Rabbits and Hot weather

Hi everyone,

I just joined this forum.

I am currently looking after my aunty's rabbits and we're in Adelaide (today the hottest city on earth). I already lost a bunny on Monday . So, I am trying to be super careful with the two bunnies.

I have been bringing them inside during the day and putting them in smaller cages so they can be inside the airconditioning.

Is it ok if I leave them in the smaller cages overnight? It still feels seriously hot outside, but not sure if leaving them in small cages all day and night is good for them?

Thanks for your help,

Erin

I know how you feel it's a difficult one! Maybe section a bit of a room off for the rabbits and let them have a run around for half an hour before putting them in their cages at night so they can stretch their legs as buns love running and jumping around!! Make sure your in the room supervising them and all wires are got rid of! If they are friendly and like being petted have them on your lap for a while. Just make sure your giving them a chance to run around and be let out and they shouldn't mind being kept in a small cage as they will be warn out from their adventure!!

Hope this helps!! X

Its opposite here , its about 25 degrees out now! Before I got my rabbits , I took care of my friends rabbits for a week, and we just kept them in the dog cage most of the time. How long are you watching your Aunt's rabbits? I think you should just keep them inside the entire time , its nice to let them run around outside, but not when it's so hot out! I think they would rather sit in the air condition in their small cage then go outside in the heat. As long as they get more exercise when they go back to your aunt's house, they should be fine.

I found this online maybe it can help
Vanessa

Whether your rabbit is indoors or out, one concern that all rabbits share is their rabbit's reaction to the sweltering summer heat.
Looking at the makeup of the common domestic rabbit, one sees that he is completely covered from head to toe in a thick fur coat. This leaves no way for the rabbit to perspire. There are virtually no means of which the rabbit can cool his body temperature. Not only is it uncomfortable for your rabbit, it can also be extremely dangerous to his health, even fatal. Rabbits and heat are never a good combination, and heat stroke is one of the leading causes of death in rabbits. Fortunately it can easily be avoided, even if you do not have air conditioning.

Before we venture into prevention and treatment, let us delve into the signs ans symptoms that help you recognize that your rabbit has or is beginning to get heat stroke.

*The rabbit is fully stretched out. The feet are sprawled apart and the tail is limp.

*Eyes are half closed. The rabbit has a sleepy or dazed appearance.

*The rabbit's tongue is hanging out. His breathing is rapid and possibly labored.

*The rabbit is reluctant to move.

*The rabbit refuses to eat or drink. -If your rabbit ever refuses to eat or drink for more then 6 hours get them to a veterinarian immediately!

Prevention against the summer heat is key to your rabbit's comfort and survival. Prevention will save you both stress and is simple enough to do.

WAYS TO PREVENT HEAT STROKE:

Fill two to three one or two liter bottles about eighty percent full with water and freeze them. Take one out, wrap in paper towels or with a thin, clean rag that you won't care to be chewed upon. Place this in your rabbit's pen. This will last between four and eight hours before you will need to replace it with a new one. Place the thawed bottle back in the freezer so that you may use it again. Your rabbit will lay next to, or even on this bottle and get great relief from the heat.

Place a 12 inch by 12 inch ceramic tile in your rabbit's pen for her to lie on. If you place the tile in the refridgerator for an hour beforehand it will provide even greater relief.

Put ice cubes in your rabbit's water crock. I recommend spill proof crocks in the hottest part of summer over water bottles as the crockery holds the temperature making it less likely that your rabbit will have to drink warm or even hot water. Keep your rabbit in clean, fresh water at all times.

Place a cold, damp towel over a fan directed at your rabbit's pen. As the water evaporates it will help keep your rabbit cool.
If your rabbit seems to already be suffering from the heat - try the following:

Rub chilled, damp fingers over the rabbit's ears repeatedly. Rechill the fingers every few strokes (ice cubes work best for this task). You may also try a cool, damp (not wet) cotton ball inside the exposed area of your rabbit's ears. Take care not to drip water down into the ears. A rabbit's ears are very sensitive and a major vasculatory structure. Cooling off the rabbit's ears helps to cool off the entire rabbit.

Soak a towel in cool (not cold) water and drape it over your rabbit. Colder is not better as it may throw your rabbit into shock. Hopefully your rabbit will not resist this process. If she does, do not fight her on it. The stress will only aggravate the situation.

As a last resort, dip your rabbit into cool water, taking care to keep her head and ears above the water. Most rabbits will not like this, and though it is effective, it will likely cause undue stress for your rabbit.

The advice here is not meant to supercede that of your veterinarian. I am not a licensed animal health care provider. I have been involved in raising rabbits for five years and have taken all measures to educate myself on their well being. These things have worked for me in providing my rabbits with a healthy, and hopefully, happy life.

Remember- an ideal temperature for your rabbit is in the fifty to sixty degree Fahrenheit range. Any day above eighty degrees is a potential problem for your rabbit. With care and prevention your rabbit and you will enjoy many years of happy, comfortable summers.

In addition to the suggestions lovelops shared, misting their ears with cool water is another option (ideally, combined with fans circulating the air).

It's worth noting that the "last resort" suggestion of dipping the rabbit in cool water really is a LAST resort as baths can easily be fatal to rabbits - it's not something to do unless the rabbit may otherwise die of heat stroke or heat exhaustion.

What are the night time temperatures like? If they're also quite high and you're unable to set up cooling measures that are effective all night without needing to be tended to (large bottles of frozen water that take hours to melt, fans that can run continuously but are placed in a way where they're not a safety hazard, possibly even an automatic misting system) then it may indeed be best to keep the rabbits inside full time. In most places, daytime heat quickly fades after the sun sets... but in desert climates and such, the temperature doesn't approach the "low" mark for the day until well after midnight, which can potentially make night time temperatures pretty hazardous for rabbits.

Actually, I just looked at the weather forecasts for your area - dunno why I didn't do that sooner. Your temperatures aren't any worse than summer temps here but vary a lot more - we stay at 100-110F highs consistently, but I'm seeing highs anywhere from 28C (82F) to 42C (108F) for you. It looks like you've got a cool spell coming, which should help considerably.

One thing to consider with bringing rabbits indoors is that it can affect their adaptation to the outside temperatures... though once they've grown a light summer coat for outdoor life, I suspect they're not as likely to abruptly grow a heavier coat from being inside as a bunny with a heavy winter coat is to abruptly shed it if brought indoors. I would normally recommend trying to keep the indoor temperature (at least in their room) close to 26-27C (rather than cooler) so that it's not as big a shock to go back outside... but after seeing that the weather forecast is showing a low of 59F just days after a high of 108F, I imagine the indoor temp doesn't really matter because the rabbits should be adapted to having significant changes in temperature on a regular basis.

With some precautions taken to cool them, your rabbits should have no problems whatsoever with outdoor temperatures up to 30C (86F) - I've taken my own (indoor) rabbits out into a shaded pen in the yard at temps up to 30C for an hour or two and they did fine with a cool breeze, some ear-misting and a water bottle to lounge against.

Because they've presumably been outside the last few months and have adapted to the outdoor weather, I would say anything from 30-32C is potentially doable when moderate precautions are taken (including hutches/cages well-insulated against the sun's heat.

By 35C (95F), I consider it too hot to keep rabbits outdoors without *heavy* precautions including some sort of roof-like structure over their cages/hutches/run area that reflects away sunlight and powerful enough fans to lower the ambient temperature in their area by 10+ degrees F (ie to 32C or below).

My girls came from a breeder who kept outdoor rabbits in San Antonio; when I went there to pick them out (late July), it was late afternoon and around 100-105F. Her rabbits were in open-sided structures (ie a roof supported by posts) that provided full shade and a significant cross-breeze. There were small industrial-type fans circulating the air (primarily above and below the cages so that the rabbits weren't getting too much of a direct hit) and she had an actual misting system that would periodically mist all of the cages enough to dampen the rabbits' ears without really getting their coats wet.

Also keep in mind that humidity plays a role in how heat effects rabbits, same as it does for us - drier heat doesn't feel as bad. On especially humid days or days with little or no breeze, they may need to be moved inside at a lower temperature than usual - both the humidity of the surrounding air and the amount of air circulation play a role in how effectively their ears can cool them (particularly if you're misting or dampening their ears, as higher humidity reduces the rate of evaporation).

One last thing - you didn't mention their breed. That, too, can play a big role in the temperatures they're able to tolerate. You'll notice that desert species have much larger than average ears that have very little (and very fine/short) hair on the back sides - both characteristics increase the total amount of surface area available on their ears for heat exchange. Because their ears are the only way they can actively cool off, lop-eared rabbits (who have no ear control/whose ears are fully lopped) are at a distinct disadvantage in hot weather. Only the furred side of their ears is exposed to passing breezes - the inside, where the vast majority of their heat-exchange takes place, is against their body and therefore unable to cool as effectively as upright ears. Lop-eared rabbits need to be monitored especially closely for signs of overheating - my lop definitely gets warm faster than my lionhead does!

In the end, it's best to trust your instincts - if you feel they're too warm outside even at night, bring them in. Let them out in a bunny-proofed area for exercise if/when possible but even if that isn't an option, it's better for them to be in small cages than to suffer heatstroke!

One last thing and I'm sure Imbrium will chime in on this after I post this, I had been told by the vet before that any temp over 80F could cause heat stroke in rabbits, now her temps since she is in Texas can be alot hotter than here typically but here in the DC/MD area we have had some HOT days, like 110F and that is not with the heat index.

I mean my dogs wouldn't even stay outside other than just to pee and they are chihuahuas and typically love heat. I don't want to sound like Al Gore, but the weather has been changing so much lately and has been so dramatic from one extreme to another I mean for example only a week ago it was like -15 to -25 and you can see from my post yesterday it got up to 46F and I took the girls out to the garden area to run around for 30 minutes in the yard just to get some fresh air and excercise.

I'm one to err on the side of caution since I had that bad experience with the death of Chico and Chica's mother also after having the babies during one of the times we were having a heat wave and she had been outside originally... While I have no proof it caused what led to her death, or the death of the other two babies or what she did to Chico I'm of the mind once bitten twice shy. I'd rather be safe than sorry no matter what.

Like Benjamin Franklin said, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" which is the part of the quote most people know and the part of the quote I was going to write and leave it be, I will write the entire quote out which most people never really hear or remember: "In the first Place, as an Ounce of Prevention is worth a Pound of Cure, I would advise 'em to take care how they suffer living Coals in a full Shovel, to be carried out of one Room into another, or up or down Stairs, unless in a Warmingpan shut; for Scraps of Fire may fall into Chinks and make no Appearance until Midnight; when your Stairs being in Flames, you may be forced, (as I once was) to leap out of your Windows, and hazard your Necks to avoid being oven-roasted."

Vanessa

Rabbits *can* become susceptible to heat stroke at temperatures as low as 80F, yes... but that warning assumes the worst (or near-worst, rather) - an indoor rabbit accustomed to climate control with no precautions being taken to help keep them cool. There's a reason it's "can" and not "do" - because a rabbit who has been outdoors since spring will have acclimated/grown a summer coat appropriate for outdoor life and, combined with precautionary/cooling measures, that raises the point at which heat (without direct sun) becomes dangerous.

As I mentioned in my wall-of-text above, I personally consider 90F to be "pushing it" even with reasonable precautions and 95F+ to be "way too hot for rabbits unless drastic measures are taken to ensure they stay cool enough", with high humidity potentially lowering both of those cut-offs... and of course, those are for rabbits who have lived outdoors long enough to be acclimated .

I've heard seemingly contradictory opinions from people who say they keep outdoor rabbits in a climate where summer highs are 100F+ (including a few in south Texas) and never have any problems... but press those people for details and you'll find that the way they set up their outdoor rabbits actually fits with my definition of "drastic measures" (ie they're the exception I note in the guidelines I offer). Also, it's worth noting that these people have all been breeders/former breeders - when you run a decent sized rabbitry from a modestly-sized home, it would be extremely difficult if not impossible to house all those rabbits indoors for the entire summer... making the money, time and effort required to safely keep their rabbits outdoors a worthwhile investment. The things that rabbitry owners do to protect their outdoor rabbits against severe heat usually aren't viable options for your average pet owner.

~~~~~

lovelops said:

"when your Stairs being in Flames, you may be forced, (as I once was) to leap out of your Windows, and hazard your Necks to avoid being oven-roasted."

Click to expand...

I laughed my butt off at that point (got a mental picture of him jumping out that window)! I'd never read the full quote before... having such a vivid story to go with it really brings the quote and the point it's trying to illustrate to life.

I completely agree with erring on the side of caution - if you're not comfortable keeping them outdoors in the current weather, it's better to make them stay inside even if it means being stuck in small cages. While there are a lot of ways you can help outdoor rabbits stay cool, none is as safe as bringing them indoors so if that's an option, it's the ideal one.

The saying "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean someone's not out to get you" comes to mind, as it applies here in very loose terms - being overly cautious isn't necessarily a bad thing!

Thank you everyone! :bunnieskiss

I left the bunnies inside last night, poor little things. The cool change is coming in about two hours so I've just put them back outside. They have iceblocks and the cage has been sprayed with water. Not long to go for the poor bunnies!

Thanks again for your help

So glad that you left them inside. I'm also in Adelaide and I think it was Wednesday night that it was still 35C at midnight!! Way too warm for a bunny!!

Looking at the current temperature, if you've just put them back outside I would bring them back in, it's still 41+ degrees. I would wait until it actually has cooled down before putting them back out, not in anticipation of.

Bandit has been inside 24/7 all week.

Speaking of that impending cool spell, I would like to point out just how VERY wrong I think it is that you're about to be experiencing temperatures in the middle of summer that are equal to or LOWER than my winter temperatures sometimes are. Your high tomorrow (Saturday) is predicted to be 81F; a couple years ago, it was 85F on my birthday - the day after Christmas! I was so pissed off at the weather, lol.

Your high today shows as having been 104F; current temp 82F (heat index 84F)... 10 day forecast shows lows of 58-70F and highs of 80-92F. I would sell my soul for highs in the 80s in the middle of summer! Once we break 100F for the high, we continue to do so for at least around 6 weeks straight - seeing a high of 99F is enough to make me assert that hell must've frozen over, and it's right back to being near 110F the next day.

Summer lows here are in the 80s at best - in August, I usually still have to take precautions against the heat if take the bunnies out at dawn (we hit our low temp maybe 2-3 hours before dawn and it really doesn't rise much until 2-3 hours after the sun comes up).

So yeah, I'm totally jealous... and so happy for you and the bunnies that the godawful heat spell is over (temporarily, anyway)!

Oh, and looking at the forecast, Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and the next Sunday are the days this week where you'll definitely want to take some precautions against heat during the hottest part of the day, with Wednesday and Thursday being hot enough that you'll probably want to bring them inside for the hot part of the day.

Welcome to RO, by the way! I forgot to say that earlier . We hope you'll stick around! (also, we love bunny pics!)

Haha, yeah the heat can get pretty awful, fortunately our heatwaves are generally just that, waves. At midnight the other day it was still 35C which was unpleasent to say the least, and if it dropped to 30 at about 5:30am it was 35 by 9:30again

But this cool change is amazing Loving it already, 26 degrees!!

Imbrium

Yes and that is why I wrote since you are in Texas it's a bit different there and to be honest I have seen Cotton tails out in 100F temps here but not too damn many! I also know during those heat waves I was throwing extra food out from my buns cages to where I was seeing them to help them out also.

I know when I was talking to the vet the year Chico and Chica was born he pointed out the low amounts of small animals like cotton tails, chipmunks etc and attributed it to the extreme heat and the babies being born during that time period in the wild could not possibly survive and were dying. I had to agree since I saw very little baby squirrels, cotton tails, etc that year..

I thought you would get a kick out of the full quote which most ignore or are unaware of and it reminded me of the time I lived in LA and we had a BBQ at the apt complex I lived in which was laid out like Melrose Place and we casually threw what we thought was the ashes of the BBQ grill into the trash can... and 20 minutes later the LA Fire Department was there to put out the massive fire that started in the self same trash! Hum....

And I totally agree with just because your paranoid phrase which I also use alot! So we are on the same wavelength!

Vanessa

How are the bunnies this morning?

They're great! Definitely enjoying the cool change. And I'm sure they'll be even happier when their owners come home this afternoon :big wink:
Thanks for your help!

I suggest you keep them inside as much as possible or their ears will drop, and will be permanently flop ears. Rabbits can be exposed to heat, but only for a short period of time. I would attempt to keep them inside as much as possible.