Any body have rabbits out there.I have 9 breeds.I just had 40 babies born last week.They grow very fast and are very cute.
love rabbits
rabbits are awfully adorable. I've been thinking that either rabbits or pigeons/doves will be my next purchase for an outdoor pet. :-)
I'd love to see pics!
I've had two for a few years now.
i have 9 rabbits. 1 angora, 2 rex, 1 dutch, 4 holland lops and 1 i think is a cross. it looks like an eyeliner looking one crossed the albino ones but i don't remember what breed those r.
We raise them for meat, but we also have Chicken Bunny who lives loose in the yard and sleeps with the chickens. He's a pet.
ours r for pets and show for the local fair. i love them too this is lily she is one of my holland lops. i have more of them than kid's so a few of them r mine,lol.
I had a dwarf bunny who lived to be 14. She was amazing. I got her when she was tiny at a pet store. I would get any new bunny at the shelter. Does anybody in zone 5 or less keep bunnies outside in winter? I would like to have one with my bantams.
I've kept bunnies outside here in the winter, but with lots of protection.
What did you use for protection, Jasmerr?
We had them in a hutch, of course, and when temps would get below zero we add extra bedding and put plastic around the hutch to keep the wind from blowing in the doors with chicken wire inserts. If it was expected to be extremely cold for long periods, we would move the hutch into the barn or garage. The bunnies we have now used to be on our enclosed utility porch, but now live outside. We will be moving the hutch under an soon to be built enclosure next to the barn.
OK, so I could do that, and then put them in the Wick Building if it is really cold for a spell. I would just love to have a bunny again....
My rabbits live in two sheds with no heat and have had babies when the temp was 16 degrees and their water bottles were frozen solid with only a hundred watt light bulb over each nest box. Rabbits are so much fun to watch grow from tiny babies to little bunnies in six weeks.I have a dutch that just had seven little black and white babies.
16 degrees isn't too bad. I'm more worried about the -20 to -30 days....
Yikes!!!! Thats cold!Every thing I out side would freeze.The coldest I have ever seen here was 8 degrees back 1983.Our water pipes are only buried 12 inches deep.I would have protect my rabbits a lot better.
We had two weeks of about -20º last year! ☺
Our water pipes are 3 to 4 feet deep. We have to shut off all our outside spigots. We get "real" winter up here!
My Rabbits are Dwarfs and they have and enclosed part on their pens that i fill with straw.
I will move them to a heated area if it gets below freezing because in those temps rabbits can freeze to death.
I never breed in the winter as baby rabbits are more likely to freeze to death when they leave the nest. The only people i know that breed in the winter have indoor cages and a heat source.
The reason I breed in winter is because it is so hot in summer.I have lost babies heat but not to cold.The only time I have lost babies to cold is when the does have their babies on the hutch floor instead the nest boxes.I have nice nest boxes with soft hay for them to have their babies in.When it gets very cold I put a light bulb over each nest box.It's subtropical here I can grow satsumas and other tender fruits here.
I'm sure it works for you, cowpea, but here we would have little bunnicicles!
Bunnicicles LOL
If I breed mine in the cold, I ductape an old heating pad under their nesting box. It's like under floor heating, he only provisions that I make for mine in winter is to wrap their hutch on three sides with plastic and make sure their wooden nest boxes are filled with straw. I also knock out the frozen water from their dis and gfill it with hot once a day. We are zone 4.
You know you can bring the babys inside and take them back out for their once a day feeding.
We had a cold snap this spring when mine gave birth i would take take them down early in the morning to nurse and then in the late afternoon just in case mama bunny would let them nurse then they went back in for the night and repeated the next day.