Why does feeding wet foods, like greens, to your rabbit reduce the amount of water they get?

Increasing your rabbits urine volume is important to prevent urinary health problems like sludge build up or urinary track infections.

What most people do (as recommended by most vets) to get more water into a rabbit is to feed more wet foods… especially greens. It is true that when rabbits eat these foods that they are consuming a lot of water (most greens are about 90% water). However most people don’t realize that when rabbits eat greens that they reduce how much water they drink… and they eat less hay too!

Encouraging your rabbit to eat more dry hay will greatly increase the amount of water they drink! In fact it will increase their urine volume more than feeding them wet foods (like salads, greens, and veggies) which decrease the amount of hay they eat and water they drink.

How to do the hay-only fast?

Prepare them for the hay-only fast by cutting back on their salads, pellets, and treats. Once you see your rabbit start to eat more hay and drink a lot more water then you can start the temporary grass hay-only diet for a few days.