How to Grow Vegetables and Herbs for Your Rabbit

While we're all familiar with bunnies loving to nibble on carrots, they also enjoy a wide variety of other vegetables and herbs. These snacks not only taste good, but also add valuable nutrients to their daily diet. Here's how to start a garden of your own.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Flowerpots
• Potting Soil
• Trays For Pots
• Vegetable Seeds

1. Buy good potting soil, long flowerpots and drainer trays at a local nursery.
2. Buy seeds for your rabbit's favorite vegetables and herbs. Try romaine lettuce, radishes, escarole or endive, carrots, basil, mint, oregano and broccoli for starters.
3. Set the pots on a table out of your rabbit's reach.
4. Fill the pots with soil and press it down firmly.
5. Plant the seeds according to the package directions, but don't worry too much about spacing. Plants grown in pots can be placed closer together than called for on the package; they'll just be a bit smaller than plants grown outdoors in the ground.
6. Water the seeds well and regularly.
7. Continue to water the plants to reap as many vegetables as possible.
8. Pick fresh vegetables and some herb leaves daily; remember to rinse them well before feeding them to your rabbit. Feed only three or four oregano and basil leaves, as they're more likely than other herbs to cause diarrhea.

Tips & Warnings

• A healthful daily diet for a 5-lb. rabbit consists of 1/4 c. timothy pellets, 1 c. loosely packed fresh vegetables, unlimited timothy hay and unlimited fresh, cool water. If your rabbit is larger or smaller than 5 lbs., you'll need to do some math to figure out how much to feed her.
• Introduce only one or two leaves of the new vegetable at a time, and feed them along with your rabbit's standard diet. This way you'll know if the new food makes her ill.
• Remove the vegetable or herb immediately at the first sign of diarrhea. Wait until your rabbit's stools return to normal before introducing another new food, and avoid giving her the vegetable that made her ill again. If diarrhea persists beyond 8 hours, take your rabbit to the veterinarian immediately for treatment and for subcutaneous fluids to rehydrate her. Diarrhea can be fatal to rabbits.