Are you looking for homemade rabbit treats to give your pets?
Because of how adorable they are, most people get a rabbit for themselves as their pets. It’s only later on that they also realize that there are tons of benefits for having them as pets, too. Upon realizing this, owners want to keep their furry buddies in healthy condition for as long as they can.
A great way to do this is to feed them food that is good for their diets. You need to do more than to give them the veggies that are good for them, though. If you want your rabbits to be happy as well as healthy, you need to give them some DIY treats.
Homemade bunny treats always work better since you can customize them to help with your pet’s diet. Read on to learn what you can make for your rabbits now.
1. Raisin Biscuits
Raisins are among the foods that people avoid when feeding their pets because of their history with dogs and cats. They cause kidney failures in both animals since they can’t process the substances that the dried fruit excretes. What’s great is that rabbits are more accustomed to eating them because of their history with foraging for food.
This makes them great main ingredients for homemade rabbit treats. The great idea is to bake biscuits with them in the centre. This gives your rabbits a nice treat once they gnaw through the biscuit surrounding it.
To make them for your pet, you will need to forgo traditional biscuit ingredients. Make them with hay powder, instead, if you’re baking them yourself. This is to help encourage your pet to eat them since they will be familiar with the scent.
For this purpose, you can also use crushed rabbit pellets. These are better to use these if your rabbit eats more pellets more than anything. Once everything is together, you can place a raisin in the middle and proceed to bake them.
However, you’re going to need a binding agent to hold the mixture together. Eggs are the usual suspect, but raw ones won’t bode well with your rabbit. Mashed bananas are great a great option for this.
You can also replace the raisins with fresh grapes. These work better as they contain more nutrients. Grapes also promote liver health, which is important since it will help your rabbit go against their new disease.
2. Banana Pellets
The reason that most recipes use bananas as a binding agent is that rabbits love them! Rabbits love them enough to allow them to be the featured ingredient in this recipe. What makes this recipe better is that it combines with carrots to ensure your pet gets a lot of nutrients.
Same as above, the base for these pellets could be hay powder. You can also use mashed pellets again to speed the process along. If you use hay powder, they’re healthier since they’re not processed like pellets.
You’re going to need to work fast when making these pellets. This makes it important to boil and mash the carrots before you prepare the other ingredients. You then mix this with the mashed bananas and dry ingredients to make a dough.
Knead this for a considerable time to ensure they come out soft enough for your rabbit. While they can eat hard pellets, you don’t want them to have a hard time with this treat.
If you come out with dough that’s too hard to your liking, you can add more wet ingredients to the mix. If it’s the other way around, you can sprinkle more powder or mashed pellets to add to it.
Aim for the same consistency and hardness of regular rabbit pellets. Doing this helps them get accustomed to the new pellets. Cool them down before you let your rabbit snack on them.
3. Homemade Rabbit Cookies
Did you get a new rabbit to keep as a pet? During the first few days, it will have trouble adjusting to its new environment. This is because the shock it will experience during the transfer will scare it.
A good way to make it easier for them to adjust is to get them to trust you as their new owner. Giving them treats that they will enjoy is a great way to do this. Making a cookie with one of their favourite foods is best in doing this.
Try making cookies with raspberries in them. Rabbits love raspberries and will make them any treat that contains them. This means that you can add other ingredients if you think your rabbit is missing some nutrients.
For the cookies, you can add crushed rabbit pellets again to form the base its base. Hay powder won’t work in this case because the flavours clash with oats, another integral ingredient in this recipe.
Giving your rabbit oats is a great idea if you think they’ll need energy. It’s a great ingredient when the mating season approaches. They will need the energy to prevent them from dying of exhaustion.
Mix these dry ingredients with the raspberry puree to make rabbits go crazy about these cookies. What’s great about this is that you can add mint to the recipe.
Mint is important in keeping mosquitoes away from your rabbits. Doing this is essential to reduce the chances of your rabbit getting myxomatosis.
4. Carrot Balls
As you may know from popular culture, carrots love eating carrots. While it’s not their favourite, they still go crazy about them. You can create a snack around them and you’re can be sure your rabbit will eat them up.
What’s great is that with this recipe, you don’t need to bake them. You will only need to cool them down in the fridge to ensure they don’t break apart while your rabbit snacks on them.
Incorporating carrots into a snack means that you must blend them. Leaving them whole in a snack will compromise the integrity of the snack no matter how small they are. Even if you cool them down, they will crumble in your hands before you can give them to your pet.
Puree the carrots in a food processor if you want to include it in a snack. Add crushed pellets to help fill your rabbit’s stomach. Doing this also includes the nutrients that they can get from these pellets.
If you want to encourage your rabbit to eat them, you can add mashed bananas again. Doing this also helps bind the ingredients together. Carrots won’t be enough to hold them together on their own since they’re not as sticky.
Once you mix them, shape them into balls before putting them in the refrigerator. Give them at least 1 hour to cool down before you give them to your rabbit to snack on.
5. Oatmeal and Apple Treats
If you like the idea of no-bake snacks for your rabbit, here’s another recipe. This includes apples, bananas, and also leafy vegetables. It’s a great way to include more greens into your rabbit’s diet if they’re not used to eating them.
What most people don’t know is that rabbits also have preferences if they eat a certain type of food for too long. This means that they can have an aversion to vegetables if you don’t include it in their diet for a long time.
What you do is mix the usual dry ingredients, crushed rabbit pellets or hay powder, into a bowl. Add the binding agents and mix them together well. You can add more green vegetables in the mix, later on, to introduce more of it to your pet’s diet.
Mold the mix into small balls and then refrigerate for half an hour. You can also add oats into the mix to make them more filling.
6. Timothy Hay Gnaw-ables
If you don’t know your types of hay, all you need to know is that Timothy Hay is amazing for your rabbits. These are enough to fulfill most of their nutrient requirements.
They can even act as good bodies for snacks. A good recipe includes fine Timothy Hay along with a bunch of other ingredients. Of course, bananas and ground rabbit pellets are in the ingredient list, too.
Add it along with mashed pumpkins and papaya to give it more volume. This will make it last longer as a snack for your pet.
7. Rabbit Fruit Mix
A good snack idea is to put in different fruits in a mix and turn them into pellets. As you may guess by now, rabbits are crazy about fruits. What’s better is that they’re more affordable than vegetables, meaning you can make more of these snacks in the future.
You must remember that some fruits are not for rabbits, though. Avocados and dates can affect their breathing patterns and heart rhythm.
Currants are also not good for rabbits. They can’t digest them as well as other fruits. Figs are also like this, so reconsider feeding your pet some if you have them on hand.
Prepare These Homemade Rabbit Treats Today
These homemade rabbit treats aren’t only healthy for your rabbits. They also make sure that they enjoy their time with you as their owner. Make these treats and improve your rabbit’s health today!
Do you want to learn more about taking care of your furry friend? Some rabbits can be finicky about their living conditions. Contact us here and let us help you take care of your pet rabbit today!