Generally “leafy greens” are good food for rabbits. But some leafy greens are not only unsafe but also harmful to your rabbits. Although lemon leaves are not properly called leafy greens, can rabbits eat lemon leaves, and are lemon leaves safe for rabbits?
No, rabbits can’t eat lemon leaves, even lemon leaves are not safe for rabbits. Because lemon leaves contain citric acid, which can be harmful to rabbits’ digestive systems and can cause digestive upset.
Not only just harmful, even rabbits don’t like to eat and chew lemon leaves. Yes, today in the morning we gave a small amount (5 grams) of lemon leaves to our rabbits to see their reaction.
As we expected, they didn’t eat a full leaves eve, they just chew for a while and then throw lemon leaves from their mouth. In this article, you will get the exact information about the experiment that we did with our rabbits.
Here you will know how their reaction was when we served lemon leaves in front of them. So without wasting time let’s jump to the article.
Do Rabbits Eat Lemon Leaves?
So the question was do rabbits eat lemon tree leaves? No, rabbits don’t eat lemon leaves and lemon leaves are not safe for rabbits.
Because rabbits have a sensitive digestive system and their digestive system may be affected by citric acid, which lemon leaves contain.
Although some animals like goats eat lemon leaves, also human’s use lemon leaves as flavoring agents in certain dishes or beverages. But for rabbits, eating lemon leaves is not safe.
It’s easy to lemon leaves, you can easily get lemon leaves from lemon trees. They look green and contain citric acid.
The size of lemon leaves can vary due to the difference in lemon species, but almost all species contain the same acid.
How Much Lemon Leaves We Gave To Our Rabbits?
We took only 5 grams of lemon leaves for rabbits to see whether they actually eat lemon leaves or not. And they just ate only 1 gram, even didn’t eat also, you can say that they chew 1 gram and throw them.
First of all, we took 4 to 5 pieces of lemon leaves from our lemon tree. And then wash them to clean dust and germ. These lemon leaves were from an adult tree, and the species are very common in our region.
This tree also produces lemon and in our next experiment, we will give lemon peels to our rabbits to see if they can rabbits eat lemon peels or not. Until the experiment, stay connected with us by subscribing to our blogs.
Anyway, after washing let these leaves dry and drop water, then we measure them and took only 5 grams. We knew that rabbits can eat much more green leaves, and for 2 rabbits the amount can be a maximum of 20 grams.
But its lemon leaves, which are green but not exactly “leafy greens”, also we knew that lemon leaves contain citric acid. That’s the reason why we gave only 5 grams of lemon leaves.
Can Rabbits Like To Eat Lemon Leaves?
No rabbits don’t love to eat lemon leaves, so if you are thinking to serve lemon leaves to your rabbits as a treat or meal then stop. There are 2 reasons why you should stop this thinking.
- Rabbits don’t like to eat lemon leaves
- If your rabbits eat, then it can be very harmful to their health
So, as we told you before, today at morning we gave 5 grams of lemon leaves to Cleo and Dot (our rabbit’s name). Usually, our rabbits look very charming when we serve other foods to them.
But today it looks like they were not too happy to see lemon leaves, and their movement and body language were also slow. Maybe they were not happy seeing lemon leaves.
When we served lemon leaves we saw that first our rabbits smelled those leaves for a while. And one of them start eating, and then the other one, but they were not eating, they just chewed.
After a few seconds of serving Dot stopped chewing, and within 2:30 minutes Cleo also stopped chewing. And we saw that after 3 minutes they finished only 20% means 1 gram of the total leaves.
Here is a noticeable thing, where our rabbits can eat up to 20 grams of other normal fruits and foods, here they chewed for 3 minutes to eat only 1 gram of leaves.
That means they are highly not interested in lemon leaves. Not only just lemon leaves, some days ago when we served pineapple leaves in front of them to see can rabbits eat pineapple leaves or not, then we saw the same result.
At that time, our rabbits also took much more time to eat a small amount of leaves, although at that time they are almost 50% of the total pineapple leaves that we served to them.
Anyway, by seeing these 2 results we can say that rabbits may not interested to eat some fruits leaves. On the other hand, rabbits are highly interested in leafy greens like lettuce, kale, spinach, and herbs.
So don’t dare to give lemon leaves to your rabbits, give them leafy greens by maintaining a healthy diet.
Here is the video of today’s experiment, where you can see the full experiment details and how our rabbits behave during eating lemon leaves.
Here is the table of the result, so if you are in a hurry then skip the video and take a look at that table.
| Rabbits Names | Food Items & Weight | Eat Or Not (Yes Or No) | Percentage Of Eating | Percentage Of Residual |
| Cleo & Dot | Lemon Leaves (5 Grams) | No | 20% | 80% |
Are Lemon Trees Toxic To Rabbits?
Yes, lemon trees are toxic and unsafe for rabbits. Not only trees, lemon leaves, fruits, lemon peels, and branches are considered toxic to rabbits. Each part of the lemon tree is unsafe and causes digestive problems for rabbits.
But for humans and some other animal’s lemon trees especially fruit and leaves are safe.
But since rabbit’s digestive systems are not as strong as humans and some other animals, it will be better for you don’t serve any lemon trees to your rabbits.
So, if you ever think that you may serve lemon leaves and other parts from lemon trees to your rabbits then don’t dare to do it. Thousands of fruits are safe for rabbits, you can serve fruit from there.
Are Lemon Leaves Safe For Rabbits?
The relationship between rabbits and lemon is not so good. Because rabbits don’t like to eat lemon leaves, even this whole tree (branches, leaves, fruits) are totally unsafe for rabbits.
Since lemon leaves taste bitter and contain citric acid, rabbits don’t eat lemon leaves. Additionally, today’s experiment proved it again, and you may already see the result.
Where we have 5 grams of lemon leaves for our 2 rabbits, they ate only 1 gram from them. That means only 0.50 grams for each rabbit.
So, it’s now clear to you that can rabbits eat lemon leaves or not. If you have other similar questions then ask us in the comment.
You can also share your thoughts and question by sending us an email. And if you are a rabbit lover then of course, subscribe to our blogs and stay connected with us to get regular updates from us.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Can I feed lemon leaves to rabbits?
A: No, lemon leaves are not safe for rabbits, especially for rabbits’ digestive systems. So you should keep your rabbits away from lemon leaves, and never give lemon leaves to your rabbits as a treat and as a meal.
Q: Are lemon leaves green?
A: The color of lemon leaves is green, sometimes they can be dark or light green also (depending on the species and the age of the leaves). But lemon leaves are not “leafy greens”.
Q: Why can’t rabbits eat lemon leaves?
A: The main reason why don’t eat lemon leaves is lemon leaves contain citric acid, which is very harmful to rabbit’s digestive system. Also, lemon leaves taste bitter.
Useful Links: About Lemon Leaves, Eating Orange And Lemon Leaves