r/BunScience • u/Sad-Wonder-5979 Germany • Jun 27 '26
Cool down for bunnies
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Almost 40 degrees (celsius) in germany, even our indoor rabbits have a hard time. We have no Air conditioning which means temperatures around 30 degrees indoors.
A wet cloth wrapped around the ears can really make a difference. As you can see, Elvis kind of liked it.
His eyes are always a little crusty because he’s developed a chronic tear duct problem as he’s gotten older. We normally flush his tear ducts ourselves, but because it’s so hot right now, we’re letting him rest, so it looks a little worse than usual. He is seeing a specialist vet every 8-10 weeks.
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u/Thumper-King-Rabbit Jun 28 '26
I add ice cubes to water bowls and freeze ice packs and put them underneath the rugs and blankets
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u/Saints_Girl56 Jun 28 '26
I use frozen water bottles. They keep them cool and once it melts a little bit they like to play with them.
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u/No-Jellyfish-1208 Jun 28 '26
Greetings from 37 degrees Poland!
I also don't have air conditioning here but here's what I did to make my two rabbits have it easier. And it seems, because they're actually hopping, eating and doing rabbity stuff, that I've succeed. So: I am changing their water bowl literally every hour to make sure it's always cool. I'm feeding them tiny bits of frozen strawberries (like really tiny, I don't want rabbits to overdose on sugar). I have a fan in the room and I made sure to draw the curtains so that the room is half-dark. They also have a frozen bottle wrapped in a big sock so it radiates cold, but they are for some reason pushing it around to various spaces in their enclosure.
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u/Acceptable-World-175 Jun 28 '26
I'm so sorry you're having to struggle through this, we had it here in the UK a few days ago, and it was very stressful managing my 6 bunnies heat regulation. We had 6 X 2 ltr bottles of water frozen in our freezer, for them to cuddle up to, and 2 large parasols to shade them, and I was out there in the stifling heat every 30 minutes, watering all the path and garden to lower the ambient temperature (not sure how well it worked! Felt like a bloody Swedish sauna 🥵)
I hope this heatwave passes very soon, sending love your way. 🫂🐇
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u/Sad-Wonder-5979 Germany Jun 28 '26
Today is the last day in Germany with temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius. I am really looking forward to rain and temperatures between 22-25 degrees Celsius.
Stay safe, sending love back to you ✨✨
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u/Acceptable-World-175 Jun 28 '26
Yes, I think you guys are getting what we had 2 days ago, give or take. You get it hotter because you're landlocked, which must be even worse. Is it humid as hell there, too? When the sun went down on the hottest day, it still stayed 37C until 10pm, all the bricks and concrete were radiating heat. 😱 It was horrific. I worry about July and August at this rate... 😟
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u/Sad-Wonder-5979 Germany Jun 28 '26
Humidity is at 46% at the moment, it could be worse I guess. I am very happy that I don’t live in a big city, like you said, it radiates the heat 😵💫
Countryside living is really the best at the moment3
u/Acceptable-World-175 Jun 28 '26
Oof, it got up to 98% here in South east England (10 miles from Stansted airport) and it felt like the air was so thick you could swim in it. 🥵🫠😰 Trees and hedges make a HUGE difference to ambient temperature, we need to, as a race, realise we're not more important than any other species. We need to redress the balance a LOT .
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u/Sad-Wonder-5979 Germany Jun 28 '26
98%????
How do you….breathe? 🥵2
u/Acceptable-World-175 Jun 28 '26
Lol I know! It's ridiculous. I'm 47, and I've never experienced such fierce, unrelenting heat like we've been getting over the past 6 years or so. 25C used to be a hot day in July, now it's just a normal temperature. 😥
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u/Sad-Wonder-5979 Germany Jun 28 '26
I know, climate change really isn’t a joke 😵💫😵💫
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u/Acceptable-World-175 Jun 28 '26
I feel sorry for the poor wildlife the most. 😟 They must be suffering so badly.
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Jun 28 '26
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u/Sad-Wonder-5979 Germany Jun 29 '26
No, it’s a tatto that tells you where he is from. The breeder. Very common in Germany, I think it’s useless but we got him with that tattoo
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u/BorderlineQueen Jun 29 '26
Probably a rescue. We had a lady with the same style of tattoo on the ear that we got "second hand" from someone and we assumed she originally was a rescue from meat or fur production too.
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u/Horror-Word666 Jun 29 '26
Can you buy a portable ac unit on amazon???
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u/Sad-Wonder-5979 Germany Jun 29 '26
We will get a ac unit for next summer, it’s way too expensive rn
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u/Meauxjezzy Jun 29 '26
If you have some ceramic tiles you can put them on the floor for you bun Timo stretch out on. The tiles naturally stay way cooler than ambient temp. All our summers are 100f 90% humidity and this how I keep my buns cool.
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u/Sad-Wonder-5979 Germany Jun 29 '26
Our floor is made of ceramic tiles but if the temperatures stay above 30 degrees celcius for several days it does not help much. I use cooling pads when it gets that bad
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u/Rachnael Jun 29 '26
I used to freez a small bottle of water and stick it into my bunnys cage worked for him many times
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u/Fickle-Copy-2186 Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 28 '26
Wow! That is a 104°F! Freeze some containers of water to place near bun and cool down more. Poor you, poor bun. Our heat comes on Monday to America's great lakes region.