In rabbit farming, it is important to feed your pets a balanced diet. Using the wrong food can harm your rabbits. Kind owners often want to pamper them and add food they like to their diet. Often (especially owners of decorative breeds) they ask whether it is possible to give rabbits tangerines and oranges, and similar ingredients that are unconventional for our area. Citrus fruits are considered dangerous foods and are fed to rabbits with caution.
Can rabbits be given tangerines?
Often noticing that the rabbit likes citrus fruits, the owner of the animal begins to give this fruit more often.Moreover, they feed the fruit with pulp and peel, since he eats it with pleasure. But few people know that the peel of any citrus fruit contains many essential oils that are undesirable for the eared animal. A large amount of essential oil causes indigestion and leads to severe allergies.
Attention! From the citrus family, tangerines are the safest to feed. But even this fruit should be given little by little, especially carefully, until the rabbit gets used to the unusual treat, 1-2 slices once every 15-20 days.
Grapefruits and oranges cause the most damage, and they have the most dangerous peel. It’s better not to give tangerine peels at all. But it is acceptable to occasionally feed a very small piece of skin. But this cannot be done more than once every 2 weeks.
It is best to choose seasonal tangerines for pets. They have a soft and delicate taste, slight acidity and will not harm the animal’s body. The most important thing is to strictly control the composition of your diet and maintain moderation.
How to give tangerines?
It turns out that these fruits, and especially the peel, contain a whole bunch of different microelements, vitamins and other useful substances. Citrus fertilizer is very useful for rabbits, especially decorative ones, in the winter. But you should not allow an excess of essential oils in the food; do not forget that most of them are contained in the crusts.
In small quantities, these compounds will benefit the animal's body. For example, essential oils found in fennel, dill seeds, wormwood, carrots, and tansy inflorescences greatly reduce the activity of many animal parasites and harmful microorganisms. Improve intestinal activity and speed up metabolism.In addition, the rabbit's body requires a lot of fiber.
But officially, wormwood is a poisonous plant for long-eared animals, but as a preventative measure, it can be fed once a week.
What is the difference between citrus essential oils and other plant oils? Moreover, in nature these animals are found in those regions where lemons and tangerines grow. The fact is that only in small quantities these substances provide benefits. They act not as food, but as medicine; if you give too much of it, there will be no benefit from it, and some substances can turn into poison.
Contraindications and possible harm
The peel of tangerine fruit contains vitamin C, up to 2.5% essential oil, it contains pectins, coloring and bitter substances, carotene, flavonoids and organic acids. Rabbits, in addition to the pulp and skin, will benefit from the white mesh surrounding the fruit. It contains an unusually large amount of glycosides - elements that make the animal’s blood vessels stronger.
A small amount of fresh tangerine peel activates the production of gastric secretions and improves the absorption of nutrients, in addition, it helps to relieve abdominal pain, bronchitis and diarrhea, and dry peel serves as a sedative for the nervous system.
Small rabbits (up to 3 months), ornamental animals and albinos are especially susceptible to allergic phenomena to citrus. If in doubt, forget about this food altogether. There is no risk here.
To avoid harming your rabbit, first test it for sensitivity to citrus fruits by feeding a small amount of tangerine along with other food.For example, moisten a little cracker with drops of tangerine or orange juice, and after a few hours look at your pet’s condition.
Keep in mind that nowadays traders treat fruits with wax or chemical compounds to increase shelf life. For this reason, before giving the fruit to the animal, you need to wash it well with hot water; if possible, purchase those that were not processed before transportation, for example, from Abkhazia.
Don't forget that rabbits have a very delicate digestive system, this is especially important when creating a diet for babies.
