Teddy refuses to eat vegetables

[PaigeandTeddy]

Two months ago I adopted the sweetest jersey wooly in the entire universe (I may be biased…ha!). Everything is great except for the fact he will not eat vegetables! I spoke to his previous foster parents (the poor baby is only a year old and has been passed around) and they told me his original family fed him Cheerios and did not introduce greens into his diet. His foster family had tried, but ultimately Teddy was disinterested. He LOVES hay and pellets are his favorite. He thinks pellets are a treat for some reason, so I give him a small amount throughout the day. Originally i did this because he was terribly shy and he’d get “treats” for coming near me, now we are learning tricks hahaha.  He is a picky eater with everything outside of hay and pellets. We’ve tried fragrant herbs and various leafy greens. I even wet some greens and crushed up pellets to go on top! He eats as much as the pellets powder has possible (and maybe a bite or two of greens if it is absolutely unavoidable) and then leaves the rest. I even shredded a bit of carrot on top and he will eat the carrot, but ignore everything else. He doesn’t even care for carrots that much. He doesn’t like much of anything, which makes sneaking vegetables in his diet so much harder.

[Bam]

Veggies are not absolutely crucial to a bunny’s diet, even if they’re recommended. The most important component is hay. If he eats hay and pellets, he should get all the nutrients + fiber he needs. You can keep trying with veggies, a little at a time, very often you have to serve a new veg several times before the bunny decides it’s worth having a nibble.

Carrots are not necessary at all, they have lots of sugar and should in fact only be fed as treats, which in your case would be pretty useless since he doesn’t particularly like them.

[HereComesTheBun]

I definitely think that slowly introducing vegetables (probably one at a time) is key. It’s excellent that he’s eating hay, though!

Just out of curiosity, what specific vegetables have you tried? With my Hugo, I realized that all of the vegetables he rejected were herbs with a strong scent (cilantro, basil, mint). I doubt there’s a common component, though, as it sounds like you’ve given him a wide variety to choose from. I think I would also recommend not making a big deal out of the vegetables and maybe just leaving a small piece of, say, romaine for him to try somewhere in his vicinity. Hopefully, he will get curious and eventually try it. That’s how I got Hugo to eat a piece of cilantro. I suppose you could try mixing in the vegetables with his hay as a sort of a hay topper, but since he still ignored them when you mixed them in with his pellets, I’m not sure that would work. Perhaps he might prefer dry vegetables?

It sounds extremely frustrating, but I wouldn’t stress over it too much. Though it will be great if he eventually eats vegetables, it sounds like he otherwise has a healthy appetite.

[PaigeandTeddy]

Oh thank you! I just want to be absolutely sure he is getting everything he needs to be healthy, and I have read in so many places to provide vegetables.

The good news is that he eats hay constantly. He love eating in it, playing it in, making a mess out of it.
As for the carrots, he’s only had them twice and it was just used as a topper for his vegetables. Sort of as an incentive (his foster parents said they had some sort of progress using the carrots). As far as treats go, he sometimes gets a bite of fruit, but he is extremely picky and i’m not going to give him sugary foods if he doesn’t particularly care for them. 

[PaigeandTeddy]

I tried: basil, cilantro, mint (i forgot the variety), romaine, spinach, carrot greens, kale, little pieces of a spring mix

I will leave some sort of green in his house everyday and see if he gets curious about it. Perhaps he will like dried vegetables more! I have not thought of that!

I have never encountered a rabbit that didn’t absolutely love salads! So having a picky eater is very new to me. 

[Bam]

Generally they do like salad, but wild rabbits mostly eat grasses (they are very much like horses food-wise), so hay is great for them and hay should make up at least 80% of their diet, some vets recommend 90-95%. Having a hay loving bunny is great.

[Author]

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