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Meadow grass nuts

Yes I'd read this - and seen it a little in action. Makes you wonder what else is in play that leads to so many dental issues in pet rabbits then...

breed/breeding is apart of it. take a look at a wild rabbit..then compare their faces to one of the more popular breeds, lop, lionhead. you'll note how a wild rabbit has a very triangle face, I call it bike seat like :lol: and then you'll notice lion heads, lops, have very, very, sphere shaped heads. some almost have no muzzle at all, their head is just rounded. this consequently leads to dental issues, as not all of the teeth can fit. misalignment then happens, which can never be corrected and can cause minimal to severe dental issues (some buns needing regular dentals every few months, others every month).

obviously......not every lop will suffer extreme dental issues, & a more bike seat head rabbit may suffer extreme dental problems. its def not..as clear cut as that. but its more so a likely reason. my previous vet has seen a huge increase in rabbit dentals over the years - namely lops and lion heads, & other dwarf breeds (like the netherland dwarf). she very much believes its due to breeding, face & jaw shape.
 
Yes, and we also need to take into account the facial features of some of the domesticated breeds too, that will have an effect.
The domestication of any animal is an interesting subject, and I'd agree - on the whole I don't really think we have improved anything!! Particularly sticky one for me as my first rabbits are giants, I absolutely adore them, but I am not happy about the health issues involved in breeding them :-/ Odin was a rescue, I'm not sure we'd have ever have got them otherwise.

Thank you for an interesting discussion - I am now attempting to analyse the chewing styles of my rabbits with different foods!! I have noticed that even with things like swede, they bite it off with incisors but then there is still a fair amount of circular chewing motion between bites. I'm going to try and capture slow mo videos of chewing different foods over the next few months, and try and time chewing time for hay vs chop vs pellets too, weight for weight, just to see if I can gather a little more info for my own interest.

I believe it is the silica content in grass that is of particular benefit re dental attrition. So food type is relevant .

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3566079/

http://www.therabbithouse.com/blog/2011/10/07/grass-hay-tooth-wear/
 
I believe it is the silica content in grass that is of particular benefit re dental attrition. So food type is relevant .

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3566079/

http://www.therabbithouse.com/blog/2011/10/07/grass-hay-tooth-wear/

Yes, which is why I was pondering the usefulness of hay pellets from the beginning - if they chew them just as much as hay then they could be a useful thing for a lot of people.
Part of my pondering was triggered by someone in the conti group complaining because they are allergic to hay and having it in the house was causing them huge problems - which is something I struggle with with so many animals who rely on hay.I still react to the pellets, can't have an open sack in the house too long, but it would be easier to store that in a sealed container and is less dusty. (Though personally I would do everything else for the benefit of the rabbit first, long before I resorted to just using pellets for my own wellbeing).
 
But from the POV of a wild Rabbit that ‘lifetime’ will only be a couple of years. So many problems seen in Pet Rabbits just won’t effect Wild Rabbits because Wildies simply don’t live long enough to acquire them and congenital Dental problems will be halted by natural selection.

This brings me on to the thorny topic of the Domestication of Rabbits .....should it have ever happened ?

My answer is ‘no’
The original domestication for food and fur was 'OK', they weren't expected to live more than 1-2yrs. Problems of being cute :S

Slightly off-subject, but it always surprises me just how thoroughly bunnies chew their food. Humans will sometimes chew more quickly and even swallow food, which is not properly chewed. Bunnies seem not to, even when they can see more of the food to eat.
Lopsy will drop stuff if he thinks something is more interesting, but if it's already fully in his mouth he will finish it, and will chain things :D I reckon they might have a small gullet or something because I chew everything really well and I have quite a small gullet for my size (also possibly some childhood choking trauma maybe XD).
 
Yes I'd read this - and seen it a little in action. Makes you wonder what else is in play that leads to so many dental issues in pet rabbits then...

Yes I've seen both Joey & Boo do it at rest, not regularly. My little Rudey who was in kidney failure would not eat any hay, he'd eat the tiniest bit of grass, fresh forage & herbs (main diet was multiple syringe feeds 6 x daily). The amount of grass he'd eat couldn't have been of any benefit (its not so eay to forage mid winter & Mouse would hog most of what I got) but several times a day you'd see him doing these jaw movements . He was at my savvy vets frequently & his teeth, amazingly, were always fine. Clever boy:love:

When FHB did her lectures for rabbit owners I remember her saying rabbit tooth wear is through food & tooth against tooth - she mentioned that they will actively do that. Calcium levels were key & she felt lack of calcium (historically seen most often through selective muesli feeding where bunnies ignore the calciyummy bits) was absolutely the main cause of dental disease. I'd love to go to those lectures again!

Meanwhile you have bunnies like my Joey with a classic natural rabbit shape. Joey loves hay, he will leave nuggets & forage to have hay for dessert yet he has needed 2 dentals - ok they were 4 years apart but he still needed them
 
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