Dental disease is the most common health problem in pet rabbits and is largely preventable through appropriate diet and early detection.
Rabbit dental disease causes chronic pain that can severely compromise quality of life for months or years before owners recognise the problem. Because rabbits instinctively hide pain, the subtle signs of dental disease — selective eating, dropping food, reduced faecal output — are easily missed or misattributed to other causes. The pain of dental spurs and spikes pressing into the tongue and cheeks is significant and continuous. The consequences of unmanaged dental disease extend beyond the mouth to weight loss, gut stasis, and ultimately starvation if the rabbit cannot eat adequately. Prevention through unlimited hay provision is simple and cheap, but requires owners to understand that hay is the primary food rather than a supplementary bedding material. Breed selection toward shorter-skulled lop and dwarf rabbits has inadvertently created widespread genetic predisposition to dental disease that responsible breeding and informed purchasing can reduce.