extreme heat

[niniliefie]

hey yall! 

so it is extremely hot here and the ac broke today! repairs can only be done on thursday and: my pooooooor mango! so far ive placed a tile in the cage(as it stays cooler than the plastic his cage bottom is made of) i have an industrial fan in his room( facing the roof not directly on him, and i have started placing frozen water bottels on the outside of the cage bottom in the same corner as the tiles.  he lies there most of the time and i can understand why! i dont wana move! i just wana lie down all the time too its so hot! 

what else can i do and can i cover the water bottel in a towel and put it inside the cage? 

i just dont want him to overheat! 

[Zombie-Sue]

Yes, I always cover the bottles in towels.

He’ll probably be okay, just keep doing what you’re doing and make sure he has plenty of fresh, cool water.

[Jessie1990]

One of my rabbits seems very susceptible to heat, so even if we have AC on I have all these things in his cage, so he can go in when he needs to cool off. I just thought I would post an idea I had awhile back, I think I got it from another member (this site is invaluable). I put my water bottles inside of old socks (the ones that look like they are made for children, because I am a first year teacher and don’t wear them as much anymore The socks allow for closer contact with the bottle, while still absorbing the moisture. Also, towels are more likely to slip off and socks can be tied on the end. My rabbits LOVE their sock bottles As Sue mentioned it is important to keep water fresh and cool. I would add an ice cube some days and the rabbits loved to swish it around the their bowl for an extra toy.

[Rufus]

I definitely feel your pain, we’re having heat waves all over the place here in Australia going up to the mid forties. The humidity is particularly awful!
I don’t have aircon so my extreme heat plan is to move Rufus into the coolest part of the house – our living room is the coolest (he’s normally in the sunroom). I keep all the blinds down to keep as much sunlight as possible. I drape a wet towel over the top of his cage (his cage has a solid lid) and set the ceiling fan on low. I give him two ceramic tiles to lie on that I keep in the refrigerator and change over a couple of times a day. I also give him two frozen waterbottles, the bigger the better. I don’t put any cover on them because Rufus eats fabric. I particularly don’t want him to eat fabric because he doesn’t eat as much on a really hot day. He gets a bit damp lying next to the bottles but it doesn’t go through the top layer of fur and on a hot day the water evaporates pretty fast. He does like to rub his ears on the wet bottle to cool them down though.
I also get up really early if it’s going to be a scorcher and give him a big bowl of really wet greens, all his favourite kinds. I figure the more food/water he gets in him while it’s cool, the better off he’ll be if he doesn’t feel like eating later.
He has a water bowl and a water bottle and I change the water often to keep it as cool as possible and put icecubes in the bowl.
This has been working really well for me. When I get home from work, I’m always so worried but he jumps up and stands on his back legs to greet me. I hope this helps a little, extreme heat is so horrid and it just keeps getting worse! Good luck!

[Rufus]

Oh I should also mention that I bought a cooling mat online. It’s a plastic mat that has a powder in it when you put weight on it, the powder turns to a cold gel. If your bunny lies on it, it lowers body temperature. They have them here marketed for dogs quite a lot but I found one marketed at rabbits that is bite proof. Rufus did manage to rip a small part of the edge (didn’t get anywhere near the gel). The gel is supposed to be non-toxic but I prefer to just let him use it when he’s supervised. He loves it! I love it too and have slept before with it in my pillowcase since my room gets much hotter than his!

[LittlePuffyTail]

Have you checked out the cooling tips in the “Bunny Info” section?

I’ve done the wet cloth on the fan trick and it seems to help cool off the air. Also you can take a cool (not cold) damp facecloth and wrap it around your buns ears (like a bunny turban). My bunnies don’t tolerate this for long, but I still do it when its really hot. 

[Roberta]

We just went through a weekend of temps in the mid 40C’s. My AC just gave up in the end… A towel in front of a free standing fan works like a swamp cooler… (I have one of those for back up but it gave up before the AC did… Coolie packs all round…

[niniliefie]

Thanx for all the advice! I hadn’t read the info, so it helped a lot! He LOVES the bottle in a sock and drags it on and off of his tile as he needs to! He isn’t a destructive bun at all these days and only chews his toys and the skirtings! So luckily I won’t struggle with him eating the sock! I use a bowl and a bottle for water and he goes through it real fast! I have noticed that he eats less(during the day) so can I then increase his veg?(He is a juvenile-just over 4 months) he gets a mixture of rocket, wild rocket, cabage, watercress and basil with either spinnach or parsley in the morning and evening(bout half a cup each time) and he use to eat it systematically over his 2-3hour playtimes. Now he gobbles it down all in one go… He still wee’s and poo’s al lot! But I can defs see he is eating less pellets and hay(I changed his bowl recently from a plastic to a glass bowl-do you think that can also play a role)

Thanx for all the help.

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