Worried about cold bunny.

[gigigrace]

Our five month old boy is very loved. We make sure we spend a lot of time with him, play and cuddle him. He gets plenty of exercise. During the day while we are are home, we bring him into the kitchen and he can roam freely there and be around us till around 9 at night. Then we put him in his hutch. It has straw, and a bucket with a safe blanket in.

This has been working fine until now. I'm just really worried about him now the weather has changed. Everyone is telling me 'it's a rabbit. They live in the wild'... well yes but those rabbits don't come into warm kitchens and then get put back into the cold. I'm worried I may be doing him more damage by bringing him in to play.

But then if I don't, I don't feel he will be getting enough attention. In fact I know he won't.

Any advice? Or does anyone do similar.

Another question. Would a dog cage work. Just been looking online. And also. What do I put in it? His litter tray and what else?

We had a cage cover, tonnes of bedding and an old fashioned pottery hot water bottle. But we also had an indoor hutch in the garage for when it got to lower than 4 degrees. We did have two rabbits but one passed away and the remaining one wouldn't accept another rabbit.

Ours lived outside in the summer but is now inside permanently because he loves being inside and basically thinks he is a dog. From what I remember half inside and half outside in the winter is even more risky for them, something to do with extremes of temperature.

Do you have a shed or garage you could put the hutch in. We had 2 guinea pigs, during the winter I would put them in the shed with lots of hay- no straw as one had to have a piece removed from her eye by the vet. I covered the hutch with a sleeping bag and put a pet hot pad in the corner. One lived until it was 6 and the other nearly 8!!!

Ours have a litter tray, and his house/covered bed thing in his hutch and a couple of toys, he has a jingly ball he likes to push around the room too.

Please be very careful with cats, a friend of my husband's thought his were fine together, until he came home to find a bloodbath (sorry). We have cats and if bunny is out they aren't in the room.

I kept rabbits and we always had a huge blanket over the hutch, which was kept in a shed. In the extreme cold I warmed a house brick in the oven and put it in, wrapped in a Small towel. Nice and warm!

In the winter we would move our hutch into the shed cover it in thick carpets and use old sleeping bags to cover overnight. Lots of extra bedding for them to snuggle into. They lived to grand old age of 10+

I've brought my guinea pigs in for winter ( they are middle aged , 4yo)

They have a shed with hutches inside and access to floorspace.
I used Snugglepads wrapped in newspaper tucked under their bedding ( soft barley straw then newspaper and hay) The straw is softer than the hay which has deteriorated in quality this year , I;m picking twigs and nettles and all sorts out of it .

The best option would be a slightly older spayed doe. Then no pg worries and you take her to the vet while he;s castrated so they're not apart.

I've just bonded my neutered boar and my last sow (they couldn't live together before) and its lovely to see them interact.

Mine are in the small bedroom, its light (which you don't get in a shed ) , the radiator is very low . They have nice soft fleece and a big C&C.

And if I had a £ for everyone who said "they live in Peru, its -10 in Peru"

Mine haven't been further than Kent . They are domestic cavies not the scrawny little rodents that inhabit Peru. Worlds Apart

We have a little dwarf rabbit, he's in a lovely big cage in the dining room. He'll go out tomorrow, it's far too cold for him

I do worry about ours, as they are only a few months old, but we have put heated pads in the hutch plus loads of straw & the rabbits stay in the top of the hutch at night as you can close a trapdoor. We have an indoor cage on order but we intend to only put the bunnies in that when there are fireworks & not all night. We also have a canvas “ curtain” which keeps out the wind & rain.

Rabbits don’t need to be 6months to be castrated!
It seems your breeder and your vet are giving you dodgy advice to the detriment of your rabbits welfare. Rabbits should be raised together and males can be castrated from 10-12 weeks. This avoids aggression and loneliness - rabbits value other rabbit company as much as food. It’s incredibly important.

The RWAF has the most up to date advice - read their guide for info

rabbitwelfare.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/RWAbrochuremaster.pdf

If you can bring him indoors, I'd do that. I have guinea pigs but can't bring them inside (I have tried) as it makes me very unwell. So DH superinsulated their hutch, we put in extra insulation on the internal wallls in the winter, have a cover and these microwaveable heating pads which they love (you can hear them purring). Plus lots of hay and I also put in towels and cardboard tubes to avoid drafts.

Our outdoor bunnies have recently been brought in for the evening and night. They have free roam of our secure, walled garden in the daytime. Is it best to keep them in the house 24/7 until the spring, though?? I'm now worried about shocking them with temperature changes. Until recently they were outdoor 24/7 unless coming in for a quick play and cuddle. The summer weather was ideal for them. Maybe I should keep them inside all the time.

"Would a dog cage work. Just been looking online. And also. What do I put in it? His litter tray and what else?"

I think all dog cages are too small, in length at least.

A lot depends on size of bun, but our last indoor rabbit (living on it's own) hutch was 4 feet long and, in fact, we wished we'd gone for the almost 6 foot one. Wouldn't do less than 4 foot.

That was with long daily run-free time and (in our case) the cat was excellent company.

Rabbit later moved outside with a bunny companion, but although they have an outdoors run, the full 'outdoor' hutch and indoor run, is inside a proper outbuilding, at least for the autumn/winter months.

My buns were 8 months before being neutered as they are really small Netherland dwarf bunnies. They were just too tiny to operate on before reaching full size.

Our bunnies always lived outside. They lived years and years! But they were never solo. We’d always cover the hutch at night with blankets and tarpaulin. They never came in the house as we had about 6 cars!

Er, cats. We didn’t have any cars in the house!

We have a large metal run in our living room- 3 metres x 2 metres. The buns can hop around quite happily in it. They have a hay box, food, water, an old blanket to sit on (and poop millions! ) plus a couple of toys. When I open the door they don't want to come out! They love it .

Yes indoors for the winter. My daughter puts hers in the conservatory in the winter

During the day as well or just at night?

My dwarf lop terrorised my cat. The rabbit died first and I buried him where I had buried all my other small furries. When the cat died years later I buried him the other end of the garden well away from the rabbit.

Our bunnies live outside all year in a 8 by 10 foot dog kennel run with an indoor shed part and an outdoor patio. DD opens up their door for them in the morning although they have a small door of their own that opens into a tunnel for free access as and when they choose. There are shelves at different levels and slopes for them to go up and down as they choose. There is also a bed box for them to snuggle in which has lots of straw in, around and on top of at this time of year for extra insulation. DD also takes them a snuggle safe heat pad when the temp drops below 10 degrees. They are on their 3rd winter now and seem very happy and active.

Please bring him inside, it's getting far too cold for the poor bunny to be sleeping outside.

My two looked cold outside six weeks ago, so I moved them into a stable. They love it. They've a huge pile of straw they burrow in and the snuggle together. We have a grill at the door, but it's been so windy we've shut it the last few days. I've put a cage type rabbit run inside the stable and covered the top and sides with wood, in the hope it's warmer for them when real winter kicks in.

We got the first rabbit at short notice and he had to live in a hutch. I covered it at night but he thumped a lot, I think he didn't like not being able to see if there was anything prowling (used to freak my dog out, she thought it was fireworks!).

Yes indoors all the time