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 Summer Housing
Intense heat and humidity are hard on rabbits - in fact, the heat is worse
on most rabbits than the bitter cold of winter. Rabbits should never be
kept in the direct sun- a sheltered or shady place is necessary. Rabbits
can tolerate up to about 80 degrees if it isn't a 'humid' heat, but in
temperatures above that, they begin to really suffer in those thick coats
of fur.
They cannot sweat, nor do they
pant like other animals (unless they are under heat stress-a danger sign) - their ears are the most
efficient part of their bodies that allow heat to escape and we often find
our lop rabbits sitting next to their water bowls with their ears in the
water.
The bucks especially must be
kept cool or they can suffer temporary sterility. I've heard that it
can take up to 90 days or more before a buck affected by high heat (85
degrees+) can
produce viable sperm-and we've experienced this ourselves; the fall
seasons following a particularly hot summer are our most unproductive
breeding seasons!
Our rabbits are kept cool by
using a large exhaust fan; we've installed a thru-the-wall, permanent fan on
the east side of the building - this large fan has a thermostat switch on
it and we set it to run when the temperature rises to 60 degrees and above
- so it basically runs all the time from about April thru October.
We keep the building closed up on the all sides except the west end, this
creates quite a nice 'vacuum' of airflow when the fan kicks in.
During periods of higher heat
and/or humidity we also set up a few additional portable fans to keep air
moving, although when the air is really thick with moisture, none of the
fans seem to do much at all!
Throughout the year, we save, clean,
fill (about 3/4 of the way full with clean water) and freeze soda bottles of various sizes. When the hot weather
arrives, we usually have enough bottles frozen to provide each rabbit with
one, and then later in the day rotate it with a new frozen bottle.
Some of the rabbits lay right on this bottle to stay cool!
We've also heard of breeders
freezing ceramic floor tiles and offering each bunny a cold tile to lay
on...we are going to try that also.
On absolutely sweltering days,
we also 'mist' our rabbits' ears with a cold water sprayer - some enjoy
this and others seem annoyed by the mist of water. Some breeders
have set up 'swamp cooler' systems and other water-cooled or misting
systems for their rabbitries.
Our goal is to put a small
air-conditioner in our rabbitry, but we haven't gotten that far yet!
If you decide to air-condition your rabbitry, you need to be careful not
to subject your rabbits to rapidly fluctuating temperatures; such as if
you take them out of the nice air-conditioning to exhibit them at a summer
show. The sudden change of temperature can be a shock and can cause
a variety of digestive and molting problems for your rabbits. Another
concern with using air conditioning would be lack of fresh air circulation
- I've heard from some breeders that the air, although it is cool, can
become quite stale.
Flying Pests - we use
fly tapes all over our rabbitry to catch wayward flies and other flying
insects. Since we can enclose our rabbitry entrances with screening,
we have very few problems related to flying pests.
Feed and water - our
rabbits eat a lot less during hot, humid weather. Rabbit pellets can
spoil quickly in hot, damp weather so we are careful to always empty out
the food dishes before we feed the next meal- a build up of uneaten
pellets can act like a sponge and soak up surrounding moisture from the
air - and this
can't be good for the rabbit to eat! We are also fortunate to be
able to keep our pellets inside our air-conditioned house to minimize
exposure to dampness.
We normally empty and refill
all water dishes every night as it is...but when the dead heat of summer
arrives we also wash and disinfect the water cups more often, every other
day, if not more often, otherwise a layer of slime will quickly coat the
inside of the water cup! Sometimes we will put a few drops of pure
bleach in the gallon water jugs to water the rabbits with - perhaps this
doesn't do any good, but we like to think that it will help prevent
bacteria from multiplying in the water as it sits in the rabbits' cages
all day long.
Since we have an ice maker
close by,
sometimes we'll bring a bucket of ice cubes to the rabbitry and plop
several into each water cup; some of our rabbits seem to like the cold
water. Kelly has even offered popsicles to some of the bigger French
Lops - and a few really like these!
If it is hot out and you
notice your rabbit panting rapidly, and
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