Keeping Rabbits Cool Question

This may be the wrong place for this; don't see a critter forum.

I had rabbits as a kid and remember doing the frozen water bottle thing during the Texas summer. I also remember we kept fans on them all summer long. I've been reading around to remind myself about rabbit care, since I'm picking up some tomorrow after many years of not having any, and I keep seeing admonishments to never the fan directly at the rabbits. They say to blow the air over or under, never at.

Why? When I'm hot, I want to stand in front of the fan, not to the side of it. None of the pages I've read go on to explain why you don't want the fan to blow directly on the rabbits.

Any one know the reason? It was 107F here today, and I had planned on cranking a fan on the cages as soon as I got the bunnies home.

 

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My thoughts are, what are your sources for this contrary information? Where are they located? Do their climate conditions mirror yours or are they different? If you did it in the past, and it worked, and you do not remember having problems doing it, why are you not trusting what you know works. Their are plenty of so called experts that are nay sayers ..... and truth is they just don't know as much as they think they do. I say go for it, and watch their health closely. If then you suspect a problem adjust the air flow. Good luck. Let us know how it turns out.

 

Also had rabbits in central Texas in the summer. We moved all ours to ground level cages, wire bottoms of course, kept in the shade with a water soaker hose on the area in and around the cages. This allowed the rabbits a choice of wet or dry. A reason to not blow air on them is that it is not natural and stresses them to always have the wind in their eyes and that drys them up and this causees other problems.

 

The sources include a 20 year rabbit breeder in Arizona, where it's as hot as my location. I've also found a half dozen other breeders say the same thing, several of which have hundreds of rabbits. I only had fifteen or so back in the mid 80s. Admittedly I'm an arrogant SOB (or I guess that'd be a DOB...) but when people who have decades of experience on me offer advice, I tend to listen. I figured there had to be some sort of important reason if they all seemed to be saying it.

That makes sense... although Texas rabbits outta be used to the wind.

Tell you what, a little breeze in their face can't be as bad as the filthy barn I just picked them up from. HOLY CRAP! Take a 40x60 barn, put about a hundred rabbits in suspended cages in it, then let a few hundred chickens, geese, ducks, turkeys, and peacocks run loose in it. Everything was covered in poop, was even sinking in it when I walked. Teach me to wear flip flops.

 

Fans are better than nothing and water mister might be better used over the cage, thing is we did not have even a Swamp Cooler for us, so the rabbits had better conditions than we did. In our case the cooling for the rabbits was better served with being at ground level and in the shade.

Our animals came first and still do. Scumbags who run Puppy/Rabbit Mills should be forced to live in those same conditions.

 

I've mounted the cages on the fence under a tree so they are completely in the shade. I have 2 liter bottles freezing now for them to lie against during the day, and the box fan on one end. The entire cage bank is just 12 foot long so it should reach all the way down pretty well.. I was thinking of putting a damp burlap cloth in front of it and then setting a 2 liter with pin pricks in it on the top of the cloth to sorta keep it damp. With the fan facing it, it should both cut the direct wind and act like a swamp cooler.

I looked them over better here at the house and they are nice, blocky type rabbits, though two of them are on the skinny side. All three have bad hock sores, and they were all drug from their cages by their ears so they're pretty jumpy about being touched, but I think they'll like the new digs (and hopefully make a lot of babies once the temps come down!). My critters live happy and clean. I'd rather gnaw the hair out of a mule's armpit than eat meat that was raised in such filth.

 

Good deal. Looks good to me.

As to the wind/fan, any animal should be kept as close to their natural setting as possiable. Cows and horses will be seen with their rump to the wind, OTOH rabbits will, on hot windy days, be found in their burrows hunkered down close to the cool earth, panting as a way to cool them selves. Fresh cool water is # 1.
The sores should go away on their own if you provide some smooth plywood for them to lay on, only wire can cause a lot of problems, skin pricks are the worst so fresh bedding as needed. Neosporin with pain killer would aid the healing and you're right, no ear handling.