Psychological reasons for not bunny eating?

Firstly, Pebbles is booked in for GA tomorrow to check his mouth again, and is being referred to specialist vet at Trinity, Maidstone.

He has been on metacam for nearly 3 weeks since last dental under GA and will eat dry pellets (60g a day at the moment) but is still unable to eat dandelions, leafy veg, herbs or fenugreek crunchies...he tries, but after a bite or two, drops them and gives up. He is actually quite slow at eating his pellets still...he used to eat 20g in about 10 minutes, now he grazes on the 20g over several hours.

Last night he had a slice of carrot and managed to eat it very slowly (Poppy ate about 4-5 slices in the same time!) It's the first time in 3 weeks he has been able to do this..usually he doesn't even try to eat it.

We (the vet and I) are perplexed as normally buns will happily eat soft leafy veg & herbs and not eat hard pellets if their teeth are the problem.

So I'm starting to wonder, is it possible for a bun with continual dental issues to develop a psychological complex i.e. "I know this hurt before, so I won't try to eat it!"

I think it is unlikey, but wondered if anyone had experienced this before.... Of course it is something i will discuss with specialist if nothing is found tomorrow, but just wanted to know if anyone had any experience of this.

Thanks.

Michelle

fruitandnutcake said:

So I'm starting to wonder, is it possible for a bun with continual dental issues to develop a psychological complex i.e. "I know this hurt before, so I won't try to eat it!"

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I think the above is possible, but as you say unlikely.

I had an issue with Shadow not being able to eat hay which was known to be tooth-root related but bizarrely enough his brother and companion, Binky, very rarely ate green food and I just put that down to preference but it worked okay as Shadow was a slow eater but still got to take his time with the greens without his companion getting in first. When Binky had a recent stay with FHB, related to spine pain, it was noted that he didn't eat his greens so she sedated him to look at his teeth - she said there could be a problem whereby he could eat hard food such as pellets and hay but not be able to do the chewing action required for greens and other soft food - total opposite to his littermate! I don't know what she was looking for, I wish I did, but she couldn't find any problem with his teeth and even more strangely he's been eating greens really happily since that day, despite the fact that nothing was done!

I hope you get some answers and the problem resolves.

Bunny Buddy said:

I think the above is possible, but as you say unlikely.

I had an issue with Shadow not being able to eat hay which was known to be tooth-root related but bizarrely enough his brother and companion, Binky, very rarely ate green food and I just put that down to preference but it worked okay as Shadow was a slow eater but still got to take his time with the greens without his companion getting in first. When Binky had a recent stay with FHB, related to spine pain, it was noted that he didn't eat his greens so she sedated him to look at his teeth - she said there could be a problem whereby he could eat hard food such as pellets and hay but not be able to do the chewing action required for greens and other soft food - total opposite to his littermate! I don't know what she was looking for, I wish I did, but she couldn't find any problem with his teeth and even more strangely he's been eating greens really happily since that day, despite the fact that nothing was done!

I hope you get some answers and the problem resolves.

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:lol::lol: Sorry - he's probably like 'OK, i'll eat them, just don't let that woman sedate me again!'

Fruitandnutcake - I would suggest a bit of both perhaps? learnt behaviour associated with pain i.e. if I eat this... it will hurt... this is how wild rabbits learn to avoid toxic plants through evolution, and perhaps also as FHB says above with Bunny Buddy, crushing pellets is a grinding action as opposed to the side to side chewing motion that is required from long fibrous material such as hay and vegetation. I wonder if you were to finely chop some herbs (as if you were using them to sprinkle as a garnish in cooking) he might just snarf them up instead? :? He would still get the flavour and benefits, although not the benefit of chewing - but until his teeth are sorted not to worry about this. Good luck at Trinity vets :wave:

ETA have you tried finely grated carrot? I'm not a fan of carrot but if you are exploring options and trying to get him to eat then of course anything is worth a try.

Hello :wave:
I had an experience with Biscuit-bunny, he went for a dental that we thought would help his eating, but it didn't work fully and bunny was still very fussy with food. I took him back to the vets for another look. They said that there were a couple of miniscule little spurs that were convinced wouldn't make any difference to his eating. In the absence of other options they agreed to do another dental. Anyway I have to say that made all the difference - Biccy started eating after that. The vet was amazed as he really didn't think it would work.
Good luck and hang on in there, I know how much of a worry eating problems can be

Well, strangely after I started this thread this morning, I tried again with his favourite coriander....and he ate a whole one! I was sitting with him watching him intently to see if he dropped it and he got half way through with the stalk poking out of his mouth as if to say "What on earth are you staring at??" After a few minutes he then continued to eat the stalk!:thumb::thumb::thumb:

I then gave him another coriander leaf, expecting him to turn his nose up at it...he had a lttle think...then ate it!!:thumb::thumb:

So I went out and bought him his favourite sweetheart cabbage...left some pieces on the floor and he ignored it. he munched a few pellets, then when they were all gone, he went over to the cabbage (this time I watched a little less obviously :lol and he ate a bit, dropped it, but whearas he would have left it, he went back to it and finished it...then moved on to the next piece, then another :thumb::thumb:

So I have phoned my vet, and asked to put the scheduled GA (booked for Friday) on hold while I monitor his eating over the next day or two on metacam. If he continues to eat more vegetables, then I will stop the metacam for a day or two and see if he continues to eat.

Of course, if he starts having difficulty eating off the metacam, or starts teeth chattering again, I'll put him back on the metacam and re-book him in and contact Trinity. Having the molar extracted will still probably be the best long term solution, if the molar doesn't grow back..but I believe a buns tooth can grow back even after it has been extracted :?

Nice one Pebbles - keep it up