I don’t have a lot of experience with it, but my understanding is that malocclusion is a genetic defect that some bunnies have.  The shape of their head and jaws is such that their teeth do not line up so that the teeth on the top do not come down on the bottom teeth when the bun chews.  A rabbit’s teeth grow throughout their lives, so if the top and bottom teeth do not meet to grind each other down, the teeth get too long and the bunny cannot chew.  A vet will shorten the teeth every few months when a rabbit has this problem.  Some people have learned to do the trimming on their own, but I do not know what is involved.

Medusa has an uneven jaw and her teeth don’t line up all the way. She has very mild malocclusion that requires me to file it down a bit every now and then. She normally maintains teeth that look like the middle picture. I just make sure it doesn’t get worse than that.

Here is an old post of mine that talks about how to file a MILD instance of malocclusion (middle picture). If you have any of the other instances or very long teeth of the 3rd picture you should go to the vet and get it clipped. Depending on how comfortable you are and what your vet thinks, they may teach you how to clip it yourself. I say if you can do it yourself SAFELY, its alot less stressful on your rabbit and you’ll save money.

Medusa’s teeth were like this as I discovered a few days ago.

1) I bought a metal nail file, the widest I could find, doublesided.

2) Trance bunny on her back. (This only works for buns who don’t jump out right away)

3) Place the nail file horizontally between the top and bottom row of teeth. See how the teeth are slanted? Imagine placing the file parallel between the teeth. Now place it in the OPPOSITE parallel direction. This puts the file in contact with the upper left and lower right teeth that are longer.

4)I held it firmly and nudged her mouth area, and she started gnawing. She did all the work! I did this for about 10 minutes and it filed the teeth down evenly. She would keep stopping so I just had to keep nudging her mouth to simulate the movement.

Lastly, if the front teeth are REALLY bad, you can just get them removed.

FYI: Bunnies with malocclusions can also develop spurs (these are jagged edges on their back back teeth) and only a vet can trim those. Spurs can cause pain and can also scrape and cut the cheek which can lead to an abscess. So it is important for anyone who has a bunny with a malocclusion to have a vet do a quarterly check for spurs.

Unfortunately the spur trims can be expensive as the rabbits usually need to be sedated for this.
Rucy has to get hers done about two times a year. Sometimes three.

I hope those bunnies teeth are not tooo bad!  We had a bunny come into one adoption event that was not eating his pellets and hay – when the leader of our rescue group checked this bunnies teeth the top ones curled all the way back up into the buns nose! The bottom ones were in just as bad of shape In this emergency case, the rescue group pro clipped the buns teeth herself, as they were causing nasal problems, eating problems, and other problems.  I heard a bunny dentist speak once though (thats right DENTIST!) and she said its not a good idea to clip the teeth yourself because there is a risk you could split the tooth.

Your bunnies sit STILL? Wow, thats great! I have to do everything short of straight jackets to get my buns to sit still for a nail trimming! Are they upright when you clip their nails? Or are they tranced?

I’ll have to try that with my buns..I usually flip them over on their backs to trance them, but now that Binky Bunny said thats not so good for them, I’ll have to try a new way! My boyfriend’s bunny Martin bites his OWN nails, its the funniest thing to see. He sticks his foot in his mouth, gets a hold of the nail, and chews the end right off! We think its a nervous habit.

MY RABBITS TOOTH SEEMS TO BE OVERLAPPING THE OTHER (TOP) BUT THE ONE OVERLAPPING SEEMS TO BE LOOSE IS THAT NORMAL DO THEY LOOSE THEIR TEETH? HE HASN’T REALLY BEEN EATING TOO WELL AND WHEN HE TRIES TO EAT HIS CARROT HE QUICKLY LUNGES BACK LIKE IT HURTS BAD. SHOULD I TAKE HIS TO THE VET?

Hi MC MICKEY, and welcome to Binky Bunny!

Yes, please have your bunny checked by a vet.  Rabbits do not normally lose teeth, and if the teeth are misaligned it can cause them a lot of pain and prevent them from eating.  This cycle of pain and insufficient food can actually kill a rabbit, so please have him looked at by a vet that understands bunnies.

Yes. I double ditto Osprey. This sounds like a malloclusion that needs to be treated right away. He could also have spurs on the back of his teeth that commonly accompany malloclusions. This can be very painful as it can cut the inside of cheek, and cause seroius infection if not treated. It’s time to get him to a rabbit-savvy vet asap. At this stage, it can get very serious very quickly. He needs to be treated right away so the pain will stop. The pain alone can stress him out so much that his digestive tract can stop moving and/or go into shock.

I don’t know where you are located or if you have a rabbit-savvy vet already, but check out rabbit.org and click on the vets section to the right.