I saw my bunny eating a bug, should I be worried? Do these animals actually eat them or not?
Bugs loosely refer to mainly small insects, arachnids, and other arthropods including grasshoppers, mites, spiders, crickets, aphids, fleas, ticks, termites, flies, beetles, moths, caterpillars, among other small creatures and pests.
We understand that true bugs belong to the order Hemiptera and most of what is considered as bugs are not. In this discussion, we intend to use the general (loose) meaning of the word.
Can they munch them?
Ordinarily, rabbits do not eat any bugs including the likes of crickets, grasshoppers, flies, ticks, spiders and so on. These animals are herbivores meaning that they will get their energy by eating only plants, and plants alone.
Therefore, they do not rely on insects, arachnids, and other arthropods for their survival since their digestive system is best designed to handle high-fiber, low-energy safe plant materials.
any explanation as to why rabbits do not eat insects is that they are prey animals that will rely on stationary food and they do not have hunting skills. Therefore, they might not be able to catch these small invertebrates easily.
Furthermore, these animals are not even interested in moving things and they tend to ignore them. If you notice yours pouncing on moving objects or animals, then it is only trying to be territorial.
However, accidentally, it is possible for a bunny to eat a bug while foraging. In such a case, you do need not to be worried since it is unlikely to affect your furry critter.
Conclusion
A proper diet is very essential for healthy bunnies. Ensure you give them unlimited amounts of grass hay (it should account for over 80% of their food requirement) with timothy by Small Pet Select or Kaytee. Try Secondly, about 10-15% leafy greens (weeds, plants, veggies, fruits, and non-leafy veggies) with the leafy ones making a bulk of their fresh food ration.
Keep pellets at about 5% and do not forget to provide unlimited amounts of drinking water. That is all that these pets need. However, nursing, growing, skinny, or pregnant bunnies might require a slightly different diet. 🙂
my rabbit ate a dead stinkbug off the windowsill.
I wasn’t able to do anything but watch in disgust.
I saw a rabbit jump and catch a flying insect which it ate. Sarasota, FL July 2019.
We have heard similar cases which we assume to be part of pica where animals eat things that are not their typical kind of food or have little or no nutritive value including cats eating paper. There are many causes of pica.