Monday, June 30, 2008

HOW MANY TEETH DOES A RABBIT HAVE!?

I honestly thought they only have four. But, I was sooooo wrong. Guess we all learn something new everyday. =)

Rabbits have twenty-eight teeth, including six incisors (front teeth) – two on the bottom and four on top. The upper incisors are in two pairs: smaller “peg teeth” lie directly behind the long front pair. This tooth arrangement distinguishes rabbits, hares, and pikas (all known as lagomorphs) from rodents, which have only a single set of top and bottom incisors. In addition, rabbits have cheek teeth that they use to grind their food. These are the 6 upper premolars, the 4 lower premolars, 6 upper molars and 6 lower molars.

A rabbit’s teeth grow throughout its lifetime and are meant to wear down rapidly – 3 to 4 millimeters per week for the incisors, and the same amount per month for the “cheek teeth,” which do the chewing.

Partially because of this attribute, dental problems are among pet rabbit’s most common ailments. Unlike natural hay and grasses, the diet of commercial “pellets” typically fed to domesticated rabbits does not wear down the teeth sufficiently to prevent them from becoming overgrown.

Love,
Brenda.
6/30/2008 04:49:00 PM