The job of the in-between check
Vet examinations cover a rabbit's whole mouth with proper light and instruments. The home check between those visits has a narrower, honest job: catch change early. Teeth grow continuously, so a mouth that was fine at the last appointment can develop an overlong incisor or uneven wear within weeks. A calm, brief look every week or two — folded into handling your rabbit already accepts — compares today's mouth with the one you saw last time. You are not pronouncing the teeth healthy; you are deciding whether the next vet visit needs to happen sooner than planned.
The front teeth, compared with last time
Settle your rabbit on your lap or a low, non-slip surface and gently lift the upper lip. His front teeth should meet in a tidy bite, the uppers sitting just ahead of the lowers, with level, chisel-like edges. The comparison questions are the useful ones: is one tooth longer than it was, are the edges newly slanted, has a gap opened between teeth that used to sit together, is anything chipped, discoloured, or curling? Check the small peg teeth just behind the upper incisors as far as you can see them, and glance at the gums for swelling or redness around one particular tooth. If he resents the look on one side specifically, note that too; localised sensitivity is information.
Jaw, chin, and the rest of the evidence
Teeth do not report only through the mouth. Run your fingertips along both sides of the lower jaw and under it: the outline should feel smooth and symmetrical, and new bumps can reflect changes at the tooth roots that the lip-lift cannot show. Check that his chin and the fur below the mouth are dry — a rabbit drooling onto his chest, sometimes called slobbers, has a mouth problem until proven otherwise. Look at his eyes as part of the same minute: the roots of the upper cheek teeth sit close to the tear ducts, so an eye that waters week after week on the same side is dental evidence wearing a disguise, not a minor irritation to keep wiping away.
Watching him eat is a teeth check too
The most sensitive home instrument is a handful of his usual hay and five unhurried minutes. A rabbit with a comfortable mouth takes long strands, chews with a wide, even motion, and works steadily. Warning behaviour includes picking up strands and dropping them, chewing conspicuously on one side, taking far longer over a small amount, shaking the head while chewing, or quietly reorganising his diet — greens and pellets eaten with enthusiasm, hay increasingly left. Smaller droppings in the tray complete the picture of a rabbit taking in less fibre than he should. These functional signs are how the back teeth, invisible at home, announce themselves between appointments.
What not to do at home
Never attempt to trim, clip, or file a rabbit's teeth yourself, however overlong an incisor looks. Rabbit teeth can split lengthways under clippers, sometimes below the gum, converting a routine vet job into a painful emergency, and trimming the visible tooth does nothing for whatever caused the uneven wear behind it. Do not lever the mouth open with spoons or sticks to hunt for the back teeth, either — the jaw is easily injured and the view gained is worthless. The home toolkit is eyes, fingertips, hay, and a notebook; cutting tools belong to the vet visit you bring forward when the check gives you cause.
Bringing the visit forward, with evidence
Move the appointment up if a front tooth breaks or overgrows, the wear line slants, droppings shrink with slower eating, the chin stays wet, a jaw bump appears, or one eye keeps watering. Go in with dates: when the teeth last looked level, when the hay dropping started, what the last check found. In KinsLe, his Pet Passport keeps each dated teeth check alongside his examination history, so the vet sees the sequence you observed rather than a summary reconstructed under pressure in the consult room.