10 weeks old and uneven bottom teeth

Question
Hi There-
We have a (roughly) ten week old female bunny.  Yesterday, I noticed some odd behavior with her--almost a shivering motion--and gave her a pretty good inspection.  At that time I noticed that it appeared she had a large piece of her chest fur stuck between her bottom teeth and she didn't have full range of motion with her head.  

I gently picked her up and asked my husband to inspect further--and my assessment was correct.  We were unable to get the fur unstuck by gently tugging, so he used a small scissors and cut the fur to release it from her teeth.  It was at that time that he noticed a significant difference in the length of her two bottom teeth.

My question is--at her young age, do you believe she is having the genetic issues possible for rabbits, or might it have broken off?  And should we do anything to even them out for her?

Thank you in advance!

Answer
Dear Shelly,

Now would be a good time to take your bunny to a good, rabbit-savvy vet for a full exam and dental checkup to see whether the apparent malocclusion is genetic or due to a temporary problem.  If it's genetic, she'll need constant upkeep of the incisors as well as the molars, in case they, too, are slightly maloccluded.  

One option is complete removal of severely maloccluded incisors, which solves the front problem permanently, and can help prevent chronic molar problems caused by incisor malocclusion.  You can read more here:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/dental.html

and find a good rabbit vet here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

Hope that helps!

Dana