Rabbits and Dental Problems
By faelady
@faelady (161)
Canada
December 15, 2006 10:08am CST
RABBITS - bunnies are pretty new to the whole domestication thing. As they are the on the bottom of the food chain, as a species they aren't expected to live past two years. Now, with proper care, they can live up to 10 years.
This means that evolution hasn't caught up with them yet. Their bodies haven't developed strategies for dealing with medical problems that come from living so long.
Rabbit teeth constantly grow, and it's vital that they have things to chew in order to keep their teeth at a working length. Think filing fingernails so you can type properly. However, once a rabbit gets past the one year mark, they can develop spurs on their teeth. This is extra enamel that builds up on either side of a tooth, and can cut painfully into their gums. If a vet doesn't shave these spurs off yearly, they can grow so long that the bunny can't eat for the pain.
The cost for such a procedure is $200-400, and has to be done annually. And unfortunately, there is no such thing as bunny insurance since they are so new to the domestic animal world.
1 person likes this
3 responses
@adams03605 (436)
• United States
19 Dec 06
Not exactly sure what you are getting at here, but having raised rabbits for many years when I was younger, sometimes up to 200 at a time, we used to always have small pieces of wood placed in their cages for them to chew on.
There are flavored wood pieces on the market now that you can buy in pet stores or other places. We used to watch them chew on the wires of their cages as well. They do know that they have to chew on things to make their mouths feel better. Same as a puppy that is getting new teeth, it's instinct.
I change the piece of wood in my bunny cage about every 2 weeks. So it never gets "old" to him. It's like getting a new toy.
@Pigglies (9329)
• United States
20 Dec 06
Wood chews only wear down the incisors, not the molars generally.
Rabbit teeth are extremely different from puppy teeth, surprising you didn't know that after raising them. Puppies teeth for the same reason as humans. They are growing new teeth in and loosing the baby teeth. Rabbits don't lose baby teeth. They have the same teeth that continuously grow (unless you remove the tooth and root, in which case, they won't have a tooth there any longer).
Rabbits can enjoy wood chews as toys. But hay is better for wearing down the teeth and is also a necessity for their digestive tract anyway.
@Pigglies (9329)
• United States
20 Dec 06
With proper care, they can often live past 10 years. I knew someone with a 13 year old rabbit. I'm sure there are older ones too.
A lot of the teeth issues are actually caused by humans more than the rabbits. People feeding a rabbit only pellets aren't feeding a proper diet. The pellets don't wear down the teeth. When fed a proper diet of hay, veggies, and pellets, teeth problems are more rare. Chew toys don't help much, because those only wear down the incisors, whereas the majority of rabbit teeth issues involved the molars.
Spurs aren't overly common. But overgrown teeth due to poor diet, malloculliosion (spelling?) etc. are.
Guinea pigs can have similar problems. I had a 5 year old piggie get spurs before. And I've seen pigs at the shelter who lived on a pellet diet, and then you open up their mouths, look back into the molars using buccal pad separators, and then I've seen it where the molars grow over and actually entrap the tongue.
With proper diet, these problems are more rare. But in extreme cases, sometimes tooth removal surgeries are necessary.
