Like many other rabbit parents, the thought of frozen fruit has probably crossed your mind at one time or the other when thinking about your rabbit’s well-being and other ways to change up their diet.
This can be a challenge for most new rabbit owners and caregivers who are always looking out for unique food products to give to their furry pet. The good news is that rabbits can eat everything healthy put in front of them and this includes a lot of frozen fruit.
While frozen fruit is suitable for your rabbits, you shouldn’t always feed them in the frozen form; there are alternative foods that contain vitamins and other nutritious components to help spice up their feeding time.
In this article, you will understand more about frozen fruit and how it can benefit your rabbit. Continue reading!
Can Rabbits Eat Frozen Fruit?
In short, yes, they can. You can always feed your rabbits frozen fruit, but it should only be once and awhile.
Benefits Of Frozen Fruit
If you are in doubt as to whether or not to feed your rabbit frozen fruit, then here are some things to keep in mind:
Always Handy For Your Rabbits
Your rabbit can always eat frozen fruit, as they’re a convenient snack. This means that you won’t have to go through the wasteful process of having to throw fruit out because they’ve gone bad.
In all, freezing the fruit can help you save enough time and energy.
Frozen fruit Helps owners Meet Our Rabbits Nutritional Needs
With frozen fruit, it’s easy to keep your fruit fresh at all times and it also helps to preserve its nutrients. You can decide to mix and freeze different types of fruit; feeding them to your rabbit will surely help you satisfy their need for an occasional snack.
Helps To Keep Your Rabbit Cool During Harsh Weather
Frozen fruit can help to keep your rabbit calm during harsh and hot temperatures. Your rabbit can enjoy the chilly fruit flavors, keeping their body temperature cool.
Frozen Fruit That Rabbits Can’t Eat
Avocados
While avocados are an excellent, healthy snack for humans, avocados contain a compound called persin, which is toxic to rabbits. This “persin” compound is found in all parts of the avocado, including the skin, pit, leaves, and flesh.
Fruit Seeds/Pits
Before freezing fruits that have seeds and pits, take care to remove all seeds and pits before preparing the fruit for your rabbit. The seeds and pits from many fruit varieties contain trace amounts of cyanide. Apples and pears are the most notorious examples of this, but the pits from apricots, peaches, plums, and mangos also contain cyanide, as well as cherry pits.
How Often Should You Feed Frozen Fruits To Your Rabbit?
It’s best to feed a rabbit no more than two servings of frozen fruit per week. If you own a dwarf breed or any other smaller breeds that weigh under five pounds, then you may want to stick to only one serving of frozen fruits per week.
You can choose two to three different fruits each time. Doing this is better than only feeding them with one tyre of fruit, that’s because rabbits tend to have sensitive digestive systems.
Nutrition Loss
One of the downsides of freezing fruit is that they can lose some of their nutritional value from being frozen. Although, some scientific studies have shown this not necessarily be true. In addition, fruits that are sold fresh in a supermarket out-of-season will often lose a lot of their nutritional content during transport during the freezing process can help stop this nutrient loss.
Preparing Frozen Fruit For Your Rabbit
Even though each frozen fruit is unique, there’re specific general guidelines you should know before feeding your rabbit frozen fruit:
Ensure That It’s Organic
When possible, always try to buy organically grown fruit to freeze for your rabbit. You can also grow your own fruit at home without the confidence that no chemicals or herbicides have been added.
Also, all fruit should always be thoroughly washed and rinsed under cold water, even if they are organic, as they may still have traces of dirt and pollutants.
Conduct A Proper Check
Before freezing the fruit for your rabbits, you should thoroughly inspect them. Take a look for pests or signs of spoilage, such as the fruit color changing to brown or having a softer texture.
When buying, ensure to pick fruits that appear to be fresh to avoid your rabbit contracting infections.
Look Out For Instructions
Pay attention to any designated ways of serving the fruit to make sure that your rabbit gets its full health advantages.
How To Introduce Frozen Fruits To Your Rabbit
You should always introduce new frozen fruits cautiously into your rabbit’s diet. Ideally, you can start with one or two pieces and keep an eye out for any reactions immediately.
If your rabbit feels fine after eating the frozen fruit, only double the serving size. Frozen fruits shouldn’t be introduced to a rabbit until they’re three months old.
Some owners won’t start to introduce new types of food to their rabbit’s diet until they are up to one year old. This is because of their rabbit’s digestive system. This is a common concern, as you wouldn’t want to hurt your rabbit.
