My 4-year-old son's pet rabbit froze to death last night!

This morning while I was outside doing the morning chores, I opened the cage of my son's pet mini rex. I busted the ice out of her bowl, and refilled it. That's when I noticed that her feed from the previous night was barely touched and that she didn't meet me at the door like normal. She has a winter box in her cage, and the opening is facing away from the door of the cage, so I can never see if she's in it or not. I tapped on the box for her to come out to have her morning hay, with no response. After the third tap, my heart sunk and I pulled the box out to find her frozen inside! Poor bunny! Then I had to go inside to tell my son that she died. To make matters worse, he's sick this morning and not feeling well. We have a lot of rabbits, but she was my son's pet. HE fed her and HE watered her (except when it's freezing out) everyday. She was so lovable, especially for a doe. He was quite upset, but wanted to see her and pet her.

On the upside, my 6-year-old son also has a pet mini rex. After seeing what can happen without notice (she was fine yesterday), he's been playing with his bunny all morning and even asked if we could get a bunny leash so he could walk her outside in the spring time. I told my younger son he could pick a new bunny to keep from our next batch of litters (most likely a mini lop or cross). We've lost rabbits before, but never had an impact like this one.

Oh no I'm so sorry.... that would suck ANYTIME, but when you're 4 and already sick? poor kiddo.

Kids learn early on a homestead or farm, don't they? or..with any type of multiple animals, I suppose. Even in an urban setting.

o im so sorry i would hate to tell my dd her bun has pasted away she loves her so much.

I'm so sorry your boy's bunny died. I hope you are not kicking yourself about it, thinking you should have brought the rabbit indoors etc. etc. the way parents do when things go wrong with their children's pets. I rather doubt that the bunny froze to death. More likely it died of another cause - rabbits do sometimes just up and die on you with no warning - and froze afterwards. I don't know if this makes it easier for you or not, but I'm of the opinion that nothing you might have done would have prevented this death.

My husband thinks the same thing, she died and then froze. I HATE it when they die suddenly out of the blue!

I agree, I think it's pretty unlikely that a healthy rabbit with a box to get shelter would freeze to death overnight. If the feed from the previous night was untouched it seems that the bunny must have died shortly after feeding time and the body froze after. Not that I'm a huge rabbit expert, mind you...

yup I suspect she died of other causes too
sorry for your loss

there has been some recent work (and I don't have links - only know this through speaking to folks who have access to journals I don't) looking at rapid heart failure in rabbits - apparently many of the rabbits are happily hosting the EC protazoa until it gets to the heart. Unlike humans and dogs and cats rabbits don't tend to show stress in the heart through murmurs or enlarged hearts or congestion - they adapt adapt adapt until suddenly boom the heart stops ... on autoposy you can see lesions on the heart
it seems very likely that is what happened with Ella just before Christmas and with Bunny No No last spring as well ...

Yes, I also think she died shortly after feeding time. This rabbit is crazy about food, anything she can eat she does and doesn't stop until it's gone. She'd sit and eat ALL her pellets at one time. For her to leave food isn't a good sign.