Cat Food

[doubleyouteeeffmate]

Recently, my buns has taken to eating my cat's dry food. I feed her plenty of her own, I think she just likes how it tastes. She doesn't seem ill or anything, but I'm worried that this could be bad for her. :?

 

[Michaela]

Many rabbits will nibble at cat food they can get to, but no it's not good for her.A little bit won't do her any harm, but it's definitely not good if it's happening regularly.

Could you feed your cat in a room she can't get to?

 

[doubleyouteeeffmate]

That's where the problem arises, Bunny thinks the owns the house, so she can get to every room. I've tried blocking off the area where the cat eats, but my buns is quite creative and still gets in!

 

[tundrakatiebean]

maybe try putting the cat food higher up so she can't get a wiff of it but the cat can still get to it?

 

[naturestee]

Can you put the cat's bowl up on a counter that he's allowed on but the bunny can't reach? Or just feed your cat in smaller meals instead of free-feeding him. Free-feeding cats often leads to obesity anyway.

 

[RunnyBabbitRabbitry]

It's not bad for her as long as she is still eating her food and hay. I have one rabbit that loves to snack on dog food, so I asked around and was told that I can throw some in with her pellets like I would carrot or any other snack, so I did. It will not harm them as long as it is just a snack but they can't live off of cat or dog food.

 

[m.e.]

I'd be concerned about the high protein content being too hard on a bunny's kidneys and possibly messing up their gut balance. Not to mention that dry cat food tends to be high in carbohydrate fillers like corn and wheat, neither things that a bunny (or cat, for that matter) should be eating much of. I'd definitely keep the food out of reach.

 

[maherwoman]

My personal thoughts:

Bunnies' GI systems are so sensitive, that I think anything outside the normal dietary foods would be too much of a risk to even chance.

In other words, a bun even ingesting a little bit of the much higher protein and fat content that cat food contains (no matter what type of cat food it is) would be taking a chance of causing your bun to have diarrhea problems, and as an extension could wind up taking a chance with your bun's life.

Thereby, I'm of the opinion and thought that it's just not worth keeping anywhere the bun might get to it. I keep anything and everything outside my buns' running space...including both the cats' food and water. That way, they can't even share it through drinking from the same space.

As you can see, I'm extremely cautious about what my buns are allowed to be around...and will do anything possibly in my power to keep their area safe, bunny-proofed, and without anything that would possibly pose any danger if ingested.

I even make sure to only give them toys that are either metal or wood...because if they ingest the wood, it's okay...and they cannot ingest the metal, so that's okay. I avoid even the hard plastics, because I've known my girls to be able to chew such things, and I don't want them to ingest them and have a problem with intestinal blockage.

I think with bunnies...prevention is the best, wisest thing to do.

Just my :twocents

Hugs and love to you and yours!

Rosie*

 

[Sayuri]

Louis and Grace often have a snack on my cats dry food...they seem to have missed the chapter about being vegatarians in their how to be a bunny guide. I dont encourage it and if they get excessive then I pick the biscuits up and put them on the counter. They havent had any ill effects from them.

 

[binkies]

Guys, not to be so blunt but I can't help myself here.........What part of rabbits are vegitarians and cats eat meat don't you get? Rabbits aren't made to eat and digest meat. When you let them snack on cat and dog food, you are not doing them any good. In fact you are endangering their health. Please think twice about this. I know nobody here intends on harming their babies.

 

[Haley]

Yeah I agree, its not worth the risk. Not only the meat thing but the carbs and fillers in that food is really bad for bunnies.

Id put the cat food on chair where the bunny cant reach. Better safe than sorry!

 

[m.e.]

maherwoman explained it really well. A healthy gut is the KEY to a healthy body, especially for rabbits, and the delicate balance of their digestive systems can bedisrupted by eating foods they are not able to digest.

:grouphug

 

[Bo B Bunny]

I'm assuming we are talking kibble and not canned food.

Kibble doesn't contain much meat - note how they say FISH FLAVOR - or whatever.

Most kibble is ground up bone. BY PRODUCTS and FISH MEAL or whatever.....

With that being said. Cat food is definitely not bunny food. I like to think of things this way - Would you feed your puppy hay? your kitten birdseed? If petfood were interchangable it would be petfood, not rabbit, cat, dog, etc.

You don't know what is in a product that might be actually deadly to another species. If you give sheep copper sulfate - they could die. A horse lick (salt block) has copper in it...... you have to make sure sheep can't get to that.

Horses can die if you give them free range of grain or hay - they founder.

So - in essence, we are responsible for keeping these animals safe from the other's diet. How you do that is up to you, but it's something you have to find out for yourself in your own situation.

We cannot let Clover run free - she would get hurt. She has play time in the xpen daily. Heidi is too young and we don't know what she might do so we haven't let her out alone - Bo can be loose only with supervision - he stays in one room if we put a gate up to keep him off the carpet. He eats carpet!

Just like the carpet - we have to make sure he can't get to it - it could kill him.

 

[m.e.]

Bo, that's a really excellent point. Our pets don't always know what is best for them and what isn't. If we know that giving them access to something could be dangerous, then it would seem our responsibility is to make sure they don't have access to it :brownbunny

 

[Bo B Bunny]

Exactly. The sheep LOVE salt and mineral licks and we get them their own kind. We just can't let them have the horse ones. Same with feed - you shouldn't feed goat food to a sheep eventhough they seem very similar - little things are big in their diet.

 

[maherwoman]

Well, yeah...it's just like with buns and guinea pigs...

They need such different things, you just cannot give them the same food...it would be too much sugar for a bun, and would cause all sorts of probs for the piggies.

So...there ya go...food is not interchangeable per species.

Hugs! Thanks for asking about that, doubleyouteeeffmate! Brought up some really great things!

 

[Bo B Bunny]

It's a great topic! sometimes we just don't think about stuff like that. I mean my dog constantly steals the cat's food. It's no big deal and the cat just cries for more if he needs it - and the bunnies can't get to it so we don't have to worry.

BUT- if I ever have a free range house bunny - it will be an issue.