Ways To Prevent Your Vet From Needing To Trim Your Rabbit's Teeth

Rabbits' teeth are constantly growing, which means that they may get so long that the animal is no longer able to eat. When this happens, the death of your pet is often the end result. Fortunately, veterinarians who specialize in the care of rabbits can often trim the animal's teeth to a healthy length, thus enabling the animal to eat again. While your local vet may indeed provide this service, it's best if you can prevent the rabbit from getting to this point. There are several ways that you can ensure that your rabbit's teeth don't grow excessively. Here are some things that you can do.

Provide Fibrous Food

Fibrous food is essential for helping to grind your pet rabbit's teeth down, thus preventing them from growing to a dangerous length. Many rabbit owners focus on giving their pets pellets, but the soft nature of this food does little to help a rabbit's teeth. You should also ensure that your rabbit is getting hay daily. The fibrous nature of hay is valuable for wearing down the teeth, and a rabbit that eats hay as part of its daily diet is unlikely to experience issues related to the length of its teeth.

Give Sticks To Chew

One of the simplest ways to keep your rabbit's teeth at a healthy length is to give the animal sticks to chew. Rabbits love chewing sticks, and will often actually eat the bark. The main benefit, of course, is that the hardness of any stick will help to keep the animal's teeth from growing excessively. If you live in an area where there are lots of apple trees at local parks, break off a branch whenever you walk in the area. Your rabbit will likely enjoy eating the leaves first, and will then chew the branch extensively.

Make Hard Toys Available

Rabbits frequently enjoy playing, so making some toys available to your pet is something that will help to keep it occupied. When you choose toys to buy, look for those that are hard. Each time that the rabbit picks up the toy, its hard surface will provide some friction for the teeth and help to keep them from growing too long. This is better than a toy that is soft. The rabbit may enjoy playing with such a toy, but it will have little benefit when it comes to controlling the length of the pet's teeth.

Contact a company like Oakton Animal Hospital in order to learn more.