Questions regarding temperature

[Avantika]

Moshu’s ear temperature is a bit cold these days. Not cold enough to frighten me, but..cold enough to give some worries. I know cool ears should means a visit to the vet but I called up my vet today and told her about it, the vet says its not a matter of worry The temperature changes from hour to hour. But its cooler these days to what it used to be a few three weeks back.

Few things I would like you people to give me an opinion on :-

1) She’s a Florida White. She has standy uppy ears and I read at a post at Binky Bunny that the ones with those kind of ears have cooler ears. She’s a bit lazy these days but she eats with enthusiasm. (Except for the hay that I have to force feed her, but thats probably because hay from pet stores isnt very appealing. I will be buying a bale the coming year). She is responding to affection and plays with us.

2) The temperature here these days is around 82 F. I know it isnt too much for a rabbit. Still, we started placing a bed sheet on the floor and she prefers to sit over that instead of the bare, cold tile floor. Sometimes, we even wrap the bed sheet around her like this :-

 

Sometimes it makes her grumpy, so she pulls it off. Sometimes she will keep it.

My question is..do their genetic make up changes if they are bred in the same place, under same conditions since years and years ? (Sorry if I am not able to explain it correctly ;language barrier ) For example, my genetic make up wont allow me to withstand the cold of Canada with ease..because me and those of my kind have been too long at a place thats sub tropical)

Florida White (and some NZWs too) are probably the only type of bunnies that are seen in India and have long been here, I wonder if their tolerance for cold has decreased as compared to the rabbits at your part of the world. (I hope I am making sense )

 

3) If they have been feeling a sense of threat, does it change their body temperature in any way possible ? Some of you might have read my post regarding Diwali and firecrackers. To explain it in brief, we had this festival called Diwali where there is heavy, loud fire crackers for 1-2 days and..it was real loud and obviously, Moshu had a hard time. Ever since that day, I have heard her grunting/snorting more often, even sometimes when I am holding her. And it didnt used to be this way earlier. And no, she isnt spayed so it could be her hormones too. But then why specifically after Diwali ?

4) Do any of you take rectal temperature at home ?

[Bam]

I’ve never taken a rectal temp on a bunny.

As for cold ears, very cold ears could be a concern. But are they very cold? A bunny that doesn’t do much gets colder ears.

Genetic make-up changes in response to environment in that that individuals that cope well in an environment get more offspring and that offspring survives to get offspring of their own. Breeding in captivity in an indoors, climatre-controlled environment to some extent compromize natural selection. Stuff that’s vital for wild animals is unimportant for captive animals. If you went to live in Canada you could still have children who had children, since you’d not be living in a cave and going out to hunt for food in nature. I e the “cold” gene(s) is not important for your survival.

With regards to cold, there is significant adaptation that’s not due to changes in genes. If you gradually got yourself used to Canadian temperature, you’d cope there just fine, because we have that adaptability. Rabbits also have adaptability. But in general, it’s easier to learn to cope with cold that with heat because the body has more resources for cold-adaptation.

I must go, will return later!

[Avantika]

They arent very cold..but pretty cool.. Its volatile basically. Fluctuates between cold-cool to warm. She’s eating well and is her usual affectionate self, so I am not really suspecting that she is not well. But I must continue to do what I do – keep an eye on her.
She’s been sleeping a lot these days. She starts at 2 in the afternoon and will continue to sleep till 9 pm or so. She gets up in the middle, have her food..hang around a bit and go back to sleep again. After 9 pm, she will be pretty active but sadly, a few hours later comes her cage time. So yes, she isnt doing much apart from sleeping. And sometimes she’s in such heavy sleep that she wont wake up even on poking. Lack of activity could also be contributing to cool ears maybe.

[Bam]

Yes, you must keep an eye on her if you suspect sth is wrong. A scare could perhaps make a bunny less apt to move about, there could be a tendency towards keeping close to her “home”. Also if she’s sleeping more, her metabolism is lower. Human teenagers can sleep a lot because their brains are developing a lot and their bodies too during puberty. I don’t know if the same can occur with “teenage” bunnies who also have lots of hormones running around in their bodies and brain.

Their ears should vary in temp. It’s their main system for temperature-regulation. If excess heat needs to be done away with, blood is sent to the small blood-vessels in ears, Together they make up big surface area and so the heat can be given off to the environment. If the bunny is not hot, it wants to keep it’s body-warmth and so the vessels in the ears constrict. This system works very well in cold climates.

[Avantika]

Maybe she needs to keep her body warmth in, because the ear vessels look very thin for most of the part.

[Avantika]

Human teenagers can sleep a lot because their brains are developing a lot and their bodies too during puberty. I don’t know if the same can occur with “teenage” bunnies who also have lots of hormones running around in their bodies and brain.

She’s in her teenage phase. Lately she’s been making the kind of sounds that they do when they are high on their hormones xD If they share that similarity with humans, then that will explain the recent changes.

[Author]

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