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If your rabbit is acting abnormally and you have concerns please take them to a vet immediately.
We all know a rabbits diet consists mainly of grass, hay, greens and a tiny amount of fruits. But what does this mean for specific fruits and vegetables? Well, for one, tropical fruits that are available in your local grocery store come in varying flavors, shapes, sizes and acidity levels.
With a rabbits gut being so sensitive, you don’t want to risk GI Stasis, so asking whether or not a Pineapple is safe to eat is not out of the question. But what are the benefits of eating pineapple? Do Rabbits like Pineapple? How much Pineapple should you feed your rabbit?
In this article, we will cover the nutritional value of Pineapples, whether your rabbit can eat Pineapples and the dangers of Pineapple.
Yes, rabbits can eat Pineapple, however, they do contain high amounts of natural sugars much like many other fruits. With good portion control, your rabbit should have no issues consuming small amounts of Pineapple.
If this is the first time you are giving your bunnies pineapple, you will want to introduce it into their diet very slowly. Starting with a small cube no bigger than 1cm x 1cm.
Pineapple has been noted to contain higher quantities of Vitamin C which is considerably helpful at improving your rabbit’s immune system. Whilst it’s not proven as an absolute, it has been argued by a few experts that Vitamin C can help protect your rabbit from arthiritis and colds as it works as an antioxidant.
If you do want to give your rabbit Pineapple, we suggest not giving them leaves or the skin/peel.
Do not give your rabbit canned or processed Pineapple, all fruits should be fresh.
Your rabbit technically can eat Pineapple skin and leaves but it is HIGHLY recommended you don’t feed them this as it can be hard to chew and may lead to choking as well as being incredibly hard for your rabbit to digest.
Due to this, eating Pineapple skin can result in irritating your rabbits mouth and gut, which can result in a lack of eating normally and potential GI Stasis.
As with most fruits, the high sugar count means your bunny should only have small portions of Pineapple. Average sized rabbits should only be eating between 2 – 2.5g of sugar per day.
Typically you will have around 10g of sugar per 100g of Pineapple, in short, this means you should give your rabbit less than 20g of Pineapple in 1 day.
It’s worth noting, this should be the maximum and less should be given to broaden their dietary scope.
We suggest giving your rabbit no more than a 1cm x 1cm x 1cm cube of pineapple and mixing this with other fruits like oranges, bananas and apples.
The first step to preparing a pineapple for your rabbit is to make sure you’re picking up fresh fruit and not using canned or processed pineapples.
You should avoid giving your rabbit the core of the pineapple and skin/leaves. Instead, cut a 1cm x 1cm x 1cm cube from the ring part as this is the softest part to chew.
Pineapple juice is often referred to as the GI Stasis cure, although there’s no solid proof of this yet. Some vets have mentioned that both pineapple and papaya enzymes help relieve hair based GI Stasis issues and stringed poo.
However, this should only ever be a few drops of pure pineapple juice at most. Pineapple juice is not a miracle cure and the extra sugar can cause further damage during GI Stasis. So, please be extremely careful.
Pineapples have incredibly high quantities of Manganese which is crucial to helping your rabbit stay healthy and full of energy! It’s considered a crucial element to helping your rabbits immune and reproductive systems.
But what exactly does a rabbits portion of pineapple contain?
Nutrition | Value |
---|---|
Fat | 0g |
Cholesterol | 0mg |
Sodium | 0.2mg |
Potassium | 21.8mg |
Carbohydrates | 2.6g |
Protein | 0.1g |
Vitamin A | 0.2% |
Vitamin C | 16% |
Calcium | 0.2% |
Iron | 0.3 |
In short, you can expect to find the following vitamins and minerals in Pineapples:
Pineapples are filled to the brim with extremely healthy vitamins & nutrients, however, they have too much sugar per g to be considered a regular dietary choice.