Keeping rabbits in winter: rules at home, pros and cons

The rabbit's body is adapted to winter conditions, but still, for the successful keeping of rabbits in winter, it is necessary to prepare a rabbitry, follow the recommendations for care and feeding. During the cold months, animals should not be allowed to be in a damp room with drafts and sharp temperature fluctuations. Failure to comply with the conditions of detention leads to weight loss and the appearance of colds in rabbits.

Can rabbits be kept outside in winter?

You can keep pets outside in the winter. It will even benefit the animals, but subject to the conditions of detention and quality feeding.

Benefits

Street keeping of rabbits has advantages:

1. Frosty weather helps to strengthen the immune system of pets.
2. Insulating cages costs less money than building a buried rabbitry.
3. During the frosty period, many pathogens die, thereby reducing the likelihood of livestock being affected by infectious pathologies.
4. Animals breathe fresh air around the clock.

Flaws

There are also disadvantages of keeping rabbits outdoors in winter, but they are insignificant, with proper arrangement of cages and high-quality nutrition, they do not interfere with pets to live a full life:

1. In high frost, reaching -30 °C, rabbit immunity suffers.
2. In order to get offspring in winter, the installation of artificial light sources is required to extend daylight hours, which makes it harder to pay for electricity.
3. Drinking water must be constantly heated so that pets do not catch a cold when drinking it.

How hot can rabbits stand

Rabbits look tender and weak, and inexperienced farmers naturally wonder if their pets are afraid of frost. They are afraid, but only the strong.

Thanks to a fluffy fur coat with a dense undercoat, the rabbit's body can easily withstand temperatures down to -12 ° C. Within 2-3 days, the rabbit can withstand temperatures down to -18 ° C. If the cages are well insulated, then the animals will tolerate a short-term drop in temperature to -25 ° C. However, a long stay of animals in extreme temperature conditions is unacceptable. If prolonged frosts are predicted, it is better to move the pets indoors.

The optimal temperature for a rabbit's body is from +10 to +18 °C, and humidity is 60%. Unfavorable microclimatic conditions make you feel worse.

Preparing cells for cold weather

Tips for beginner farmers on how to winterize rabbit hutches:

1. The first step is to insulate the floor in the cages. To do this, it is covered with a thick plywood sheet. Or make a boardwalk. A layer of straw or sawdust is placed on top. We must not forget about the regular change of bedding in the winter.
2. Cage doors are covered with plywood sheet or polycarbonate film.
3. The rear and side walls are insulated with foam boards, felt or padding fiber. Moreover, it is better to put the insulation on the outer surface of the wall, and cover it with roofing material or other dense film material on top.

The insulation cover is removed in the spring, as soon as warm weather returns. Otherwise, mold will begin to multiply inside the cells due to increased pairing.

Cages in the yard in winter should be placed so that they are covered by a building on the north side. It is advisable to make two rows with a narrow passage between them so that the cage doors look at each other. With such a design solution, you can even make a shed roof, under which to fix the light source. And on the north side, you can put a temporary plywood fence.

Cages with young individuals should preferably be kept at home in a barn or greenhouse. To keep rabbits in greenhouse conditions in winter, even cages are not needed, it is enough to build a mesh aviary inside, deepened into the ground by 0.5 m. But keep in mind that in spring, females can dig holes and close up offspring.

How to feed and water?

If it is wrong to keep rabbits in winter, then their body will not be able to maintain normal life at low temperatures: immunity will weaken, followed by exhaustion, weight loss.

Therefore, pets should be fed qualitatively in winter, food should be high-calorie and warm.

Cold water should not be given to rabbits. It needs to be reheated regularly to keep it at a comfortable drinking temperature. Some farmers make their job easier by giving their pets snow instead of water. But this is a bad option, fraught with colds in rabbits.

The basis of the winter diet is hay. In winter, rabbits should receive juicy food (vegetables and root crops), branches, silage - these are sources of vitamins and mineral elements to strengthen immunity. It is necessary to ensure that the mash and juicy vegetables placed in the feeder do not freeze. Frozen food is taken away, thawed, put back in the feeder.

Features of breeding

You can have rabbits in winter, but subject to certain conditions:

1. Rabbits that have already given birth are selected for mating.
2. Selected females must be in good he alth.
3. Happen animals in a warm room.
4. Mating is organized on days when there are no severe frosts.
5. Before childbirth, the mother liquor is disinfected.

A pregnant rabbit is moved in winter right in a cage with a nest in a greenhouse. The mother liquor must remain clean, and the room must be ventilated, but without drafts. While the female is carrying offspring, the temperature in the room should not fall below +5 °C.

If the conditions of detention are uncomfortable, then the female after giving birth may refuse to care for the cubs.

In order for rabbits born in winter to remain he althy, the temperature around them should be about +30 °C. It is important to control that the female does not leave the cubs for a long time, so that she feeds them at least 2 times a day.

Possible problems

Although caring for rabbits in winter is not particularly difficult, and infectious pathologies are rare, but with insufficient warming of cells and poor-quality diet, pets start having problems due to hypothermia and weakening of the body.

Often, with mistakes in winter maintenance, rabbits get frostbite. The problem is observed when the air temperature drops to -25 °C. Paws and ears freeze first. The injured animal worries, licks the affected parts of the body, sits in unnatural positions.

There are 3 stages of frostbite:

• 1st - the skin turns red, swells in some areas, the sick animal must be taken to a warm room, lubricate the damaged areas of the body with fat;
• 2nd - blisters form, the affected rabbit is kept warm, the affected area is smeared with camphor oil;
• 3rd - the affected area is deformed, dries out, in this case, veterinary care is indispensable.

In winter, rabbits often get rhinitis. More often it is a cold, less often it is infectious. The main symptoms are mucous nasal discharge, sneezing, lethargy, poor appetite. If the nasal mucus is transparent, then catarrhal rhinitis. If green or yellowish white, then infectious. A sick rabbit is transferred to a warm room, well fed, given vitamins, and the nasal passages are washed with a solution of Furacilin (1:100). A veterinarian treats an infectious rhinitis.

On frosty days, a rabbit may develop bleeding, painful calluses on the soles of its paws. The pathology is called pododermatitis. A sick animal is kept in a warm room, fed with high quality, wounds are treated with medicines prescribed by a veterinarian.

Frost-resistant breeds of rabbits

All rabbits adapt quickly to temperate winter conditions. With quality care and nutrition, animals survive outdoors without problems.Particularly resistant to cold are rabbit breeds bred for fur and down. But meat breeds are quite adapted to adverse conditions, as they also have a dense undercoat.

The following breeds of rabbits are suitable for outdoor keeping in winter:

• California;
• Soviet chinchilla;
• white New Zealand;
• viennese blue;
• butterfly;
• burgundy;
• downy Angora;
• downy white;
• white giant;
• black-brown;
• Russian stoat;
• silver;
• Soviet marder.

Proper maintenance, quality care and good nutrition - these are the factors that contribute not only to maintaining the he alth of the rabbit population in the winter, but also to the appearance of offspring with strong immunity.By taking good care of the rabbits in the winter, the farmer gets he althy animals with a good weight in the spring, which ensures the profitability of the business.

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