If you raise both goats and rabbits, like we do on our small hobby farm, you may wonder if you can offer your goats rabbit feed. After all, both animals are herbivores, so there should be no issues, right?
Wondering whether goats can eat rabbit feed is a great question, and the answer is not as straightforward as you may think.
Technically, yes, goats can ingest rabbit food in small quantities without any issues. However, rabbit feed or pellets cannot provide essential nutrients to goats. So, long term feeding of rabbit food to your goats will result in some serious health issues and nutrient deficiencies.
To understand that a bit more, let’s take a better look at just why and when goats can eat a bit of rabbit food.
Do Goats And Rabbits Eat the Same Food
Goats and rabbits do not have the same type of digestive system nor the same nutritional needs.
Goats are natural ruminants, with a complex, four-stomach digestive system and a unique mix of gut bacterias that drive their entire digestive process.
Thanks to these two factors, goats are incredible at metabolizing low quality proteins and other “quantity over quality” nutritional foodstuff. Remember, goats are natural foragers and love coarse, cellulose, and fiber rich plant materials (i.e. twigs, bark, rough prickly plants, and evergreens).
Rabbits on the other hand, are not ruminants and have a much simpler digestive system. And while they also require lots of high fiber foods, they cannot properly metabolize dense or very coarse plant materials.
But both goats and rabbits are strict herbivores and should never be offered animal proteins, nor be offered cooked, canned or processed foods.
Exceptions for goats include cooked food like rice, which can be offered in small quantities.
The only food that you can freely offer both your goats and your rabbits is hay. Hay is a necessary part of both animals’ diets, as its high fiber content is essential and incredibly nutritious.
Is Rabbit Food Dangerous To Goats
That said, rabbit food isn’t immediately dangerous or toxic to goats.
Most rabbit food are plant based pellets that are formulated specifically to meet rabbit’s mineral, fiber, and vitamin needs.
For example, alfalfa rabbit pellets are great for newly weaned baby rabbits because this legume pellet contains much more calcium and protein than other grass pellet options; as such, they can really boost early growth and development.
Alfalfa pellets can benefit goats as well, but must never take the place of foraging pasture or high quality hay.
Can Goats Have Rabbit Pellets
There are a few reasons why we don’t offer our goats a lot of rabbit pellets.
The most obvious are because of the nutritional imbalances that would result from the inadequate or unbalanced dietary contents within rabbit feed. Some others include:
Goats As Natural Foragers
As natural foragers, goats get to pick and choose the foodstuff they ingest. This often leads them to instinctively meet their nutrient requirements by picking the best of all: the biggest buds, the freshest grasses, the most juicy twigs, etc.
But domestic rabbits have a much different dietary experience. They do not often browse for their diet (although we always allow our bunnies a few hours in a safe outdoor area every day), so rabbit pellets are often fortified with necessary nutrients that greatly supplement rabbits’ high hay diet.
The differences between the domesticated lifestyle of goats and rabbits means that offering goats rabbit food could result in unhealthy, excess nutrient intake.
Goats and Rabbits Need Different Amounts of Protein
One of the big differences between goats and rabbits is the sheer quantity of proteins that they require.
Healthy, growing goats need at least 7% of crude proteins, with lactating and meat goats needing more than 10%, while rabbits require anywhere between 12-18% crude protein.
In this sense, you’re asking for trouble if you offer rabbit pellets to your goats. While you can always check the content information to be sure, many rabbit feed pellets have a higher crude protein content than goat feed pellets.
Too much protein will actually cause your goats to lose weight!
Goats and Rabbits: Mineral and Vitamin Differences
As stated, a goat’s mineral and vitamin needs are very different from those of rabbits. Check out the MSD Manual on Goat Nutrition for more insight on goats’ nutrition.
As I like to say, pound-for-pound a goat eating rabbit feed is receiving a very low amount of nutrients that are, in all cases, intended for rabbits.
One simple yet important example is the salt requirements of both animals. Goats can be provided with a salt lick which allows them to self regulate their sodium intake. Some goat feeds will also contain added or high sodium levels.
On the other hand, rabbits are very susceptible to sodium poisoning, their feed never contains much salt, and they must never be offered foodstuff with added salts!
Another great example of mineral need differences between hobby farm animals is seen when thinking of horse feed for goats, which is a bad long term idea and can result in copper poisoning in goats.
Rabbit Food For Goats: Risks
The biggest risks to offering your goats rabbit pellets are:
- Poor performance
- Bad eating habits
- Less milk production
- A stressed immune system
- Unbalanced or backed up digestive system
Can Pygmy or Baby Goats Eat Rabbit Food
Newly weaned baby goats can enjoy some alfalfa rabbit pellets, as they contain a higher protein content and can assist newly weaned baby goats with growth and development.
But even then, newly weaned baby goats, pygmy goats, or adult goats should never just be offered a bucket of pure rabbit pellets.
There are far better ways to offer your goats rabbit food pellets, which we will go over next.
How To Give Goats Rabbit Pellets
We suggest mixing in a small amount (1-2 cups) of rabbit pellets in with hay or other, goat specific feeds.
This allows your goats to ingest the pellets along with other highly digestible materials and will help their body properly assimilate available nutrients.
Frequently Asked Questions Related To Can Goats Eat Rabbit Feed
Can Rabbits Have Goat Feed?
Many goat feeds contain Rumensin, a mix that increases the microbial population in the rumen of ruminant animals.
For this very reason, it can be deadly to offer your rabbits goat feed as the Rumenix will significantly harm the simple stomach digestive system of rabbits.
Can Goats Eat Chicken Feed?
Do not let your goats eat chicken feed. Goats cannot have chicken feed because it can result in severe bloating, diarrhea, and other serious gastrointestinal upsets and blockages.
Read more about the risks of chicken feed for goats here.
This video is an example of what and how some farmers feed their goats!
Final Thoughts On Can Goats Have Rabbit Feed
Having multiple animals on your homestead or hobby farm demands organization and intention when it comes to feeding your animals right.
Overall, offering your goats rabbit feed pellets if you are in a pinch is okay, but any long term feeding plan on rabbit pellets will not benefit your goats and is likely to cause health issues.
We do not suggest making a habit of mixing different animal’s foodstuffs, and have always opted for animal-specific feeding habits ourselves!