vet straight away — do not wait and watch.

How to introduce new foods without an upset tummy

A rabbit's gut relies on a stable population of good bacteria, so sudden changes cause trouble. Whenever you add a new green:

1. Introduce one new food at a time, in a small amount. 2. Wait 24 hours and check the droppings — they should stay firm, round and plentiful. 3. If droppings turn soft or runny, drop that food, feed extra hay, and let things settle before trying anything new. 4. Never overhaul the whole diet in one go, especially with a rabbit that has been living on muesli or mostly pellets.

Baby rabbits are especially sensitive. Under 12 weeks, stick to hay and their usual pellets, and add greens slowly from around that age.

Common feeding mistakes I see

Filling the pellet bowl. A brimming bowl of nuggets means less hay eaten. Measure the tablespoon and leave it at that.
Treating hay as optional. If your rabbit ignores hay, try fresher, softer hay, place it where they toilet (rabbits like to eat and poo at once), and cut back the pellets so they are actually hungry for it.
One rabbit, one green. Feeding the same vegetable every day misses the point of variety and can overload on one nutrient.
Sugary shop treats. Almost every packet treat marketed for rabbits is best left on the shelf.

When food problems become an emergency

A rabbit that stops eating or stops producing droppings is a genuine emergency. Gut stasis — where the digestive system slows or stalls — can become fatal within hours, and it is often triggered by too little fibre, too much sugar, stress or dental pain. If your rabbit refuses food, sits hunched, or has not passed droppings for several hours, call a rabbit-savvy vet immediately.

Because rabbit vet bills for problems like stasis or dental disease can climb quickly, it is worth understanding what pet insurance covers before you need it. Prevention, though, sits mostly in the hay rack.

A simple weekly feeding checklist

[ ] Unlimited fresh feeding hay, topped up daily
[ ] A handful of leafy greens twice a day, 5–6 different types across the week
[ ] One tablespoon of good-quality pellets per rabbit (double for over-3.5kg rabbits)
[ ] Fruit or carrot only as a 1cm treat, once or twice a week
[ ] Fresh water checked and changed daily
[ ] No muesli, no sugary treats, no lawn clippings
[ ] Garden checked for poisonous plants
[ ] Droppings checked — firm and plentiful means the diet is working

Stick to that and you are giving your rabbit the diet nature designed them for: mostly hay, plenty of leafy variety, and only the smallest hint of anything sweet.

Sources

Common questions

What can rabbits eat every day?

Every day a rabbit should have unlimited hay or grass, a couple of handfuls of leafy greens and herbs (such as kale, spring greens, parsley, coriander and dandelion leaves), and about a tablespoon of good-quality pellets. Fresh water should always be available. Aim for several different greens across the week rather than the same one daily.

Can rabbits eat carrots?

Only as a rare treat. Carrots are high in sugar and are not a staple food, despite the cartoon image. Offer a piece no bigger than one cubic centimetre once or twice a week, and feed the leafy carrot tops as an everyday green instead.

What foods are toxic to rabbits?

Never feed avocado, chocolate, onion, garlic, leek, rhubarb, potato and potato leaves, raw beans, iceberg lettuce, muesli-style mixes, bread, meat or dairy. Lawn-mower clippings are also dangerous because they ferment quickly. Many garden plants grown from bulbs, plus foxglove, buttercup, ivy and yew, are poisonous too.

Can rabbits eat lettuce?

Some lettuce is fine, but choose darker leaf varieties like romaine and feed only small amounts, as too much can cause soft droppings. Avoid iceberg and other pale, watery lettuces entirely — they have almost no nutritional value and can upset the gut.

Why is hay so important for rabbits?

Hay should make up around 85% of the diet. Its long-strand fibre keeps the gut moving and, crucially, wears down a rabbit's continuously growing teeth through the sideways grinding action of chewing. Too little hay leads to dental disease and gut stasis, two of the most common and serious rabbit health problems.

How do I introduce new vegetables to my rabbit?

Add one new food at a time in a small amount, then wait 24 hours and check the droppings stay firm and round. If they turn soft, remove that food, feed extra hay and let the gut settle before trying anything else. Gradual changes protect the balance of gut bacteria.

What should I do if my rabbit stops eating?

Treat it as an emergency. A rabbit that stops eating or stops passing droppings may have gut stasis, which can become fatal within hours. Contact a rabbit-savvy vet immediately rather than waiting to see if it improves.

About the author

Matt Garnett — founder, Giddy Pets

Matt started Giddy Pets to make getting pets the good stuff simpler and fairer. Everything in these guides comes from real life with pets and a lot of trial and error — it's practical guidance, not veterinary advice. If a guide gets something wrong, tell him directly.

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