Baked Treats vs Dried Herb Forage for Rabbits
What a rabbit treat should actually be, and the two supermarket categories that have no place in a rabbit's diet at all.
The short version
Dried herb forage mixes are the better everyday treat, because they are simply plant material a rabbit would recognise as food and they scatter well for foraging. Baked treats are convenient, useful for training and nail trimming, and fine in small numbers. What matters more than choosing between them is what you leave on the shelf. Yogurt drops and seed, nut and honey sticks are sold everywhere for rabbits and should not be fed: rabbits are herbivores with no dietary need for dairy, and sugar and starch disturb the gut flora that keeps them alive.
At a glance
| Oxbow Simple Rewards Baked Treats | Natural Botanical Herb Forage Mix | |
|---|---|---|
| Ingredient type | Baked, hay and fruit based | Dried plants and flowers |
| Sugar content | Low but present | Very low |
| Use for training | Good, easy to hand | Fussier to handle |
| Foraging enrichment | Limited | Good, scatter it in hay |
| Daily portion | One or two pieces | A small pinch |
| Suits a rabbit on a diet | Sparingly | Yes |
Choose the Oxbow Simple Rewards Baked Treats if…
Use baked treats when you need something small, dry and easy to hand over: nail trims, carrier training, or teaching a rabbit that hands near the face are a good thing. One or two pieces is a treat, a handful is a meal. Read the ingredient list and put back anything with added sugar, seeds, nuts, corn or dairy. Count treats towards the daily food, because a rabbit filling up on them eats less hay, and less hay is where dental and gut problems begin.
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Choose the Natural Botanical Herb Forage Mix if…
Scatter dried herbs and flowers through the hay pile rather than handing them over. Foraging is what rabbits are built to do and it turns eating into an activity, which matters for an animal that spends long stretches in the same room. Introduce any new plant in a small amount and watch the droppings for a day. Buy from a supplier selling for small animals rather than picking wild plants, since a good number of common garden and hedgerow plants are toxic to rabbits.
Check Natural Botanical Herb Forage Mix on Amazon
Related
Comparison based on published manufacturer specifications and the general consensus of owner reports. We have not tested these products side by side. Confirm current specifications and prices before buying. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases, at no extra cost to you.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Are yogurt drops safe for rabbits?
No. Rabbits are strict herbivores with a gut built to ferment fibre, and they have no dietary requirement for dairy. Sugar and starch reaching the caecum can disturb the bacterial balance that a rabbit depends on. The same applies to seed and honey sticks, nut mixes and anything with added sugar or dairy, all of which are sold on rabbit shelves and none of which belong in a rabbit.
What about fruit and carrots?
Small amounts of fruit are fine as an occasional treat, on the order of a piece the size of a thumbnail per day for an average rabbit, but they are sugar and they should be rare rather than routine. Carrots are a root vegetable and higher in sugar than most people realise. Leafy greens are the daily fresh food, not root vegetables or fruit.
My rabbit will only eat treats and ignores hay. What do I do?
Stop the treats for now, keep unlimited fresh hay available, and see a rabbit vet if the rabbit is genuinely not eating hay rather than merely preferring not to. A rabbit that avoids hay is often a rabbit whose molars hurt. Never let a rabbit go without food while you wait for it to give in, because twelve hours without eating is an emergency in this species.
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