Rabbit teeth problem

Question
How can we tell if a rabbit has bad teeth? Are rabbit stopped eating. We took him to a vet. They could not find anything he gave us antibiotic. It didn't do much. recently we gave him baby food with a syringe. He is eating very well. But he will not eat any hard food.

Answer
Hi Suzan,

did the vet check all your rabbit's teeth - the ones in the front AND the molar cheek teeth in the back?  He would have had to put a conical scope instrument in your rabbit's mouth and would have needed someone to hold the rabbit while doing this.  If you don't remember them doing this, he did not check all the teeth well enough.  And that leaves the possibility the back teeth are causing a problem.

If he did check ALL the teeth and did not see any problems, then your rabbit does not like the food you are giving him, or he is noticing a problem with the food.  Sometimes pellets go stale or get wet and grow mold - and rabbits should not eat these if this is the case.  They have much better smell than we do and they can tell when they should not eat them.  your pellets may be stale and not good tasting to him.  You could either get a new bag of your normal pellets, or switch and try a different brand.  I can recommend a really well-liked brand of pellets by almost any bunny I have known - Oxbow Bunny Basics T (timothy pellets).

Does he eat his hay well?  He should be getting 75-80 percent of his food requirements from timothy hay or orchard grass hay anyways.  Veggies and pellets are always in much smaller amounts than loose hay.  If he is not eating his hay, it may be old, not smelling fresh anymore, or too dry and brittle.  It could also have gotten wet and growing mold, where he would not eat this.

Rabbits have a sweet tooth like people.  They will eat the things they like the best, first.  If he thinks he is getting baby food which he likes a lot, he may not eat things he likes less and wait until you break down and give him something better.  I would start reducing the amount of baby food and give him fresh pellets from a new bag, and fresh hay from a new bag, and wait him out.  When he gets hungry, he will start eating what he normally should eat.

Did the vet do any xray of his gut to make sure he wasn't having an internal gi tract problem?  Like a buildup of gas, or a partial obstruction?  If he didn't, and he still isn't eating, or eating normal foods, you may want to take him back and have an xray done to rule this out.  Then you know he's probably being finicky.  

Lee