Should you trim a rabbit’s teeth?
This junior Holland Lop doe has butting teeth, also known as simple malocclusion. The incisors meet head-on; the top ones should overlap the bottom. This is a fairly common problem in juniors. This rabbit grew out of it as she became a senior.
The first question you should have about clipping rabbit teeth is whether you should do it. Well, it depends on why are you doing it.
The majority of the time that I have clipped rabbit teeth (which is very seldom) is to keep a rabbit eating and healthy. In this case, yes, it is the humane thing to do. If teeth with malocclusion are allowed to grow, the rabbit loses its ability to eat, or to eat with comfort.
The second type of teeth clipping that may need to be done is with young rabbits. Often head and jaw are developing rapidly and not in sync, especially with large-headed breeds. It can cause a case of mild malocclusion. In this situation, you may decide to clip the teeth and give them a chance to grow back in straight.
Some breeders do not practice clipping at all, but rather remove the rabbit from the herd. Many breeders will give the rabbit’s teeth one chance to correct. Others will continue to clip until the rapid growth is concluded. Since rabbit teeth grow quickly, it is possible to have to clip them more than once during the same growth spurt.
There are many rabbits, especially of dwarf breeds such as Netherland Dwarfs, Holland Lops, Dwarf Hotots, Jersey Woolies, and Polish that have butting teeth as a junior and develop proper teeth alignment as an adult. So sit on those juniors and don’t cull them right away till you learn how your line develops.
Is it an ARBA show disqualification to trim butting teeth or malocclusion?
I used to believe that if you ever clipped a rabbit’s teeth even once, the rabbit was disqualified for life. I was first introduced to the idea that clipping for husbandry was okay when I attended the Judges Academy in 2006.
In January 2007, I asked for an official answer to the question and received the following response:
Laurie:
The ARBA Show Rules Committee has reviewed your inquiry on clipping teeth.
It is the Committee’s interpretation that clipping teeth to allow them to
grow in correctly is an acceptable animal husbandry practice. Rabbits
showing signs of clipped teeth on the show table of course would be
subject to disqualification and subject to investigation of violation of
section #47 of the ARBA Show Rules.Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact us for further
assistance.Best Regards;
Tony Poe
ARBA Show Rules Committee
Chair
You will notice in the letter that clipping teeth and then showing the rabbit before the teeth have completely grown back in and returned to a natural state is still a disqualification. So don’t try telling a judge that you clipped your rabbit’s teeth for husbandry and that’s okay. If the judge can tell, it’s a DQ. And you could fall subject to the rules on faking, which include having your entire entry disqualified.
Instructions for safely trimming rabbits’ incisors
So you’ve decided that you will clip teeth – either for a junior’s second chance or to keep a rabbit eating. How do you do it? The quickest method of getting the majority of excess teeth clipped is to use wire cutters or nail clippers. With a quick motion, clip the scissor-like tool together and the teeth will snap off. BE SURE THE RABBIT’S TONGUE IS CLEAR BEFORE YOU CLIP. This will give you a rough cut. You will then either need to file the teeth with a fine metal file or use a Dremel or similar tool with a sanding disc to smooth out the edges.
Be sure to wear safety glasses or goggles when using the Dremel or similar tool. If a rabbit happens to bite down hard on the disc, pieces could go flying.
Small adjustments can be made with the Dremel or metal file alone. Just make sure that you let the teeth go back to a naturally worn state before showing the rabbit again.
Except for caring for rabbits having trouble eating (either clip or put them down immediately), whether you clip or not is up to you. You will need to develop your own philosophy on it. I personally don’t want to continue breeding rabbits that will need to be clipped once before they straighten out, so I choose to cull. I’m not great at clipping, so you can say it’s not my cup of tea. But that’s not to say that I won’t produce some rabbit some day that is so promising in every other way that I might not clip a junior and give him his chance. I might.
If you are clipping, though, to make a rabbit that you know has bad teeth look like a rabbit that has good teeth, you already know in your heart that it is the wrong thing to do. Don’t risk it. Your reputation is worth more than any rabbit.
Next Article: What’s the difference between grooming and faking?
Photo credit on this page: Presley’s Lions and Lops
