help please would like advice

[polly]

Ok I have an 8 day old baby who's teeth aren't quite right i have put pics on but its kinda hard to see the actual problem. (sorry i have done the best i can with such tiny yeeth!!)

Basically the top right tooth is sitting further back than the left one. the bottom ones look pretty straightwhen i am looking at them.

Can any of the breeders whomay have experienced teeth problems tell me if whether there is a chance of this correcting itself. If you would prefer to pm a response please do

It is a DM lionhead if that makes any difference.

 

[TinysMom]

I have heard of breeders who have given their babies wood to chew on and it helps the teeth to align right. I've never done it.

I also wouldn't be surprised (depending upon how round the baby's head is) if the teeth straighten themself out - butI could be wrong.

I don't think giving it some wood to chew on would hurt it any...and maybe lots and lots of hay?

Peg

 

[RAL Rabbitry]

I had an8 week oldthat had somewhat misaligned teeth (not as bad as

this little guys though) that I gave extra wood toys to chew on and they did

straighten out. I didn't use his parents for breeding again though.

Good Luck

Roger

 

[polly]

Thanks Peg and Rodger.

It has to be coming off the buck as it is the first time I have used him but I have had quite a few litters off my doe.

I suppose the problem is this was the only live baby so i can't assess the rest of the litter to see how badly it is running through

 

[BlueGiants]

Tough call Polly. You can't tell if the baby pulled it's tooth on something in the nestbox or it's genetic. Because he's so young, it may go back to a proper place. And giving him wood to chew won't make any difference at this age, but could help as he grows up. Alls you can do is keep an eye on it and see what happens as the bunny grows.

 

[polly]

Thanks Blue giants we don't use nest boxes so it can't be that. All i can think is they eitehr don't suit each other (the buck and the doe) or its the buck carrying the fault as Squishy (my doe ) has had around 4-5 litters and never had a problem before.

As a matter of interest what is everyones opinion on geting rid of the fault can you breed it out or do you just have to stop breeding that rabbit or pair

 

[BlueGiants]

Maloclussion (crooked teeth) due to genetics can almost never be bred out. If a certain breeding produces rabbits will mis-aligned teeth,do not repeat the breeding. And if you can identify which animal carries the gene for the problem, I'd get him neutered (or her spayed) to make sure it never happens again.

 

[polly]

Thanks, i did think that but my other half didn't believe me. It can't be coming off my doe so it must be the buck!! He is a show buck though with no problems hisself so in that case he will be shown but never bred again.

Pain in the buttski though as he was brought in to work with her guess its back to looking for another buck!!

I will keep it in mind though that if anyone falls in love with him and he can get a nice pet home then I would be happy

 

[Wee Wabbits]

If it's a genetic problem, which it may not be..... The rabbit would have to get a bad gene from the mother and the father. If you have a rabbit that carries bad teeth and it's always been bred to a rabbit that doesn't carry bad teeth then the babies would always have good teeth although some would be carriers. However if you bred that rabbit to another rabbit that had, or carried bad teeth then a quarter of the babies would have bad teeth. Because of this if it is genetic then it's a problem for both the parents. There is a big chance that it is nothing wrong with the parents.

I raise mini lops and there was one particular breeding I did with one buck and one doe that produced bad teeth. I have never done that breeding again, but the reason being was because the head shape of the parents was totally different from each other. As they grew their teeth straightened out. The female had a narrow, angular face and the buck had a huge round head, that is what caused the problem because the jaw grew at a different rate then the top of the head. I do not use those rabbits for breeding to each other or any that were produced from this litter that had problems but have never had any problems with these rabbits or their offspring with other rabbits and I've crossed their offspring and no problems. It was just a fluke based on head shape.

My guess, if the rest of the litter is fine then it might be something like that. If so then most likely the rabbit will grow out of it as it gets older. Hay is the best for wearing down teeth. Oddly I've heard it's better then wood, but if you can give them apple or maple sticks they would probably love that too. If they don't straighten out you may end up having to trim the teeth but that is risky and can easily cause bleeding if not done correctly. I wish you the best.

Don't breed these two again unless you are prepared for possibly more teeth problems. However it could be an enviromental problems such as pulling on wire, or something. Or could be abnormal growth of the jaw. Time will most likely tell. If you take some of her former offspring and breed them to your buck then you should be able to see if their are genetic problems associated with this. You will have to breed more then one doe with this though in order to get accurate results.

Before you get rid of him though try him with a few more does, if you have problems then yeah get rid of him, but it might just be a one time thing.