We Love Rabbits

 

Image: Gordon the Rabbit - © Coquet Vets

Rabbit Awareness Week is Monday, 24th-28th June 2024. Rabbits are great small furry pets for the right owners. Rabbits need a lot of space and attention and can be costly as they can get a few health issues. The main health issue is their teeth.

What’s inside your rabbit’s mouth?

Rabbit teeth are designed for chomping and chewing. Rabbits are herbivores, which means that they will never eat meat. Rabbit’s mouths have a combination of incisors, molars, and premolars.

Their teeth are curved, and enamel is only found on the front surface of the teeth. The back surface of their teeth is coated in softer dentin, which means that the front surface wears down much slower than the back. Your rabbit’s two front teeth—known as the anterior incisors—can grow up to 12 cm a year. The vast majority of dental problems concern these teeth, as they’re the most prone to overgrowing and other problems.

Rabbits are thorough chewers, and their technique involves highly organised tongue movements combined with up to 120 jaw movements per minute.

Because of the nature of their jaw muscles, rabbits chew both vertically and horizontally. This is enough to keep their teeth in good shape—so long as their teeth are in perfect alignment.

 

Rabbits (Image: Aswathy N via Pixabay)

 

Malocclusion

Beyond a poor diet, a leading cause of overgrown teeth in rabbits is malocclusion. This is where poor tooth alignment lessens the effectiveness of chewing. Many things can cause malocclusion, but most cases have more than one underlying cause. It can be a combination of infection, genetic issues, and even mild trauma.

A single misaligned tooth is all it takes to throw off a rabbit’s entire bite and chew. As a result, if left unchecked, even small dental issues can soon escalate. But unfortunately, most rabbit owners only notice that there’s a problem once the rabbit’s front teeth have become overgrown. By this point the problem might already be critical, so it’s important to be on the lookout for other early warning signs, such as weight loss or a tendency for food to fall from your rabbit’s mouth.

How to keep your rabbit’s teeth healthy

Regular trips to the vet will help, and we offer free dental checks all year round, so if you are a client of Coquet Vets, please call us and get your rabbit booked in on 01665 252 250. The vet will discuss all options, from diet to dental treatment.

We have also shared several articles on rabbit diet, so please read these for more information, as diet is very important to good dental care.

If you are a client of Coquet Vets and this article has raised any questions, you can contact us on 01665 252 250 or email us at info@coquetvets.co.uk.