Pet Information > ASK Experts > Exotic Pets > Rabbits > Bunny not eating his favourite pellets

Bunny not eating his favourite pellets

22 9:39:27

Question
Hello.
I might have a tricky question. I have 5 years old dwarf dutchie Nicolas. About half year ago he had jaw abscess and received surgery for it. They had to remove his right incisor on the lower jaw, because the root of this tooth was infected and was causing the problems. Now he has maloclusion (every two months we take him to the vet to have his teeth "done"). He can't eat hay because of this, but he still gets lots of fresh leafy greens to eat and to help him worn down his teeth. He always loved genesis ultra premium pellets, but for the past few days he doesn't even touch them. The pellets are from the same package he enjoyed a week ago. And two days ago he was at vet and had his teeth done (they grind, or how do you call this procedure, the parts of teeth that are growing somewhere even through the dental gum - the vet says they form some sort of thorns). We took him to the vet because he wasn't eating his pellets and his greens. And now he only eats his greens. He is always hungry and begging for treats because he's not eating pellets. And because he only eats greens, he gets diarrhea. Do you think that after his teeth trimming it may be painful for him to eat his pellets? Or why he's still not eating his pellets? This is the first time we have such problem - until now he always enjoyed his genesis pellets after the trimming. Can this be a sign of any other disease? His blood and urine weren't checked this time... I offered him pellet soaked in water and he ate it, but that can't be a permanent solution because he needs to get his teeth worn down. He still likes his mineral stone though so it seems that he's not having any problems with his front teeth. Can you please help me? Thank you so much!

Answer
Hi Vesna

It may be worth seeing if your vet can do an x-ray to check for further damage those rogue molar teeth are doing, including checking for abscesses which can be painful and checking what the molar roots are doing as they can go wonky and cause pain too.

To help with his gut in the meantime, you can get specialist syringe food such as Critical Care. This should help with his bottom problems.

This is tricky but I would first ask for a head x-ray so you can see exactly what's going on with those teeth!

Cat