Air conditioning not working, need advice!

[henry2809]

Hi everyone! I live in South Carolina where it has been extremely hot (95-100 degrees) every day. Today my air conditioning stopped working and it was about 80 degrees inside. I have two free roam lionhead bunnies and I was very worried about them overheating. I brought them into the basement where it was much cooler until they could come fix the air conditioning unit. It is fixed now, but we will need the unit to be replaced within the next few days and it will probably stay at about 76-78 degrees inside until we can get a new unit. Is this a dangerous temperature for my bunnies or should they be okay with this temperature until we can get a new air conditioning unit. They also have a ceiling fan in the room that they free roam in and they have bowls of fresh water available at all times. Thanks in advance! 🙂

[Ellie from The Netherlands]

It’s a little too hot for bunny comfort indeed (~25 °C for our non-American members). It’s smart that they’re in the basement now, that has the most stable temperature of any place in the house 🙂

Besides cold water and fresh veg you could also offer them bunny-safe cool packs or let them lay against soda bottles filled with a mix of ice and water.

Giving them a fan can also help, just direct it to one side of their space so they can choose whether they want to be in the air flow. Our previous bun loved his fan and would spend entire afternoons napping with his back towards the fan, fur rippling in the breeze. Oh, and sometimes he stood high on all fours to air out the family jewels, preferably when I had visitors 🙄🤣

It’s a temporary measure, but you can keep the temperature of the house a bit lower by putting alu foil on the windows that face the sun. That can easily save a couple of degrees. True, it makes the place look like a crackhouse, but it’s a handy trick when you’re in a pinch 😉

I just put the foil over our living room window. It’s hard to get rid of the heat in my apartment because all the windows are on one side. This trick helped me to keep things cool during the record-breaking heat wave that we had a couple of years ago. We had 40 °C temperatures for almost a week. It was a nasty mix of extreme heat and high humidity. The Netherlands is a sea climate country, so our summers are always sticky. Blegh…

If you’re in an area with low humidity you could also hang wet laundry or wet blankets in rooms at night, while you keep windows open. When water evaporates it picks up heat from its environment, and the night air can get rid of the moisture.

Fingers crossed that the new AC will arrive soon!

[DanaNM]

76-78 is somewhat borderline, but I think adding a fan and giving them some frozen bottles to lay against they will be a lot more comfortable!

My buns all love laying in front of the fan 🙂

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[prince dorian the bun]

frozen water bottles (or such) wrapped in cloth (I used an old pillow case) , for them to lay against… also just cools the area near it. I would also dampen a towel and throw it in the freezer. I saw someone used large  terracotta saucers and froze those for the buns to lay on. I have a scratch and newton icepod that I think is similar (pink disk like thing)

Make sure you have lots of fresh water available and a fan helps. I would also just wipe ears down with a damp cloth, if they seemed especially warm. I think that temp though not ideal will mostly mean they just aren’t very active.

[henry2809]

Thank you all so much for your advice! They have come to replace our air conditioning units today! 🙂

[prince dorian the bun]

YAY! Hope you and the bunnies are nice and cool!

I don’t have air-conditioning (it isn’t until really needed here, or wasn’t until last few years)… though I did invest in a portable one for the buns after a horrible week last year, so totally get the struggle. It’s supposed to be in the 90s (~32C) today and hoping I can keep things under 80F (26C) and using a lot of the advice in thread as well 🙂

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