When Can Baby Rabbits Eat Grass?

At the latest when the baby rabbits take their first steps in the rabbit hutch, you also have to deal with the feeding of the young animals.
Once weaned, the rabbit offspring will eat what you serve.
What about grass in this context? Are baby rabbits allowed to eat grass, hay and straw at a young age?

The answer comes now…

Baby rabbits: When are you allowed to start feeding grass?

Baby rabbits are allowed to eat grass from the fourth week of life. However, there are a few things to keep in mind to prevent digestive health problems or illness.
Is grass healthy for baby rabbits?
Like hay, grass is an important source of fiber, vitamins and minerals. It contains water and phytochemicals that also help maintain health.
So basically, feeding your rabbit grass is crucial for its nutrition and organism.
However, you need to consider some factors when feeding it.

Among these are:

Do not change the feeding abruptly
Pay attention to cleanliness and safety
Check your rabbit daily
Grow the grass yourself

Habituation and change of feed

As early as the fourth week of life, your baby rabbit may try some grass. However, offer only very small amounts at first. This gives the digestive system time to gradually adjust to the new food.

By the way, you should keep this rule in mind for adult rabbits as well.
If there is an abrupt change from hay and dry food to grass or other fresh foods, flatulence, diarrhea and pain are often the consequences. Especially in young rabbits this is dangerous and can even lead to death.

A few stalks are therefore quite sufficient in the beginning.

Your animal may not be directly happy about the grass. However, it can familiarize itself with the smell and receives a new incentive. If the fresh food is tolerated, you can offer a little more every day.
Cleanliness and safety
For grass to be healthy, you need to pay attention to safety and cleanliness in addition to a slow acclimation. This is necessary because the feed can be contaminated or polluted by various influences.

These include:

Insecticides
Fertilizers
Exhaust fumes
Animal excrement and urine
Poisonous plants

Therefore, never collect grass next to roads or sidewalks, in parks or other public areas. Treated lawns are also not suitable.

You should only use fresh food from your own garden or grow it yourself. This works both on the balcony and on the windowsill.

Also note that the grass itself from your own garden may be contaminated with the feces or urine of other animals. There is a risk of worms being transmitted. If you have a garden, it may be a good idea to fence it off.

Check your baby rabbit

When your baby rabbit eats grass for the first time, his stomach and intestines have to get used to it. Pay close attention to how it behaves in the hours that follow.

Bloating, diarrhea and cramps are possible if too much grass was eaten or it was contaminated.
Since such problems can quickly become dangerous in young animals, you should immediately consult a veterinarian in these cases.

Grow grass yourself

Grow your own grass is simple and takes little time.

All you need is the right substrate, some containers and grass seeds. A sunny location and water are enough to cultivate grass even in an apartment. Thereby you and your rabbit will gain further advantages, such as

fresh grass at any time of the year
no pollution
no pollution by insecticides or fertilizers
own compositions possible
no risk from poisonous plants
On the lawn it can be quite difficult to sort out unsuitable plants. However, in pots, tubs or boxes, sowing your own seeds makes it very easy to combine grass with dandelions, yarrow or herbs, for example.

Limit grass in the free run

If your baby rabbit is allowed into the free run, it should already be used to grass.

Otherwise, it can quickly overeat on it and thus suffer from digestive disorders. In addition to the gradual habituation, you should therefore initially keep the time in the free run short. Half an hour to an hour is sufficient in the first days.

This will prevent overloading and the new stimuli will not be too much for your rabbit.
Can wet grass be fed?
Yes, even if the opinion persists that wet grass could be dangerous, this is not the case after, rain by dew or sprinkling. However, it must then be fed immediately. Because by longer duration the danger is increased that fermentation begins.

This in turn is problematic, as it can have a flatulent effect and thus create gasification.

Can grass be fed the rabbits after mowing the lawn?

You should avoid feeding grass clippings to your rabbits immediately after mowing.
Grass clippings run the risk of fermenting due to the liquid that escapes. It is thus a burden on the digestive system. It is better to feed plucked or cut grass immediately.

Can insects in grass be harmful?

Rabbits cannot digest animal protein. Therefore, they do not intentionally eat bugs or worms (rabbits are not carnivores).

However, grass can of course cause an insect to be ingested accidentally.

The good news is that normally this is not a problem!

Nevertheless, make sure that there are no snails, ticks or other animals on the green fodder when you harvest it in the garden. On the one hand you protect the health of your rabbit.

On the other hand, the insects do not spread in the apartment.

Do I have to wash the grass before feeding it?

It depends on where you got the grass.

If it comes from your own garden and was protected or if you grew it yourself in a pot, additional rinsing is not necessary.

Your baby rabbit can also get the green fodder directly.

If you want to remove insects, you can rinse it thoroughly in a sieve.