pineapple and papaya

Question
could you please tell me if its better to give my 2 month old mini lop fresh pineapple and papaya for hairball control or is it better to give her the dried stuff. thank you very much. millie

Answer
Papaya tablets are fine, but for pineapple to be effective it has to be fresh. Any cooking or drying kills off the enzyme that disolves hair. So canned pineapple will not work either. Papaya works differently. It does not actually control hairballs, but it does keep the digestive system healthy, which means the rabbit can more easily pass hair that it does injest.

Oxbow does carry Papaya Tablets with pineapple in them. Supposedly their freeze-drying method keeps the enzymes in-tact, but I have not tried it myself.

http://www.oxbowhay.com/link.sp?page=PapayaTablets is a supplier of the tablets, or do an internet search for "Oxbow Papaya Tablets".