Charles Mullen
Member
I live in Texas and am doing all I can to keep these guys cool. Anyone have any recommendations on keeping rabbits from over heating? I raise Tamuks by the way.
Its too hot
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jaxmarblebuns
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what kind of setup do you have?
if they are in a barn you can put a sprinkler on the roof to keep the heat down. You can also put a hose in the barn on mist with a fan behind it to blow it around. I did this last year in 110f heat kept the barn at 85f
my barn is a canvas carport btw
if they are in a barn you can put a sprinkler on the roof to keep the heat down. You can also put a hose in the barn on mist with a fan behind it to blow it around. I did this last year in 110f heat kept the barn at 85f
my barn is a canvas carport btw
ice, water in bowls, fans blowing through wet burlap,
rockyhillrabbits
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Frozen water bottles, bowls in the cages for fresh, cold water for them to drink, fans, soak burlap and put over cage, keep them in shade, add electrolytes to their water. I'm in northeast Arkansas and next week we'll have temps up to 104. Heat index up to 120! No rain in over a month and none coming.
Charles Mullen
Member
I have them in pretty nice hutches in my back yard. Shade for 80% of the day. I put frozen water bottles in the cages and have a fan blowing on them. Some seem fine but a couple are really struggling.
Move the ones struggling into air conditioning get some small cages for temporary care. I have taken in all my neighbors rabbits (tamuk) because the temperature has exceeded 100 which seemed to be the point his started dying. I air conditioned a small building to keep mine in for the summer or till the weather moderates . In a 6x7 building I have 12 rabbits it’s crowded but we are making do. if I have to I’ll bring them in the house to save them. We are in bell county Texas, and know the heat.
Rabbits by Accident
Well-known member
Lows of 80s highs of 105 this week. My rabbits are in a covered L shape beside 2 outbuildings. Some breeze, but not much. I have 1/2 towel hung INSIDE the cage, about in the middle of the cage. I have a mister set up to spray into the cage on an interval timer (5 minutes every 15 or 30, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. depending on the heat). It makes an area the rabbits can lay in the mist, but the other half of the cage is dry. It also soaks the towel hanging inside. In the mist, there is also a ceramic tile laying face down so the porous side is up. It retains water and is cooler.
On the OUTSIDE of the cage, I have a full towel hanging across 1/2 the top and the back (covers over the misting hose). I manually spray this with a hose when it starts to get hot. Usually once is enough, but you could spray it more often. I don't have burlap, but I have a lot of old towels LOL
I don't bother with ice bottles for the adults, they are doing fine, the cages stay under 100, and they get wet if they're too hot. No stress, eating fine. Most of the time, they don't even bother getting wet.
Even the 4 week old kits run to the back when they hear the mister come on LOL.
p.s. In case you're interested, I got the interval timer here - It took me a lot of searching to find one that would do what I want.
On the OUTSIDE of the cage, I have a full towel hanging across 1/2 the top and the back (covers over the misting hose). I manually spray this with a hose when it starts to get hot. Usually once is enough, but you could spray it more often. I don't have burlap, but I have a lot of old towels LOL
I don't bother with ice bottles for the adults, they are doing fine, the cages stay under 100, and they get wet if they're too hot. No stress, eating fine. Most of the time, they don't even bother getting wet.
Even the 4 week old kits run to the back when they hear the mister come on LOL.
p.s. In case you're interested, I got the interval timer here - It took me a lot of searching to find one that would do what I want.
Rabbits by Accident
Well-known member
About fans - I don't think fans are helpful in a lot of cases. Fans cool us because it evaporates the sweat.
Rabbits don't sweat, so you can't cool them with evaporation. I'm more afraid that it would cause dehydration.
If there is evaporative cooling and you need to move the cooler air around, a fan can help. Or, if you have a mister and they can get wet, a fan can make them evaporate and cool.
I originally had a fan on the nursery cage. I have tested the temperature both ways.
The biggest help is the wet towel inside the cage and outside the cage. (Thanks to @MaggieJ I think?? If it was someone else, please forgive me I'm awful with names, even avatars LOL) I don't run the fan, and the cooler air stays within the damp area. The fan was blowing 100F air into a cage that was actually cooler.
My two bucks both seem to like getting on their respective shelves that are directly under the top wet towel and behind the hanging wet towel. It's like a little damp cave, and it is a lot cooler there. If I were to blow air, it would actually make it warmer.
The problem would be if you were in a more humid area. I'm not sure how effective evaporative cooling would be.
I would love to hear others opinions/experience on this!
Rabbits don't sweat, so you can't cool them with evaporation. I'm more afraid that it would cause dehydration.
If there is evaporative cooling and you need to move the cooler air around, a fan can help. Or, if you have a mister and they can get wet, a fan can make them evaporate and cool.
I originally had a fan on the nursery cage. I have tested the temperature both ways.
The biggest help is the wet towel inside the cage and outside the cage. (Thanks to @MaggieJ I think?? If it was someone else, please forgive me I'm awful with names, even avatars LOL) I don't run the fan, and the cooler air stays within the damp area. The fan was blowing 100F air into a cage that was actually cooler.
My two bucks both seem to like getting on their respective shelves that are directly under the top wet towel and behind the hanging wet towel. It's like a little damp cave, and it is a lot cooler there. If I were to blow air, it would actually make it warmer.
The problem would be if you were in a more humid area. I'm not sure how effective evaporative cooling would be.
I would love to hear others opinions/experience on this!
A rabbit's ears are designed to help cool them. The veins that run through them dilate when it is hot and that helps. Our heat is not excessive but I used to keep a spray bottle set to mist. I'd aim it just over the rabbit's head so the cool mist fell gently on the ears. As they became accustomed to it, I could spray the mist directly on the ears. The evaporating water helps those ears do their cooling more effectively.
StonyCreekSilverFox
Member
I'm in PA and we're coming out of our portion of the heat wave. We've been doing dish pans with ice and some water. We typically take the ice to them around 11 am. They'll eat the ice and play with it and wind up laying in the ice. As the ice melts, they drink the water. It lasts a few hours.
KelleyBee
Well-known member
Do you leave the ice in the dish pan or do you remove the huge piece of ice and put it in the enclosure without the dish pan? BTW, I'm in SW PA. Where about are you located?
StonyCreekSilverFox
Member
I leave all the ice in the dish pan. I'll either use a big block of ice that i make in some old plastic yogurt container or I'll buy ice in bags. I'm in Berks County outside of Reading.
I fill gallon bottles and re freeze each night. but we will only have a week or two of >80F to make it thru. I want to rig a mist sprayer too, but for now in a pinch I will just hose the whole thing down, roof, walls, floor, and rabbits. They are not a fan but they are immediately happier after. The American Chinchillas I have are definitely more heat sensitive than my NZ were, but my rabbitry also faces the afternoon sun unfortunately. I have a sheet rigged vertically as a sunshade 4 feet in front of the cages, but I cannot wait until the vegetation grows up to screen it.
robeyw
Active member
Fans cool dry surfaces by mooing the heated air away and exposing the surface to cool air. Improvements in heat transfer can exceed 3X but when I have given my 2 rabbits a mild breeze from a fan when they were only mildly over their desired temperature, they moved away from it.
StonyCreekSilverFox
Member
I have read that the only place on the body a rabbit sweats from is it's paws. I found this interesting because when I add the ice bowls to my rabbits pens, several of them will sit in the bowl with just their fromt paws. On the topic of fans, most all of my rabbits sit directly in from of their fans,
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Not sure about the sweating but my rabbits also sit with their front paws in their water crocks! lol
StonyCreekSilverFox
Member
I think I read it on rise and shine rabbitry site. I don't know if it's true or not but I did read it on the internet
JG3
Well-known member
We get up to about 115F with the humidex here. I give frozen water bottles, refresh their water with cold water and add ice cubes. Also, ceramic tiles. We haven’t needed Much else. They are housed under a tree and shaded all day except for very early morning sunrise and late evening, but the sun still isn’t directly on them, it’s just hitting the hutch. I only had one rabbit struggle when we got a bad heat wave in June before the litter was weaned, so it was super hot and they still wanted to cuddle with mom. I took the litter and brought it in the house to give mom more breathing room and air flow and gave her frozen bottles. That worked. The same temps or higher after the litter was weaned, she didn’t struggle at all. So I think it’s just because she was still lactating and they were trying to cuddle her.
