Ice pack refusal:/

[MyBestLittleFriendSnowball]

Hi guys. So here in England the temperature is getting out of control. It will be around 32 degrees CELSIUS tomorrow and I’m worried about how Snowball is going to keep up. I’ve purchased a cooling mat for him (previous post) but he couldn’t care less for it unfortunately. We’ve also tried ice packs but they aren’t working either. I’m worried he will suffer from a heat stroke as us humans are finding it unbearable already – imagine him with all that fluff!

I’m getting him to run around more as we have discovered he is 100g <3 overweight! However, I am now wondering if that's not such a good idea considering it will just make him hotter. I've heard that leaving vegetables wet helps him to stay more hydrated but I'm not sure how much of a difference that will make. I would be extremely grateful if someone could suggest anything that may prevent heat strokes, dehydration etc.

Thank you so much,
Snowball’s Slaves

[Muchelle]

My rabbit doesn’t care for ice packs, but temperatures here (Italy) recently got to 35°C+.
My solution was to wrap the ice pack (or frozen 500ml bottle) in a scrap of fleece and block it outside one side of his cage, I chose the spot where he usually sleeps so he already had the habit to lie there.
Now he spends the hottest hours of the day just lounging by the coldness, he seems to understand now that cold = good

The days that it was REALLY hot (41°C) I made sure to stop by and check the temperature of his ears, left him watery vegetables like salad and kept his drinking water cool and clean. Don’t worry about his weight right now, just keep feeding him the correct stuff and resume physical activity when temperatures are lower (unless you have a room with A/C, but I guess it’s not the case..)

[MyBestLittleFriendSnowball]

Ah thank you for your suggestion I should’ve mentioned that the ice pack is wrapped in a plastic bag but I feel like the fleece is a better idea. Thanks again muchelle!

[MK]

Another option is if you have a small fan you can put it outside his cage blowing ON, not through, a wet, thin piece of cloth in his cage.

[Muchelle]

I use fleece cause it’s a good enough thermal insulator and makes the ice last longer. It also keeps it dry enough while it melts.
I guess you could also use one of those soft camping fridge-bags (just made up this word XD hope it’s understandable), it would fit quite smugly out of the cage.
I haven’t bought one cause I made him a custom size ice-pack holder. The experiment is on, hopefully it will be functional XD

Let me know if you win this battle! Good luck :3

[mia]

Put ice cubes in their water dish or just ice without water since it’ll melt.

Also, any cool surfaces. We normally have fleece on the ground so I add additional “flooring” such as a piece of tile, cardboard, plastic, etc (non-fluffy material). The flooring piece can be put into the fridge/freezer before giving it to them.

[beebun]

Tile pieces is a great idea! You can also give him small pieces of frozen treats, like a bit of honey and water for him to lick throughout the day, or mix some ice to his drinking water. Dont get it to cold though!

[Q8bunny]

You could always freeze water bottles and place them along one side of his cage – even if he doesn’t snuggle up to them, they will cool the air at floor level.

I live in a country where summer temperatures go up to 60+ Celsius (not even accounting for humidity). At the moment it’s 06:00 and 47 Celsius. Every once in a blue moon, the AC breaks down or needs to be serviced. It’s the only time Chewie gets restricted – he gets to hang out in the small bathroom with lots of frozen water bottles strewn on the floor. Keeps him happy and cool.

Another thing you could do is put an icecube in a teacup of water, dip a handkerchief or something in it, and wipe the inside of your bun’s ears. This will help cool him down.

Or drape a wet towel over one side of his cage, and from behind it, have a fan blow on it on a low setting. The cage will get cool air without a major draft.

[flemishwhite]

I’ve got the frozen water bottles ready. Haven’t had to use them.

 Our maximum house temp now gets to about 80 degrees F. I think this is about 27 degrees C. The bunnies sleep in their pen in our living room and we have a small fan blowing air into the pen. They sleep in the draft of the fan.  They really like to lay in the fan air. They have their ears down usually so this means they are not overly heated.  If they were uncomfortably hot, they would have their ears up in the air draft.  Bunny ears are a major heat exchanger.  Their ears are mostly devoid of hair.   They extend their ears into the wind to cool off, and keep their ears flat on their body when it’s cold.

 When it comes time to use the frozen water bottles, I’ll wrap them in towels, or place them in socks, and lay them next to the bunnies.

……………………………

The pen.  They spend most of the day in their pen in the living room. The pen door is always open. They are free, day or night, to go anywhere in the house  except for the bedrooms.  I really want the buns to come into our bedroom and sleep with us.  Our previous rabbit lived most of her 11 1/2 year with out bedroom as her home territory.   My wife is resisting allowing them in the bedroom. I hope she changes her mind.

[Gina.Jenny]

Mine refused the frozen water bottles, so I bought a couple of pet hammocks last time it was warm and ours were glad of them yesterday and slept on them overnight too! Lots of wet leafy stuff and some veg cold from the fridge got ours through yesterday. they are currently outside in the early morning cool, but will no doubt be back in, with the blinds shut by mid-morning again.

[Bam]

Exercise is good for a chubby bunny, but not when it’s hot. If you try to get him to run around, do so in the evenings or early mornings, but just leave him to his own devices if it’s hot around the clock. Exercise ups the body temp, and that is of course the last thing you want.

If you have a fan that you can get to blow on a cold wet towel, that can more effectively cool a room down. Obviously don’t hang a wet towel over a fan that isn’t made for that, that could cause a power-out or a fire.

Frozen water bottles will lower the ambient temp some, so the bun doesn’t necessarily need to snuggle up to them. And maybe he’ll take to the cooling mat if he feels he needs it.

Draw the blinds like they do during the day in Mediterranean countries, it shuts out the light but it also shuts out some of the heat. If you open your windows, I’d recommend using mosquito netting.

[MyBestLittleFriendSnowball]

Thank you so much for all of your replies , I will try to put all your suggestions into practise! Hope all of your buns are able to cope too!

[LittlePuffyTail]

We’ve been lucky here on the Canadian East Coast. No mega heatwaves yet, just the odd day with a humidex of 36C or so. Those days I get into mega-bunny-cooling mode first thing in the morning. I have a small window a/c so I turn that on and put fans to direct that cool air towards the rabbit room. I use the ice bottles but my buns never lay near them, unfortunately. Olivia used to get mad and beat up the bottle.

So instead I put the icy bottle in their condos right in front of a little kennel fan that I set up on the bars. These things are great. I think I paid like $10 each and it’s great because it blows the cool air from the ice bottle right onto the buns. I will also do an ear turban if I think they are getting hot. I keep a small thermometer in their room to make sure it never gets too hot. That’s a great investment too. I’m pretty much a paranoid bun Mom but I want them to be comfortable. 

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