Cold weather rabbits

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Published: Sunday, 05 January 2014 14:34

Written by David DeCiero

The other day, there was a forecast for an extremely cold day, with temperatures falling to -7 F. I had to make sure that my adult New Zealand White bunnies stayed relatively warm, while leaving them outside. Since my female is due to give birth in a few days, I decided to give her the next box and fill it with straw and pine shavings. This way, she could stay in there if she wanted to and get off of the wire. (She has a plastic thing she can use to get off the wire but it has holes in it). As soon as I put it in there, she busily started rearranging everything and scratching away.

The male, on the other hand, has taken to flipping over his little hut and laying inside of it. This allows him to get off of the wire and stay out of any wind that comes his way (I have tarps secured around it, but some wind I’m sure gets in.  Here is a link to the rabbit hutch plans). So, I simply gave him a buch of straw and matted it down inside his hut. I made sure they had fresh water in their heated bowls and plenty of food. I checked them right before I went to bed.

The next morning, the temperature was -4 and I went outside to check on them. Both of them were happy as clams, bouncing around and waiting for me to give them some hay to eat. It appears they had no problems through the night. I watched them the remainder of the day and noticed nothing different. It seems they made it through the night no worse for the wear. The next test is going to be when the babies are born. The forecasted cold is about 10 degrees, so I’m thinking they should be fine, but mom’s got to keep them warm.