Indoor/Outdoor Temperature Changes - Your Thoughts

It's come up a few times recently so I thought it might be interesting to discuss indoor/outdoor temperatures and rabbits welfare. What are your feelings on changes i.e. what's ok and what's not and crucially why

For example How much of a change is ok? Is it ok for an indoor bunny to spend 20 minutes running around the garden? What if they are free to be in/out and choose out? If you think there is a risk - what is it? If there is a health risk is it outweighed by the benefits of exercise and enrichment?

I am really bad on this one

I bring waffles and DP into unheated conservatory most nights for a couple of hours. I freeze despite fleece and coat and extra socks, but it is warmer than outside.

If I didn't, I would never see them or spend time with them as outside setup is 3 foot high (so it can be moveable and on grass which is good for their mini rex paws)

Outside they have a snuggle safe and lots of hay and straw but still choose to spend most of their time in the run

I'm less worried about their winter coat shedding than I an about them getting respiratory problems but seeing them binkying and racing round inside and coming for snuggles and licks makes me think that it gives them a better quality of life even if it's risky.

So I'm aware it's not a good idea but still going to keep doing it. Probably until one of them gets a respiratory problem and I deeply regret it....

Louie comes and goes outside all day everyday when someone is home. He can go from a centrally heated house to freezing temperatures outside and he has always been fine healthwise with this.

This is an interesting thread.. as about a month ago i moved my 10 month old Buns from their home.. a hutch with attached run set up.. They lived in it from May to Sept, they are short haired Dutchies.
Since having moved them to their new shed with run attached i have, just in the last week noticed some evidence of moult, after a month of moving them. Not a lot, but it is definitely happening! The Shed seems to be a couple of degrees warmer than the outside temp during the day, i open the shed door in the mornings and they have outside run time 24/7..
The shed itself keeps the night temps to about 9 degrees at mo.. even tho it's 3 degrees, going down to 1 degree tonight, apparently... I've got thermometers in there, and the temps seem to fluctuate by about 4 degrees so far.
And, my Buns have begun a small yet noticeable moult...furs on the floors, bundled in corners, etc.
They are far happier in the shed, and no longer sleep in their hutch, they use it as a hidey hole. They are happy buns.
But..the evidence of moulting concerns me slightly, even with the move from hutch/run to shed / run.
I am SO pleased that i managed to move them a month ago, so they can adjust. I wouldn't move them again now.

I'm pretty paranoid about this due to past experiences. It's pretty different for me since I'm in Florida, bunnies here don't get thick winter coats even if they're outdoors (so if you have outdoor rabbits you have to bring them in when it's cold or provide a heater) and we can have really extreme changes in the winter e.g. it could be 80F degrees one day and then a couple nights later it's 30F. So I'm pretty careful about bringing my indoor buns outside when it's cold for fear of respiratory illness. Good thing is there's probably only about 10 days out of the year that don't warm up to at least the 60's so I don't often have to worry about it, I just can't bring them out in the early morning etc, I have to wait for the temp to go up.

I think some bunnies are far more fragile than others, and therefore susceptible to changes in temperature. The reason I had to bring my rabbits indoors permanently was because they were being put into stasis just by the natural fluctuations from day to night around April - it was getting quite warm during the day, then the temperature was going low at night. Once they were permanently indoors, I definitely wouldn't have had them going outdoors in the cold.

Another thing that was interesting having them outdoors to start with then indoors, was the difference in their coats. When I got them it was at the end of winter, and they were like little woolly mammoths with their thick coats. Obviously once they were indoors, they never grew anything like those thick coats again.

So.. the quick temp changes must be okay? well worth enriching their lives ... took my buns a month to start a temp change moult.
Every Bun is different x

I do think we are sometimes a little over cautious in respect to normal healthy rabbits. I'm not sure where the idea came from that it would have an impact on health - anyone got any reference links? I think sometimes it's good to stop and think about why we think something is the right thing to do.

I'm not sure that I'm convinced that an indoor rabbit having access to outdoors on a voluntary basis/for short periods is going to cause illness. There isn't really a big relationship being getting cold and catching a respiratory illness - you still walk dogs/let cats/kids out when it's cold. If an outdoor rabbits can shift from 15oC in the day and 0oC at night without problem, why is going from 20oC inside to 14oC outside a problem?

I agree that going from 20oC to freezing without the option to go back inside if they want could be a problem, but I wonder if we've gone from that's not okay to gradually getting more and more cautious so any temperature change isn't ok?

When I moved up to the Highlands last year, I was so worried about my buns, and the extreme weather. They were just turned one then, and had lived outside with a hutch and run, down in Warwickshire. I had a really solid shed built, with an attached run. Their hutch was inside, and in the winter I covered them with 2 continental quilts, over bubble wrap. When I mentioned my worries to the local vet, she asked me where they lived, when I told her about what I'd done, she laughed and said the bunnies will be sweating ! This year have just finished insulating with silver covered wall boarding-might hold back with the quilts this year, but snuggle safes at the ready. They still go in the run ! Vet told me they cope much better in the cold than the heat-still worry though as last year wasn't a bad winter.

My two are obviously indoor rabbits but there's a small radiator in there that I always have set at 2. When it comes on it gets warm to the touch but not hot, I figure that's fine for them in the winter.

I sort of work on a rule of if I walk in there and I'm a bit chilly its probably fine for them. I do keep meaning to buy a room thermometer so I can see exactly what they are kept at. Just out of curiosity.

They can't go outside yet as my garden isn't secure or safe. But next year it will be. I sometimes crack open the back door to allow a bit of fresh air in and they don't seem to mind it at all. I think once my garden has been sorted out I will start slowly allowing time out in the summer and then gradually through to the winter. x

Lopsy spent last winter in his current setup at his old home, all outdoors, but I have no idea how sheltered that was! That, and it was hardly Winter at all last year. He seems happy enough (temperature wise!) in his tiny hutch, but he did have the carpet over the top last night, partly for the extensive frost we had last night and partly for fireworks. His outside water wasn't frozen at all, and no frost on the grass either, presume because it's under the oak tree. He moulted back end of September/beginning October and spent the warm bits of October flopped out, poor thing! He's proper floofy now though, his fur is cold to the touch because there's so much of it (he's plenty warm enough underneath!). He's never had any health problems though, so I've no worries about the random 10° temperature changes outside: I would say I'd be more worried about bringing him inside for the differences in atmosphere composition caused by central heating, not the temperature change itself. My biggest worry while he's outside is the tiny hutch: until I get the wendy house up, the format of the hutch is not conducive to keeping warm! There's no hidey-hole bit, it's just a 'box on legs' with a half-width mesh door! Hence the possibly overdoing it on the carpet front, at least until he moves and gets a friend But I would say that SUMMER is my bigger concern: Charlie was always more lethargic in Summer, but Winter never worried him! After all, it's much easier to warm up an outdoor set up; there's only so much you can do to cool it down!

We bring Floki in every night so she can run around the house and drive us mad... the house is currently sitting around 15 degrees C with outdoor temps ranging from 3-10 currently.

Every night we pack her off to bed outside with her snuggle safe (last night she had 2 of them due to the minus temps we had) every morning she comes inside for 30-60mins before we head off to work and she is fairly warm in herself (cold ears) this has been her routine so far...

Next week she will have to stay indoors overnight due to her spay on Friday so fore a few days she will live in the kitchen in her indoor cage while we are not around, not ideal but it can't be helped. If we give her the run of the kitchen she will be on the worktops in a flash and we want to limit her jumping to save injury she'll be placed in her run or given free time in the garden to keep her used to the coldness... luckily its warming up again next week...

Afterwards she will be back outdoors again and in during the evening....

dumblepaws said:

I am really bad on this one

I bring waffles and DP into unheated conservatory most nights for a couple of hours. I freeze despite fleece and coat and extra socks, but it is warmer than outside.

If I didn't, I would never see them or spend time with them as outside setup is 3 foot high (so it can be moveable and on grass which is good for their mini rex paws)

Outside they have a snuggle safe and lots of hay and straw but still choose to spend most of their time in the run

I'm less worried about their winter coat shedding than I an about them getting respiratory problems but seeing them binkying and racing round inside and coming for snuggles and licks makes me think that it gives them a better quality of life even if it's risky.

So I'm aware it's not a good idea but still going to keep doing it. Probably until one of them gets a respiratory problem and I deeply regret it....

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Im guilty of this too :lol:

We have an old unused playroom/conservatory
Its full of old children toys around the edges other than that its a massive empty room!
Its single glazing and its freezing in there (for me, anyway) its only a few degrees warmer than outside purley because it has walls and is attached to the house :lol:

So the girls run around in there, whilst im sat in there with my coat on :lol::lol:
If they didnt, we wouldn't be as close and they wouldn't be so welcoming to human interaction which could one day prove to be a problem!

What I dont get is how people think its a problem for rabbits... but cats and dogs seem to do fine :S

vee-jay said:

What I dont get is how people think its a problem for rabbits... but cats and dogs seem to do fine :S

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Because Rabbit's thermoregulation is very different

http://om.ciheam.org/om/pdf/c08/95605277.pdf

Mine are all outdoor buns and have grown lovely thick winter coats (especially Pud, who is just squishable at the mo ) so I wouldn't bring them in and then put them out constantly, as I'd be worried they'd start moulting again. I don't think it's as dangerous as some seem to think though, as when I was younger (and didn't know any better) I brought the buns into the house and then back out again all through winter. I also used to bring them indoors if it snowed, and then put them back out as soon as the snow had thawed They were always absolutely fine.