Temperatures!

[WildWolf]

How do you tell if a rabbit is over-heated?
For future reference, how do you tell if a rabbit is too cold?
We have been having extreme temps last year and this year...

 

[curlysue]

Excessive panting,wet around the mouth and nose.I live in Pa and i have never had a rabbit get too cold.

 

[WildWolf]

Thanks! Are there any other ways? What are some ways too keep them cool? I know about a water bottle of ice... would an ice pack work better?

 

[Joe n TN]

Frozen 1-2 liter sized bottles. Once they realize it cools them they will lay on them. I also lay a burlap sack on the top junction of where two cages meet, 1/4 of sack on each cage, and pile ice on it. It slowly melts, cools the area kind of like a swamp cooler. Some will even sit where the water will drip on them, but not many.

Joe

 

[curlysue]

I meant that they get wet around the mouth and nose when they are already overheated.

 

[WildWolf]

Yeah, you answered my original question, curlysue, and then I asked how to prevent over-heating.

 

[LauraNJ]

I took the advice here and bought some marble tiles which you can put in your freezer and then put them in cages when it is hot. I also do the frozen water bottles. I turn the sprinkler on and set it so that it is just hitting the font of the hutch and roof- so it cools it down. Our hutches are in 100% shade but the cold water hitting the front and top do cool it and the rabbits will venture out and get wet, then get out of the water so I think they actually like it or at least realize it cools them down.

I refill water bottles throughout the day with very cold water. I also use crocks and put ice cubes in the crocks to help it keep cool longer. Lastly, I check on the rabbits, almost to a paranoid point. When we hit 104F I thought my buck was panting too much so I brought him in. He perked up immediately so he wasn't too hot but I have a limited number of Beverens and they are hard to come by so I am probably over careful.

This morning and a couple times today I went out and wet their ears down with cool water on a cloth. They weren't thrilled with that but they were cooler when I was done.

 

[Secuono]

Some of my rabbits will sit with their feet in the water crocks, so I keep them refilled with cold water 2-4x a day.
Ice bottles, ice tiles, ice flat packs, fans.
If they are already over heating, wet the ears and get them in AC until the settle again. While they recover, step up the cooling aids while it recovers.

 

[WildWolf]

Thanks everyone! My rabbits have another advantage: their hutches are above the ground, so they have a lot of air flow.
So, who knows how to tell if they are too cold?

 

[LauraNJ]

In NC I don't think you will have to worry about too cold. Rabbits are fine up here in the NE outside in hutches in winter as long as they have some protection from snow, driving winds, etc.

My hutches are open on front and back lengths. I have plywood on a hinge on the back so when it starts to get cold, I just swing the back closed and latch it in place.

 

[reereechickens]

Hi, I have had rabbits for a year and my rabbits did fine in the winter and I live in NC! When it was real cold I put a bunch of pine needles b/c that is what I had at the moment in their cage and the pinestraw would be gone where they ate it all the next day! :lol: Also timothy/orchard mixture hay from Southern States.

This is my first summer with 4 week old kits and the high heat. Yuck! :?

 

[skysthelimit]

I'm in Ohio on the lake, and even though the winter was mild, it still was below freezing a great deal of the time. The rabbits were fine, the building is more for my comfort than theirs.

 

[WildWolf]

I've had my rabbits for half a winter. They were fine- I just put up a wind block- but I just wanted to be sure they can go the whole winter. Thanks! Today, 100 degrees, the only change in the rabbits I could see was that they lazed most of the day. I put in water bottles of ice, and they didn't really need them.

 

[Legacy]

Well, In Texas, my rabbits are used to the heat. Anything under 100 is fine for them but once it gets over 100, I use sprinklers and misters and such.

However, because my rabbits are more acclimated to the heat, they don't handle the cold as well as some. Don't get me wrong, they can still handle really cold weather but my rabbits will sit in their boxes with hay with their legs all tucked into their bodies as tight as they can get them like little balls of rabbit.

 

[Miss M]

A warning sign that your rabbit is in imminent danger of heat stroke is listlessness. You come around, and the rabbit does not respond as it normally would. If it would normally bound to the front of the cage, then maybe it just stays lying down, not even lifting its head much.

We saw this with one of our rabbits a couple of times. He was acting like I just described, barely even acknowledging you were there. ILoveBunnies had read a book on rabbits that told about this, and jumped right to action.

She got some ice, and then took him out and sat down on the patio with him. She wrapped his ears around the ice and held them like that in her hands. He didn't even care. But after some minutes like that, he started coming around. He quickly made a full recovery. She saved that rabbit's life, for sure.

In winter, pretty much all that's necessary is to give them refuge from wind. We put visqueen up around our rabbitry in winter. If it's going to get really cold, we'll put a small box in with each rabbit with about a 6" hole in one side. The box is big enough for them to get in and turn around, not much bigger. That way, they have an insulated cave.

 

[kentuckyjeff]

So it was hot here today. It's still hot. I am concerned about my rabbits. They are in a well ventilated room in the barn with a fan and I have taken them as much ice as I have. They still sem to be overheated. I realy want to do the right thing here. What do I do?

 

[MaggieJ]

Sounds like you are doing the right things already. Misting the rabbits' ears with a spray bottle also brings them considerable relief.

 

[WildWolf]

A warning sign that your rabbit is in imminent danger of heat stroke is listlessness. You come around, and the rabbit does not respond as it normally would. If it would normally bound to the front of the cage, then maybe it just stays lying down, not even lifting its head much.

We saw this with one of our rabbits a couple of times. He was acting like I just described, barely even acknowledging you were there. ILoveBunnies had read a book on rabbits that told about this, and jumped right to action.

She got some ice, and then took him out and sat down on the patio with him. She wrapped his ears around the ice and held them like that in her hands. He didn't even care. But after some minutes like that, he started coming around. He quickly made a full recovery. She saved that rabbit's life, for sure.

In winter, pretty much all that's necessary is to give them refuge from wind. We put visqueen up around our rabbitry in winter. If it's going to get really cold, we'll put a small box in with each rabbit with about a 6" hole in one side. The box is big enough for them to get in and turn around, not much bigger. That way, they have an insulated cave.

Thanks!! that clears everything up a bit.

 

[3mina]

My rabbits are in a three sided shed that gets shade in the summer and is has a windbreak from the north in the winter. They like it pretty well which is great since we get about eight months of winter here

 

[Therian]

I am in a terrible position as my cages are outside and the only "shade" is from the their roof. One thing that helps a lot is having a box with a bottom, put the two liters inside and they last longer (3 hours longer for me) and it provides a air conditioning effect, my buck lays on his side and "hugs" the bottle.

My problem is it takes two days for my two liters to refreeze which over taxes my freezer. I also wonder how would you keep rabbits alive without ANY power? I am in Missouri so its been back to back 100F+ days this month and I see two rabbits who aren't taking the heat well at all