Small animals make great pets. In the UK alone there are around 3 million small animals kept as pets, ranging from rabbits and guinea pigs to rats and ferrets. Rabbits make up around half of this figure and they are in fact the 3rd most popular pet behind cats and dogs.
Despite their popularity rabbits and rabbit food are still very much misunderstood. The PDSA recently declared a “Diet Disaster for UK Bunnies” as many owners continue to feed a diet lacking in fibre and packed with sugary, unhealthy muesli and muesli style mixes.
Rabbits need to eat lots of fibre in their diet and they can get this by eating fresh greens and leafy green plants. Luguminous plants such as alfalfa would form a staple part of their diet in the wild. Hay should be offered to your pet rabbits on a daily basis and they would typically consume as much as their own body size in hay every day. Yet, in truth around 42% of owners either do not feed this or do not even understand that hay should be offered as food.
Keep Chewing
Each small furry has different dietary requirements, but rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, mice, rats and chinchillas all have one thing in common and this is the fact that their teeth are open rooted and grow continuously throughout their life. To help keep their teeth in good shape these animals need to be provided with food to gnaw on; Excel Gnaw Sticks are perfect for this!
Leafy Greens
In addition to hay and nuggets you should offer your fibrevore a variety of leafy fresh vegetables; leafy fresh greens in particular are great. Good options include parsley, kale, spinach and romaine lettuce. Veg high in starch, such as potatoes should be avoided.
Vitamin C
A guinea pig should not be fed nuggets intended for rabbits. Guinea Pigs cannot make their own vitamin C and this can lead to conditions such as scurvy. You should therefore feed specialist guinea pig food in addition to hay/grass and vitamin C rich vegetables.
Rabbits require two types of fibre in their diet, indigestible and digestible. To ensure they extract as much of the nutritional value from their food as they can they re-ingest it, meaning it passes through their digestive system twice. Failure to provide the right kind of fibre can lead to illness or even death.
That’s why muesli type foods are such a problem. Rabbits, guinea pigs and chinchillas can become fussy eaters and will eat sweet foods as a way to get a glucose fix. As a result, they can pick out the unhealthy elements of the muesli and leave the rest.
This is called selective feeding and will inevitably lead to an imbalanced diet lacking in calcium, phosphorous and Vitamin D. Above all, this behaviour can lead to a lack of fibre. When taken with the fact that muesli type foods are commonly low in fibre to begin with, the problem is compounded.
Finally, the ingredients in muesli are high in sugar and starch. These are difficult for rabbits, guinea pigs and chinchillas to digest and can lead to health problems and obesity. For example, rabbits eat caecotrophs from their bottoms – obese rabbits often cannot reach the caecotrops which can lead to malnutrition.
No single rabbit food can be describes as complete. That is why we have created the Excel Five Step feeding plan, which encourages Hay (Excel Herbage/Forage), Nuggets, Nature Snacks, Fresh Veg and Fresh Water. For more information click here.
In the wild, rabbits, guinea pigs and chinchillas have a naturally fibrous diet consisting mainly of grass, with occasional herbs, twigs and bark. However, none of these natural foods are particularly rich in nutrients, which is why these animals have evolved specifically to be able to digest fibrous foods and extract all the nutrients they need. It is therefore essential that as pets these animals are provided with the right diet.
That is why we have called these pets “Fibrevores”, as this name reflects their nutritional needs. The wrong diet will lead to health problems for these pets and can be fatal.
Rabbit, grazing in the wild
What is often not understood is that Fibrevores need two types of fibre in their diets – digestible and indigestible fibre. Burgess Excel call the correct ratio of these two types of fibre “Beneficial Fibre”.
The Burgess Excel Feeding Plan has been designed to offer your Fibrevore the perfect daily balance of fibre and nutrition. To find out more about the Excel Feeding plan please click here.