If you’re wondering what other green herbs or veggies to add to your rabbit’s daily diet, consider coriander, or cilantro as it’s commonly known. But the question is – can rabbits eat cilantro?
Yes, rabbits can have cilantro. In fact, it’s one of their favorite snacks apart from their regular diet. It’s highly nutritious, crunchy, and tasty. Your rabbits would love to chew and gobble up a handful of cilantro if you give them. But don’t provide cilantro to baby rabbits as it can negatively interact with their digestion.
In this article, we’ll fairly discuss rabbits eating cilantro, appropriate amounts, cilantro substitutes, and some more topics. So, bear with us through to the end to learn everything there is to know.
Can Rabbits Eat Cilantro or Coriander Besides Their Daily Food?
So, in this section, we’ll try to cover— can rabbits eat cilantro? Let’s get down to the discussion below to know the answer.
Rabbits love to munch on fresh leafy cilantro. Its rich aroma, minty taste, and soft texture lure rabbits into eating this green herb.
Rabbits eat mostly the cilantro leaves. However, they also happily chew the stalks for their richness in water content.
If you ask whether cilantro is beneficial for rabbits health-wise, then know that cilantro is rich in antioxidants (vitamin C). This is good for rabbits’ digestion (the adults only). It can help their system in digesting their daily meals while maintaining good health.
Cilantro also contains vitamins, including vitamins A and K. These are highly nutritious and beneficial for rabbits’ health as they consist of iron, potassium, manganese, and riboflavin.
Besides, cilantro doesn’t have any toxic content in it. For instance, it’s very low in oxalic acid. Hence, rabbits won’t experience jittery feelings or feel distressed if they feed on this green herb.
Remember, cilantro shouldn’t be considered and supplied as the main course of your rabbits. It should be fed as snacks or in a hay and cilantro combo.
Make sure, you feed cilantro to your rabbits only after they’re washed with clean water. Getting rid of pesticides and fertilizers is optimum while letting your rabbits eat cilantro.
So, it’s safe to say that rabbits can eat cilantro given it’s carefully supplied to them based on its quantity, form, and mainly, the rabbits’ ages.
Quantity and Ways Rabbits Should Eat Cilantro in Their Daily Diet
Rabbits love cilantro, but it doesn’t mean you should give them as much as they like to eat it. Knowing how much cilantro your rabbits should eat is vital since overconsumption may lead to various health complexities.
Also, you must know the way to garnish the cilantro while feeding it to your rabbits. Let’s discuss these two aspects below:
1. How Much Cilantro Rabbits Should Eat
A handful of cilantro is good enough for each pet rabbit in your house. You can give this much cilantro to them daily along with other meals like hay and veggies.
You can also feed cilantro to your rabbits as snacks while they’re not having their main meals. But remember, no cilantro for the baby rabbits as long as they aren’t at least twelve weeks old.
2. How to Feed Cilantro to Your Rabbits
If you know how to serve your favorite rabbits cilantro, it’ll be a fun treat for them. Besides, feeding cilantro properly to rabbits will automatically take care of their health.
So, let’s find some ways below of serving cilantro to rabbits:
(a) Clean Cilantro With Water
Never skip the importance of washing cilantro with clean water before feeding it to your rabbits. Rabbits have sensitive stomachs and unclean herbs can really act on their digestive system.
So, make sure you’ve removed all the chemicals, dust, dirt, mud, pebbles, etc., from the cilantro leaves and stalks. Wait until the serving dries out properly. You can also use a strainer to clean your cilantro.
(b) Treat Your Rabbits with Cilantro
As mentioned earlier, cilantro is not a main meal for rabbits. But as they like it anyway, you should use it as a snack for your rabbits.
Fresh leafy cilantro and stalks can prove to be a chewy and aromatic treat for your rabbits which can break the monotony of their regular diet from time to time. Cilantro stalks are watery, and your rabbits can keep their bodies hydrated by eating the stalks.
But whenever you treat them with cilantro, don’t feed them with more than two tablespoons each time.
(c) Decorate Rabbit Meals With Cilantro
A trick to sneak cilantro into your rabbits’ meals is by chopping a handful of it in chunks while sprinkling them as toppings. Adding this herb to your rabbits’ vegetarian meals will increase their appetite.
Rabbits will love the fresh cilantro aroma emanating from their veggies and finish their meals gladly.
(d) Don’t Feed Cilantro Seeds to Your Rabbits
Don’t allow yourself to feed your rabbits the cilantro or coriander seeds. These seeds are toxic, which may make your cuddly bunnies choke or vomit.
Cilantro or coriander seeds contain high carbs. And if it gets into the system of your rabbits, it may cause enteritis, diarrhea, or obesity in them.
Best Alternatives for Cilantro Your Rabbits Can Eat
It’s always good to have a substitute list for the regular meals of your pets. Depending on their availability, you can feed these items to your beloved pets.
The same applies to rabbits. You can’t always feed them cilantro if it’s not agreeing with their stomach. Or maybe you want to shift them away from this herb for a while.
Whatever the reason, you can use the following list of the best alternatives for cilantro:
- Kale.
- Spinach.
- Buttercrunch lettuce.
- Basil.
- Celery.
- Watercress.
- Broccoli.
The above list of alternatives for cilantro or coriander will help you treat your rabbits with occasional snacks. Whenever you find the golden opportunity, switch to these beautiful veggies and herbs.
They’re highly nutritious and rabbits love them. But don’t feed these veggies and herbs to rabbits under twelve weeks of age.
Summing Up
We hope our article has answered your question— can rabbits eat cilantro? We’ve elaborated on our relevant points that conveniently tell you when and how to feed rabbits cilantro or coriander.
Don’t forget to switch between alternative herbs and veggies to allow your bunnies to have a varied and balanced diet. Make sure to maintain moderation with whatever green leaves or stalks you give them to eat.
And always stay in touch with the vet for professional advice on your rabbits’ health and diet.