Can Rabbits eat Honeydew Melon?

Honeydew melon is a fruit with a round to slightly oval shape. It measures between 15-22 cm and weighs in at between 1.8 to 3.6 kg. It has a pale green flesh and has a peel that ranges from green to yellow.

Honeydew melon has seeds and its juicy sweet flesh is often consumed as a dessert. It is found in supermarkets and grocery stores around the world as well as sold on farmers markets.

So can rabbits eat honeydew melon at all?

As per usual, lets take a look at its nutritional data and find out more about it. The reason why we do this is to find out about its nutritional properties and find out what it really contains and make a good analysis of it.

In particular, its sugar, sodium, calcium, fibre, fat, phosphorus, and acidic content is of particular interest as far as rabbits are concerned as these are the nutrients that tend to affect them the most and will affect our decision as to whether the fruit can be eaten and if so, how much of it can be eaten.

Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy 150 kJ (36 kcal)
Carbohydrates
9.09 g
Sugars 8.12 g
Dietary fiber 0.8 g
Fat 0.14 g
Protein 0.54 g
Vitamins
Thiamine (B1) (3%)0.038 mg
Riboflavin (B2) (1%)0.012 mg
Niacin (B3) (3%)0.418 mg
Pantothenic acid (B5) (3%)0.155 mg
Vitamin B6 (7%)0.088 mg
Folate (B9) (5%)19 μg
Vitamin C (22%)18 mg
Vitamin K (3%)2.9 μg
Trace metals
Calcium (1%)6 mg
Iron (1%)0.17 mg
Magnesium (3%)10 mg
Manganese (1%)0.027 mg
Phosphorus (2%)11 mg
Potassium (5%)228 mg
Sodium (1%)18 mg
Zinc (1%)0.09 mg
Link to USDA Database entry

source wikipedia

As you can see honeydew melon contains a hint of sodium, calcium, and are quite acidic, however it does contain a lot of sugar.

This means that rabbits can eat honeydew melon, but not so much of it as it is very sweet and if they have too much it will hurt their stomachs. This is because they cannot handle and digest large amounts of sugary foods and cause them to get diarrhoea.

So it is fine for them to nibble on but they should not have any more than that and it should not be a primary food for them.

They can also eat honeydew melon rind but again, not too much as it will also hurt their stomachs.

However, they cannot eat the seeds at all. They present a severe chokage issue for rabbits and may cause them a great deal of problems if they are consumed. So they are best kept away from rabbits for their safety.

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