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Why Are My Rabbits Teeth So Long?

Rabbit’s teeth grow constantly.   As long as your rabbit has the proper teeth alignment: top teeth overlapping bottom teeth, they will wear their teeth down with normal chewing.  To help assure that their teeth stay in the correct alignment, you can keep a piece of untreated, unpainted wood in the cage.

You should always check any rabbit before purchasing it to make sure it has the proper teeth alignment.  When the bottom teeth protrude past the top teeth, this is called malocclusion.  It can also be referred to as butt teeth, buck teeth or wolf teeth.  If this is the case with your rabbit you will have to trim their teeth.  This usually needs to be done every 3 weeks.  You can trim them with a good pair of wire or nail cutters.

Malocclusion is thought to be genetic.  So it is a good idea to not breed any rabbits with malocclusion.  It can also be caused by a rabbit pulling its teeth on the wire.  If you think this is the case, you can breed the rabbit but if you get any offspring with malocclusion you should retire that rabbit.