Keeping Your Bunny Cool In The Summer

As a lot of you know, Caitlin has a pet bunny for 4H. His name is Red River, and she calls him Spot. He lives in his own little closed in room in the garage. It used to be an office now it is his home. He loves his little home. In the winter we worried he would get too cold. We brought him in the house, in the extra bathroom a couple of cold nights. He did not like this at all. So we gave him extra hay, and a blanket that he would burrow under at night. He was much happier with that. Come to find out bunnies tolerate the cold much better than the heat. Who knew? Bunnies can not sweat, or pant, so they have no way to get rid of excess heat from their bodies. They simply over heat. What an awful thought. Since his room is insulated and closed with a door, it stays cool in there most of the day. But with our awful FL heat and humidity, his room gets quite warm by mid afternoon. These are the things we do to help him stay cool: In the evening he gets extra cold water to drink you can even freeze it and he will lick the ice block, we use a small blanket that we soak with cold water and lay it in his cage he then lies on it if he wants, he has another area where he does not have to lie on the wet blanket in his play yard, with a wet cloth we wet his fur down especially his ears but do not use a baby wipe just regular cool water, and there is a ceiling fan that is turned on all day during the hottest days. You will notice your rabbit may eat less during the summer months. This appears to be normal and OK, just be sure he is drinking enough and still pooping. If he or she is not then you might need to cool him down more. Ours seems to eat most of his food at night when it is cooler, but he will always accept a treat anytime of day, LOL! The video below is very helpful in how to keep your rabbit cool in the heat.