Rosemary has a number of benefits for meat rabbits. While it is safe for rabbits to eat, it is generally considered more of a supplement than a feed. Rosemary is most often looked upon as a natural medicinal herb and less as a daily feed component.
Jump to:
- When to Feed Rosemary to Meat Rabbits, What Rosemary Can Do for Your Meat Rabbits
- How to Grow and Harvest, What Type of Rosemary to Use with Meat Rabbits
- What Parts of the Rosemary Plant Can You Feed to Meat Rabbits?
- How Much Rosemary Should be Fed to Meat Rabbits?
- VIDEO: Using Rosemary for Meat Rabbits: Benefits and Application
- Do Meat Rabbits Love or Hate Rosemary?
- Introduce Slowly at First!
- Rosemary Wisdom Straight from the Breeders’ Mouths!
- For More Reading, Resources, and References:
When to Feed Rosemary to Meat Rabbits, What Rosemary Can Do for Your Meat Rabbits
The primary mechanism by which rosemary promotes health, condition, and well-being is by stimulating blood flow and circulation. Through this, rosemary can have a number of positive effects on a meat rabbit.
Rosemary is also known to be antimicrobial. It contains beneficial carnosic acid, an antioxidant. Rosemary is anti-inflammatory, too. Some of the effects rosemary has on rabbits include:
- Lowers blood pressure
- Good for treating exhaustion
- Good for treating weakness
- Good for improving mood and lifting depression
- Improves circulation
- Stimulates digestion
- Reduces inflammation
- Promotes good skin condition and hair growth
Examples of times when you might want to boost your rabbit with rosemary include
- Sluggish or lethargic rabbits
- Rabbits showing depression after relocation or travel
- Rabbits stressed, such as by heat
- Rabbits showing symptoms of exhaustion
- Rabbits with respiratory or cold symptoms, particularly those presenting as a result of inflammation
- Rabbits who have decreased appetite or have stopped eating, to stimulate appetite and digestion
How to Grow and Harvest, What Type of Rosemary to Use with Meat Rabbits
Rosemary can be fed and is beneficial in basically any of its typical forms. You can feed plain, dried rosemary from the spice and herb aisle as long as it is not treated or mixed with anything else (in other words, just plain rosemary!)
Use any of these types of rosemary for your meat rabbits:
- Freshly harvested from your herb garden
- Whole dried stems and leaves
- Dried whole rosemary leaves (such as culinary rosemary)
- Cuttings from fresh rosemary grown inside (which you can grow and use year-round)
- Water infused with rosemary
If you don’t want to grow rosemary year-round indoors, feel free to over-harvest and dry it from your garden during the growing season. Rosemary dries easily and quickly just by making small bundles and hanging them in the open air to dry. A pasta dryer is great for this and saves space!
After drying thoroughly, store the dried sprigs in an air-tight container for use in the off-season.
What Parts of the Rosemary Plant Can You Feed to Meat Rabbits?
The leaves and stems of rosemary can both be fed to your meat rabbits. Do not feed the roots.
(Though I have found no specific warning not to feed rosemary roots, I have found only references to feeding stems and leaves, which are the edible parts of the plant we would consume as well. Besides that, digging and damaging rosemary’s roots would kill your plants and strip you of this beneficial resource for your rabbits!)
How Much Rosemary Should be Fed to Meat Rabbits?
One slight word of caution is that rosemary contains a fair level of calcium. That can result in sludgy urine. So, it is best not to overfeed it and/or to only feed as needed, a few days per week.
A good measure of rosemary to feed to your meat rabbits would be
- One sprig of fresh or dried rosemary per day, two or three times per week (or more often if using to treat an ailment, but be aware of the urinary issue potential and reduce or stop as the condition improves)
- ¼ to ½ teaspoon dried rosemary leaves per day, two or three days per week, or as needed for medicinal purposes
VIDEO: Using Rosemary for Meat Rabbits: Benefits and Application
Do Meat Rabbits Love or Hate Rosemary?
An interesting thing about feeding rosemary is that there seems to be an at least equal number of breeders who say their rabbits love rosemary as there are breeders who say their rabbits don’t care for it.
There may be an explanation for this seemingly contradictory information.
One source says that the stage and age of growth are to blame. Rosemary gets more bitter and woody as it grows. Woodiness is probably less of an issue than the bitter taste.
To help your rabbits accept rosemary more readily
- Start by feeding the tender, green, non-woody leaves and stems of new, young growth
- Once acclimated to that, rabbits will be more likely to accept older growth
- Strip the leaves from woody stems and offer them over their regular feed ration
- Mix into the regular feed ration
- Try feeding dried stems and/or leaves
Introduce Slowly at First!
As with all new supplements or feeds, introduce rosemary to your rabbits gradually. Though it is a good digestive aid, unless it is an emergency, last-ditch situation, you should give your rabbits time to acclimate to rosemary before making it a regular part of their diet.
If you do need to feed rosemary to treat an acute situation, dried foods are typically safer as new introductions.
Rosemary Wisdom Straight from the Breeders’ Mouths!
There is only a scant body of information from “expert” resources regarding food supplements and medical feeds for rabbits, especially when you are talking homegrown, foraged, and more homeopathic type treatments. The research and effort are simply not put into rabbits.
Much of what has been reported here is based on firsthand, real-world accounts from other rabbit raisers and meat rabbit breeders.
Of course, here at meatrabbits.org, we do consider them to be among the best resources, but in the interest of full transparency, we like to let you know where your information is coming from. And, as with expert or front-line resources, anything you try with your rabbits is always “at your own risk”. (To be clear, we don’t think this is risky or we wouldn’t report on it, but it has to be said.)
For More Reading, Resources, and References:
- Rise And Shine Rabbitry
- Rise And Shine Rabbitry
- Rabbit Hole Hay
- Living The Hight Life
- Feeding Meat Rabbit For Free by Megan Hight
- Rise And Shine Rabbitry
- Raising Rabbits by Ann Kanable, 1977
- Beyond the Pellet by Boyd Craven Jr & Rick Worden
- Storey's Guide to Raising Rabbits, 5th Edition: Breeds, Care, Housing
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