Question
Pretty much every iconic image of Bugs Bunny shows him with a carrot in his hand/paw. For many people, this image of Bugs is one of the first things which pops into their mind when considering what to feed a bunny. If you put a carrot in with a bunny, they will be extremely happy and do their best to eat the whole thing no matter how big, in a single meal. So it must be good, right?
When it comes to pet rabbit diet, is Bugs Bunny a good role model?
Answer
Bugs Bunny is not a good role model for house rabbits. This related question and supporting information at Wikipedia indicate he uses the carrot the same way some comedians use a cigar, and as a satire of a scene by Clark Gable.
According to guidelines carrots and other NON-LEAFY VEGETABLES should should form only a small part of your rabbits diet. Large quantities of sugary items (like carrots) can be fatal to your bunny, resulting in GI Stasis.
Carrots are particularly harmful to rabbits due to their high sugar content. Most carrot are about 7% sugar as opposed other non-leafy greens like celery which has about half as much sugar. It is no surprise that fruits like apples are high in sugar, but an apple only has about twice as much sugar as a carrot. To make matters worse the apple which is easy to recognize as a treat has over half of it's sugar as fructose, while only a small part of the carrot sugar is fructose. The amount of fructose is important because the ability of the post-weaning rabbit's small intestine to digest fructose (fruit sugar) increases, while the ability to digest all other sugars decreases (Buddington 1990). So these non fructose sugars are more likely to arrive in the cecum (or caecum) where they create a change in the pH of the cecum and eventually can throw the whole system off.
Treat carrots like candy, and offer sparingly as an occasional treat. Bugs Bunny like many bigger than life characters, is not a good roll model for a house rabbit.
Answered By - James Jenkins