Diet for Rabbit without incisors

Oscar, our 5 year old Flemish Giant, is having his incisors and peg teeth taken out next week due malocclusion which won't right itself with burring of his teeth. We are already grating or chopping up his veg and slightly soaking his pellets which all helps. However, he has never been much of a hay eater and over the last 3 weeks we have not been able to get him to eat any - Timothy, readigrass, meadow etc. Has anyone any suggestions? I was thinking of getting a variety from the Hay Experts and seeing if he particularly went for one type. That said, he is quite picky so one day parsley is his favourite and the next day he won't touch it but loves basil and strawberry leaves - and so on.

Thank you

When I've had bunnies without incisors I used to put everything in a chopper/blender and not actually liquidising, so leaving enough for the back teeth to grind up. Put in cabbage, apple, herbs, carrot soaked pellets and hay or Readigrass. Snowy coped well for the last 6 years of his life. He lived to 10 years if age.

The incisors just do they chopping motion and some of the picking up so they actually cope quite well. You'll probably find once healed pellets are fine. Some veg will be ok - eg leaves just shred if they are big but anything hard will need chopping into mouth size pieces. For hay/grass - cut it to around 1-2" lengths - two is probably ok for a giant. If you watch rabbits eat they usually feed a whole piece of hay through through without actually using their front teeth, it's ground up by the back ones.

I would try some fresh grass (cut to 1" with scissors) - usually goes down well. A sample pack is a good idea - worth a try at least. It might be his teeth are a little sore at the moment and you'll have more luck post op.

elizabethH said:

Oscar, our 5 year old Flemish Giant, is having his incisors and peg teeth taken out next week due malocclusion which won't right itself with burring of his teeth. We are already grating or chopping up his veg and slightly soaking his pellets which all helps. However, he has never been much of a hay eater and over the last 3 weeks we have not been able to get him to eat any - Timothy, readigrass, meadow etc. Has anyone any suggestions? I was thinking of getting a variety from the Hay Experts and seeing if he particularly went for one type. That said, he is quite picky so one day parsley is his favourite and the next day he won't touch it but loves basil and strawberry leaves - and so on.

Thank you

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Aww Elizabeth - Oscar will do fine without his front teeth

I've had over a dozen rabbits with no front teeth and they all manage differently, partly due to the state of their own back teeth.

He should be able to eat (non softened) pellets, and leafy greens and forage just cut up a little. I feed whole strands of herbs and dandelion leaves as they are able to eat them like spaghetti

Readigrass is usually quite easy for the toothless and I have never chopped hay up as they can eat it - again like spaghetti. You might like to cut it a little at first though.

You'll find out quickly how he can manage and how he'll get better at managing once he gets used to having no teeth impeding the front of his mouth

Thanks for your replies. We will just stock up on loads of different things for him and see how he takes them.

Echo what others have said, other than needing hard veg grating all the buns at the rescue eat a normal diet. Hopefully once the teeth are out he'll be much more comfy.
Just a thought, my buns go mad for the green oat hay from the readigrass people so it might be another thing to try. We also use is that the rescue to tempt poorly bunnies.

Ahhhh yes my Cookie bun had her incisors removed and she was fine.

I did chop hay up for her but she seemed to somehow manage OK xx

My Herbie coped perfectly well with no incisors, I just shredded or chopped up his food. He was fine with hay and pellets, he just used his wee lips to pick things up He used to move a large bit of hay along with his mouth until he got to the end then he was fine, was actually so cute to watch.