Rabbit & Guinea Pig - Teeth, Welfare and Nutrition

Rabbit & Guinea Pig - Teeth, Welfare and Nutrition

1. Teeth (Maloclussion)

   • causes
     • genetics - can be inherited from the parents
     • injury - to the mouth or skull can cause the teeth to become misaligned
     • infection - bacterial infection in the teeth roots could lead to changes in the direction of growth
     • poor diet - diet too low in fibre to ware teeth down
   • signs
     • refusal to eat
     • weight loss
     • drooling - teeth cutting into cheek can cause infection
     • swelling around jaw
     • facial abscesses
     • weaping
     • bad breath
     • sneezing
   • treatment
     • do not breed from rabbits with maloclussion
     • avoid rabbits chewing bars on cages

2. Welfare

   • maloclussion can be distresing for rabbits. they will be in a lot of pain.
     • in some cases the teeth can grow backwards into the skull and block the nasal ducts
   • providing the correct diet for your rabbit is essential in preventing maloclussion
   • can cause distress

3. Nutrition

   • (Maloclussion) Feed a high fibre diet. rabbits should be given hay to eat and provided with ample gnawing materials.
   • rabbits are coprophagic, which means they eat their own feaces. this enables them to benefit from the realesed nutrients after the firbre as already been broken down once. rabbits constantly graze to obtain maximun nutrients from thier high fibre diet
   • extruded vs. mixes
     • extruded feed - mashed up in pellet form, allowes for a balanced diet
     • mixes - musli type food, vitamin pellets and grass pellets separate, allows rabbits and GP's to be picky, which means they may not be getting enough nutrients
   • Guinea pig - need vitamin C in thier diet, this can be proided in complete GP food or by adding ribeana in thier water
     • lack of vit C can cause scurvy (skin condition)
   • if rabbits and GP are housed together caution should be taken to ensure there are no Coccidiostats in the rabbit food as this is toxic to GP's (low leel antibiotic for rabbits)