Wild rabbits are voracious herbivores who, when introduced to new environments, are known for upsetting the balance of entire ecosystems. It is important to be informed about the diet of the wild rabbit because wild rabbits are very much like domestic rabbits in that they have similar nutritional needs.
A wild rabbit's diet consists mainly of grass, flower plants, and weeds. During cold, wintry seasons, rabbits will eat the bark off of small trees and saplings. The plants a rabbit eats consist mainly of cellulose, a difficult to digest organic compound. To cope with the heavy intake of cellulose, a rabbit passes two types of droppings. The first type is a hard fecal pellet that the rabbit leaves alone. The second is softer and is called a cecotrope. The rabbit will eat his cecotropes to absorb vital nutrients that his body was unable to digest the first time around. Rabbits produce these cecotropes usually after a few hours heavy grazing.
The peak grazing time for rabbits is usually in the late afternoon (around 5 pm). A rabbit will remain grazing for hours if the environment is relatively secure. After the grazing period the wild rabbit will return to the burrow where it will ingest its cecotropes and rest.
Studying the diet of wild rabbits is vital in order to gain an understanding of how a domestic rabbit should eat. The guidelines for the diet of a domesticated rabbit were established in part by observing and studying the way wild rabbits eat. It is important to keep close tabs on the behaviors of wild rabbits to better understand the behaviors and physical attributes of our furry domesticated bunny friends.
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