Cold Weather Care for Rabbits
Taking care of animals in the cold months can be a challenge. When we first started raising rabbits I had a lot of nights I was up worrying about the rabbits being warm enough. A few years in and I have our routines down and know how to survive winter with our bunnies! Here are my tips on cold weather care for rabbits!
The first thing to remember about caring for rabbits in cold weather is that rabbits prefer the cold to being hot. A rabbits internal temperature runs between 100-103 degrees depending on the individual, outside temps, and activity level. And they are covered in fur! So while you might be feeling quite chilly odds are your rabbit is loving the colder temps.
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Cold Weather Care for Rabbits:
Tip #1: Keep rabbits out of the wind and weather
As long as your bunny is out of the wind and can stay dry it will do quite well in most cold temps. Make sure their hutch/cage is facing away from drafts and doesn’t have any leaks.
You can cover their cage with a tarp or blanket for extra protection at night but make sure that your rabbit cannot reach the tarp or blanket to chew on it. If they eat the plastic or fibers it can lead to GI stasis which is deadly for them.
Tip #2: Provide a hidey hole/box
Rabbits love to have a safe place to hunker down! Give them a hidey hole or even a cardboard box to sit in. Most likely they will chew the cardboard up so we prefer wood boxes. Don’t use cedar as it is poisonous to your bunny. Stay away from chip board as it contains a lot of glue. It is a rare bunny that doesn’t chew on everything that gets put in their cage.
Having a solid surface to get off the cage wire is especially good for rabbits that have thinner foot pads. We typically use hidey holes that don’t have a bottom so poop will fall through the wire. However, in the coldest months I set their box on top of a piece of plywood or cardboard to keep out drafts. This works for most rabbits although there always seems to be one that likes to sit in their own poop. Resulting in a very dirty rabbit.
Stuffing straw into their boxes adds a little extra insulation. Most of our rabbits just pull all the straw out so I only do that in extremely cold temps.
Tip #3: Give them more feed
Tip #4: Provide lots of hay
Picks from my ETSY shop:
Tip #5: Provide Warm Water
Add warm water to water bottles and crocks. Just like you enjoy a warm drink on a cold day so does your furry friend! If you are using a bottle make sure the nipple is working. Sometimes the water in the bottle won’t be frozen but the nipple mechanism will be.
This year we switched to crocks for the winter. I bring out warm water every morning and evening and fill the crocks up. This is a little easier than taking a bunch of bottles in and thawing them out. The rabbits seem to enjoy getting a drink while the water is warm!
With just a little bit of preparation on your part cold weather care for rabbits is quite easy!
Have any tips you want to share? Please feel free to comment below. Lets get a conversation started!
