Planning Ahead For Winter

I did a forum search and didn't find anything so please forgive me if this is repetitious.

I have an aquarium water heater for my 5 gallon bucket but how do I keep the tubes from freezing? I think I've seen some sort of electrical line that can run alongside the tube or wrap around it but at the time I didn't pay much attention to it. Now I can't find it or know what to look for. Any ideas or am I hallucinating?

JudyM":11xt7o30 said:

I did a forum search and didn't find anything so please forgive me if this is repetitious.

I have an aquarium water heater for my 5 gallon bucket but how do I keep the tubes from freezing? I think I've seen some sort of electrical line that can run alongside the tube or wrap around it but at the time I didn't pay much attention to it. Now I can't find it or know what to look for. Any ideas or am I hallucinating?

Click to expand...

Hey there. You're not hallucinating, lol. Thanks for trying to search for the info on your own.

There are a few ways to keep the water in the tubes from freezing, however it depends on your watering setup, location in the USA, whether you're rabbits are indoors, outdoors, in an unheated building, etc.

The product you were probably thinking of is either heating tape or rope heaters. You can usually find it in most big-box hardware stores or order it online. However, depending on your setup this might not work for you. If the watering system is made of PVC pipes, metal, or any hard, heafty material you should use the heating tape or rope heaters as the material can withstand the heat generated by the tape or rope, and thus won't melt.
But if you are using that thin, flexible tube (which it sounds like you might have) there is a chance that the tubing could melt. I guess it would depend on the tubing you have and the tape/rope you'd buy.

As for other solutions for winter watering, there is the cheap option of water bottles and replacing them twice a day. The rabbits learn quickly they need to get their water right away before it freezes.
You could try using PVC pipes to get water. You could either wrap the tape around the pipes to keep them from freezing. Or create a closed loop system, you'd have your aquarium heater and then use a small pump to pump the heated water through the PVC pipes. However that costs $$ and you might not want to replace the watering system you have with another one.
A third solution is maybe get heated water bottles. Although depending on how many cages you have it might be cost prohibitive as well.

Hopefully you find this helpful.

Thanks Kenosha, for the options! Yes, I do have the flexible tubing. I live outside of St. Louis MO. It frequently stays in the 10's and will fall below zero a few times.

I downloaded some ideas off of Amazon to ask if my DH would check them out. Otherwise I'm really stuck unless I spend a lot of money. I just started with meat rabbits in Feb 2016 so I already spent a lot on cages and equipment. They are on my son's property so changing the water 2x/day would be my last choice. Maybe my son wouldn't mind if I put them in his basement...I'm pretty sure my husband would nix it at our house.

Another option I thought about is using a space heater or heat lamp but I'm not sure how warm it would keep the shed anyway. It's an old 8x10 particle board shed with no insulation. Anybody have experience with that? How much more do you think it would cost in the monthly electric bill? - I would have to reimburse my son.

JudyM":2uoyhxn3 said:

Thanks Kenosha, for the options! Yes, I do have the flexible tubing. I live outside of St. Louis MO. It frequently stays in the 10's and will fall below zero a few times.

I downloaded some ideas off of Amazon to ask if my DH would check them out. Otherwise I'm really stuck unless I spend a lot of money. I just started with meat rabbits in Feb 2016 so I already spent a lot on cages and equipment. They are on my son's property so changing the water 2x/day would be my last choice. Maybe my son wouldn't mind if I put them in his basement...I'm pretty sure my husband would nix it at our house.

Another option I thought about is using a space heater or heat lamp but I'm not sure how warm it would keep the shed anyway. It's an old 8x10 particle board shed with no insulation. Anybody have experience with that? How much more do you think it would cost in the monthly electric bill? - I would have to reimburse my son.

Click to expand...

So you are hoping to keep them in this shed during the winter? You might want to consider moving them into the basement. The shed is a good option in keeping your rabbits protected from the elements during the winter; however it might not keep the water in the tubes from freezing. To solve the problem it will cost you, either in money or your time.

The space heater idea might work, the goal is just to keep the temp above 32 F. But it would cost a lot to keep it running. While spending $50-100 on a closed loop system might seem like a lot; it probably costs more to constantly run a space heater or two for an entire winter. (Not sure how much your electricity costs) And then you have the issue of potential fire hazards. While I'm sure you'll take obvious precautions, you never know what could happen. You could forget to pick up an empty bag of feed and it blows against the heater; there are many ways something could go wrong. Also there is the issue of actually figuring out how much to pay your son since you don't know exactly how much electricity is being used by you.

By any chance does you son have any kids? While you might not want to pay for a whole new setup or pay to heat the shed; perhaps you could pay a grandkid a few dollars to water the rabbits?

Otherwise keeping the rabbits in a basement where your watering system won't freeze would be the easier, cheaper option. You could maybe save a little money over a year and upgrade the shed or watering system for next winter! Unfortunately this hobby has a lot of upfront costs.

You make some good points, Kenosha.

I talked to my son and we will be moving them to his basement as soon as we can get it all set up so there is nothing getting on his walls or landing on the floor. We will probably keep them in his house all year long as long as there isn't a bad odor. Then we can breed through the summer too. This has been one of the hottest summers I can remember and the poor buns are miserable.

Thanks for helping me think this through instead of me learning the hard way. (I absolutely detest learning by experience!)

Flexwatt is what a lot of reptile people use to heat the bottom of their reptile enclosures. Its main purpose tho is for wrapping around water pipes to keep from freezing.

Very easy to use.. buy the length of flexwatt you need. Get an extension cord, cut the female end off of it, split the cord and take some rubber off to expose the wires.. solder the 2 ends to the connection spots on the flex.. wrap the soldered spots in electrical tape.

Lots of vids on youtube. Ive done it i used to be huge into ball pythons.. and im a woman.. its easy