Rabbits鈥� teeth grow continuously, a process that may be possible due to the calcium they get by swallowing fragments of tooth as they grind their food.
A high-fibre diet means rabbits continuously chew and grind their teeth, which quickly wears them down. Growing them back requires calcium, so for years, researchers believed rabbits needed to consume a high-calcium diet.
But now, at the University of Zurich in Switzerland and his team have found that rabbits may swallow a finely ground powder shed from their teeth as they chew, allowing them to reabsorb calcium from their teeth into their bodies.
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鈥淲e鈥檙e the first to show that rabbits are able to digest calcium from dental material,鈥� says Hatt.
The team fed eight European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) either a typical calcium carbonate supplement or ground-up teeth from other rabbits for 11 days. The two groups then switched diets for the same amount of time.
The researchers found that when consuming ground-up teeth, the rabbits digested 33 per cent of the calcium they consumed, compared with 20 per cent of the calcium from the supplement, calculated by analysing their droppings. There were no major differences in the rabbits鈥� body mass, water intake or faecal output between the diets.
There seems to be no need to feed rabbits a high-calcium diet for teeth growth, according to the researchers. Too much calcium can lead to painful bladder stones.
For the team, the most intriguing part of the research was learning more about how rabbits regrow teeth. 鈥淚t鈥檚 an interesting puzzle piece about a great invention of nature,鈥� says Hatt. 鈥淲e will certainly continue the study of the abrasion and regrowth of teeth.鈥�
The Veterinary Journal
