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Tips to keep outdoor rabbits warm during the cold snap

Author: The Rabbit Welfare Fund
Website: http://www.rabbitwelfare.co.uk
Posted: Thursday 8th January, 2009

Some tips for keeping outdoor buns warm that may be useful on First Alert.

With temperatures still plummeting until at least the weekend, even the plumpest furriest buns can begin to feel the cold. As the cold spell drags on and the ground is solid there is no warmth anywhere.

Here are a couple of tips to help your outside bun through the cold nights:

Inside the hutch, if you have not got a snugglesafe or just want to add even more warmth try the following:

Heat any old house brick in the oven (NOT microwave!!!) at a very low heat for a long time (say 100 degrees for an hour or 50 degrees for 2 hours). Take out of the oven carefully (it will be hot!). Wrap in a teatowel or other rag to stop bun getting too hot!. Put in the hutch in amongst the hay. You can use several per hutch. The bricks will give out a gentle warmth for hours. Put next to a water bowl they will stop the bowl freezing in all but Icelandic conditions.

This is basically what storage radiators were made of for ages – and
what wealthier people who could afford bricks used in the Tudor period onwards!

Put a traditional hot water bottle full of hot water INSIDE a very sturdy thick plastic container (large sandwich box or food storage container is idea. Put in hutch. The storage container will stop the bun nibbling the hot water bottle and letting the water out!

Use ceramic rather than metal water bowls at present as they are slower conductors of heat and should freeze less quickly.

Lay a towel under the hay at base of the hutch as extra insulation.

Newspaper layers can also be made thicker. Newspaper is an excellent insulator as it traps air between the pages.

Very cheap single or double duvets can be currently bought at a range of supermarket stores (Tescos and Asda for example: singles for £6-7; doubles £9-10 ).
They are cheap because the outsides are usually a sort of fibremix – a bit like a loft insulation! However they are still 10.5 or 13 tog .
Put on top of hutch and flop over front if enough left; and if necessary cover so they do not get wet (at present cold is much more and issue than wet).
A board will do the trick nicely to cover the duvet and is better than
plastic. Do check in the daytime that the underside of the duvet and hutch roof are not getting too damp. Take off during the day for a few hours if this is happening

If you have the hutch inside a mesh roofed run, put some plastic tarpaulin or a plastic sheet over the run roof just for now. Tarpaulin can be purchased from various websites and DIY stores for about £8 upwards for a sheet of 9ft by 12ft.

Don’t forget: buns with health problems may need to come in if they have a low weight at present. Once in they may need to stay in though so do make the decision carefully. It may be worth bringing a bun in if they are having low grade persistent health problems outdoors.

Finally: Two buns are better than one at keeping warm!!!!

It was minus 7 on my patio last night and none of the water bowls froze in the outside hutches so one or more of these things must be working!!!

Twigs

For more information contact: www.rabbitwelfare.co.uk
Twigs articles appears in Rabbiting On.


This article has been viewed 8893 times.





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