Hope everyones bunnies are ok in this heat :-(

We are struggling terribly it's 32 outside and we have 2 huge cooling units at each end of the boarding shed and it's 22 in there and now we are working even harder to keep the temperature from going up.
Mike is just putting a canopy up out of tarpaulins to shade the boarding shed and if that's no better we will move the holiday buns in the shed into the inside suites as that room is slightly cooler.

We have fans on, windows open, cooling units on the go which we are emptying water from on the hour as the water bottles are getting so full as they are working harder, ice pods are out and others being frozen all the time. We have to go round them to check them all the time due to the heat. It's awful and it's even worse at night.

Hope everyone else's bunnies are ok I really do as this is not weather for rabbits Bless them  

Mikes just popped to Lidl to buy some more fans . Three of the buns have been collected and gone home so that's less worry, Snickers is our biggest worry as he is a big bun and feeling the heat a little but I am checking him every 15 minutes. Mike has got the tarpaulin up and it seems to be keeping the temperature down a little.

The little Wendy house is for Molly and Marley when they come here while Sophia is at College, it's not stopping there it's going somewhere cooler and he has to do inside yet and I'm going to paint it when we get time and it will have a run attached.

Hi  

Dougal has his own bedroom and our house is naturally hot, even in winter it does not get freezing, luckily we have a high wall facing his room on the yard so it blocks most the sun up until after dinner some time, takes a bit to hit his room but it is hot in his room even with the window open, it has fly mesh on to stop flies getting in but there is not really any wind here atm, very hot/humid. I have a fan just sat outside our bedroom in the doorway blowing in, I wont put it closer as it is powerful but I just put on stronger setting if needed. He has a iced up bottle in his room in case he wants to lie nest to it but doe not bother much with it, he just now and again sits at gate getting blown by the fan. I keep putting ice in his bowl of water as I have got him o a bowl now, he has a bottle in his cage still too but easier doing ice cubes into a bowl and he seems to like drinking from it more anyway.

It does not sound as bad as what you guys are going through, must be really hard with al those buns to keep cool, especially the outside ones, poor things, I hope they are all okay and that you manage to find solutions, sounds like you are doing everything you can, you must both be hot and exhausted too.

My brothers Husky must be roasting too and our black lab Sam , he is 15 and black so he just absorbs the sun and he struggles when it is like this, I had an ice cube in my drink left over so I rubbed it around his ead and he loved it, it cooled him down, bless him, he does not live with me but I still call him mine as I have grown up with him and he is a humummy's boy. He is very clingy with me, I go to my parents a lot to spend time with him and walk with them and he sleeps over at ours once a week  . I will have to post some photos of Sam and Akira at some point

I love the Wendy house btw, bet it will be great once you do it up.

Autumn seems to be ok

It's not *too* bad here again as we have the slight breeze.

Theo scared the poop out of Hudad by going to sleep in a sunbeam (black bun, remember?  ) and he was so deep under Hudad called him, called him louder and finally poked him to wake him up  

At the RWAF conference one of the speakers said that buns will sometimes paddle, or even get right into, a large shallow dish of water. Hudad put an inch of water in the bottom of a dog bed for Mason yesterday but he was not impressed.

     I will have to try this with dougal, although the carpet might get a bit wet.

It's been 25C for the past few days but it was 28 at the weekend. Hector is mostly ok, he has the fan on all day pointed in his crate, he goes and sits next to it, it's so cute. He's been a little quieter but he doesn't feel too warm, my room is fairly cool, it's at about 20 during the day which I don't think is too bad considering its south facing!

Just a word of encouragement.....where I live in the USA temps are often over 100 F (37.8 C)in the Summer with morning lows still above 90 F(32.2 C).  Even companion rabbits are often kept outside.  House buns are a rarity.  The rabbits seem to tolerate the heat as long as they have lots of water and a little more fruit(for mineral replacement)  We have salt licks for our rabbits.  They are controversial in the literature.  Of the local rabbit people I know they all have salt licks available though not each of rabbits use them.  Rabbits seem to 'know' when they need more salt or so I have been told.  The only rabbit I had that used it was Trooper and that was only when he had a sticky bottom. I had forgotten about salt licks. We have one now for Rory to lick if he wants to. We try to keep our house around 72 F in the Summer though it gets so hot outside that sometimes the a/c cannot keep up.

When our a/c went out last week we had plastic 2 L soda bottles filled with ice for him to lie against if he wanted to. It got up to 86 F and he just liked to lay on the cool ceramic tile floor.

I did not know they needed more fruit to replace minerals and I always thought that salt licks where a no no for rabbits.I learn something new every day on here. Is it worth getting a salt lick and mineral lick then?

With Dougal only being just over 5 months old I wont be introducing him to fruit until he is about 6 months old, same with certain veggies, he has had some Parsley and small amounts of carrot tops today. I will bare this in mind for next year though.

It's been better here today than over the last few days. We've had more of a breeze here and I think temperatures have been a bit lower. They've been between 27-30 degrees lately - TOO hot for the buns and me!

They're managing ok. I'm thankful they're still inside with their nice cool lino floor. The shed is in the shady part of the garden, but I'm going to use wire to cover the window and then have a "roll up/down" tarpaulin system to cover it in the rain/wind/cold. I CANNOT install those plastic windows. It would get really stuffy...

We hav had 30 degrees for days now, Annie is really struggling and I worry for her with her poorly heart.

They have ice pods and frozen lemonade bottles which they ignore and a white sheet over their run to keep it shady. They have also been having a cold carrot ate lunchtime to try and cool them down.....

Marley and Dolly arent doing too badly, thankfully. Our back garden is south facing and can get unbearable at times!! Ive been putting them in the grassy run on the front lawn, at least out there, there's a little breeze and they seem to be happier out there during the hottest part of the day. They have a run shade on the run and I have been putting their ice pods out for them. They never seem to bother with them, but I tried putting a damp tea towel in the freezer over night and that was a huge success!!

As of Thursday though, they wont be able to go on the grass so im going to have to put the shade back on the concrete run before i go into hospital... I wonder if Mum would put the gazebo up over the playhouse with me tomorrow night?!  

Well it's 2:03 am in the morning here and we still have all the windows wide open and 4 tall fans on the go. Mike and I have struggled to get them cleaned out and fed in the heat. It's suppose to get even hotter by Friday .

I said to Mike tonight can we move to Iceland he said " No it will be shut now "   

But all good bunny mums go to Iceland!

Respite! MUCH cooler today. Make the most of it though - hotter again tomorrow!

Sue_pawz wrote:Respite! MUCH cooler today.  Make the most of it though - hotter again tomorrow!

It's so much cooler to work in and nicer for the buns  

It's suppose to be even hotter by Friday here  

Yes, I saw that. It's not so bad if you don't have anything to do in the heat. I have the grass to cut and Friday will be my next opportunity  

My buns are fine,luckily here we've had sunny and warm days but there's also been a nice cool breeze in the air and when it has gotten quite hot in the evenings I put the ice pods in their hutch,even though they never use them .
I wish we had sun today though,it's clouded over again and it may even rain! I'll have some of your heat if you don't want it

Sue_pawz wrote:Yes, I saw that.  It's not so bad if you don't have anything to do in the heat.  I have the grass to cut and Friday will be my next opportunity  

I wish we just had the grass to cut, we will gladly swap with you  

We have all the windows open and watching Boo very carefully. I have a fan on him and if he finds it too much he will just walk away but he seems to be enhynig it.

A few extra juicy things are being given out, to him and my piggies, hammies and hermit crabs. Cherries seem to be a favourite with everyone (including me but don't get any LOL!!)

Hugs

Jo xx

It was 102 F today here....... 

Ouch!

its cooler here today thank goodness - the buns were so much happier this morning and a lot more animated which is fab to see.

Its funny because I have always loved loved loved the heat and sun, but I found myself hoping for cooler weather for the buns....how things have changed.

It is roasting here today!! So much so that my front door is now too big for the frame! I couldn't get it open or closed I'll need to get the house builder out for a look!!

Molly and Junior's room was nice and cool. The sun doesn't reach their window until late afternoon and I'm home not long after that so can let them out of their room and down to the front half of the house, which is cooler by that time.

I also close the curtains in their room when they're downstairs. It seems to help a bit!

The weather better stay like this for when I'm off next week

Back at you over the pond too Hun, many cooling vibes for you and your sweet bun.