Rabbit Pellets
A pet rabbit's main food should be of commercial rabbit pellets. Rabbit pellets can be bought in feed mills or pet stores. The best rabbit pellets to buy are the ones that are just plain pellets. The rabbit food with the colorful little treats in them are usually not as healthy and often have a high fat content. Although the colorful bits look more yummy to people, actually rabbits are colorblind so they only see in shades of gray anyway.
Turn the bag over and check the percentage of protein, fat, and fiber. The food you should buy should have 17% or more of Protein, 15% of Fiber, and the Fat shouldn't be more than 3%. Pellets with a low fat content are especially important if you want to breed your rabbits because if the mother rabbit is overweight she could have difficulties in giving birth.
Amount to Feed
You can determine the amount of food to feed your rabbit by your rabbit's weight. The basic rule is to feed 1 ounce of pellets for each pound the rabbit weighs. Therefore, if your rabbit weighs 4 pounds, feed him 4 ounces of pellets a day. Although some rabbits know when to stop eating, other rabbits may eat too much if they have an unlimited supply of pellets in front of them. Measuring out the food like this will make certain that the rabbit isn't eating too much food.
Hay
Along with pellets, you should give your rabbit some hay each day. Rabbits love munching on hay :) The best hay to give them is timothy hay but if it isn't available a bale that contains a mixture of grasses should do. Straw isn't the same as hay, being a golden color and a much more stiff quality. Rabbits normally don't eat straw although they might like to sleep in it.
Feeding them hay is important because it cleans their digestive system and breaks down wool block. You can give them about a handful or more every day.Changing Brands
If you want to try a different brand of pellets for your rabbit, you should switch over little by little. Each day, mix some new pellets with your rabbit's old pellets and increase the new pellets each day. After a few days, give the rabbit all new pellets. This way you give the rabbit a chance to get use to the new brand because if you were to switch over right away, the rabbit could get sick. This is also true when you first buy your rabbit. A good breeder will give you a small bag of his pellets to mix with yours so the rabbit can get use to the new food.
If it happens that you don't know what kind of food the rabbit was fed when you got him, just give them your pellets and lots of hay and they will most probably be alright. Otherwise if the rabbit really doesn't like your food, try a different brand.The Theory of Feeding Grasses but not Pellets
Some people today, including veterinarians, might tell you not to feed your rabbit, pellets, but to give them grass or let them graze everyday. This is because in the wild, rabbits don't eat dry food, and it's their instinct to eat grass.
This is true, but there are problems with this for a pet rabbit because it is very hard to make sure the rabbit is getting a balanced diet. In the wild, rabbits can live on clover and grasses because they are free to run around all the time; but for a pet rabbit it takes a great deal of time and work if you are in charge of finding all the grasses he needs to be healthy. Another thought to consider is parasites that might be on the grass.
So feeding pellets can be quite a bit easier and safer because the pellets are formulated to contain all the nutrients the rabbit needs to be healthy and you don't have to worry about the rabbit not getting a balanced diet. Also, most rabbits are quite used to dry food since they've had them infront of them since they were just a few weeks old. My rabbits love pellets. I'm sure they think they're yummy :)For information about treats for bunnies; see the 'Treats' section of this website.