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We have a young rabbit, living in a cage inside.

She is sometimes allowed to walk freely in the room of the owner. The owner is a teenager, the room is as messy as an average teenagers room, with various small things on the ground. She - the owner - is known to be highly competent and experienced in handling animals, and is not worried.

The rabbit does not seem to be interested in eating the kind of random stuff you could find under your furniture.

So far, I am not worried.

But there may be the chance that the rabbit finds rolling tobacco or cigarettes on the ground - which somewhat scares me. Would that be a practical danger?

As far as I understand, the dose of nicotine in "a little bit" of Tobacco may be lethal if ingested.

What I do not understand: is there any reason a rabbit would be interested in eating cigarettes or loose tobacco? I do not worry about the rabbit trying a minor amount of tobacco, having a bad experience(*) and learning from it.

Should I be scared if the rabbit walks over an open pack of rolling tobacco and a couple of cigarettes? (This did not happen - I try to understand how important it is to prevent it from happening.)


Some numbers for context:

  • The rabbit is few month old.

  • It weights 280 g.

  • Lethal dose of nicotine (LD50 is an abreviation for the median of lethal dose, also called lethal dose 50%):

    • LD50 for humans is something like 5 mg/kg oral
    • For rabbits, I found an LD50 of 140 mg/kg dermal, but we are interested in oral doses.
    • in small animals, the lethal dose seems to vary widely in general, examples are
      • LD50 of nicotine in mice, oral: 5.9 mg/kg
      • LD50 of nicotine in rats, oral: 14.6 mg/kg

  • Nicotine in rolling tobacco: 1-2.5% by weight.

(*) If she has a good experience and learns from it, I will post another question.

Source: FACTS ABOUT NICOTINE TOXICITY

Volker Siegel
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1 Answers1

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This site about cigarettes has a table with the amount of nicotine in mg per piece (column "N") of various brands. The maximum values is "1".

With 280g weight we can make a calculation od your rabbit is approximately a quarter of one kg (250g). And if we now assume, that the LD50 is similar in mice and rabbits then your rabbit eating one whole cigarette of the "strongest" kind, would result in a dose of 4mg/kg.

So in this calculation the rabbit would not reach the median lethal dose (or 50%) called "LD50". It could eat half of a cigarette more...

In general rabbits try a tiny bite of food, if they are interested in it. Then they wait for some days to observe their health. Only if they stay healthy, they will try a little more.

Because of the strong smell and strong taste of cigarettes I can not imagine, they would be interesting for rabbits in large amounts (large means more than a rabbit's mouth full).

So in conclusion I would not be worried to toxinate my rabbit with random crumbles of tabbaco or even whole cigarettes in my room. (I have rabbits outdoors since nearly 10 years roaming free in the garden during daylight)

But be aware, that rabbits learn save foods from their parents and older siblings. So depending of the relationship with the owner, showing the rabbit food and encourage it to try it, can lead to less cautious behaviour in the rabbit with this special food.

Allerleirauh
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