Can Rabbits Eat Garden Cress?

Garden cress is genetically related to watercress and mustard, sharing their peppery, tangy flavor and aroma. In some regions, garden cress is known as mustard and cress, garden pepper cress, pepperwort, pepper grass, or poor man’s pepper (source)

So can rabbits eat garden cress?

We take a look at its nutritional data and find out more.

In particular, its acidic, water, sugar, fat, salt, calcium and phosphorus content is of particular interest as far as rabbits are concerned.

Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy 134 kJ (32 kcal)
Carbohydrates
5.5 g
Sugars 4.4 g
Dietary fiber 1.1 g
Fat
0.7 g
Protein
2.6 g
Vitamins
Vitamin A equiv.
beta-carotene
lutein zeaxanthin
(43%) 346 μg
(38%) 4150 μg
12500 μg
Thiamine (B1) (7%) 0.08 mg
Riboflavin (B2) (22%) 0.26 mg
Niacin (B3) (7%) 1 mg
Pantothenic acid (B5) (5%) 0.247 mg
Vitamin B6 (19%) 0.247 mg
Folate (B9) (20%) 80 μg
Vitamin C (83%) 69 mg
Vit E (5%) 0.7 mg
Vitamin K (516%) 541.9 μg
Minerals
Calcium (8%) 81 mg
Iron (10%) 1.3 mg
Magnesium (11%) 38 mg
Manganese (26%) 0.553 mg
Phosphorus (11%) 76 mg
Potassium (13%) 606 mg
Other constituents
Water 89.4 g

source wikipedia

As you can see, garden cress contains a huge amount of water and acidic content, a lot of phosphorus and calcium,  a little sugar and a hint of fat.

This means that it is not a good food for rabbits to eat. It has too much acidic and water content for rabbits to handle. A little nibble of it should be fine but it is not a food that should be fed to rabbits purposely.

There are much better foods that bunnies can eat.

Leave a Comment