Click to Skip Ahead
Rabbits are known for munching on greens, carrots, and hay, but what about fruits? Blackberries are delicious summer treats, and when they’re in season, you might want to share them with your pet. If you want to feed blackberries to your rabbit, go ahead! Just make sure to serve them in moderation.
Blackberry Serving Size
Rabbits are herbivores that eat all sorts of plants, including fruits. Adding blackberries to your rabbit’s diet can be a great idea. They are healthy treats that are full of vitamins and minerals. However, you do want to be careful about feeding your pet too many. Rabbits aren’t built to handle too much sugar. Giving your bunny too many berries might throw off their digestive bacteria, cause them to weight gain, or affect their stool.
We recommend feeding your rabbit berries every few days at the latest. When you do give your pet berries, give a maximum of 1 tablespoon for every 2 pounds of body weight. That’s about one large berry or two small berries. You can also feed your rabbit one or two berries as a special treat here and there, but always watch their reaction afterward, just to be safe.
What About the Leaves and Stems?
Blackberry brambles are great for your rabbit. The leaves, stems, and bushes make delicious and healthy snacks. Many rabbits love to eat berry leaves, which can be healthy additions to their diet. Rabbits can even safely eat thorny stems! You can cut fresh leaves for your rabbit to eat, or you can let your bunny out to graze if you have berry bushes in your yard.
There’s one big caveat, though. Many berry brambles are covered in pesticides! If you don’t know how a blackberry bush has been treated or if you use pesticide in your garden, it’s better to be safe than sorry and keep your pet away. You don’t want to get your rabbit sick by letting them eat plants grown with pesticides.
Do Wild Rabbits Eat Blackberries?
Blackberries grow wild in many places across North America, including the northeastern United States and the Pacific Coast. There are also blackberry species native to Europe. So, it’s not surprising that many wild rabbits eat blackberries. In the wild, they’ll eat blackberry brambles in the spring, summer, and fall. It’s a great food source for most of the year. They might also eat some berries when they are ripe in the summer. Since they can only eat low-hanging berries and only for a few months of the year, most wild rabbits don’t get to eat too many blackberries. Even though it isn’t a big part of rabbit cuisine, berries are a natural food to give your bunny at home.
Other Berries to Feed Your Bunny
Along with blackberries, you can feed your bunny most types of berries. Just keep the servings small. You don’t want to feed your bunny these fruits every day. Rabbits can eat raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries.
Final Note
Blackberries are a great source of vitamins and delicious sweet treats that your rabbit will love! They’re fairly healthy in small amounts, but overfeeding blackberries isn’t ideal. They have too much sugar to be a healthy food for your bunny on a daily basis. On the rare occasions that you do choose to feed your rabbit blackberries, they’re sure to enjoy them.
