Why don't my rabbits shelter from the rain and do I need to make them??

[SisterViktorine]

Hello- FearnieB or any experts out there, advice would be appreciated!

My buns have a massive garden run. Included within this is their 3m elgu run (and eglu hut) which is completely covered by tarpaulin and a wooden wendy house structure, both of which they have free access to. I just shut them into the eglu bit at night as it is fox proof.

Today it started POURING with rain and neither bun sought shelter. By the time I clocked it was raining they were sat in a muddy puddle getting properly soggy.

I went out and shut them in the covered eglu but I wondered as I was doing it whether I actually needed to. Would wild rabbits shelter? I wonder if these have just been so domesticated that they have lost all sense of self-preservation!

I'm just lurking here for rabbit tips. I can't work out if our rabbits are really SUPER CLEVER and cunning or silly as arseholes

I'm thinking the latter- DH calls them fox-pudding .

However, on the odd occasion when boy bun has escaped he has been the artful dodger himself, in a way that makes me think he is actually laughing at me...

They are contrary little souls. I would have done exactly what you did whilst cursing the blighters for failing to wander into the sheltered bit themselves. They were probably enjoying watching you get soaked

Animals quite often sit out in horrid conditions. Our local birds and squirrels happily perch on the highest, most exposed bits of tree in our garden in awful weather. If they moved down a branch, they'd be sheltered. I don't think the weather bothers them as much as us.