Hello, readers. A new rabbit owner usually fills the bowl with pellets and calls it dinner.

That's the wrong order. Pellets are the smallest part of a healthy rabbit diet, and hay is the biggest. Get that sequence right and most of the rest falls into place.

Hay carries the whole diet

Hay should make up roughly 75 percent of what your rabbit eats, and it needs to be available all day, not rationed. Timothy hay works well for adults, and orchard grass is a solid option if your rabbit turns its nose up at Timothy. The fiber does two jobs at once: it keeps the gut moving and it wears down teeth that grow continuously. A rabbit that stops eating hay is a rabbit headed for trouble, so watch the rack and refill it before it's empty. Alfalfa is different, higher in calcium and protein, and it's usually reserved for young rabbits or nursing does rather than adults.

Fresh greens, introduced slowly

Leafy greens come next, about one packed cup per day for an average sized rabbit. Romaine, parsley, cilantro, and dandelion greens are all reliable choices. Kale and spinach are fine in smaller amounts because they're higher in oxalates. Here's the part people skip: introduce any new green one at a time, over a few days, and watch the droppings. A sudden pile of wet or soft droppings after a new vegetable tells you to pull back. Carrots and fruit are treats, not staples, and a couple of small pieces a week is plenty. Rabbits don't need sugar, and too much of it throws off the gut.

Pellets are a side dish

Plain pellets, no colorful mixes with seeds and dried fruit, should stay around a quarter cup per day for a rabbit in the five to seven pound range. Read the label and pick one with a fiber content near 18 percent or higher. Those mixed bags with corn and nuts are the ones to leave on the shelf. Fresh water in a bowl or bottle, checked twice a day, rounds out the basics.

What to keep off the plate

Some foods are genuinely risky. Iceberg lettuce offers little nutrition and can cause loose droppings. Avocado, chocolate, onions, and anything moldy should stay away entirely. Bread and crackers are common mistakes because rabbits beg for them, but they fill a rabbit up without giving it the fiber it needs.

Build the plate in this order and you'll cover the essentials: unlimited hay, one cup of greens, a small scoop of plain pellets, and water. Try it for a week and watch how much hay disappears from the rack. That number tells you more about your rabbit's health than almost anything else.