Brr is it too cold for my Rabbits?

  Winter time and outside rabbits can be less challenging than you might think.  Rabbits live out in the wild in all kinds of weather.  If you provide a dry shelter out of the wind they won't need too much to keep them warm.   They will huddle naturally.  I like to put a few cotton blankets in my hutch for extra warmth. You may prefer to add straw. My reason against straw is they tend to potty in the hutch more and it needs cleaned out more often and replaced with dry.  

  I also feed extra hay in the winter and when temps are expected to be very low(below 15°) I will add a few black oil sunflower seeds, shells and all, to their pellets on average 3 or 4 per rabbit this will help to raise the Rabbits body temperature. Do not give this all the time because it can cause them to molt and loose their coat.

  The hardest is keeping water from freezing,  I have no good answers for that so I put fresh water out twice a day, more if I am home.  I hope this information helps you to keep your rabbits healthy and happy in the colder weather.

What are Tennesse redbacks?

Tennessee redback rabbits are friendly and can be pets, but they are used primarily for release into the wild to replenish hunting grounds.   They are also great to populate running pens to train beagles. These are one of the closest breeds to a eastern cottontail species that I have found..  Tennessee redback is not a registered breed so it may be harder to find information about them.  The person I got mine from has been breeding them for a long time and said they have breed to the cottontail successfully. 

 Although there is no real proof, many belive that they are a product of the eastern cottontail and a swamp rabbit that are found in Tennessee. Redbacks are a medium sized rabbit. Uniquely they are all different shades from grey to reddish brown, all have the white tail and some have lighter paws. 

They are great in outdoor habitats and can be raised in colonies if you choose that method. If you have read any of my blogs you have seen my set up.  I have on occasion seen a wild cottontail out by the hutch and it looks very similar to my grey Tennessee redback rabbit. So I tend to believe they are related. 

If you have any information on Tennessee redbacks that you would like to share please send me a comment. I love learning as much as I can.

Winterizing your outdoor rabbits hutch

 Do you live in cold winter climates? I live where the winter can bring any where from  the 60°'s to -20°'s. We have wind, rain, snow and friged temps.  I am not able to move my hutch inside a barn or garage, that is recommended.  This is my solution for  wintertime and outdoor rabbits. 

Rabbits live outside all year in the wild, they just need to find shelter, holes underground, and brush piles in well covered areas are preferred.  They like 60° weather down to 40°. Under 40° to 20° for short times they are ok if they have shelter that is protected by the  wind.  So it is totally fine to keep your rabbits outside, just give them protection from wind and cold.  I have saved bubble wrap to enclose and insulate my hutch, other recommendations are tarps or blankets, but with blankets it is recommended to cover with plastic sheeting.

It is important to leave a area open so there is always fresh air. It is common sense to leave your door area open for easy access for feeding.  I clipped the end with a reg office paper clip and stapled the wrap together to get the correct length.  I doubled for extra protection and stapled the pieces together.  Then tightly wrapped around and clipped again on the other side. I then wrapped the top of my hutch, I first covered  the open door using a hand towel.  I put a few blankets inside my hutch for the rabbits to nest in. Then wrapped the top with a simular method, with no wire I stappled the ends together and then stapled to lower wrap to keep it from blowing off.

I also will up my feed in the winter and add a 3 or 4 sunflower seeds 🌻when it will be extra cold.  Sunflower seeds are great to help with heating their internal temperature. They will need the extra calories to keep warm.

I hope this helps you to have happy bunnies this winter😉🐇🐇

Update, we had 3 days of temperatures below 20° and the rabbits did very well, the water did freeze, so it is important to check and give fresh water often. I also filled a milk jug with hot water to set beside the water bottle, this helped to keep the water unfrozen longer.

Exercise your rabbits

 Hello, Its been a few since I posted.  I recently attached a exercise pen to my hutch. The purpose was to make the living space larger, now that they have gotten full grown. It also gives them ample room to run laps. I was hoping they would have had fresh grass longer but within a few days they had munched ALL of it.  

I let them out into pen a few hours a day.  Anytime you can help your rabbit to stay heathy by getting exercise is so beneficial. When it is raining or snowing I leave them in the hutch. Rabbits are susceptible to respiratory diseases getting wet can lower their immune system. 

This is how I built my pen.  I started out trying to purchase just a pen to attach, but I was having trouble finding something that would be functional for my space.  So I seen this pen and ordered it thinking that it would work with no extra changes.

I put it together opened the hutch it seemed great, then Copper my male rabbit got his head and front paw through the openings!  OOPS! This is not for my size rabbits.  To fix this I got a roll of chicken wire.  With my husband's help we wrapped it around the outside of the pen. Then we secured the wire into place with some post.  It has been up for a few months now and has worked great! I hope this helps someone who is also looking to make more living space for their rabbits.

Please leave me comments and if you also raise rabbits and have a blog leave your link to your blog in the comments I love learning from others.

The big escape

It was like any other morning. I went down to the hutch to feed and water the rabbits. I did not know how it could have happened, but the hutch door was open! I looked in the top of the hutch and no rabbits!!

 So I started to call their names.  Out from the pine trees here came Silvia, I had some romaine lettuce and a few blueberries for todays treat. She came right up to me to snack, so I gently guided her into the hutch. Wow that was easy!

Now where are those other 2 at?  

I started to look around and just about 10 feet away was Opal, now Opal has always been the most skittish of the three, this could be tricky.

I slowly walked up to her and she came towards me a little.  Then it was like she realized what my plan was and turned real fast and headed under a bush, of course in the opposite direction of the hutch😒.

Meanwhile my husband came out of the house and joined in the search for Copper, As he walked towards the pine trees Copper popped out. Silvia was in the cage, so he got her to go up the ramp, opened the hutch door and he was able to get Copper back in the cage to eat the goodies in the pan. 2 down 1 to go 🙃

Now back to Opal by this time she had decided to venture near our deck, of course I have flowers planted so she had a snack! She managed to stay in and under the deck ALL DAY!

She would come out close enough to eat from my hand but would not let me catch her.  My husband and I decided she had played long enough! We have to be able to outsmart her,  right?  Long story we managed to get her chased back down towards the hutch where she decdied the pine trees were her new home for the next couple hours.

  I knew Copper came in for blueberries so got a few more blueberries and placed them near a  inside the open door, I then got the other rabbits to come to the other side and was hand feeding them by hand and keeping them occupied.  It worked she wanted to have the sweet snack as she interned the cage I jumped to the other side and closed the door!!! 

Lesson learned always check the latches!!