The buck-teeth is a unique and attractive trait of the rabbits. These teeth are crucial to the rabbit’s health and for eating food. But, you might find the slow and steady growth of rabbit’s teeth odd.
Rabbits’ dentition teeth continue to grow as they get old. Due to this growth, their teeth remain long, thick, strong, and healthy. Though the fiber foods file down their teeth, they will still grow. Chewing and grinding their teeth is a natural habit for the rabbits. This method helps them to keep their teeth’ length short and comfortable.
Having healthy teeth is crucial for the rabbit to remain healthy! Here is a quick overview of the topics you will come across in this post:
- Recognizing the healthy teeth
- How to avoid overgrowth of teeth
- Treating the overgrown teeth
Recognizing Healthy Teeth
It is a natural thing for rabbits to have growing teeth! Besides the rabbits, a few herbivores such as guinea pigs and horses have teeth that grow.
Rabbits include many natural behaviors and impulses, which help them in keeping their teeth short. While eating, rabbits will grind the teeth together. They often chew on objects to file down their teeth.
Rabbits have a total of 28 teeth. Many times, you can only see the front teeth (incisors) as they are visible. It is easy to identify when the incisors are overgrowing. But the molars at the back will also grow out of order. You have to check both the incisors and molars from time to time.
Here are a few regular inspections you can do at home as you are the caretaker of the rabbit! Remember, rabbits do not like to go through oral examinations. When you are checking around their mouth, it might feel nervous and uncomfortable.
Before doing the oral exam at your home, check whether your rabbit feels safe or not and try your best to relax the pet. If you do not have a close connection with your rabbit, it is better not to use this method. When your rabbit is nervous or showing aggression, go to the veterinarian for its treatment.
If you are comfortable and confident about treating your rabbit’s teeth, lay the pet on a slab or mattress. Keep the rabbit on anything that is straight and has a raising surface. Now, wrap the rabbit in a towel. It is better to take a fresh towel or any cloth that emits a familiar smell.
Make eye contact with your rabbit and stroke its head and eyes, and drag its upper lip. Now, you can see the long front teeth of your pet. Remember, you have to be gentle in every step.
Look at its teeth to find flakes, breaks, odd stains, or overgrowth. Explore the rabbit’s mouth to see the indications of rash, discoloring, or bumps on its inner cheeks and gums.
In general, a healthy rabbit will have vertical front teeth pair, and it would not have any gaps between them. If you see any holes, teeth splaying outside or coiling inward, you have to take the rabbit to the veterinarian. The above signs will cause severe oral health risks for your pet.
The bottom front teeth of a typical rabbit will lean a bit backward than the top teeth. If your rabbit has neat teeth without any misalignment problems, it is a good thing. Take the rabbit and keep it back in its cell.
When you take your rabbit to the veterinarian, the vet will do the other complex oral examinations. If the pet is nervous, they will give sedatives. After that, the vet will use various devices to check the rabbit’s back teeth.
Veterinarians can also discover minor problems that might not be visible to you during the home inspection. If you can not find the reason for the strange behavior of the rabbit, it is better to take the pet to the veterinarian!
Avoiding Overgrown Teeth
It is better to take necessary precautions to avoid teeth problems. Many healthy rabbits have natural ways to file down their teeth to a comfortable and safe level.
Fiber-rich foods are crucial and help in keeping the rabbit’s teeth at a safe length! When the rabbits eat hay for a long time, their teeth reduces the growth rate. Consider supplying plenty of hay and grass to your pet. Because of this, the rabbits can also develop decent eating patterns.
Rabbits like to chew on many things, and this is a natural habit. Giving your pets chew toys is an excellent way to encourage them. This method also keeps the length of the rabbit’s teeth short. Rabbits will chew on everything they find. But, there are a few high-end toys that are perfect for grinding the rabbit’s teeth down.
Here are a few incredible chew toys for your pets – wooden sticks, grass or straw grain balls, and grinding treats.
Besides encouraging the rabbit to chew, these toys also fascinate your rabbit. Give them these toys so that your pet would not chew on crucial things and objects. Be it furniture, wires, or home decors, or even your hands – your rabbit will chew EVERYTHING.
Treating Overgrown Rabbit’s Teeth
If your rabbit is facing tooth overgrowth or infection problems, taking it to a veterinarian is a crucial thing. The rabbit experts have experience and maintain essential equipment to deal with the issue.
You can also treat the rabbit if you have basic knowledge and the veterinarian instructs you to do it. There are some methods you can use to treat the overgrown teeth of your rabbit at home.
You do not have to trim the teeth of healthy rabbits. But if your rabbit is feeling discomfort while eating, it will stop gnawing on its teeth for some period.
If you notice this kind of situation, you need to assist your pet. Remember, it is better to try these techniques only if the veterinarian approves them.
For instance, to file down your rabbit’s teeth, it is better to use a small nail clipper. Also, you can use a portable rotary drill if you have it.
Here is a crystal-clear video that provides a short description of the out-of-order growing teeth of a rabbit. You can also see visual instruction on how to trim the rabbit’s teeth.
There are high chances that your rabbit might feel uncomfortable throughout the procedure. Besides that, using machinery in the pet’s mouth is quite dangerous. It is better to take the rabbit to the veterinarian for its dental operations. But when there is no other choice, you can use the above method.
Teeth are crucial to the rabbit’s life. It is better to check them from time to time so that you can keep your pet safe and healthy!