• Forum/Server Upgrade If you are reading this you have made it to the upgraded forum. Posts made on the old forum after 26th October 2023 have not been transfered. Everything else should be here. If you find any issues please let us know.

Inside/outside temp difference - does it really matter?

Mackers

Wise Old Thumper
Discuss.............

I'm curious to learn where the widely held belief comes from that a difference in temperature is bad for our bunnies. I've held the same belief, but I'm starting to ask myself "why"? Is it because everyone says it, therefore it must be true, or is there scientific research to prove it?

I can understand how not having a winter coat means indoor buns cannot stay outside overnight but can it hurt for them to run around the garden/run for a few hours until they want to come back in? Where is the evidence that going from a warm to a cold environment, and back again, is bad for their respiratory systems? Surely wildies, who spend all day underground in a constant above freezing temperature, then venture out to feed overnight when it could be sub-zero, don't suffer as a result? Or do they??

Really interested to hear other views on this................
 
Last edited:
Waaay back I was advised by my local rescue to treat house rabbits the same as you would treat a dog - they can go outside when it's cold, but if they were to get wet to dry them off. Otherwise fresh air, exercise and proper daylight is good for them.

That advice seems at odds with a lot I've read since but it does sound sensible and logical.
 
I can understand a little better how it's not so good to bring an outside bunny indoors for several hours every evening into a very warm house, only to shove them back outside into freezing temps. I wouldn't like being shoved out into the cold when I'd got all cozy indoors. But the other way around? Stay out until you feel cold, then come back inside?

Bunny Buddy - I agree that the advice you were given sounds very sensible. And yet I know I've said to newbies not to subject their buns to big temperature differences as it's bad for them JUST because I've read it on RU :?. Now that doesn't sound sensible to me! I need evidence to prove that what I've blindly told people is actually right!
 
Discuss.............

I'm curious to learn where the widely held belief comes from that a difference in temperature is bad for our bunnies. I've held the same belief, but I'm starting to ask myself "why"? Is it because everyone says it, therefore it must be true, or is there scientific research to prove it?

I can understand how not having a winter coat means indoor buns cannot stay outside overnight but can it hurt for them to run around the garden/run for a few hours until they want to come back in? Where is the evidence that going from a warm to a cold environment, and back again, is bad for their respiratory systems? Surely wildies, who spend all day underground in a constant above freezing temperature, then venture out to feed overnight when it could be sub-zero, don't suffer as a result? Or do they??

Really interested to hear other views on this................

oh dear. don't challenge folk-knowledge! look what happened when I asked how people knew there were 67000 rabbits in rescue.... ;)
 
Some of my human friends with respiratory issues struggle when going from warm to cold (anhy kind of air quality change) and it can exaccerbate their symptoms (make their chest tighter, make them wheeze, cough, snotty, etc). I have seen evidence to suggest the same for rabbits- with my own rabbits; a pre-existing condition can be exaccerbated by an air quality change (of any type).

So, I kind of wonder whether it only applies to those with respiratory issues, or whether, because their respiratory system is so different from other animals, if they have a natural vulnerability due to the way they breathe and the way their system is set up.
 
I can only go by my own experiences. When my bunnies were chronic stasis sufferers, there came a point where they had to be brought inside permanently. It was about this time of year (or perhaps a bit later, maybe April), and the temperatures were going quite high during the day, then going down low at night. Then I'd go out in the morning to find one of them in stasis.

It's just a stress on the system, I think. A healthy bunny will cope (wild or otherwise), and a sickly one won't. No idea about respiratory systems particularly though.
 
Rabbit tend to grow a coat in reaction to their local environment, so a house rabbit will not develop a thick winter coat like an outdoor bun, so isn't equipped to deal with prolonged exposure to cold.
 
Rabbit tend to grow a coat in reaction to their local environment, so a house rabbit will not develop a thick winter coat like an outdoor bun, so isn't equipped to deal with prolonged exposure to cold.

Absolutely - I understand this :thumb:. BUT, does being exposed to cold temperatures create respiratory illness or, as others have said, does it only make those with a pre-existing condition or weakness worse? An indoor bunny who feels cold because he's been running around outside for too long will surely seek shelter in the 'burrow' ie. back in the house?
 
I've always thought it had negative effects too, from other peoples advice and what I thought would be best but yes never seen any solid evidence! When beano and Gordon lived outside in their shed they didn't really go out in their run in the colder months, mainly because the grass was usually too soggy. I maybe took them out on sunnier days or let them have a quick run around the garden but more often than not they wouldn't go out! Beano uses to love coming out for snow play though. When I got Boris he lived indoors and never went outside, I took him out once in the summer and all he did was sit by me or kept trying to jump on me.
 
I found a study years ago that proved the reason why but for the life of me have never been able to find it again!

It basically proved that the core temp of a bunny drops dramatically in the first ten to twenty minutes when moved from a warm to a cold environment. The opposite is true for moving a rabbit from cold to hot. The rapid change in body temp starts to tail off after this time as they acclimatise but still continues to decrease/increase.

It is this rapid fall/rise in the first few minutes that will have the most detrimental effect on their immune system.

If you take an extreme human example its like suddenly plunging into cold water. I guess the shock can kill you.

For this reason our rabbts never change environment over the winter months. Rabbits are so good at hiding a depressed immune system anyway its just not worth the risk :)
 
Thanks Liz. Hmmm, I'm still not convinced though. A perfectly healthy individual can deal with a temporary dip in its immune system very well. Vacination being a prime example of this. Giving a vacination to a healthy bunny causes a dip in its immune system, but it still develops no obvious symptoms of ill health. This is why you should never vacinate any animal (or person) who is not in tip top condition because if the immune system is already depressed prior to the vacination, then introducing a modified virus to the animal can actually make them ill.


I'm a fairly healthy and robust individual but I wouldn't want to stand around outside today for too long without wearing a coat. However, even if I didn't come in until I was shivering, just being a bit cold shouldn't have any detrimental affect on my health. If I threw myself into the lake then clearly I'd become hypothermic pretty quickly but we're not talking about sending our bunnies out into freezing rain so I can only liken them running around the garden to me being outside with no coat on.
 
If that is the case, I guess the trouble is that bunnies are very good at hiding illnesses and something might be sub-clinical and would be triggered by such an event. And you wouldn't know whether you had a bun in that category until you'd let them out and then they'd become ill.
 
But you only vaccinate once a year. Where as going in and out could potentially be a daily occurrence.

I am sure our immune systems are more robust than rabbits or we would all be dying of tooth abscesses and respiratory infections ;) maybe think of it as wheeling and elderly person outside to sit in a cold garden every day as the elderly do die easily of respiratory infections!

Tbh if a rabbit has a good set up inside or outside I don't see the need to move them in and put during winter. If they already have space, companionship, toys and good food then they have everything they need and will be perfectly content where they are :)
 
Back
Top