Keeping rabbits cool in Texas heat
- Thread starter JamesY
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Insulate the roof. Keep that heat from radiating down on the rabbits.
As you can sort of see in these two pictures I suspended my rabbit cages with aircraft cable purchased at lowes, small – 1/8 or 3/16ths. I suspended them from rafters of a side shed of one of my hay barns. This is also on the east side of the barn, in the shade when the hot afternoon sun baked everything. Also a good set up for winter, on cold mornings the bunnies got the warmth as soon as the sun came up, direct sunlight.
There were several reasons for this, first up cooling – plenty of air movement, it also made it easy to shovel up rabbit pellets. Their food and water containers didn’t need bending over to refill. At this height it was easy for me to inspect or handle them as needed.
Another problem you may not be aware of… fire ants. I lost my first two litters to fire ants. The ants crawled up the poles, across the rafters, down the aircraft cables and killed the newborns. Fire ants and I had a war for a couple of months… I won!
I also noticed that a couple of hundred thousand pounds of hay right next to my bunnies created a thermal base that didn't vary much in temperature, winter or summer, sort of a micro-climate.
There were several reasons for this, first up cooling – plenty of air movement, it also made it easy to shovel up rabbit pellets. Their food and water containers didn’t need bending over to refill. At this height it was easy for me to inspect or handle them as needed.
Another problem you may not be aware of… fire ants. I lost my first two litters to fire ants. The ants crawled up the poles, across the rafters, down the aircraft cables and killed the newborns. Fire ants and I had a war for a couple of months… I won!
I also noticed that a couple of hundred thousand pounds of hay right next to my bunnies created a thermal base that didn't vary much in temperature, winter or summer, sort of a micro-climate.
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I never had ant problems but we did have dog and raven problems. We stopped both by using horse panels across the front and sides to create an outer barrier.
We also had our rabbits set up with an auto,water system connected to a large storage tank. We are on a well and when there is no power, no water. The bottles tend to dry rot, leak or form a vacuum leaving the buns with no water in the heat of the day.
A bottle that forms a vacuum pulls the,ball up into the tube leaving the rabbit with no way to reach the,water inside.
A bottle that forms a vacuum pulls the,ball up into the tube leaving the rabbit with no way to reach the,water inside.
Depending on where the OP is in TX an evaporative cooler will just add to the humidity and make it even worse on the buns.
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Sheets up and water poured over them....ice water to drink....still does not help much with heat
I read somewhere on this forum about cooling animals with a fan blowing over a frozen milk jug of water. That should help wabbits too.
That will help to an extent. You just have to watch the rabbits. Some will chew on the plastic containers. We had ice and a fan between every 2nd cage to keep the air moving. Tried to make a wind tunnel but that doesn't do any good when it hits 117°. We started bringing them in the house when it was supposed to be over 100°. They were perfectly happy sitting on the,dining room floor in their carry cages all day. They would come right to us when we went out to get them.
