Rabbit teeth: open-rooted and always erupting
Every rabbit tooth, front and back, grows continuously, and the grinding side-to-side chewing of long fibre is what wears them down. Hay and grass are therefore not just food but dental maintenance: a rabbit eating plenty of hay chews for hours a day and keeps the crowns even. When teeth do not align properly, or the diet is too soft to wear them, cheek teeth form sharp spurs that dig into the tongue and cheeks, crowns elongate, and roots push deeper into the jaw and skull. The rabbit feels all of this long before you can see any of it.
Selective eating: the earliest clue
The signature early sign is pickiness with a pattern. The rabbit still rushes over at feeding time and still wants food, but the order changes: soft greens and treats go first, pellets get left or eaten slowly, and hay — the food needing the most grinding — is picked at and abandoned. Food may be dropped after being taken, chewing can look slow or one-sided, and the rabbit may repeatedly return to the bowl without finishing. Owners often read this as fussiness or boredom with the menu, but a rabbit going off its hardest food while keeping its appetite for soft food is a dental suspect until a vet says otherwise.
Wet chin, weepy eyes and other knock-on signs
As chewing becomes painful, saliva escapes: look for a persistently damp chin and dewlap, matted fur under the jaw, and sometimes sore skin where drool sits. Droppings get smaller and fewer because less fibre is going through, weight slides, and grooming suffers, so the coat looks scruffy and caecotrophs may be left uneaten and stuck to the rear — which also raises flystrike risk in summer. Weepy eyes can belong in this picture too, because the roots of the upper cheek teeth sit close to the tear ducts and overgrown roots can narrow them, so tears spill onto the face instead of draining away.
Why hay is your daily dental gauge
You cannot see your rabbit's cheek teeth, but you can measure the one behaviour they control. A healthy rabbit gets through a pile of hay at least the size of its own body every day. Track it loosely: refill the rack at the same times, notice whether it is genuinely going down or just being pulled out and sat on, and notice whether your rabbit chooses hay when nothing else is on offer. A clear drop in hay intake, days before weight changes, is the earliest warning most owners can catch — and it is a reason to book a dental check rather than simply offer tastier food.
The point where dental signs become urgent
Book promptly for selective eating, a wet chin, weepy eyes, weight loss or shrinking droppings. Move to same-day if your rabbit stops eating, produces almost no droppings, sits hunched and grinding its teeth, or drools heavily — behind sore teeth, the rabbit gut stalls quickly, and that combination is an emergency in its own right. Never try to file or trim teeth at home; rabbit teeth splinter, and molar spurs are far back where only proper equipment can reach safely. Your notes on hay intake and weight, kept in KinsLe's Pet Passport alongside the rest of your rabbit's records, give the vet the timeline that shows how fast things have changed.