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Do Rabbits Eat Black-Eyed Susans? (Answered)

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Except for only a few flowering plants, rabbis tend to gobble up nearly any flowering plants they come across in a garden.

Thus, if you are growing black-eyed Susans in your garden, wanting to know whether rabbits eat black-eyed Susans too or not must be a natural query of yours. 

Therefore, let’s get into the findings ahead regarding this query. 

Do Rabbits Eat Black-Eyed Susans?

Black-eyed Susans have fuzzy, nearly bristly leaves and flowering plants with fuzzy leaves are known to be less preferred by rabbits, so rabbits don’t really like to eat black-eyed Susans. But due to a shortage of palatable food sources, rabbits surely will eat black-eyed Susans if they come across.

You might want to learn which part of black-eyed Susans, the flowers or the vine is more palatable to rabbits. 

Here, with proper justification, it has been described to answer your this query. 

Black-Eyed Susan Flowers:

It is a clashing answer whether rabbits eat black-eyed Susans flowers or not because the all-time traditional consensus of people or gardeners has been that most rabbits avoid munching on black-eyed Susans like other flowers. 

However, the reality turned this traditional all-time thought wrong as many garden owners and gardeners stated during research that rabbits do feast on black-eyed Susan flowers.

But they may not eat these flowers as much as other flowering plants as black-eyed Susans aren’t their first choice as a tasty food source. 

Moreover, it’s found that the location of a black-eyed Susan garden and particular species of wild bunnies in that area influence the likeliness of rabbits eating black-eyed Susan flowers.

In a fluffle of rabbits, after watching a rabbit enjoy eating black-eyed Susans, some others will join it, whereas the rest of them may not show much interest and eat other flowering plants in the same garden.

Black-Eyed Susan Vines:

It’s rabbits’ natural habit that they don’t prefer vines with fizzy leaves as their food, and since the black-eyed Susan vines have relatively fuzzy and almost bristly leaves, rabbits don’t eat these vines much. 

However, having fuzzy and almost bristly leaves doesn’t make black-eyed Susan vines completely inedible.

Rabbits surely will munch on black-eyed Susan vines because these vines make a good food source for them in some particular environments.

Especially, if the garden is a bad wintery area where minimal food sources are available for wild bunnies, bunnies become more desperate, and the chances of rabbits’ raiding the garden and feasting on black-eyed Susan vines get much higher.  

Additionally, after an initial raid when rabbits find the black-eyed Susan vines as an easily accessible food source of them, they will keep coming back to eat even if they are not that much fond of these vines.

Are Black-Eyed Susans Rabbit Resistant?

Since black-eyed Susans are among those flowering plants that have much fuzzy leaves, it’s traditionally reckoned that black-eyed Susans are rabbit resistant due to rabbits’ disliking of fuzzy, bristly plants.

But this belief isn’t right as rabbits are seen to eat black-eyed Susans, so they are not completely rabbit-resistant flowering plants. 

Black-eyed Susans certainly aren’t the first choice of wild rabbits as their primary source of food but black-eyed Susans do make a pretty good source of food when foods are scarce.

Thereby, due to hunger rabbits don’t think twice before starting to munch on black-eyed Susans. 

In addition to this, some species and some wild rabbits, especially the young rabbits are inquisitive about tasting different flavors.

Thus, randomly they will be eating black-eyed Susans to perceive the taste, and it makes another reason why black-eyed Susans aren’t fully rabbit resistant.

Are Black-Eyed Susans Toxic To Rabbits?

Black-eyed Susans are not harmful or toxic flowering plants for rabbits to eat. In fact, it’s quite a safe plant like the other safe to eat plants for rabbits which is why black-eyed Susans have been acknowledged as a valuable source of food for rabbits in adverse situations too. 

Hence, rabbits aren’t frequently seen to dine on eating black-eyed Susans like the other flowering plants, it’s been assumed by many that perhaps black-eyed Susans are toxic for rabbits.

However, there is no such case, rabbits don’t like the texture of black-eyed Susan leaves and the plant, thus, they try to avoid eating them.

How To Keep Rabbits From Eating My Black-Eyed Susans?

5 methods that effectively can deter rabbits away from eating your black-eyed Susans have been listed below for your convenience. 

Fence Rabbits Out: 

Rabbits are terrific hoppers, so installing fences taller than 26 inches high around your garden’s perimeter is an effective way of keeping rabbits out from eating your black-eyed Susans.

Also, you must bury the fence 1-2 feet deeper in the ground so that rabbits can squeeze through underneath the installed fence.

Either chicken wire or woods are okay to be used for installing fence, just make sure that the gaps in the chicken wire aren’t more than 1” wide. 

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Tidy Up Your Garden: 

If you tidy up your garden area and reduce rabbits’ natural habitation in the garden, this can keep them away from eating your black-eyed Susans. 

So, tidy up your garden and areas around black-eyed Susan plants by removing any weeds and debris, as it will lessen rabbits’ places for hiring and prevent them from coming back to the garden. 

Apply Rabbit Repellents: 

Any pungent rabbit repellent with foul odor deters rabbits away from a garden. You can use hinder and deer off as a commercial rabbit repellent, or else you can make your own. 

You can sprinkle hot pepper or chili pepper or you can spray a mixture of hot pepper/chili powder and water around the black-eyed Susans.

The spicy strong scent of pepper or chili will deter rabbits. Spraying a mixture of minced garlic and water around the plants will also turn rabbits away. Because rabbits can’t stand the pungent awful scent of garlic. 

Liquid Fence 81126 Deer & Rabbit Repellent Ready-to-Use, 32-Ounce, 32 oz, White

Scare Them Out: 

Rabbits are timid creatures and you can use their this fear against them to safeguard your black-eyed Susans. Use a predator’s urine such as coyote urine, wolf urine, etc. to make your rabbits feel that the predator is nearby which will scare them away. 

Or else, you can install a motion detector water sprinkler to detect rabbits’ movement and sprinkle water at them to make them flee away. 

Relocate Using Live Traps: 

You can use a live trap to trap rabbits and release them miles away from your garden so that they can’t eat your black-eyed Susans.

Lure the rabbits in the trap by placing their favorite food inside, once they are in, release them somewhere fat from your home.

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What’s Eating My Black-Eyed Susans?

Black-eyed Susans are eaten by both animals and insects. Here’s the list of animals and insects that probably is eating up your black-eyed Susans. 

Deer: 

Deer are one of those animals that like to eat black-eyed Susans as black-eyed Susans make a source of food for deer as well during an adverse time when there are fewer food sources.

Besides, deer being another herbivores, they tend to eat any easily accessible plant while roaming around. 

Squirrels: 

Squirrels may not eat black-eyed Susans as their favorite food but they do eat these plants when they are hungry, facing food scarcity, or looking for eating something new.

Many gardeners stated that squirrels have eaten their black-eyed Susans from flowers to roots during winter. 

Tarnished Plant Bug:

Tarnished plant bugs mainly damage the black-eyed Susan flower buds and leave distorted leaves behind. 

Cucumber Beetles: 

Adult cucumber beetles eat the new growth and young black-eyed Susan flowers. They also feed on pollen. 

Caterpillar: 

Silvery Checkerspot butterflies lay their eggs on black-eyed Susan leaves and this leaves a food source for caterpillars, thus, caterpillars eat black-eyed Susans.  

American Goldfinches:

American goldfinches mainly feed on black-eyed Susan seeds, they will perch over the stalks and pick out the small seeds of black-eyed Susan. 

Chickadees, cardinals, and sparrows eat black-eyed Susan seeds too. 

What Plants Are Rabbit-Resistant?

To deter rabbits, rabbit-resistant plants work quite effectively as a good solution, therefore, here some of those rabbit-resistant plant names are added that don’t hit the hunger of rabbits, but rather stop then from eating other plants for your further knowledge. 

Rabbit-resistant shrubs include:

Butterfly bush, Russian sage, Japanese rose, lavender, boxwood, lantana, blue star juniper, etc. 

Perennials that deter rabbits include:

Salvia, poppy, torch lily, Rodgers flower, daylily, combine, new England aster, etc. 

Bulb plants include:

Alliums (garlic, onion), daffodil, Spanish bluebells, Siberian quill, and reticulated iris. 

Annual plants include:

Floss flower, geranium, pot marigold, and wax begonias. 

And rabbit-resistant vines include:

Lily-of-the-valley, creeping myrtle, creeping junipers, Japanese spurge, wisteria, yellow alyssum, Virginia creeper, catmint, etc.

Final Thoughts 

Typically, rabbits aren’t likely to eat the black-eyed Susans as the leaves of black-eyed Susans are fuzzy, and rabbits don’t like eating flowering plants with such fuzzy-textured leaves. But when they are hungry or looking for new tastes, rabbits will eat black-eyed Susans if they can reach them.

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