A rabbit refusing a new vegetable: its tastes were settled before weaning
Published by Planète Pets · managing editor: Clément Lacaille · how our guides are written
A fussy rabbit is readily put down to character. A series of Hungarian studies points to a far earlier origin. Our guidance is gathered in the rabbit food section.
Contents · 5 sections
Three routes of transmission, equally effective
Bilkó, Altbäcker and Hudson published in 1994, in Physiology & Behavior, a study in which does were fed a ration supplemented with juniper berries, a strongly flavoured addition (see the study). They isolated three channels through which the mother's taste reaches her young:
- experience before birth, through the uterine environment;
- contact during nursing;
- the droppings the doe leaves in the nest, which the kits ingest.
The authors' conclusion, word for word: the three means of transmission proved equally effective. They speak of an "apparent redundancy" — several channels carrying the same information at different moments, which would allow successive foods to be learned. Kits fostered at birth by a normally fed doe still kept their biological mother's preference.
The timing rests on a peculiarity of the species: a review by Caba and González-Mariscal published in 2009 in the European Journal of Neuroscience recalls that the doe nurses only once a day, in bouts of about three minutes. The nest, and what she leaves in it, therefore count as much as the nursing itself.
Strong enough to steer kits towards a toxic plant
Ducs, Kazi, Bilkó and Altbäcker pushed the mechanism further in 2016 in Behavioural Processes (see the study). Kits given, during their first ten days, droppings from individuals that had fed on milkweed — a toxic plant — preferred that plant at weaning, around day 28, unlike controls. The authors themselves call their second finding surprising: the effect also appeared when the plant had been eaten a month before pregnancy.
What these studies do not show
Testing stops shortly after weaning. Nothing establishes that the preference holds at one year, three years or eight years: writing that an adult rabbit refuses fennel "because of its mother" would be an extrapolation. All the foods tested are strongly aromatic; whether the mechanism works for a courgette or a pellet is unknown. These are farm and laboratory rabbits, not pet-shop kits weaned early, in whom the chain may simply have been broken. And above all: none of these studies tests how to get an adult to accept a new vegetable. Finally, this is learned rather than genetic — which leaves the door open, without reversibility being demonstrated either.
What to do with it
- At adoption, ask what the mother was eating and what the litter was offered before weaning, then start from that list for two or three weeks before broadening.
- If you have a litter, everything is decided before day 28: offer the doe the herbs you will later want to give the kits, as set out in our guide to feeding kits at weaning.
- With a fussy adult, do not remove the familiar food: present the new item alongside it, and respect the 7 to 10 day transition.
- Never count on instinct to filter out what is toxic: the kits of the 2016 study followed the transmitted preference all the way to a dangerous plant.
Frequently asked questions
Can my adult rabbit still change?
These studies do not measure that. They show only that an early preference takes hold, not that it is permanent.
Should kits be allowed to eat droppings?
They are part of the normal working of the nest and of the establishment of gut flora. There is nothing to prevent.
Is a fussy rabbit in danger?
A persistent refusal to eat certainly is, and calls for a prompt consultation. Find all our guides on the rabbit hub.
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This guide is part of Planète Pets’s Rabbits universe. Our advice is general in nature: for any health concern, your veterinarian remains the only reference.
