Is human breakfast cereal a BAD idea?

[Velvet]

Just found out Velvet loves Special K with Strawberries. She goes crazy over the rice and wheat flakes, and now, (never ate em before), she’ll even eat the dehydrated strawberries too.

 

Plan on being a treat once in a while, is this okay? Or, not okay?

[Sarita]

Well, not if you ask Velvet :~)

But yes, it is bad. It’s full of sugar and carbohydrates which will wreak havoc with her digestive system. I think the dehydrated strawberries as a treat though are fine (since you are willing to share).

[Velvet]

LOL, yeah, she will come right up to me for some of that cereal. She’s still a bit slow on the berries. I make beef jerky with my dehydrator, I might have to get some strawberries and slice em up and try that, maybe even bananas too.

[Nova]

They will love to eat all kinds of sugary junk…. you mentioned to me that she likes the kind of pellet rabbit food with the pieces of “fruits and veggies” in it… that stuff is junk and will make your bunny sick after a while. To people and dogs and cats, that fun colorful stuff would probably taste good to us and give us nutrients, but to a rabbit, it’s different. They can get sick from it. It’s just too much for their system and is a marketing scheme. Rabbits have a similar digestive system to a horse, and you know what they say….hay is for horses! (so is grass!)

The bunny eating all the sugar and carbs in cereal might make her very sick right away.

Too many carbs and sugars will disrupt the balance in their sensitive tummies and they can get constipated, and because rabbits can’t vomit,their stomach swells and bursts which will kill them and it is a very painful way for them to die.

Rabbits digestive systems were made to extract nutrients out of very BLAND grass and hays….so the best kind of rabbit food is 75% hay/grass, 25% rabbit pellets (with a high fiber content, no less than 25%, read the labels) and as for treats, dark green leaf vegetables such as Endive, Escarole, Cilantro, Basil, Parsley, etc.

NEVER give a bunny regular lettuce or celery. It can give them diarrhea and can kill them.

You sound like you are new to being a bunny mom. The rabbit’s diet is their #1 concern. Please take some time to read about a good rabbit diet and what treats are okay. You might be quite surprised! http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/diet.html

[Sarita]

I’m not sure what regular lettuce is…do you mean Iceberg, Nova?

Celery is fine and won’t kill a rabbit…

[Monkeybun]

chop celery into small bits so the strings dont get all winded around tummies though

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Ditching the cereal for a dehydrator is great! I wish I had one-that would be perfect when some fruit is just ripe and we have too much, could dehydrate and use it as treats for a long time!

[Velvet]

I was told Romaine NOT iceburg lettuce. I was also tol no broccolli either but see it’s listed here as okay.

[Sarita]

Broccoli is fine but only in lesser amounts. Lettuce is fine (not iceberg but any other kind).

Rabbits do not have the same digestive system and therefore the things that give us gas like broccoli and cauliflower do not give them gas as was previously thought. What wreaks havoc on their digestive system are carbohydrates and sugars.

[Nova]

Yes, I meant Iceberg lettuce. It’s no good for buns. Romaine is fine because it is dark and leafy. Iceburg lettuce is light and with an imbalanced water content which can give bunnies problems. Sorry for lack of clarification.

Celery can have the same effect as Iceberg lettuce on bunnies, plus it has stringy parts that can get bound up.

[Sarita]

I’ve posted this before about Iceberg Lettuce from Dana Krempels and her reasoning as to why Iceberg isn’t recommended and it has to do with pesticides not with the lettuce itself and she thinks that the iceberg hysteria is a bit overblown – anyway, it’s interesting reading:

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Rabbits-703/Lettuce-1.htm

[Nova]

Very resourceful. Thanks for posting it. I would have never guessed. I’m still going to be cautious of it though and not take chances – as one of my rabbits has chronic motility problems.

[Velvet]

The rabbit I had as a child, in the 60’s I used to go to the local grocery store and get all the “old” lettuce, (iceberg)’ they had and were going to throw out. I’d bring it home for my rabbit. I don’t remember having hay around just pellets and lettuce. My rabbit lived quite a few years like that. She was a chocolate Dutch or something like that.

 

I was surprised at all the GI problems now days cause I never saw any with “Bobby”

 

Oh, now days they would NEVER give you the food they are going to dispose of!

[FluffyBunny]

I’ve given my bunnies Cheerios and raisin bran before without any problems. Obviously it’s not an everyday treat, and you shouldn’t give more than a few pieces at a time. They’ve never had any problems from it.

I’ve also found that most bunnies LOVE oats, barley, and just about any other grain that a human could eat. I limit grains to about 1 tsp. per bunny every day.

[luvmyhunybuny]

My bunnies love plain old shredded wheat (Post, no sugar) but they only get a piece every so often. They go crazy over Oxbow’s barley biscuits.

Celery is perfectly fine for a rabbit so long as you cut it into small pieces. It will not kill a rabbit.

[luvmyhunybuny]

Posted By Nova on 06/26/2012 06:24 PM
They will love to eat all kinds of sugary junk…. you mentioned to me that she likes the kind of pellet rabbit food with the pieces of “fruits and veggies” in it… that stuff is junk and will make your bunny sick after a while. To people and dogs and cats, that fun colorful stuff would probably taste good to us and give us nutrients, but to a rabbit, it’s different. They can get sick from it. It’s just too much for their system and is a marketing scheme. Rabbits have a similar digestive system to a horse, and you know what they say….hay is for horses! (so is grass!)

The bunny eating all the sugar and carbs in cereal might make her very sick right away.

Too many carbs and sugars will disrupt the balance in their sensitive tummies and they can get constipated, and because rabbits can’t vomit,their stomach swells and bursts which will kill them and it is a very painful way for them to die.

Rabbits digestive systems were made to extract nutrients out of very BLAND grass and hays….so the best kind of rabbit food is 75% hay/grass, 25% rabbit pellets (with a high fiber content, no less than 25%, read the labels) and as for treats, dark green leaf vegetables such as Endive, Escarole, Cilantro, Basil, Parsley, etc.

NEVER give a bunny regular lettuce or celery. It can give them diarrhea and can kill them.

You sound like you are new to being a bunny mom. The rabbit’s diet is their #1 concern. Please take some time to read about a good rabbit diet and what treats are okay. You might be quite surprised! http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/diet.html

Nova~

While high sugar diet is a big no no for a rabbit, I have never heard of a stomach swelling and bursting. Can you tell me where you read this?

A rabbits diet should be 80%, 10% veggies, 5% pellets and 5% healthy treats. The only time you feed unlimited pellets is for under weight or young rabbits. Not sure where you got the 25% pellets, but that is way too high of an amount

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