Frozen Fingers... Frozen Water... A couple of tips.

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MaggieJ

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As many of you know, my winter water solution is cheap and low tech. I buy those plastic food containers, the square ones that sell 3/$1 at Dollarama. They hold about 16 oz. of water. I use two for each cage. One I pierce with an ice pick near the rim and on the base. I wire it through the holes in the rim to the cage. This serves as a holder. A second box fits inside and this liner is what holds the water.

On mornings like this one, where everything froze solid overnight, I am very grateful for this system. I take a bucket of hot water down to the rabbitry. I open the first cage, lift out the frozen food box and float it in the bucket. I fill the grain dish and put in hay. By this time the ice block has unmoulded can be dumped out. I scoop up warm water and replace the container in the holder. Close the cage and I'm done.

All the same, my fingers often start to freeze before I am finished. I can't work in thick gloves, so I use kitchen rubber gloves. Keeps my fingers from sticking to the metal and keeps them dry. And - bonus! - when my fingers get too cold I can plunge them in the hot water bucket and warm them. The remainder of the bucket of water has cooled a bit by the time I'm finished and I give it to the geese for their day's water.

When I get back to the house, I leave the rubber gloves on and rinse my hands under warm water until comfortable. No more agony while my fingers thaw out on their own. Sure does take some of the misery out of cold water care of the critters!
 
my solution is to have four more crocks then I do cages. Fill four as four thaw. :) Makes it very easy. though...no less cold. AND I use waterproof gloves overtop of regular winter gloves

when i say regular gloves I should mention that they are the thin one size fits all types
 
My solution is to have two crocks for each rabbit. Bring the frozen ones in the house and give the unfrozen ones to them. Works :)
 
ive been hualing water bottles back and forth from the house to the barn for the last week yesterday i decided to take a jug of hot water out to the barn pour it in a bucket saves an extra trip back to house anyway. It worked ok tell last night when i about got my hand stuck to the cage lol i need some water proof gloves.
 
beleive it or not, just a pair of surgical gloves help a bunch, and you can use a scalpel with them if you had to. i was amazed, since i cannot tolerate the cold very well anymore. tried them this winter and i lasted a half hour longer outside
 
I've got those bowls that have a base that attaches to the wire, and the bowl fits into it. With the bunnies just right out on the porch, we just twist the bowls out, bring them in and empty the ice, and take them back out with hot water. By the time we pour the hot water into the bowls, it isn't as hot anymore. I thought the rabbits would wait for it to cool a little more to drink it, but it seemed as if the somewhat hot water was like a nice mug of cocoa to them! They love it! :shock:

Not a huge problem here, but we do get freezes even here... I also don't have many bunnies like most of y'all do, so it isn't burdensome. :)
 
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