Putting rabbits outside?

Since An died Opal has been indoors for about a month. However since she's been in I've noticed mine and my fiancé Asthma playing up more and more to the point where I'm sat gasping for breath at the mo.

Would it be possible to put her outside this late? Obviously I'd give her loads of hay and boxes to snuggle in.

Personally I would say it is too late now unless you have a heated outbuilding of some sort like a shed or a garage?

Could you put her into a spare room and keep the door shut? Or even try her on a different hay, most of the time it is the hay that causes the issues and not the buns but obviously they come together. I have heard that people struggle more with different hays so maybe worth a try?

I hope you can sort something, it's not good when your pets impact on your health

The problem can be the sudden change so it depends how hot your house is, what your local temperature is and how snug you can make the bed. If you can arrange a week or so at an in between temperature to trigger a winter coat that may help.

I think you might be right; it may be the hay and some leftover sawdust that's doing it. I do have hayfever as well which does add to my asthma. We spent most of today/yesterday Opal so I thought it was Opal doing it however it seems that we've both suddenly caught a cold from somewhere that's aggravated our asthma further.

I'll have to see if I can get some wooden cat litter. Not sure what I can do about the hay 'cept run outside every 5 mins and cut her grass with a pair of scissors!

Tamsin said:

The problem can be the sudden change so it depends how hot your house is, what your local temperature is and how snug you can make the bed. If you can arrange a week or so at an in between temperature to trigger a winter coat that may help.

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She lives in a sort of middle bit where the kitchen meets the conservatory. I have noticed that during the past, when we've had bunnies in there, they still put on a good winter coat. I'm wondering if leaving the conservatory windows open might help with fluffing her up. She still goes for a run outside every day so It's not like she's not outside at all But those cold temperatures at night are what worry me.

It sounds like she's getting a good in between temperature adjustment at the moment if she's going out in the day and in a cooler inside area at night anyway. Maybe start by leaving her out later in the evenings so so she gets a cooler period outside and leaving the windows open and I think you could swap her. I take it she's usually an outdoor bunny anyway so it's not as massive a change. Outdoor bunnies go from getting cooler to quite chilly in quite a short period (week or two) normally.

If you are wanting to keep her inside, a different hay like Hele mentioned, may help. I know someone that is very allergic to timothy hay so they use orchard grass hay for their buns, and don't have the allergy issues with that type.

we bring Floki indoors every afternoon for a few hours so she can play around and drive us mad.... then she sometimes sits by the backdoor waiting to go to bed around 8pm.. So we heat her snuggle safe up and place it under her hay and she goes off like a light...

The temp indoors is around 15 degrees at the mo... I'm one for wearing a jumper if it gets cold instead of putting the heating on... although she is due to be spayed in 2 weeks time so she will need the heating on a little...


You'd be fine as long as you give plenty of hay and maybe a snugglesafe?