Heaters & Rabbits

[Dreya T]

It’s gotten very cold here all of a sudden and I’m now thinking about turning the heating on. We’ve got old fashioned storage heaters that build up heat during the night and release it during the day and when they’re at full blast (which they won’t be for a few months yet) they’re way too hot to touch.

I’m hoping that buns have enough sense not to go too near but I thought I’d check – will we need to block off access to heaters whilst our bunnies are out playing? I don’t want to leave them off because it’s going to get way too cold for our poor bunnies but there’s not really enough room to put huge barricades all over the place so that the rabbits don’t burn themselves getting too close. 

[Michelle&Lolli]

Rabbit’s generally do not like being hot. They might check them out once the heat is on to see what it is, but after that I would think they’d probably try to find the coolest place to be. Are they completely free range? If so, perhaps you could get an x pen to put them in at night so you wouldn’t have to worry about them.  Or if there is a safe place for them to be – like the kitchen or bathroom – you use a baby gate to keep them in that space during the night. 

[Nibbles_NZ]

I agree with using an x pen or another safe place. Even just checking it out they could get burned. Be cautious about some baby gates. Some of them like the lattice ones and some with bars spaced apart can cause the bunny to get it’s head stuck and cause strangulation.

[Dreya T]

They essentially have a room each, both of which have a heater in. Frankie is the most pressing problem, as he’s in the spare room which is already very cold as it doesn’t get much sunlight. He gets put away in his cage at night but has free range during the day. He doesn’t tend to go too near the heater during the day anyway. We’ve turned it on very low and will see how we get on.

We know that we need to move Major, as his cage is next to the heater in his room, but this won’t be a problem, we just haven’t got round to it yet. (And the heater hasn’t been on since March!) Blocking off the heater in there won’t be a problem, we’ve been planning on putting in a bulk order on NIC grids anyway!

Hopefully by the time winter is really setting in we can start bonding/have bonded the rabbits, and then they can both live in the living room/Major’s room, where it won’t be as much of a problem.

[LittlePuffyTail]

I would just take some NIC grids and make a 3-sided barricade to place in front of the heaters. This is inexpensive and better to be safe than sorry.

[Beka27]

A NIC barrier has worked for many people in similar situations. You’d need to make sure it is placed far enough away that the buns cannot reach thru it and get burned, and also so they don’t melt or anything.

[Dreya T]

It’s really not practical to put NIC grids in front of the heater in the spare room, as we wouldn’t be able to get in and out of the room with them in the way. :S I might go to the builder’s yard round the back of our house and ask them if they can think of a way we could construct something smaller which wouldn’t block the heat coming into the room.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

I ditto-I’d put NIC around…they might stay away, but you’ve seen those crazy out of control binky-zoomies-and they could certainly accidentily hit one!

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