The popularity of keeping rabbits as pets has been constantly increasing year on year for over a decade now.
As you can probably imagine, with so many people new to keeping rabbits, we have noticed a huge spike in the number of questions that we see people reaching out and asking when they get their new bunny.
Although many of these questions as the standard things that we would expect people to be reaching out about when getting a new pet, we have noticed more and more people specifically reaching out to ask if a rabbit is an omnivore, herbivore or carnivore.
Due to seeing so many people consistently reaching out about this as well as the diet of your bunny being of the utmost importance for it to live a long and healthy life, we have decided to publish this dedicated article on the subject.
Our hope is that we will be able to help as many of our readers as possible better understand the diet they should be offering to their pet bunny. Not only will feeding your pet rabbit the correct diet help its overall health but it can actually save you a surprising amount of money too.
We have lost count of the number of people that we have seen purchasing expensive foods that are designed for other animals to try and feed them to their pet rabbits for no reason.
Is A Rabbit An Omnivore, Herbivore Or Carnivore?
Rabbits are strict herbivores and are not able to live on an omnivore of carnivore based diet.
Although there are reports from people saying that they feed their pet rabbit an omnivore diet, it is highly likely that their pet rabbit is picking through the food and only eating the suitable foods and leaving all of the meat behind.
Due to some of these reports about rabbits being omnivores coming from some pretty high profile names on social media with millions of followers, we have noticed more and more people reaching out to ask about rabbits being omnivores.
This is not correct and rabbits are strict herbivores and should be fed a a suitable diet for rabbits that offers plenty of plant-based foods covering a range of plant products to ensure that your rabbit gets all of the vitamins and minerals that it needs.
More and more people are switching over to including kitchen scraps as a part of their pet rabbits diet too and this is fine provided that these kitchen scraps are vegetable-based.
Ideally though, these kitchen scraps will only be used to supplement your pet rabbits diet as the specialist rabbit foods are a much better option as their core food.
Are There Any Carnivorous Bunnies?
There are no carnivorous rabbit species and although they are a totally different type of animal, many people confuse rabbits and hares with the snowshoe hare being known to not only be carnivorous but also a cannibal.
When this news broke back in 2019, some media outlets did report them as being snowshoe rabbits leading to this misconception.
Neither rabbits or hares have evolved to live from a carnivore diet though and their mouths and digestive systems are not optimised to process meat to absorb energy and nutrients.
It is thought that the snowshoe hare is starting to include meat in its diet due to necessity as the harsh winters in Canada Yukon Territory offer little in the way of vegetation.
You should never try feeding your pet rabbit meat for any reason. There are plenty of plant-based foods that are cheap and widely available for your pet rabbit so there will always be a better option.
Additionally, some types of meat can be high in substances such as mercury and iron that may lead to long term health issues in your pet rabbit.
Are Rabbits Allowed To Eat Meat?
Rabbits are now allowed to eat meat and the vast majority of rabbits will simply turn their head away from any meat that they are offered.
Unfortunately, some rabbit owners do try to feed their pets an omnivore based diet but the rabbits seem to pick the vegetable-based foods from their meals and leave the meat.
This is what we meant earlier in our article as omnivore based foods tend to cost considerably more than a regular rabbit food even though your pet rabbit will not eat the meat contained in them.
This is why just sticking to a suitable, vegetable-based food for your pet rabbit will work out to be cheaper than trying to get them to eat an omnivore diet.
As we touched on earlier, too much mercury or iron in your rabbit’s diet may lead to long term health issues too.
This is another reason that omnivore foods should never be used with rabbits as some of the mercury or iron may transfer from the food that your rabbit will not eat to the food that your rabbit will eat and cause problems.
Conclusion
That brings our article going over if a rabbit is an omnivore or not to an end. We hope that we have been able to help as many of our readers as possible as a shockingly high number of people are reaching out to ask if a rabbit is an omnivore and if they are able to eat meat. As we have explained above, your rabbit should always be fed vegetable-based foods with no exception and omnivore based food products should be avoided.
