Vegetables VS No Vegetables

The oldest rabbit to live in the world (17 years and 2 weeks old) was fed on a diet of (timothy) hay and some pellets. This excludes treats such as carrots, bananas etc as the owner of that rabbit said she didn't feed her rabbit any treats. She also gave her rabbit lots of exercise every day. Is this what leads to a healthy, long-living rabbit? Or is it just genes? What do you think?

Wow! That's a long time! What breed was the rabbit? Maybe it's breed could have been a factor in living to that age.

I'm not so sure about the diet part, but I'm certain someone here will

I'm sure it was a combination of lots of things, not diet alone. Exercise and genetics had there part to play, as well as stress on the rabbit and surroundings (i. e. I bet the owner didn't smoke). The fact that this particular rabbit did not eat vegetables does not in any way support a theory that a vegetable free diet leads to a longer life. You need more rabbits, tests, and lots of data for studies like that.

The rabbit could have been born to parents the lived a Long life, it could have been bred specially to live a long life

Not documented, but a friend of my sister's had a rabbit that lived to be just over 18 years. Which is an exceptionally long time. Lots of hay is good obviously, the lack of vegetables doesn't say anything in my opinion, it's probably mostly genetics. It's the way it is with people too, those who eat really healthy may still pass quite early simply due to their genes.

MiniLopMad said:

Wow! That's a long time! What breed was the rabbit? Maybe it's breed could have been a factor in living to that age.

I'm not so sure about the diet part, but I'm certain someone here will

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Jersey Wooly which live around 5-10 years max. So it can't be the breed.

Azerane said:

Not documented, but a friend of my sister's had a rabbit that lived to be just over 18 years. Which is an exceptionally long time. Lots of hay is good obviously, the lack of vegetables doesn't say anything in my opinion, it's probably mostly genetics. It's the way it is with people too, those who eat really healthy may still pass quite early simply due to their genes.

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Yeh I think genetics plays a big part in living a long life. They should study rabbits to see if it is really their diet and exercise that extends their life. Like a group of rabbits with parents that lived long and a group with parents that didn't live so long so they can see if life extension also depends on environmental factors. 18 years is a very long time for a rabbit to live, congrats to your sister's friend.

Azerane said:

Not documented, but a friend of my sister's had a rabbit that lived to be just over 18 years. Which is an exceptionally long time. Lots of hay is good obviously, the lack of vegetables doesn't say anything in my opinion, it's probably mostly genetics. It's the way it is with people too, those who eat really healthy may still pass quite early simply due to their genes.

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Yeh I think genetics plays a big part in living a long life. They should study rabbits to see if it is really their diet and exercise that extends their life. Like a group of rabbits with parents that lived long and a group with parents that didn't live so long so they can see if life extension also depends on environmental factors. 18 years is a very long time too for a rabbit to live, congrats to your sister's friend.

I agree that genetics definitely plays a part in a rabbit's longevity. Feeding a pellet/hay diet takes the guesswork out of whether your rabbit is getting the vitamins and minerals it needs, but I would think you could have a long living rabbit on veggies/greens, too. It just takes more work to ensure they get the required nutrients.

majorv said:

I agree that genetics definitely plays a part in a rabbit's longevity. Feeding a pellet/hay diet takes the guesswork out of whether your rabbit is getting the vitamins and minerals it needs, but I would think you could have a long living rabbit on veggies/greens, too. It just takes more work to ensure they get the required nutrients.

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It would be quite stressful going through your local supermarket running up and down the aisle to find veggies that meets your rabbits vitamin needs (security guards would be questioning why I have been lingering around the veggie and fruit aisle lol ). So thats why we have pellets! Veggies is just something for my bun to eat to make his diet more interesting and not boring (just pellets, hay and water).

My bunnies get hay and pellets on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and veggies and hay on Thursday Friday I go to a local place that on Sunday night they need to get rid of all they fruit and stuff so they sell it for like $1 kg of apples it really helps to go here it's only 1 night a weeks tho