Overview
Tulips are perennial herbaceous, flowering plants that bloom during the spring season with pink, red, yellow or white colored flowers.
These bulbiferous plants belong to the genus Tulipa and under the family Liliaceae or the lily family. They are ideal indoor and outdoor ornamental plants and they have other uses including aromatherapy (their essential oil), in cosmetics, for medicinal purposes among other uses.
Can rabbits eat tulips?
Yes. Rabbits do eat tulips, their buds, and leaves. They are among the garden flowers or plants these animals will eat, i.e., they are one of their delicacies especially their young buds and leaves. However, they will eat even their flowers.
To affirm this fact, an owner of Cartwright Landscaping in Glen Carbon Illinois, Jeff Cartwright notes that “there are tons of bunnies in our area and bunnies tear tulips up, so unless it’s a really protected area we don’t get into them too much.”[1]
If you want to feed them with these flowering plants, consider mixing with other leafy greens. Bunnies are supposed to eat 5-6 different leafy greens daily. They should form a larger part of their fresh foods.
Whereas your bunnies might like them, you should not forget the fact that a bunny’s diet should have unlimited hay amounts and fresh foods should only account for 10-15% of their daily food requirement.
How to stop rabbits from eating tulips
To deal with rabbits eating your tulips, there are various approaches you can make. Otherwise, these warm colored flowers may never have a chance to blossom especially if you have other pests including rodents and deers.
Therefore, to keep, stop or prevent rabbits from eating your tulips, consider implementing some of the below strategies.
- Install a fence – A fence made of a chicken wire mesh that is at most 1nch in size, 3 feet high, and buried at least 10 inches deep into the ground is enough to keep these animals from your garden or yard.
- Consider deterring plants – Secondly, you should consider plants such as ornamental onions, crown imperial, daffodil, and snowflakes as they will deter bunnies from your garden. They act as repellents.
- Try the use of the various bunny repellents both homemade and commercial ones you can get from your local pet stores. Commercially you will get Liquid Fence Deer & Rabbit Repellent Concentrate, Plantskydd, Shake-Away or Rabbit Scram, Rabbit Stopper, and DeFence, among others.
- Keep a dog, try the various scares, use traps, among many other methods.
- Consider rabbit resistant alternative bulbs such as snowdrops, Siberian squill, grape hyacinths, Crocuses, and Spanish blueberry.
If you have other pets or bunnies, only settle for safe methods. Also, if possible, rip or block their nearby warrens, clear nearby bushes, among other ways.
Conclusion
It is clear that bunnies can eat these ornamental plants. If it happens, we have to give you various ways to stop, deter or prevent bunnies from munching your tulips.