How cold can they cope with?!

I've just heard on the radio that they're anticipating as cold as -15 tonight...

Do I need to bring them in yet? Have been fighting frozen water bottles anyway (apart from last night) but they have loads and loads of hay, shutters on hutches but I don't know if they've ever known it that cold before? I lent my snugglesafe to a colleague with a single bunny thats not so well protected but worried about my little ones now. The hutch gets colder than the shed...

Will the snow sat on top of the hutch and shed give a bit more insulation?!

I'm all worried now

Well personally I could not leave a Rabbit out in just a hutch/run in temps that low.

Unless the hutch is within an insulated shed/garage etc I would have to bring them in.

I dont think Rabbits can cope with sub zero temperatures, in the wild they'd be below ground which wont be as cold. I know many will disagree with me though, but that's how I feel.

:wave:

Not sure if this is due to the weight of the snow and/or ventilation but when it snowed before Christmas there was a thread on here saying you should remove the snow from the top of a hutch at least once a day.

I took Princess Daisy to the vets last week and the vet said that most owners don't realise that rabbits can cope with extremely low tempratures as long as they have a lot of bedding and their hutch is covered at night. She actually did say to me that bringing outdoor rabbits in can be dangerous to their health not just with breathing difficulties etc but also in the long term. Her advice was to keep an eye on them and add extra warmth like towels into the hutch is they do seem to be feeling the cold.

Another good idea is a cardboard box placed in the hutch with towels or straw inside, my bunnies however would just end up upturning a box and getting trapped under it:roll: :?

At the end of the day you know your bunnies best and so will know if the cold is bothering them.

Hope this helps and sorry it's so long

lostunicorn said:

:wave:

Not sure if this is due to the weight of the snow and/or ventilation but when it snowed before Christmas there was a thread on here saying you should remove the snow from the top of a hutch at least once a day.

I took Princess Daisy to the vets last week and the vet said that most owners don't realise that rabbits can cope with extremely low tempratures as long as they have a lot of bedding and their hutch is covered at night. She actually did say to me that bringing outdoor rabbits in can be dangerous to their health not just with breathing difficulties etc but also in the long term. Her advice was to keep an eye on them and add extra warmth like towels into the hutch is they do seem to be feeling the cold.

Another good idea is a cardboard box placed in the hutch with towels or straw inside, my bunnies however would just end up upturning a box and getting trapped under it:roll: :?

At the end of the day you know your bunnies best and so will know if the cold is bothering them.

Hope this helps and sorry it's so long

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I agree with this, doesn't stop me worrying myself silly about them though

I personally think bringing an outdoor rabbit inside will make them ill, they will struggle with the heat inside if they have winter fur. I cover my hutch at night and put a snugglesafe pad in so Jasper can lie on it if he is feelnig the cold.

Hugo's There said:

I agree with this, doesn't stop me worrying myself silly about them though

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Yep, in fact the vet I saw actually said that the owners are affected more by bad weather than the bunnies.

I'm about to go cheak on my two again. They seem to like looking over the snow so are sitting on top of their arches away from all the warm cuddley straw and hay...silly buns!

If it was getting that cold I would definately buy a new snugglesafe from P@H and wake up in the middle of the night to reheat it.

My vet said similar when I got them... they find it harder to cope with hot than cold but am still worried!!

We've been lucky so far in that it hasn't gone below -5 but -15 scares me!!
That said they've all been fine and warm to the touch in the morning.

I too thought bringing them in wouldn't be good but guess its the lesser of the evils. Went to p@h yesterday and no snugglesafes. tbh they seem low on lots of stuff at the moment in my store.

Might heat up a paving slab. Or do you think a well wrapped hot water bottle would be ok if I also buried it under hay?

I have brought my hutch bunnies into the outhouse, which although not much more than a glorified shed, but it is sheltered and waterproof, so they will be there for the next few weeks. I realise now that their set up needs improving, it needs raising from the garden level as my garden is getting waterlogged. I have a base put up on the side of the garden, but I can't see them from anywhere in the house if I put them up there, and there is only a short fence between them and the street

Sorry rambling.

Unless the hutch is really insulated and covered, I wouldn't be confident about leaving them in -15. My trio in the kennel set up seem to be coping well, we got down to -11 on Monday night. All of the buns have straw on the floor. All have areas, off the floor full of hay, and I am giving them the hot water bottles and snuggle safes twice a day

I stuffed that much hay into all my rabbit hutches earlier that I wonder if I'll be able to squeeze my bunnies in along with it all later...! Their hutches are in the garage, but the garage is NOT insulated, and their water bottles still freeze. I just keep topping up their bedding and I'm going to pile old towels and the like on their hutches later, also, to try and create some warmth for them.

I can understand the appeal many people have to bringing their rabbits indoors in cold weather. I just don't think it's possible for most people to do. For one thing, as soon as you've brought a rabbit in, you can't very well put them back out the next day, or you risk playing havoc with their body temp. I have five in the garage, and simply could not accomodate mine indoors. It's bad enough having one bunny in my bedroom! :lol:

casu consulto said:

For one thing, as soon as you've brought a rabbit in, you can't very well put them back out the next day, or you risk playing havoc with their body temp. I have five in the garage, and simply could not accomodate mine indoors. It's bad enough having one bunny in my bedroom! :lol:

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Quite... no idea how I'd get another four in (in pairs) in addition to the little monster in the house already! (Well I do, I have two indoor cages but its not ideal on several levels)

I guess I'll be stuffing exta hay in, and will layer up a little bit extra. Going to give the chewers a warm paving slab and the non chewers a covered water bottle too. Its just stopped snowing and I can see the sky again so expect it will start to freeze pretty soon now.

Hope everyone else's buns are going to be snuggly and ok :wave:

I meant to bring them in for winter, not just a few days then out again.
I dont have outdoor Buns but if I did I just could not leave them outdoors in the temps we are now having.

My buns have coped well so far. Even when it was -7 outside the water bottle in the hutch under the covers was not frozen so i think so long as your hutch is well protected they should be ok. i do use a snugglesafe but to be honest it is rare they are ever sat near it but it makes me feel a bit better

Jack's-Jane said:

I meant to bring them in for winter, not just a few days then out again.
I dont have outdoor Buns but if I did I just could not leave them outdoors in the temps we are now having.

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I didn't think you did Jane, and if I did it I think it would be long term now. I do feel horribly guilty that they're out there, just wish I'd known that it was going to be such a bad winter a few months ago so that I could have prepared better (cleared more space upstairs and brought them in when it wouldn't have been such a huge change in temp)...

I guess we live and learn...

Try not to feel too guilty ( easier said than done, I know ) no-one could have predicted this weather it is just one of those things unfortunately.

If you had of prepared in advance and brought them in, we would probably have had the mildest winter on record :roll::lol:

New buns arriving soon

Hi!!

Whoda-thunk-it?!?! 5inches of snow in Manchester of all places!! This is crazy!

I'm adopting two baby rescue bunnies soon, just waiting for the little female to be neutered (the little male will have to wait a bit longer as he is too tiny but the experts at the sanctuary where i work say they should still be ok together (hes the runt of the litter bless him!!)

At the moment they are kept indoors (for their own protection as with all our animals) but their unit is not heated. As they are going to be outdoor rabbits anyway i'm guessing this is a good thing as they wont have to cope with a drastic temperature change. The little boy especially has a very thick fluffy winter coat (he has actually changed colour with it).

I've got their hutch (still flat packed, i dont care how cute they are, i'm not sitting outside for an hour to build the damn thing in the snow only to find i've built it inside out or theres a wall missing!!) and i'm currently collecting old blankets and duvets to help make it snuggly-warm. I'm going to get a nice big sheet of waterproof plastic to cover the whole thing (allowing for ventillation ofcourse) and i'm going to get some laminate flooring tiles so they dont make the wood floow all crappy for themselves. I've also already collected a load of newspapers and got hay and wood shavings for the different parts of their split level hutch!

I think I'm nesting.

err....yeah, what was my point again? what were we talking about?

Oh yeah! Snow. I would have thought that a nice thick covering of snow on top of the hutch would actually insulate it more? like an iglu or something. My car got completly covered in a nice thick layer of snow and wouldent start but inside it was...well not warm but not as cold as it would be on a clear night. I know that if snow was directly on the roof it would stand a chance of soaking through but if there was a waterproof layer between the roof and the snow it would be ok wouldent it?

Unfortunatly we dont have a shed to keep them in. Just a car port (garage with no walls) thing and that has roof pannels missing anyway!!

Loads of hay ,snugglesafe and cover the hutch with blanket then thick tarpaulin.My 2 seem very snug and warm.I would be worried if i only had one as i think they warm each other up.

I've have taken the door off of my smaller carrier, put a towel in it, filled it with hay and straw (and some on the top) and put it in the hutch for the buns which they seem to like. They enjoy sitting on top of it too.

I have tons of extra straw (cost me a fortune :roll: ) and hay in the hutch as well as the snugglesafe which they love to cuddle up and lay on Then i cover the hutch with a thick fleece and a tarpulin. Then netting over the top which gives them air and a view in the gap but keeps it dry