Excerpts from facebook conversations regarding heat:
I am in Sacramento. We have to plan for temps up to 110F in the summer. But for the most part it is a dry heat (low humidity). And it usually cools off when the sun goes down. Fans and frozen water bottles was our first line of response. We did find that swamp coolers (evaporative) were useful when blowing from one end of a rabbit shed or garage and out the other side. Watch for signs of heat stress which is heavy breathing and wet muzzles. For those rabbits we often just put them in show carrier cages and brought them inside for the day when it was air conditioned. They went back out at night. Some days we might have 20 rabbits in carriers lined up in the hallway. Since we went to a lot of shows, we had a lot of show carrier cages with solid bottoms and cups for feed and water. You can visit my webpage on outdoor housing.
http://www.rabbitgeek.com/outdoorhousingmay05.htm
I should mention that we did lose a few to the heat over the years. So any rabbits that survived were considered to be heat tolerant. I think my American Blues which had been born and raised in the Calif Central Valley were the most heat tolerant. Often they did not get frozen water bottles after we had handed bottles out to the angoras. But a couple of the Americans really seemed to like the warm weather just fine. On the other hand, Americans that are raised in northern climates do not always adjust to hot southern summers. Same with southern rabbits moving to northern winters. We learned a lot during the "American Drift" breed migration runs.
Evening and morning sun can be challenging if we don't look for it. Spring sun can be deadly when the trees are still bare of leaves (no shade) and a clear sunny day hits rabbits cages that are tarped down for a blizzard. It's like having the rabbits in the car with the windows rolled up. Solar oven. So be aware of the weather forecasts.
Backyard meatrabbits on facebook is good group to visit
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Backyard.Meat.Rabbits/
Have a good day!
I am in Sacramento. We have to plan for temps up to 110F in the summer. But for the most part it is a dry heat (low humidity). And it usually cools off when the sun goes down. Fans and frozen water bottles was our first line of response. We did find that swamp coolers (evaporative) were useful when blowing from one end of a rabbit shed or garage and out the other side. Watch for signs of heat stress which is heavy breathing and wet muzzles. For those rabbits we often just put them in show carrier cages and brought them inside for the day when it was air conditioned. They went back out at night. Some days we might have 20 rabbits in carriers lined up in the hallway. Since we went to a lot of shows, we had a lot of show carrier cages with solid bottoms and cups for feed and water. You can visit my webpage on outdoor housing.
http://www.rabbitgeek.com/outdoorhousingmay05.htm
I should mention that we did lose a few to the heat over the years. So any rabbits that survived were considered to be heat tolerant. I think my American Blues which had been born and raised in the Calif Central Valley were the most heat tolerant. Often they did not get frozen water bottles after we had handed bottles out to the angoras. But a couple of the Americans really seemed to like the warm weather just fine. On the other hand, Americans that are raised in northern climates do not always adjust to hot southern summers. Same with southern rabbits moving to northern winters. We learned a lot during the "American Drift" breed migration runs.
Evening and morning sun can be challenging if we don't look for it. Spring sun can be deadly when the trees are still bare of leaves (no shade) and a clear sunny day hits rabbits cages that are tarped down for a blizzard. It's like having the rabbits in the car with the windows rolled up. Solar oven. So be aware of the weather forecasts.
Backyard meatrabbits on facebook is good group to visit
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Backyard.Meat.Rabbits/
Have a good day!
