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This is a frequent question that most rabbit owners ask their veterinary doctors or the people they buy the bunnies from. Rabbits love berries, and watermelon is categorized as a berry fruit. They love sweet fruits making watermelon one of their favorite treats.
Rabbit owners can feed them with watermelons but in small portions, as advised by the veterinary doctor. The reasons why you should feed watermelons to your rabbits are as follows.
Advantages of feeding watermelon to rabbits
Rabbits can get the following benefits from eating watermelon.
Hydration
Watermelon contains a lot of water. If you feed this to your bunnies, they will be hydrated for most of the day, especially during summer. The rabbit owner is advised to give them water to drink, too, because watermelon cannot be the only source of hydration.
Vitamins and nutrition
Watermelon has several vitamins like A and C and also contains magnesium. These vitamins help improve the health of the rabbit. The Choline present in watermelon also helps muscle movement, brain responses, and improves sleep in rabbits.
As we have listed and explained the advantages, watermelon can be harmful to rabbits too. Here are some of the cons.
Disadvantages of feeding watermelons to rabbits.
Diarrhea
When rabbits are fed too many watermelons, it can cause them to have loose stool and diarrhea, leaving the bunnies dehydrated.
Can stop eating food
When rabbits are used to eating watermelon, they can stop eating their regular food, which is hay and water, because the watermelon is much sweeter. It will affect their health because watermelon is a fruit, and they cannot survive on fruits alone. They need their regular food for energy and proper nutrition.
Lots of sugar
Watermelon contains a lot of sugar which can be harmful to the rabbits if they take lots of them. The rabbits’ digestive system cannot process and break down a lot of sugar content in their diet, leading to serious health complications.
Those are some of the advantages and disadvantages of feeding watermelons to rabbits. Can bunnies eat watermelon? Yes, but you must note that the rabbits should eat different parts of the watermelon.
Do You Know?
Watermelons are safe for rabbits to eat, but would you give them mushrooms? The answer you need to read is in our post: Can Rabbits Eat Mushrooms?
Here are some watermelon parts that bunnies should eat and should not eat.
Seeds
Veterinary doctors advise rabbit owners not to feed their rabbits watermelon seeds because the rabbits can easily choke on them, or the seeds can cause intestinal problems. You are advised to clear all the seeds from the watermelon before feeding them to the rabbits.
Leaves
Watermelon leaves are great for rabbits to eat because they like chewing leaves and vegetables. The rabbits enjoy crushing the watermelon leaves and flowers, which do not have any side effects on them.
The red part – Pulp
The red part of the watermelon is good for rabbits because it offers water and is sweet in taste. Although, veterinary doctors advise that you should not feed rabbits this part very often because it has too much sugar for them.
Rinds
The rinds are the white and green parts of the watermelon after the red part. Rabbits enjoy eating rinds. Rinds have less sugar and more fiber, making them healthy to feed your rabbits. When you are done eating your watermelon, you are advised to cut the rinds into smaller pieces and feed them to the rabbits. The rinds have vitamins and nutritional factors that help the rabbits resist various diseases.
Is Watermelon Safe For Rabbits?
If you had this question in mind, you have an idea of whether to feed your rabbits watermelon. Veterinary doctors advise that you should not feed your rabbits watermelon daily, but you can do it twice a week. If you have never fed your bunny a watermelon, start with a small piece then you can progress to adding bigger portions.
