A new study suggests that rabbits may not need to consume calcium-rich foods to maintain their constantly growing teeth. The chewing process naturally grinds down their teeth, creating a powder that's swallowed and provides a steady supply of calcium during digestion.
Rabbits may eat fragments of their own teeth when they chomp on food — meaning each mouthful could contain a healthy dose of calcium, scientists say.require large amounts of calcium, because their teeth — like those of squirrels, beavers and kangaroos — grow continuously.
Until now, researchers assumed that wild rabbits deliberately ate calcium-rich foods, such as leafy greens, to sustain this growth. But a new study shows this may not be required for rabbits to meet their mineral needs. A naturally high-fiber diet means rabbits are continually chewing and grinding their teeth. The resulting tooth powder may provide a steady source of calcium that gets reabsorbed during digestion, forming a neat loop that endlessly fuels rabbit tooth growth, according to the study. "It has been suggested that rabbits must have high mineral requirements, in particular for calcium," researchers wrote in the study, published in the February issue of."However, this assumption ignores the fact that tooth wear represents finely ground tissue that is not lost to the body but swallowed during food processing."To test whether tooth wear could be a source of calcium for rabbits, the researchers conducted a two-week feeding experiment on eight female European rabbits . They gave the rabbits food pellets containing either a standard calcium supplement or ground-up rabbit teeth, and then measured absorption in the body by analyzing the rabbits' poop. The results showed that rabbits can digest and absorb calcium from their own teeth. In fact, they are likely to extract slightly more calcium from their teeth than from food, according to the study.Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox.Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors Poop samples indicated the rabbits that received the tooth-powder diet digested 33% of the calcium they ate, compared with 20% for the rabbits that received the standard supplement. There was no significant difference in the average water intake, body mass or fecal output between the two groups, the researchers noted. Pet-rabbit feed typically contains calcium to make up for the fact that pets can't independently select foods high in calcium. But the new findings suggest we may be giving pet rabbits too much calcium, the researchers wrote. Until now, researchers assumed that wild rabbits selected foods high in calcium, such as dandelion plants, to sustain their tooth growth.Healthy rabbits can excrete excess calcium in their urine, but rabbits with kidney problems may develop complications from excess calcium. Urinary tract diseases are common in pet rabbits, so it's important to keep an eye on their mineral intake, according to the study.Although it's highly likely that rabbits swallow their own ground-up teeth, the study doesn't show this directly. The researchers did not measure tooth loss during the experiment, meaning they did not account for the additional calcium that rabbits from both groups may have ingested. It's also unclear how much calcium rabbits require to sustain continuous tooth growth. But the new research is a good starting point, as it demonstrates for the first time that rabbits can digest calcium from their own teeth.Sascha is a U.K.-based staff writer at Live Science. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Southampton in England and a master’s degree in science communication from Imperial College London. Her work has appeared in The Guardian and the health website Zoe. Besides writing, she enjoys playing tennis, bread-making and browsing second-hand shops for hidden gems.Spotted hyena found in Egypt for 1st time in 5,000 years — then trackers killed it with a pickup truck
RABBITS DIET CALCIUM TEETH GROWTH DIGESTION
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