Question: Can Rabbits eat Tomatoes?
Answer: Yes, but in moderation, they should be considered only as a treat alongside a diet primarily based on hay.
The best diet to give your pet rabbit is a good mixed diet to ensure that they are getting plenty of the different vitamins, minerals and other nutrients. One of the many vegetable and fruit options that you can occasionally feed your rabbit is tomato, but this should be just small quantities of carefully prepared tomato every couple of weeks.
What is the ideal balanced diet?
Rabbits like all other pets, thrive on a good well-balanced diet. Their diet should be a mixture of hay, pellets, leafy greens and different fruit and vegetables.
The perfect basic diet
Fresh hay accounts for more than 80% of a rabbit’s diet and rabbits need an unlimited supply of fresh hay given to them each day. Hay is important as rabbits love to forage and the hay is rich in fibre which makes it easy for rabbits to digest it. Always buy the best quality hay that you can and check it daily to ensure that it is not damp, and does not have any dust or mould.
Rabbits also require about ¼ teacup of pellets every day and a good supply of fresh clean water every day. The water should be poured into a clean, well- washed bowl as the water bottles are much more difficult to keep germ-free.
Fruit & vegetables that rabbits can be fed every day
Giving your rabbit a small amount of fresh fruit or vegetables every day is a good idea as they are packed with nutrients.
Rabbits can eat a small amount of many different vegetables including bell peppers, Brussels sprouts, fennel and zucchini as well as salad items such as lettuce and cucumber. Rabbits also enjoy eating fresh herbs including basil, dill, mint. Oregano, rosemary and thyme.
Rabbits can also be given small amounts of fruit each day and these include a couple of sliced grapes (pips removed) bite-size pieces of melon or orange (pips removed), as well as small pieces of peach and plum flesh.
The recommended amount to give your rabbit is 1- 2 tablespoons of either one fruit or vegetable or a mixture per 500g of body weight. If you are trying a new fruit or vegetable to give your rabbit, do so slowly and only one at a time.
What about tomatoes?
Tomatoes are considered a ‘treat food’ for your rabbit because of their sugar content and should be just one of a selection of different ‘treat’ fruit and vegetables that you feed your rabbit in small quantities every 1- 2 weeks.
Tomatoes comprise of 95% water but also contain vitamins A, B6 and C. They are low in fat and high in fibre and they also contain traces of potassium which helps prevent hypokalaemia (low potassium levels) in rabbits.
Can you give tomato to baby rabbits?
Baby rabbits have very sensitive stomachs and these do not mature until the rabbits are 12 weeks old. Baby rabbits should therefore never be given and fruit or vegetables until they are 12 weeks. If you are going to try giving them some tomato, prepare it very carefully and only give them a teaspoon of finely cut tomato flesh. Rabbits usually like the sweet taste of tomato so your baby rabbit will probably eat it easily. It is important to monitor your baby rabbit very carefully for 24 hours after they have eaten the tomato to ensure that they have not had any potential side effects. If all goes well, you can start very slowly to introduce other fruit and vegetables into their diet – monitoring your rabbit’s reaction to each in turn.
How do you prepare the tomatoes?
It is absolutely essential that you carefully prepare the tomato that you are going to feed your rabbit because they can make your rabbit sick.
● You should thoroughly wash the tomato you are going to give your rabbit as it could have pesticides on its skin which would be toxic for your pet.
Even if you have grown the tomato yourself, it is still a good idea to wash the tomato well and then pat it dry gently with kitchen paper.
● Make sure that you remove all the green leaves and the stem from the tomato. These parts contain an alkaloid called solanine and this is toxic to rabbits.
● If you are giving your rabbit part of a large tomato, cut just one slice from the tomato and then carefully scoop out all the seeds as these too can make your rabbit sick. In fact, all fruit and vegetable seeds should be removed before feeding them to your rabbit. Cut the tomato flesh into bite-sized pieces.
If you have a few cherry or plum tomatoes, 1- 2 are enough. Cut these in half and remove all the seeds before feeding the flesh to your rabbit. If you feed your rabbit the tomato seeds he can develop gastrointestinal problems. Rabbits can eat any type of tomatoes including the yellow skinned varieties.
Why should I not give my rabbit more tomato?
Tomatoes are considered a ‘treat food’ for rabbits and are not part of their basic diet. Rabbits have small stomachs so it is very important that they are only given a modest amount of tomato otherwise they will not have any room left to eat the more nutritional essential foods.
As an occasional treat, tomatoes are fine, but if a rabbit is given too much tomato too often that he is not eating a balanced, nutritious diet, he can start to suffer from malnutrition.
Don’t always give your rabbit tomato as a treat, but mix and match it with other ‘treat foods’ such as pieces of apples (carefully washed and with all seeds removed), two slices of banana, a few sliced blueberries, raspberries or strawberries and some dandelion leaves or several carrot tops. Your rabbit will certainly enjoy all of these ‘treat foods’ but you must only give them in small portions as most of them are high in sugar content.
Bad points about tomatoes
If you are going to give your rabbit pieces of tomato every so often there are a few points to be very careful about to protect your rabbit’s health. These points are all extremely important:
● Always take care washing the tomatoes as they could have been sprayed with pesticides.
● Check the fruit carefully to ensure they have no parasites
● Never feed your rabbit over ripe tomato. The tomato should be top quality.
● Only give your rabbit a small amount of fresh raw tomato – cooked tomato has higher acidity.
● Never give your rabbit and processed tomato products – they contain far too much sugar.
● Don’t give your rabbit any of the green tomato leaves or stalks or the yellow tomato flowers as these will all give your rabbit bad stomach pains.
Summary
Give your rabbit plenty of variety in their diet, including a small amount of tomato as an occasional treat and you will be giving your rabbit a really good, well-balanced diet that will ensure that they are fit and healthy.
