Dental hygiene is not only essential for a healthy human set of ivories - even with rodents, whose teeth grow on between one and three millimetres a week, these little nippers need particular attention. Experts from the specialist retail chain Fressnapf explain how rodent enthusiasts can recognise tooth problems and how they can guard against them with the right nutrition.

With popular rodents such as guinea pigs, chinchillas, degus or the rodent-like rabbit, everyone immediately gets a mental image when the subject of teeth is raised – the obvious front teeth. In fact, not only these but also the back teeth keep growing throughout the animal's lifetime. And they can only keep their teeth in check through constant abrasion. If that doesn't happen, dental malpositioning takes place which, by the way, can be genetic.

What's actually going on between your rodent's jaws?
The animal's incisors (front teeth) normally sit directly on top of each other and wear themselves down through eating hard food or gnawing on wood, for instance. If that doesn't happen sufficiently or a malpositioning exists, the lower teeth can grow upwards out of the mouth and the upper ones can buckle and carry on growing upwards or downwards. The poor animal can injure itself severely like this and eventually can no longer eat. The animals regulate the growth of their molars (back teeth) by continually grinding them down evenly when chewing their food. As soon as parts of the teeth don't become ground down, points emerge which bore into the cheek lining or severely limit tongue activity. Incidentally: with hamsters, rats and mice the molars don't keep growing permanently!

When must you go to the vet?
Owners often only first notice problems with the teeth when other symptoms appear, such as digestive complaints. These arise because the animal can no longer use its teeth to process and swallow its food properly. But there are indeed early signs of the teeth being too long or malformed: your pet doesn’t want to (or can't) eat any more, drivels a lot or has food remains in the corners of its mouth. You should look for a vet quickly in cases of diarrhoea, constipation or loss of weight at the latest. If aberrations are present, the doctor can help your pet straight away with a dental correction.

How do you prevent malpositioning?
Teeth that are too long or pointed can be put down to the type of food. Important: it's not the hardness of the food which is key! The molars in particular must rub together – and that will only be adequate where the animal has to chew its food for a long time, as with hay, greenery or vegetables, for instance. Your pet will eat pellets or even mixed feeds as an all-in-one food far too quickly compared with that which would grind down their teeth evenly. For this reason, give them enough greens or roughage daily to chew and to keep them busy! In addition, rodents and rabbits need suitable gnawing material such as untreated apple or pear branches (no pip fruit), young poplar, hazel or willow twigs or gnawing stones.

By the way: A rodent’s claws also need continual abrasion so they don't get too long and trap or injure the animal. So provide some variety in the rodent home – with options for rummaging, climbing and running around. Your vet will show you how you can gently shorten your pet's claws should they ever become too long.


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Gnawers have to gnaw To keep their ivories healthy, rodents and rabbits, apart from the right kind of food, also need suitable material for gnawing on such as twigs. Photo: Fressnapf /Ulrike Schanz (Photos may only be reproduced with permission and in connection with editorial text. High-resolution photos can be requested from the Fressnapf press office.)