We have noticed a spike in the number of gardeners reaching out to ask if rabbits eat black eyed susans recently as the general consensus is that the majority of rabbits will avoid eating black eyed susans when possible.
That said though, there have been more and more reports from gardeners seeing rabbits eating their black eyed susans as well as people realising that large amounts of their black eyed susans are being eaten with people reaching out for advice on whats happening.
Due to seeing so many gardeners reaching out recently, we have decided to publish this article to share our thoughts as well as to clear up some of the misinformation that we see time and time again on social media about rabbits and black eyed susans.
Our hope is that we will be able to help our readers identify what is eating their plants as well as how to help protect them from being ate in the future.
There is almost always something that you are able to do to protect your black eyed susans as well as the other plants you have in your garden from being ate by rabbits and other wildlife.
Hopefully, our article will be able to help identify the best method for you to protect your plants without changing the look of your garden too much.
Do Rabbits Eat Black Eyed Susans?
Rabbits do actually eat black eyed susans even though the traditional train of thought from gardeners goes against this. There are plenty of documented cases of rabbits eating black eyed susans as well as other plants that people believe rabbits will not eat.
That said, it does seem to depend on your location and the specific species of wild local rabbit that you have in your area. Some rabbits will eat a large amount of your black eyed susans, especially if there are a number of rabbits in the fluffle that raids your garden.
On the other hand, some rabbits seem to be totally indifferent about black eyed susans and will ignore them and raid other plants in your garden or simply leave in search of other sources of food.
We have seen a wide range of reports from gardeners about rabbits eating black eyed susans and there really does not seem to be much of a correlation on when they will and when they won’t eat them.
Our guess would be if a rabbit in the fuffle has tried black eyed susans and eats them then the other rabbits start to join in but without the initial rabbit eating them, the fuffle will look at other potential food sources instead.
Why Do Some Rabbits Eat Black Eyed Susans?
Some rabbits will eat black eyes susans due to them being a valuable food source in some environments with other animals such as deer also eating them on a regular basis too.
The less food available for the wild rabbits, the more desperate they become and the more likely they are to start eating plants that they would normally avoid too.
If you are in an area where you get particularly bad winters where there will be minimal food available to wild animals, the chances of them raiding your garden and eating your black eyed susans and other plants starts to increase drastically.
In addition to this, after the initial raid, the chances of the rabbits returning after having located an easy food source as well as having a taste for your flowers increases too.
Some species of wild rabbits tend to just try as many food types as possible to see what takes their fancy when it comes to flavors.
This is another reason that some wild rabbits may seem to randomly eat your plants at some times and avoid them at others, it is simply down to the rabbit trying a little bit of everything available and then eating the one that it prefers.
How Do I Stop Rabbits From Eating Black Eyed Susans?
The easiest way to stop rabbits and other wild animals from eating your black eyed susans is to raise them off the floor and keep them out of reach of rabbits.
There are a number of other methods that you are able to use but raising your black eyed susans off the floor is usually the easiest and cheapest method.
If you think that the local rabbits are only raiding your garden due to there being a distinct lack of food due to it being winter, you can try putting some rabbit food or kitchen scraps out for the rabbit to eat instead of it eating your plants.
Try to keep the location where you feed the rabbits as far away from your garden as possible while still keeping it close enough to the rabbits burrow for them to get it with ease.
This should prevent the rabbits from getting used to using your garden as a place to get easy food while helping them develop the habit of eating in a different location.
This can help to prevent the rabbits from returning to your garden in search of food in the future too and prevent them from raiding your plants.
Conclusion
That brings our article going over if rabbits eat black eyed susans to an end. We hope that we have managed to help you realise that some rabbits will happily eat black eyed susans no matter what time of year it is or the available food to them. We constantly see people on social media saying that all rabbits do not eat black eyed susans but this is simply not correct. The methods that we have covered on how to prevent your local wild rabbits from raiding your plants should also be able to help you protect your black eyed susans and other plants from being ate by the local rabbits too.
