Umm....I have to disagree with a posted comment. Rabbitsshare little withcows and are almost identical in nutritional requirements of a horse. Most of the medical treatments for rabbits are related to those used in horses. The digestive systems of a horse and arabbit are very similar.Like horses, rabbits require clean high quality hay free of mold and mycotoxins. Only horse quality hay should be offered to a rabbit....never cattle or goat quality hay. Many other species can handlelower quality offood.Hay should be considered the primary nutritional source for rabbits and under normal conditions a rabbit can live a very healthy life eating only high quality hay....low protein and high fiber just as nature intended. The nutrients in alfalfa hay are essential to a healthy rabbit and we feed alfalfa hay regularly here. The thing with that is that most people over feed pellets. Pellets were originally intended for an industry we don't like to talk about and were intended to add weight quickly. I have a pair of Flemish Giants that weight well into the 20 pound range andeach of themget about 1/3 cup pellets per day. Our dwarfs and Polish get about 1/8 cup pellets per day. In reality, weight gain is more correctly pointed to overfeeding high protein pellets. We have a very large population of rabbits and I don't care if theyeat pellets or not....as long as they are eating lots of hay and it is provided for them at all times. Hay is essential to control the GI transit time....that is the time from the time food is eaten until the remains are excreted as waste as well as assisting in providing a stable pH which is necessary for the growth and reproduction of benefical bacteria. It is the primary way that teeth are kept at a proper length. It is not how hard something is, it's how chewy it is. Teeth are worn by tooth to tooth contact during chewing. Different types and cuts of hay require differing chewing mechanisms and that wears the teeth. This is all assuming proper occlusion (alignment of the teeth). If the teeth are maloccluded, they obviously cannot contact each other and will not wear down. This requires manual intervention either by trimming or extracting the offending tooth....and the opposing tooth on the opposite arcade. If the incisors are the problem and extraction is required....all six incisors should be extracted.Malocclusion can be a genetic issue, trauma (broken jaw for example), infection (molar root impaction resulting in abscesses) or age (teeth become loose and move from an occluded position). Lots of high quality hay should be provided at all times....and we go thru hundreds of pounds of hay per week.
Randy
