Marrows are known as cucurbits and they come from the same family as the cucumber, melon, squash, and zucchinis. They are actually zucchinis that have been left to grow on its plant a lot longer.
Marrows have flesh that is creamy, seeds and skin that you can eat and generally has a mild flavour.
People normally eat it boiled, fried, roasted, baked, steamed, and is enjoyed in a number of different dishes that are found around the world. It is also known as a summer squash although marrow is its english name.
So can rabbits eat marrow at all?
Let’s take a look at its nutritional data a bit more in particular its calcium, sugar, phosphorus, sodium, fibre, fat and acidic content is of most interest
Energy 69 kJ (16 kcal)
Carbohydrates 3.4 g
– Sugars 2.2 g
– Dietary fiber 1.1 g
Fat 0.2 g
Protein 1.2 g
Water 95 g
Vitamin A equiv. 10 μg (1%)
– beta-carotene 120 μg (1%)
– lutein and zeaxanthin 2125 μg
Thiamine (vit. B1) 0.048 mg (4%)
Riboflavin (vit. B2) 0.142 mg (12%)
Niacin (vit. B3) 0.487 mg (3%)
Pantothenic acid (B5) 0.155 mg (3%)
Vitamin B6 0.218 mg (17%)
Folate (vit. B9) 29 μg (7%)
Vitamin C 17 mg (20%)
Vitamin K 3 μg (3%)
Iron 0.35 mg (3%)
Magnesium 17 mg (5%)
Manganese 0.175 mg (8%)
Phosphorus 38 mg (5%)
Potassium 262 mg (6%)
Zinc 0.29 mg (3%)
image wikipedia
As you can see marrow contains some phosphorus, is very acidic, has a hint of fat and some sugar.
This means that marrow is not the best thing that rabbits and they can only eat it in small amounts to nibble at. If they have any more than that then it will hurt their stomachs.
They can nibble the skin but again not have too much of it.
Image “Spaghetti Squash 700” by Derek Ramsey (Ram-Man) – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spaghetti_Squash_700.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Spaghetti_Squash_700.jpg
