Rabbits live on carrots. Every cartoon says so, and the House Rabbit Society, the US rescue and education group behind one of the most quoted rabbit diet guides, opens its diet page by saying the opposite: carrots should only ever be given in small quantities, because of the sugar. So how much should a rabbit eat a day? For a 6 lb adult the answer is unlimited grass hay, 4.0 to 4.8 tablespoons of pellets, at least 2 cups of chopped vegetables, no more than 3 tablespoons of the non-leafy kind (carrot included), up to 3 teaspoons of fruit, and about 11 fluid ounces of water.
Those numbers are not a guess. They come from two published rules, House Rabbit Society and the Merck Veterinary Manual, scaled to body weight. This article follows one plan for one 6 lb rabbit, from weaning to old age, and works out each part of the bowl with the Rabbit Food Calculator. No invented owners, no anecdotes: just the rules, the arithmetic and where people tend to slip.
A day in the bowl of a 6 lb adult rabbit
Start with the end state, an adult between 1 and 5 years old at a healthy weight. House Rabbit Society's adult rule is unlimited hay, a minimum of 2 cups of chopped vegetables per 6 lb of body weight, and 1/4 cup of pellets per 6 lb. Merck allows pellets up to 1/4 cup per 5 lb. Put a 6 lb rabbit through that and you get this table.
| Food | How much a day | Rule behind it |
|---|---|---|
| Grass hay (timothy, orchard, oat) | unlimited | House Rabbit Society |
| Pellets | 4.0 to 4.8 tbsp | 1/4 cup per 6 lb (HRS) to 1/4 cup per 5 lb (Merck) |
| Chopped vegetables, total | at least 2.00 cups | 2 cups per 6 lb, at least 3 kinds of leafy greens |
| of which non-leafy (carrot, pepper) | up to 3.0 tbsp | 1 tbsp per 2 lb |
| Fruit | up to 3.0 tsp | 1 tsp per 2 lb |
| Water | about 11.0 fl oz (327 mL) | 120 mL per kg (Merck) |
Read the table from top to bottom and the proportions jump out. The two items with no limit, hay and water, are the bulk of what the rabbit takes in. The measured items get smaller as you go down, and the sweetest ones sit at the bottom with the tightest caps.
How much hay should a rabbit eat a day?
This is the most searched part of the question, and the honest answer is that there is no number. House Rabbit Society writes "unlimited hay" and calls it the most important thing for a rabbit to eat: it keeps the gut moving, helps prevent blockages, and wears down teeth that never stop growing. Rabbits that do not eat enough hay can develop sharp points on their teeth that cut the tongue and cheeks, and those have to be filed down by a vet.
That is why the calculator prints "unlimited" instead of a weight. A target in ounces would invite people to stop refilling the rack once the number is reached, which is the opposite of the rule. The practical version: the rack is never empty. Timothy, orchard and oat hay are for adults; alfalfa hay is for young rabbits and nursing mothers.
From weaning to old age: one feeding plan, five stages
Now run the same rabbit backward in time. House Rabbit Society's older FAQ, archived from rabbit.org, lays out an age schedule, and it changes the menu more than the amounts. Here is what the plan looks like at each stage, with the pellets for the weight the rabbit will have as an adult.
| Age | Pellets | Hay | Vegetables and fruit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 7 weeks | nibbles from 3 weeks, access from 4 | alfalfa, same timing | none, mother's milk |
| 7 to 12 weeks | unlimited | unlimited | none yet |
| 12 weeks to 7 months | unlimited | unlimited | one new vegetable at a time, under 1/2 oz |
| 7 months to 1 year | 8.0 tbsp (1/2 cup per 6 lb) | switch to grass hays | build up gradually |
| 1 to 5 years | 4.0 to 4.8 tbsp | unlimited grass hay | at least 2.00 cups |
| 6 years and older | adult amount while weight holds | unlimited grass hay | as for adults |
Two moments in that timeline matter more than the rest. The first is 12 weeks, when vegetables come in, one kind at a time and in portions under half an ounce, so that a soft stool can be traced back to a single food. The second is 7 months, when pellets stop being free-fed. That is the biggest single change in a rabbit's diet: from a bowl that is topped up whenever it is empty to a measured 8.0 tablespoons for our 6 lb rabbit, and a few months later to 4.0 to 4.8.
How many pellets should a baby rabbit eat, then? As many as it wants, up to 7 months, along with as much hay as it wants. The measuring cup comes out later. The same is true of the switch from alfalfa to timothy: it happens between 7 months and a year, gradually, over several weeks rather than overnight.
Pellets by the tablespoon, at every size
Pellets are where the rule depends most on body weight, so the calculator scales them in a straight line. A 12 lb rabbit gets exactly twice what a 6 lb rabbit gets. Here is the adult range for common weights, from House Rabbit Society's figure at the low end to Merck's at the high end.
| Rabbit weight | Pellets a day | In cups | Vegetables, at least |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 lb | 2.0 to 2.4 tbsp | 0.13 to 0.15 cup | 1.00 cup |
| 4 lb | 2.7 to 3.2 tbsp | 0.17 to 0.20 cup | 1.33 cups |
| 6 lb | 4.0 to 4.8 tbsp | 0.25 to 0.30 cup | 2.00 cups |
| 8 lb | 5.3 to 6.4 tbsp | 0.33 to 0.40 cup | 2.67 cups |
| 10 lb | 6.7 to 8.0 tbsp | 0.42 to 0.50 cup | 3.33 cups |
Why tablespoons? Because a quarter cup is hard to level and easy to overfill, and the whole range for a 6 lb rabbit is less than one tablespoon wide. The two published figures differ by only 20%. Merck states the reason for the limit plainly: pellets are restricted to prevent obesity and to keep the gut healthy, and eating too many of them can cause obesity or hypercalciuria, an excess of calcium in the urine.
Body condition moves the number more than the choice of source. For an overweight adult the calculator holds the pellets at the low end, 1/4 cup per 6 lb, and leaves hay untouched. For an underweight adult it opens the range to 1/2 cup per 6 lb, the top of the older House Rabbit Society range, and adds a note: weight loss on an unchanged diet is a reason to see a vet, very often for the teeth.
A good pellet, per House Rabbit Society, has at least 18% fiber and nothing mixed in: no fruit, seeds, nuts, corn or yogurt drops. Alfalfa-based pellets are fine for young rabbits; timothy-based ones are preferred for adults.
How many carrots can a rabbit eat in a day?
Back to the cartoon. Carrots are a non-leafy vegetable, and House Rabbit Society caps non-leafy vegetables at about 15% of the diet, roughly 1 tablespoon per 2 lb of body weight per day. For our 6 lb rabbit that is 3 tablespoons of all non-leafy vegetables together, not of carrot alone.
In weight, 3 tablespoons is 3/16 of a cup. USDA weighs a cup of chopped raw carrot at 128 g, so the whole non-leafy allowance is about 24 g of carrot, a small piece rather than a whole carrot. And if bell pepper or broccoli is in the bowl that day, the carrot gets smaller still.
Fruit sits one step lower: no more than 10% of the diet, about 1 teaspoon per 2 lb a day, so 3 teaspoons for 6 lb. House Rabbit Society suggests leaving the skin on (washed), removing apple stems and seeds, and peeling bananas and pineapple.
Greens: the part that can be bigger
The vegetable figure is the only one written as a minimum. At least 2 cups of chopped vegetables per 6 lb, with leafy greens making up about 75% of the fresh portion and at least three kinds every day. Romaine, red or green leaf lettuce, cilantro, dandelion greens, kale, bok choy and arugula are all on the House Rabbit Society list.
Some greens on that list carry an asterisk: parsley, mustard greens, beet greens, radish tops, sprouts and Swiss chard need to be rotated because of oxalic acid, and only one of the three daily greens should come from that group. House Rabbit Society also asks owners to wash vegetables for at least two minutes in a bowl, changing the water several times, because of rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus type 2.
Water, the quantity nobody measures
Merck puts a rabbit's water intake at about 120 mL per kilogram of body weight per day and adds a comparison that surprises most owners: that is about twice what is usually calculated for a dog or cat of the same size. A 6 lb rabbit weighs 2.72 kg, so the figure is about 327 mL, close to 1.4 cups or 11 fluid ounces.
Treat it as a reference, not a quota. A rabbit eating lots of wet greens drinks less from the bowl, and one on hay and pellets drinks more. What matters is that fresh water is always there. The Pet Water Calculator gives the same kind of figure for other pets in the house.
The plan after a month: what goes into the cart
Add up thirty days for the 6 lb adult. Pellets at the middle of the range come to 8.3 cups a month. For a bonded pair of the same weight that doubles to 16.5 cups. Bags are sold by weight, not by cups, so the calculator has one more optional box: the weight of one level cup of your pellets.
Brands differ, so weigh your own on a kitchen scale. If a level cup of yours weighs 4.2 oz, the pair needs 4.33 lb of pellets a month, and a 5 lb bag lasts a little over a month. Hay has no line in this bill on purpose: it is the one item you never ration.
| 30 days | One 6 lb rabbit | Bonded pair |
|---|---|---|
| Pellets, cups | 8.3 | 16.5 |
| Pellets at 4.2 oz a cup | 2.17 lb | 4.33 lb |
| Vegetables, at least | 60 cups | 120 cups |
| Water, about | 9.8 L | 19.6 L |
Five lessons from following the numbers
- Hay has no target, only a rule. Unlimited, every day. Any number you see for hay is somebody's estimate, not the guidance.
- Age changes the menu before it changes the amount. Vegetables start at 12 weeks, measured pellets at 7 months.
- Pellets scale with weight, in tablespoons. About 0.67 to 0.8 tablespoon per pound for an adult, less than one tablespoon of difference between the two sources for a 6 lb rabbit.
- The carrot is part of a shared allowance. 1 tablespoon of non-leafy vegetables per 2 lb covers carrot, pepper and broccoli together.
- Weight is the feedback loop. Body condition moves the pellets up or down, and a drop in weight is a reason to call a vet before changing the bowl.
Looking back over the plan, the striking thing is how little of it is measured. Two of the six lines in the daily table have no limit at all, and the measured ones are small. The work in feeding a rabbit well is keeping the rack full and the treats small, not counting.
Calculators used for this feeding plan
- Rabbit Food Calculator - pellets in tablespoons and cups, vegetables, the cap on non-leafy vegetables and fruit, water and a 30-day pellet supply, by weight, age and body condition.
- Guinea Pig Vitamin C Calculator - the daily vitamin C dose for a guinea pig in milligrams, turned into grams of bell pepper, broccoli and 14 other vegetables.
- Hamster Food Calculator - the daily pellet portion for Syrian and dwarf hamsters, plus a 24-hour weigh-in that counts the hidden stash.
Other pet calculators worth a look
- Pet Water Calculator - how much a pet should drink, depending on its weight and food.
- Horse Hay Calculator - pounds of hay a day and bales for the season, if your herbivores come in a larger size.
- Parrot Diet Calculator - the same weigh-the-bowl method for a bird, with the pellet and seed share.
- Pet Age Calculator - a pet's age in human years and the life stage it is in.
- Pet Feeding Calculator - daily food in grams and ounces for a dog or a cat.
- Bird Cage Size Calculator - a cage checked against the Merck minimums and bar spacing.