As the popularity of keeping rabbits as pets continues to climb, the number of people adding a rabbit to their family and asking for advise is also climbing with each month that goes by.
Due to flees and mites being common on rabbits and the prices for the chemical flee treatments being high as well as potentially risky, we have noticed more and more people asking about using diatomaceous earth for rabbits.
You can use diatomaceous earth for rabbits to treat both fleas and mites as well as a number of other potential parasitic infections on your pet bunny.
Using diatomaceous earth for rabbits works by dehydrating the parasite causing it to quickly perish with the diatomaceous earth being very cheap when compared to the chemical treatments while also being very easy to use.
There are a number of diatomaceous earth products marketed as being specifically designed for rabbits but the product inside of them is the exact same as any Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth just with a much higher price tag.
All food grade diatomaceous earth is composed of the ground up, fossilies remains of diatoms with no additives in them so going with the regular food grade diatomaceous earth does the exact same job as the ones specially marketed for use with rabbits while being much cheaper.
Is Diatomaceous Earth Safe To Put On Rabbits?
Diatomaceous earth is safe to use on rabbits when applied correctly as care should be taken to avoid the eyes, nose and mouth of your bunny when applying the diatomaceous earth to it.
You should usually put a light coating of diatomaceous earth on your rabbit too rather than apply it in large amounts as the dusty nature of diatomaceous earth can cause respiratory issues in rabbits if too much is used.
As we touched on earlier in the article, we would highly recommend that you specifically look for and use Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth with your pet rabbit.
Not all diatomaceous earth is food grade with some products having totally different usage intentions so they may not be pure or may have various additives in them that help with their intended use case but may cause problems if used on a rabbit.
The absolute cheapest diatomaceous earth on the market is usually not pure and food grade and may present a problem if used with your rabbit.
Thankfully though, food grade diatomaceous earth is usually only a couple of dollars more and totally safe to use on your bunny and should not cause any problems at all due to the low allergin count in diatomaceous earth.
Can You Use Diatomaceous Earth For Rabbit Fur Mites?
Diatomaceous earth for rabbits is an excellent treatment option for both fur mites and regular fleas with the diatomaceous earth being a great way to quickly dehydrate the parasites and cause them to perish.
You can then earily remove them from your pet rabbit without issue without having to risk using chemicals on your pet rabbit’s sensitive skin and coat.
The best thing about using diatomaceous earth for rabbits over the other natural treatments on the market that can help treat fur mites and fleas on your bunny is that diatomaceous earth can also dehydrate any eggs or larvae in your rabbit’s coat too.
This helps to ensure that the treatment gets rid of the fur mites and fleas at all stages of life where as some of the other natural treatments on the market will not work with the eggs that have not hatched resulting in your rabbit quickly becoming infested again.
There are a number of other parasites that can be common on rabbits depending on your location that diatomaceous earth can work well with too.
That said, please note that diatomaceous earth is not a one stop treatment for all types of external parasites that can take hold of your pet rabbit and some parasites may require specialist treatments.
If you have tried diatomaceous earth on your rabbit but can still see the parasites after a week or so then booking a video call with a veterinarian to have them assess your rabbit via the camera on your smartphone and offer their professional advice is probably a good idea.
How Do You Use Diatomaceous Earth For Rabbits?
Diatomaceous earth is extremely easy to use for rabbits as you simply apply a light coating of the diatomaceous earth to your bunnys coat taking care to avoid the eyes, nose, and mouth and then rub the diatomaceous earth into their coat.
Some people do use a cheap icing sugar shaker to quickly apply an even, thin coat of the diatomaceous earth to their rabbits coat and although it can help, it is definitely not essential.
The main area where people new to using diatomaceous earth with their pet rabbits go wrong when trying to use it as a treatment for mites or fleas is that they will not rub the diatomaceous earth into the coat of the rabbit enough.
You can usually see the areas of your rabbits coat that have already have diatomaceous earth applied due to the dull, white look on the rabbit so it is usually easy to see where still needs diatomaceous earth applying.
Just think of it as getting diatomaceous earth on all areas where fleas and mites may be as well as their larvae and eggs too.
If you do need to apply a second helping of diatomaceous earth to your rabbits coat then so be it as there is no point in only half doing the job as the fleas or mites will quickly repopulate and you will have to go through to full process again.
What Diatomaceous Earth Should You Use With Rabbits?
There are a number of suitable diatomaceous earth products on the market that are perfectly safe to use for rabbits.
Our general advice is to go with a food grade diatomaceous earth product that is 100% diatomaceous earth to make sure that it is free from all additives and this should be fine to use on a healthy rabbit with no skin conditions.
There is no need to go for an expensive product as the cheap Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth is almost always the exact same product in the packaging as the expensive stuff its just the marketing for the brand that people fall for.
Diatomaceous earth is just the ground up remains of fossilised diatom algae and 100% food grade diatomaceous earth is these remains in its purest form without additives so it is all exactly the same no matter the price.
As we touched on earlier in the article though, there are low grade diatomaceous earth products and diatomaceous earth with additives on the market that are designed for other uses and can cause problems with your rabbit.
Thankfully, it is easy to see this on the packaging of the diatomaceous earth and provided you go with something clearly saying “food grade” and ideally “100% diatomaceous earth” then you should be fine.
Will Diatomaceous Earth Repel Rabbits?
Diatomaceous earth will not repel rabbits by itself but some people will add various types of essential earth to diatomaceous earth to repel wild rabbits and other small animals from their property.
This has caused some confusion within the rabbit keeping community with some people thinking that diatomaceous earth has something in it that may cause problems with their rabbit but this is not the case.
If your pet rabbit does kick and try to get away from you while you are applying the diatomaceous earth to its coat then you may be using too much, the diatomaceous earth may be getting into the rabbits eyes, nose or mouth or your rabbit may just want to go off and do something else.
Plenty of people within the rabbit keeping community use diatomaceous earth without issue and it has an excellent reputation within the small pet keeping community as a cheap and easy to use flea and mite treatment due to not having side effects for your pets.
Again, just to reiterate that low grade diatomaceous earth or diatomaceous earth that has additives in it may cause problems with your pet rabbit so they should be avoided at all costs.
People often think that low grade diatomaceous earth will be fine to use with their bunny as they presume that the rest of the contents of the packaging will just be regular dirt but this is not correct as it is usually various types of minerals that were on the lake or river bed where the diatoms were harvested to be ground up into diatomaceous earth.
Conclusion
That brings our article going over using diatomaceous earth for rabbits to an end. We hope that we have been able to help our readers better understand what they should be using diatomaceous earth for in their rabbits as it can be a quick and easy way to deal with fleas or mites on your bunny. In addition to that, we have also covered how to apply the diatomaceous earth to your bunny as it really is as easy and simple as we mentioned but so many people often over complicate the process but there is no need.
