It’s important that rabbits keep their muscles moving after surgery – so chewing’s important. It’s a must for grinding those growing teeth too – so this receipe’s not intended as a substitute for a regular, long-term diet: it’s a filler until your bun is back in good health.

I use this recipe when my rabbit’s home after dental surgery and she’s slow to eat because of the discomfort. It’s palatable, full of nutrition, and there’s not much need for a recovering bun to chew.

Ingredients

• 4 large handfuls of carrots and greens
• 1/2 an apple or pear,  cored and chopped
• 6 tbsp finely blitzed Timothy hay, grass hay or oaten hay
• 1 tbsp dried coriander
• Water to nearly cover the vegetables
• 1 tbsp rolled oats
• 1 tbsp oat bran
• 4 heaped tablespoons of Oxbow Critical Care
• 1/2 cup of Oxbow Adult Rabbit Pellets

Method

1. Place carrots and greens, apple or pear, dried coriander and blitzed hay in a medium saucepan. Nearly cover with water and cook on high for 10 minutes.

2. Blitz cooked mix with a stick blender in the pot – be careful – it’s hot so watch you don’t get splashed.

3. Mix in the critical care and pellets. The mixture should be reasonably thick. If it’s a bit runny, it will thicken more as it cools and the pellets take up the water, but add more critical care pellets if you’re worried about the consistency.

4. Allow mix to cool then refrigerate.

Feeding

Feed 2 tablespoons of the mix per rabbit as needed. I do this once a day if they’re eating some regular greens by themselves, but twice a day if this is their only source of food.

I feed this to my buns twice daily. I make up a big batch once a week, and cook and blend some of it so I can add hay when they won’t/can’t eat hay by themselves.

Ingredients

• 2-3 bunches Chinese broccoli
• 1.5 large carrots
• 4 Brussels sprouts
• 6 snow peas
• a couple of sleeves of herbs (I usually use two of the following: coriander, parsley, basil, tarragon, mint, marjoram, thyme)
• 2 cups of rocket leaves
• a chunk of red cabbage
• a small handful of spinach

Method

Chop up the vegetables to the size your rabbit can eat and refrigerate. It makes up enough food for two rabbits for 5 or so days.

Feeding

Measure out 1 large handful of food for each rabbit in the morning and another in the afternoon. Encourage them to eat as much hay as possible in between.

If they don’t eat hay easily (severe dental problems), supplement the diet with a couple of tablespoons of the mashed greens with hay, around the middle of the day.

Tops ups and treats

In addition to this, I give mine an egg cup of Oxbow pellets at night and an occasional treat (slice of banana, or pear or apple, an oxbow simple rewards treat each). Too many treats when they can’t eat hay gives them runny bums.

I also get them weeds from the garden and they eat willow a few times a week.