Holland lop loves super spicy peppers?

[Lemony]

My roommate has been growing this pepper plant and recently moved it inside since it started getting colder. Ever since then, we’ve found that our holland lop has been nonstop eating the leaves (normal) and the peppers themselves (not normal?). These peppers are hot, they’re way too spicy for me to even chew for a second and I love spicy food. I don’t exactly remember what kind of peppers they are, but every time we get home from work there’s half-eaten peppers all over the ground. I was pretty sure rabbits hated spicy things, is this dangerous for her to be eating? And why does she love it? It seems so strange that she can not only handle but enjoy something this extremely hot.

Any thoughts or input is appreciated!

[jerseygirl]

Actually, this subject came up in the Chat thread last month. Im taking the lazy option here and copy/pasting my post from there.

I read last week about rabbits eating chillies without batting an eyelid. It was on Frances Harcourt Browns facebook page. She is the British vet that wrote textbook of rabbit medicine – so she knows rabbits! Anyway, this was the FB post she made:

I’ve just had my grandchildren to stay and they were amazed to find that rabbits enjoy dried chillies. It started when they saw the two that live in the parrot aviary scavenging rejected chillies from the rabbit food** so they offered some to my indoor rabbits Earl and Jack (the shy one). The rabbits didn’t show any ill effects either when they ate the chillies or afterwards. This wouldn’t be the case if it was me.

** I think that is meant to say bird food, not rabbit food.

Anyway, there was a bit of a casual discussion about it was thought maybe rabbits have different taste receptors like birds do, and they perhaps don’t feel the heat of the chillies. Or they’re just tough as nuts!
.One poster mentionend their rabbit found and ate an entire plant and all the chillies on it and didn’t suffer any ill effects! I should note, most posters generally said they wouldn’t give their rabbits chillies as a regular thing..

You might want to put the plant out of her reach though. Least then there be some left for you and your room mate! I couldn’t say what the affects of eating the whole plant would be… It may vary rabbit to rabbit. Some are more sensitive then others.

[Lemony]

That’s helpful, thanks! I was mostly worried she wasn’t being receptive to something that was hurting her health. It’s way too spicy for my roommate and I to eat though haha, we’ll just try to keep it out of her reach as best as we can

[Author]

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