Preventing Hot Cross Bunnies?

:wave:

What is everyone doing for their buns in this hot weather?

Yesterday she had a wet tea towel over the lid i'm using as shade, icepod, granite slate, and an extra water bottle and bowl.

As it's supposed to be hotter, I have actually brought Amber in today. She is in her indoor cage (which i bought for her spay in two weeks*quake*) in the kitchen. It's much cooler in our house and i've put her slate in the hutch with her icepod with the snugglesafe cover on it. She'll go back out in the garden when i get home

FROM THE RWAF FIRST ALERT -


We've had very hot weather of late and the forecast is that it is
going to be even hotter towards the end of this week. This is great
news for us, as most of us enjoy the sunshine, but it can be a
terrible time for rabbits, particularly those kept outside. Please
take steps to project your rabbit from the heat, and from Flystrike.
Some tips are pasted below, and these tips are available on a link on
our homepage www.rabbitwelfare.co.uk, and on the news page too. As
always, most people on this group will already have taken precautions,
but please pass this information on to anybody you know who owns a
rabbit, and feel free to circulate it on any other rabbit groups you
subscribe to.

Thanks.

Cool and Clean – Protect Your Rabbit in the Hot Weather

In the hot summer weather please remember to do everything you can to
keep your rabbits cool and comfortable. In the wild they can burrow
below ground to keep cool but domestic rabbits don’t have that luxury
so please do what you can.

If your rabbits are outside then please make sure they have plenty of
shade. If their run can be put over cold paving slabs out of sunlight
then they can spread themselves out over the cool stones to keep their
temperature down. Battery operated fans are also a good idea and can
be picked up cheaply on ebay or in shops. It’s important to make sure
that the rabbits can’t get any part of their body caught in the fan
though. A good trick is to freeze a plastic bottle of water for them
to lean against if they are too hot. Please note that the bottle must
always be wrapped in a tea towel to prevent ice-burn. Keep a spare in
the freezer to replace the other when it thaws. Garden umbrellas are
also a good idea to keep a run out of direct sunlight but please be
sure to move it as the sun’s position changes so it continues to
provide cover.

And please always be on the lookout for the risk of Flystrike, which
is much greater in the hot weather as the number of flies increases.
For those who don’t know, Flystrike is a common and deadly condition
for domestic rabbits, where flies lay their eggs in soiled fur,
resulting in maggots hatching and literally eating the rabbit’s
flesh. Ideally rabbits should be cleaned out every day and be given
clean, fresh hay. Check your rabbit’s bottom regularly and ensure
that it is clean. If not then gently clean with lukewarm water and
cotton wool, before patting dry with kitchen towel. Another trouble
spot for flystrike is just above the tail, so please be sure to check
there too. If your rabbit has long hair then it needs to be brushed
regularly. Plastic netting can be obtained from DIY shops and placed
over runs and hutches to prevent flies getting in easily.

Keep an eye on your buns, and if you have any doubts then please get
them checked out by a vet. Remember that rabbits are prey animals and
will, by instinct, disguise any illness or injury as much as possible,
so please watch carefully and observe any signs of over heating, or
any other kind of problem.

i can't really do much, i tired an ice pod with them and they just ignored it. it's not too bad over here.

It was really hot and really still here yesterday. I've been using ice pods, damp towels and moving the runs to the shade as much as I can. I've also been dampening ears down. We almost had a disaster here yesterday after Shyboy just got too hot but luckily I got him inside and cool quick enough.

Mine have had refrigerated and now iced bottles of water to cool down with, but they just ignore them and sit at the opposite side of the run to wherever I place them :roll: I think they must be cool enough during the heat of the day as they're in the run which granted is in full sunlight for most of the day as I can't put the run anywhere else, but is constantly covered with a pale-cream sheet of material (it was once a sofa throw... ) and I always water the grassy part in the morning so it stays cool under the shade of the cloth all day :wave: Sometime I even contemplate getting in there myself :lol:

Biscuit is indoors, so has

Icepod - she lays with her paws on this

Ice cubes in water bowl

Changed her curtains last night, so she has thicker lined ones, kept drawn until the afternoon, all windows upstairs open (she is in spare room upstairs south facing room, so hot hot hot) am going to try her windows closed and curtains drawn tomorrow as suggested by pretty lupin (Vicky).

Always worried about windows and her jumping but touch wood has never jumped higher than about 1 foot I kid you not.

She has cold veggies in morning and when I get home.

Need to find a cool marble chopping board or something similar for her to lay on, she still likes to lay flat out on her rug at moment...silly bunny.

Told me hubby to dampen her ears if still too hot today.

She has a fan on nearly all the time

Fly catcher on

Will freeze some coke bottles with water tonight, finding the icepod is warm again by late afternoon.

All my bunnies have a large cardboard box to hide in and its nice and cool in there, towells over the runs to give them shade, and cool slabs to lay on

My buns get too excited about the thought of a tea towel and frozen bottle - both of which get chewed to death if i'm not there to supervise. So they have a frozen bottle attached to the front of their cage wrapped in one of my BF's socks lol (a clean one thankfully :lol Their hutch is in a nice breezy bit of the garden with a wall behind it and a tree on either side to try and keep them in the shade as much as possible.

i've tried the ice pod, ice cubes in water bowl etc for eric but he still chose to lie full stretch on the rug in the sunshine (curtains were all closed apart from 1. typical eric found a chink of sun:roll. i thought he was breathing too fast so i sprayed his ears with cool water - that woke up a very stroppy eric:lol:

fortunately, my piggies seem to fare well in their run. its in the shade of the hedge and they have a wooden hut with the floor removed so they can continue to munch grass in the shelter. they also have an ice pod, wet towels over the run and a parasol. their water bottle is protected with a polar gear thing from sainsburys to keep it cool and i take them chunks of cucumber to nibble on. they've got the hump at the mo tho as i've put them back in their hutch for a while - looks like a fair old dollop of precipitation looming

The sun is behind floppy's hutch but 1/2 the run still gets the sun he has plenty of places to go, under the hutch where he's dug some holes, tubes, basket and the hutch its-self i was worried about him on saturday he was quiet we brought him into the bathroom where its cooler and has tiles to cool him down we did put a really cold tea towel down and a cold water bottle but like most he doesn't bother with them :roll: we're lucky here tho coz we haven't had it really hot yet, its been overcast until about 3ish

i put wet sheets over the runs about half an hour ago and the buns are running around now, so they must feel much cooler

It was quite hot yesterday, so waited till the late afternoon to put the buns out.

They have the fan on them, and also a cold water bottle to lay next to.
Im going to soak a towel and put that in there later too.
Ive noticed that Oggie gets very hot, and almost pants.
Where as Delly just gets on with it.

Mine are doing much better today than yesterday, which is good.

They eithe rhave frozen bricks, frozen water bottles, and the guy who suffers the most has a soaking wet towel which he is half drapped on.

They all have double shade (shade on the run and shade above that, either a tree or a parasol).

My inside buns have fans.

Given I'm home during the day I'm also going to buy some fans and then I can use an extension lead to run them out to those outside and get the air moving for them on airless days.

Yesterday I tried 'watering' a couple of those suffering the most and they defnitely did NOT like that, lol. So won't be doing that again. One of them took off like a bucking bronco trying to get the water off her.

my buns get out of hutches and into their runs with sheets of carboard shades as well as tunnels and half carry boxes to hide under. They also have white sheets laid over the roof of the hutches and i hose the runs and buns down twice a day which they dont seem too impressed by but i imagine its pretty cooling. I also put milk bottles that have been frozen and half filled with water in the runs but they generally ignore them.

Im thinking of trying the ice pods but i dont know if they will just avoid those tooo :shock:

I receive death stares when i spray water on her:shock:

Sky-O said:

Given I'm home during the day I'm also going to buy some fans and then I can use an extension lead to run them out to those outside and get the air moving for them on airless days.

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We do that! It works brilliantly and they love it Neighbours must think we're barking having an electric fan on in the garden on an extension across the lawn but I don't care...keeps my buns cool when outside. :lol:

Michelleox said:

I receive death stares when i spray water on her:shock:

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Nora doesn't seem impressed if you spray water on her, but Wally just sits there and shakes his ears with his little confused expresssion. "Why am I getting wet?" :lol: He does the best expressions.

i put a frozen bottle down the side of the carrier for Pearl when she lies in the carrier and i also wet a towel in the morning and hang it over the cage.

the window is open and ive pinned the net curtains to the walls to stop flys getting in, shame theres no air to cirulate!!

Amber should be lovely and cool lucky bunny. I've got a ceiling fan, portable fan and a towel wrapped in a frozen squash bottle. Wesley was a bit too enthusiastic with his frozen bottle last night and its now leaking :roll:

The foster buns in the hutch are fine as i have place it under a tree so in the shade all day but for the buns in the shed its too hot, i have taken the afternoon off to be with them as i was so worried!
I keep changing the water in bottleswith fresh cold water, i have also given them each a bowl of water with ice cubes in and i just soaked loads of towels in ice cold water in the bath, Oscar appreciated this and is laying on one the rest of them ignored them :roll:
I opened up the runs but they would all rather stay in the sheds, they are all lying under their upstairs bit which i guess is the coolest part.