outdoor advice needed

[crazychickenlady]

We are just starting to expand our farm and I couldn’t be happier. I am looking for advice on our bunnies as we expand their living quarters and possibly add a few more. We are building a horse barn and plan to add a 16×16 stall for our bunnies. We will have this attached to an outdoor covered pen that measures 30×30. Both areas will have hardware cloth burried 3-5″ below “flooring”. Outdoors will have 5″ of dirt planted with grass and clover. My question is: during the winter months ( We live in upstate NY) will the bunnies be warm enough if access to the outdoor pen in completely blocked off? We will be having 3-5 inches of shavings and straw on top of a rubber stall mat over the hardware cloth along with hides and different levels to get off the floor. We have 4 bunnies and they all love each other and will cuddle to stay warm I am sure. We just want to give our babies the best ever “non cage” cage they could want. They are not breeders as all are fixed they are just pets and pieces of our family. So we want them as happy and safe as possible.

[Bunny House]

Hi! Is there any way you can keep them inside your house as free roam?

Buns need to live in 60-70f weather at all times, so if they live in the barn, they would need the whole stall to be insulated with House grade insulation to keep the cold out and the warm in, especially since you live where it get very cold. You would probably want heating pads(hard plastic ones for outside dogs) in the stall so they can stay warm, but it isn’t the ideal situation for bunnies to live outside, especially with how cold it gets there.

Hopefully someone more experienced can chime in.

[Daisy]

That’s not entirely true Bunny House. Maybe you’re thinking of bunnies without wintercoats? In that case you are totally correct.

Rabbits can tolerate the cold pretty well as long as there are places to hide from rain/snow/wind, they get something like straw to build cosy nests, have buddies to cuddle up to and are well prepared by getting a winter coat. Sudden temperature differences are very bad for bunnies and keeping bunnies with winter coats inside for a prolonged time causes them to loose the winter coat and they will get cold when they go outside again. Switching a bun from inside to outside should be done between the end of spring and start of autumn to make sure they will build a good coat. A quick Googling around tells me they can tolerate up to -20 degrees Celcius, but I would stick to -10 to be safe. My buns were completely fine between -10 and 30 degrees Celcius when they were outside. Just make sure to check the water often because it may freeze solid.

If your area gets colder than -10 and even -20 degrees Celcius frequently then yes I agree with Bunny House, it may be too cold for them but I’m not experienced with anything colder than -10 myself.

[Bunny House]

I know I’m Ohio it would be 0 many days with the winchill -15f a lot. I couldn’t imagine upstate temps…. that’s why I said it wouldn’t be the best, especially since windchills are what really bring the temps down fast of animals and shelter.

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