Is it Safe for Rabbits to Eat Their Toys?

We often encourage bunnies to play with their food or use food as an incentive to play with toys but it does not mean bunnies can eat their toys.

A healthy pet rabbit's diet consists of something like hay, water, veggies, pellets and limited healthy treats. It follows that anything not mentioned should not be consumed.

When rabbits play with their toys by chewing, biting and shredding with their mouths so digesting an occasional nibble is expected. However, when a bunny is full-on eating a toy, the toy is no longer being treated as a such but is being digested as food and anything that should not be a part of their diet should be taken away.

Given that eating non-food items can cause an obstruction in the digestive tract, which is potentially fatal, a few current toy trends give cause for concern. For example:

• Food products being used to colour/flavour toys (e.g. fruit juice infused balsa wood, loofah, vine balls); and

• Toys coated with food products (e.g. hay hut/cottage, ‘Hide n' Treat Maze')

If the toy is not at risk of being eaten, e.g. a large hardwood log, then it would simply be using food as an incentive to play with the toy but when the toy can be eaten, it seems irresponsible to flavour inedible objects and make it even more tempting to consume non-food items.

Thoughts?