Ideas for keeping rabbits cool?

Advertise with us
shop deals on amazon
Shop deals on ebay
Love your rabbit
Rabbits Online Forum

Help Support Rabbits Online Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
TinysMom

TinysMom

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 4, 2005
Messages
15,929
Reaction score
42
Location
, Texas, USA
As many of you may know - here in SW Texas in the summer - our temps can reach 110 or higher. Some days it isn't too bad - other days the humidity makes it really bad.

Our central heat/air compressor died sometime yesterday/last night. I'm talking DEAD DEAD DEAD. As in....major repair - probably over $1000 at least.

I'm going out today to get more fans to keep the bunnies cool (and us cool too). It's going to be at least a month - probably closer to 3 -6 months to have the money to get it fixed - or longer. Art is also looking into a swamp cooler.

The tricks I know are the frozen water bottles and ceramic tiles -and of course - having fans going. I'd appreciate any other ideas.

Right now New Hope is laying with a fan blowing on him - and he's doing ok. I think he is my biggest concern right now although I do have some other concerns.

Oh - I have rabbits in the living room, office, rabbitry, bedroom and garage....and while we do have ceiling fans - we're looking at needing to get several fans going so everyone gets cool.


 
You can rig a clothesline of sorts and hang damp sheets on it. If the bottom half of a damp sheet hangs in front of the top half of the fan the coolness of the damp sheet will blow onto the rabbits.

The other method I've seen is to lay the damp sheets on cages and blow the fans on them.

I wouldnt put a sheet on top of a chewers cage though.

 
EDIT: Sorry missed the bit about ceramic tiles in your initial post! Great minds think alike!

A tile always works for me. Get an old tile and put it in the fridge/freezer. Then you can pop it in their run or hutch. It will be really nice and cool for them to sit on, and if you keep it in the shade it will stay fairly cool even after the initial 'chill' has worn off.

In the summer William loved them, i could tell he was using it to keep cool because he'd lay right across it even though it wasn't in his usual relax spot.

Just try to make sure the tile isn't too sharp on the edges although if you wedge it into the ground slightly it should be ok, and its usually too heavy for them to flip. I alternate between one in the freezer and one in the run.
 
I'm with you, Peg :(. The house that we are renting has no airconditioning. It was really hot at the beginning of this week in the rabbit room because the sun beats on that side of the house towards the end of the day. We didn't know how hot it would get because this is our first summer here, but we came home and all the rabbits were breathing hard and their ears were really hot.

I freaked out and put cold water on their ears (learned that from you!)....then went straight to The Home Depot for a swamp cooler.

Well, the next day we had fans blowing and had the swamp cooler on when we went to work. We came home and it was about 85 degrees in the house AND humid! Brody was breathing so fast....It really scared me. The rats...even Nakie Ralphie was spread out on the metal floor of the rat cage...he was hot and he's very naked :?.

We put tin foil on the windows in the rabbit room and keep the white blinds closed at all times to block any sun from coming into the room.


We are so lucky that it's been about 60 degrees and rainy here the past few days...which is SOOOO weird for the end of May. I am just hoping that when it gets hot again....we can figuer something out.....it's just too hot.

I got really mad and told Ryan that if it stays so hot in this house through the summer, then we need to try to find a new place to rent by next summer who will allow all our pets AND has air conditioning because I am not paying as much money as we are here to sweat like a pig and almost lose one of my animals in this heat :(.
 
How many bunnies do you have Peg? I'm asking because, you'd need a whole lot of frozen water bottles! :)

What I do, is we have 18 frozen water bottles (9 bunnies) and they each get a bottle in the morning. whatever bottles are empty by late afternoon, depending on if the temp has gone down, or the water is still cold, they'll get a new frozen bottle. So we have two sets of 9 bottles, that we can rotate in and out of the freezer/cages when the bunnies need a new one, etc.

We leave open the shed doors, open the window all the way, put on a few fans (right now there's just a humongous box fan in there) and then squirt the bunnies ears with cold mist every few hours, etc.

It's not very warm here today though. Only in the 60's so the bunnies are fine without the fans on, doors open, etc., but the window is cracked.

They also have fresh, cold water whenever is needed. In Summer/heat I'm VERY picky about their water - it MUST be cold, if it's even slightly warm then it's changed to ice-cold water. I even dump dozens of ice cubes into the water buckets and I putanice stick eachin their water bottles :p

I know you have a lot of bunnies, so these things might be hard to do.... But just some suggestions for the ones your most worried about, etc.

 
Thanks for the ideas folks.

I was hoping we could look at a window a/c for our kitchen window - that would help cool down the main living area of the house. No go - wrong type of window. In addition to that - we can't even afford the cheap window a/c right now...maybe in 2 weeks.

My main concern is the garage bunnies. Part of my concern is the way they're so spread out - hard to have fans going on all of them. BUT....I came up with a good idea.

We have a few empty cages in the rabbitry - and one in my office (Miss Bea never uses her cage). We also have some empty cages in the bottom of some of the stacks in the garage...we hadn't been using them 'cause it is hard on my back to bend.

We have 12 bunnies on homemade cages on the table in the garage - we're going to move them into those empty cages in the rabbitry first - along w/ Miss Bea's cage. (I may bring Harry - my "studmuffin" into the office as I can really lock that cage down and he would love to see the girls and stuff - or I may put him in the rabbitry where he can see the girls there - he's an older buck now and he gets so darn bored...).

Once we can get those cages moved off that table and move around the table and the boxes underneath - we'll line up the cages so that we basically have a "U" made up of cages....5 rows on either side and 2 rows down at the end. With a couple of good fans - I can keep the air flowing for them and that is my main concern right now. I will probably put my younger, heartier bunnies in the garage and let my older ones be in the rabbitry. I think that will help.

I think I'll keep spray bottles handy too and spray everyone down a couple of times per day if they look hot.

It's not the best - but it is what I can do for now.

I know that there are some foods you can feed rabbits when its hot (like sunflower seeds maybe?) to help them stay warm - I guess I was wondering if there were also foods you could feed them to stay cool. Sounds dumb I know.

By the way - about the frozen water bottles - I will probably have about 30 rabbits in the garage when this is done...so I'm planning on 40-60 water bottles and I'll probably get extra ceramic tiles so I can be changing them out in the freezer.

I do long for the day when we can get a couple of window a/cs. Probably my office and the master bedroom will each get one (in time) and I'll use my bedroom for any sick bunnies.


 
Good luck with keeping everyone cool Peg!

I wonder if you wet greens, put them in the freezer for a few minutes, then gave them to the bunnies if that would help cool them down? Not totally frozen, but really cold?

Just an idea when you mentioned about foods that might cool down.. I know there's nothing better for us humans than a cold popsicle on a hot day! :D
 
Thanks - good idea.

Art just came in and told me it was 87 in the house today....92 outside. The buns were ok a bit ago - some were a bit hot. Gonna go check on them again in a bit.

I may give them really cold, fresh water bottles (in the garage mainly) right around noon so they'll drink a lot. I also have some electrolyte stuff I can put in them....


 
I'm hoping everything goes well for you, Peg. It's tough without a/c :(.


Sorry to hijack :baghead, but I have the same issues going on here. I can't get window a/c units because the windows open horizontally and I have never seen an a/c unit that fits in these types of windows.

I am also gone 10-11 hours per day while I am at work, so I can't be around to spray ears with cold water or keep changing out water bottles.

I just hope the swamp cooler works. We are going to try to crack windows next time we use it, to try to get the humidity out of the house.
 
Since the tile place here gave me like literally like 300 tiles.. do you need me to bring you some?

Also.. I posted on Freecycle for some barn fans or any type of box fan.. and you would not beleive how many people donated..

You've been counseling me on keeping my buns in the annex cool.. so we went andpurchased the 10,000 BTU AC.. the one we took out of the annex is a 5,000.. I could bring it along..I have to go to Seguin tenatively this coming weekend, depending on other peoples money situation as to when they can afford a showpig..

5000 BTU AC's are $82 here.. that works for 2 rooms... what do they run there? I know pricesvary around the state..

It scares me.. cause I saw Maddie so close tosuccumbing to heat stroke. I do expect you to call...


 
You can get A/Cs for windows that don't open in a normal double hung way. I have an A/C that is a freestanding unit in the room that has two ducts that you can use in a bunch of different windows. It came with panels that can even be used with sliding glass doors.

Roger
 
I don't know about others, but the tiles I was given are from a quarter inch to a half an inch thick, and some are even 18 x 18. I dropped some on the way to the barn onto the concrete pavers, and the worse they did was chip a bit at the point of impact.

I really needed the tiles to be more in the 12 x 12 range, so my husband tried to cut some for me, and aside from them being hella hard to cut without the proper tools, they did finally cut in a clean line, no shards or chips.

In retrospect.. I was just told to make sure you get FLOOR tiles, not ceramic decorative tiles like for backsplashes or bathrooms, they are more pourus and break easier.
 
Off the top of my head what if you froze towels? then you could leave them laying around; not sure if they would then "melt" to quickly and make a mess - but other than what you already know and have been suggested not sure.. How hard would it be to hookup those water misters to their cages that I see at outdoor rescue shows? Might jack up your water bill though..

If you come up with something else please post it!
 
In summer here I make semi frozen snack things like hunks or apple and spinach on a kebab stick and semi freeze them, also putting ice cubes in the water bowl or bottle. Hope it gets cooler over there soon;) Dont no if this is possible but you can get electric blankets that heat, so are there ones that go cold? if not maybe someone should create one and give them to all the people with hot rabbits:)
 
So far - today is not nearly as bad as yesterday was. The yucky cages got moved out of the garage - rabbits got moved into the rabbitry and Tio (my Netherland Dwarf) got moved into Miss Bea's cage in my office where he's been pitching a fit and dumping his food bowl out and just plain being a pain in the....anyway. Still yet - he's over 3 years old and pictures of Polly's Nethies keep making me want to get to know him better. If I decide to let Zeus stay in the garage...I may let Tio run here in the office with the girls since he is neutered.

Anyway - New Hope is NOT doing well with the heat at all - so Art & I leave in a few minutes to get a window a/c for our bedroom. I wish I could afford two others - one for the rabbitry and one for my office - but I'll be moving some fans around so that they get air movement going and then each payday I'll buy one window a/c and go from there.

I just can't risk New Hope's life - he's fought so hard and so valiantly against all the things he's had in the past.

And Zin - as I told you - I'll share on the forum too - it would cost me as much to go to Seguin to meet you for the a/c as it would cost me to buy an a/c here....

My other concern is the rabbits aren't eating as much right now - but then again - I'm not either. I think I'm going to up their hay and see if they'll eat more of that...


 
TinysMom wrote:
Anyway - New Hope is NOT doing well with the heat at all - so Art & I leave in a few minutes to get a window a/c for our bedroom. I wish I could afford two others - one for the rabbitry and one for my office - but I'll be moving some fans around so that they get air movement going and then each payday I'll buy one window a/c and go from there.
Click to expand...
Give him a kiss. I know the feeling I belive Ringos flare up is the heat that has started here. My central air is on all day.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top