shazza
Well-known member
it's the dog days of summer now and the rabbits have been doing pretty okay, but lately they've really been feeling the heat, and i was wondering if there was anything else i could possibly do to help them out.
i live outside of houston, so it's hot, and it's incredibly humid, which i think is proving to be most of the problem. it's in the mid-high 90s during the day, and while usually it drops below 80 at night, the past few days it's been staring around 83 at night and i can tell the rabbits aren't enjoying it.
my rabbits are in wire cages underneath a wooden shade structure:
a bit has changed since this photo was taken, however - the right side has a cover over it, and those cages are up on blocks like the rest. eventually we want to cover the sides and maybe the front with shadecloth to block sun but still allow airflow across the cages. there is a box fan to help with this, but it does not quite reach all the way across - we also plan to get more fans. the entire setup is in the only corner of the property that has shade, but only in the morning and late afternoon - from about noon to 5pm there is no shade from the trees. but anywhere else in the yard and there would be no shade at all, so i feel like this is the best place for them. if it is really hot i will mist them down a little bit, but with it being so humid i'm not really sure if i am doing much more than making them damp. they also get frozen bottles during the hottest part of the day, but not all of them want to lay near the bottles - most of them push them away or move to the other side of the cage when i put them in. i had put tiles in their cages to lay on, but they just wanted to pee on them and they all got mats in their fur from the pee soaking into them, so i took them out. i check on them multiple times a day and when it's late afternoon they all look pretty stressed - not all have their heads back but they're all laid out and some are laying on their sides and it freaks me out because from a distance they look dead. i purposefully did not breed during the hot part of the year but i was given some young kits several weeks ago and i've already lost two, despite my best efforts.
what else can i do? things like swamp coolers don't seem like they'd work as it's so humid and misting doesn't seem to help me much, and i can sweat! i only have space indoors to bring kits in, so i really need a good way to keep the adults cool outside.
i live outside of houston, so it's hot, and it's incredibly humid, which i think is proving to be most of the problem. it's in the mid-high 90s during the day, and while usually it drops below 80 at night, the past few days it's been staring around 83 at night and i can tell the rabbits aren't enjoying it.
my rabbits are in wire cages underneath a wooden shade structure:
a bit has changed since this photo was taken, however - the right side has a cover over it, and those cages are up on blocks like the rest. eventually we want to cover the sides and maybe the front with shadecloth to block sun but still allow airflow across the cages. there is a box fan to help with this, but it does not quite reach all the way across - we also plan to get more fans. the entire setup is in the only corner of the property that has shade, but only in the morning and late afternoon - from about noon to 5pm there is no shade from the trees. but anywhere else in the yard and there would be no shade at all, so i feel like this is the best place for them. if it is really hot i will mist them down a little bit, but with it being so humid i'm not really sure if i am doing much more than making them damp. they also get frozen bottles during the hottest part of the day, but not all of them want to lay near the bottles - most of them push them away or move to the other side of the cage when i put them in. i had put tiles in their cages to lay on, but they just wanted to pee on them and they all got mats in their fur from the pee soaking into them, so i took them out. i check on them multiple times a day and when it's late afternoon they all look pretty stressed - not all have their heads back but they're all laid out and some are laying on their sides and it freaks me out because from a distance they look dead. i purposefully did not breed during the hot part of the year but i was given some young kits several weeks ago and i've already lost two, despite my best efforts.
what else can i do? things like swamp coolers don't seem like they'd work as it's so humid and misting doesn't seem to help me much, and i can sweat! i only have space indoors to bring kits in, so i really need a good way to keep the adults cool outside.
