Why??

Why is it I spend up to £60 on hay a month, to make sure I have healthy, non dental needing bunnies and Donny & Lola 'might' need a dental at some point. Yet some people buy a bag of hay and once it's run out, it's out until they get more and their rabbits are in tip top health

Life is mean and unfair. But you should be happy that you are doing everything possible to keep them healthy. Imagine if someone else had them - they'd probably be in an awful state!

Some rabbits just need dentals - rupert had his first on friday, and he eats looooads of hay, doesn't have anything bad (apart from a fenugreek crunchy a day - but surely that would help teeth a bit as its not soft!), and loads of grass he keeps getting bloat and the vets are confused as he has a 'perfect' diet..... yet tia, is a lop (they said lops are more prone to misaligned teeth) doesn't have any issues (apart from her nervousness), and she will eat anything - she nicked a coco pop out of my bowl the other morning!

Its just that some bunnies are more sensitive / prone to teeth or gut issues

My vet thinks we might have found the first ever bunny with ibs with my rupert

I don't know, it's just not fair

Poppy is dental but she can't eat hay so can't change that, Leo is also dental but this new hay is being demolished by him to the point where the vet can't see anything wrong with his teeth atm! Donny and Lola seem a lot better now, since they've had the new timothy hay (they're so picky with the ings..), they're going for a vet check in 2 weeks so we'll see. It's because if they don't like the new bag of ings, they don't eat it, which is when/why I think they started to get the beginnings of spurs. So I would spend even more to try and get a new bag that they like! So really, £44/£66 a month for the bags of timothy hay will be cheaper than usual!

It's just with my dental rabbits I try my hardest to keep the dentals to a minimum, so watching what/how much I feed them and making sure they have fresh hay 4+ times a day to munch on. Then you get people who don't give their rabbit fresh hay for nearly a month because they ran out (I don't find it difficult to drive to asda/The Range to get some of their hay), just muesli and they're fine

I shouldn't dwell on it, I'm trying to help improve this rabbits diet but there is only so much you can say/do before you start sounding like a broken record.

Rupert & Tia said:

Some rabbits just need dentals - rupert had his first on friday, and he eats looooads of hay, doesn't have anything bad (apart from a fenugreek crunchy a day - but surely that would help teeth a bit as its not soft!), and loads of grass he keeps getting bloat and the vets are confused as he has a 'perfect' diet..... yet tia, is a lop (they said lops are more prone to misaligned teeth) doesn't have any issues (apart from her nervousness), and she will eat anything - she nicked a coco pop out of my bowl the other morning!

Its just that some bunnies are more sensitive / prone to teeth or gut issues

My vet thinks we might have found the first ever bunny with ibs with my rupert

Click to expand...

Just because it's hard doesn't mean its good for their teeth, although that's what you would think. If you look at hay close up under a microscope it has very rough edges and this is what wears down the teeth. It sort of has jagged edges.

I know how you feel, some people are just unlucky.

Doughnut was on a great diet of mainly hay and a few pellets. I got the vetcare ones for digestion and then tried oxbow, all with the highest fibre. Then she got ill for a year and I spent a fortune. Now she's on muesli, hay and the right medication she's fine.

I think most lops do have trouble with their teeth so I've tried reducing the muesli and adding in a few pellets but I get squashed cecotropes. I took the pellets out of her diet again and still a few squashed cecotropes. Last night I upped her muesli again and no cecotropes! The specialist said to just keep filling her bowl but I noticed she was biting stuff then and needed more hay so I'm trying to find a happy balance so that I can postpone the dreaded dentals.

cpayne said:

Just because it's hard doesn't mean its good for their teeth, although that's what you would think. If you look at hay close up under a microscope it has very rough edges and this is what wears down the teeth. It sort of has jagged edges.

Click to expand...

yeh i know, so has grass (more so than hay apparently) and they both eat loads, tia doesnt have any spikes n rupert had slight spikes... its so strange..... my sis in law has a bunny who eat muesli, no grass, no hay, eats dog food (!) that he steals from the dog bowls and he never has problems, and is about 8 now :-/

Wow. I know I am constantly thinking I need to add pellets and reduce the muesli but I need to get it in my head that that doesn't work. The specialist put her on unlimited muesli so he knows. It's also funny she was changed overnight to it whereas when I introduce stuff I do it so slowly.

I really think it's the luck of the draw. I also think that because she was by far the smallest of the litter, that's why she has trouble. Although i guess an internal cut is just unlucky!