Rabbits handle cold far better than most owners expect, and far better than they handle summer heat. What they do not handle is wet and drafty. A Cloverdale winter is rarely severe, but it is persistently damp and windy, and that combination is harder on an outdoor rabbit than a dry cold snap would be.
Most of what goes wrong between November and February comes down to housing rather than temperature.
Cold is not the enemy. Damp and drafts are
A healthy adult rabbit with a good winter coat, a dry shelter and plenty of bedding copes with temperatures around freezing, and a little below, as long as the shelter stays dry. Rabbits do not hibernate, and they should not become sleepy or inactive in winter. A rabbit who seems to be slowing down for the season is not settling in for the winter, they are unwell.
What causes genuine harm here is a hutch that lets rain in, sits where wind blows straight through it, or stands directly on wet ground. Wet fur loses nearly all of its insulating value, and a damp rabbit in a draft will lose heat fast even at temperatures that would otherwise be harmless.
Getting the housing right
- Raise the hutch off the ground on legs or blocks so damp does not wick up through the floor.
- Move it out of the prevailing wind, ideally against a wall or fence, with the open side away from the weather. A sheltered spot matters more than an insulated one.
- Cover the front at night with a tarp or a purpose-made hutch cover, leaving a gap for air. Sealing a hutch completely causes condensation, and damp air inside is worse than cold air moving through.
- Deep bedding, checked daily. Plenty of straw in the sleeping area, with hay for eating. Straw insulates better; hay is food. Wet bedding must come out every day, not every week.
- Consider moving them into an unheated shed or outbuilding for the worst of the winter. This is often the single best change. One caution: never a garage that a vehicle is used in, because exhaust fumes build up in an enclosed space and rabbits are very sensitive to them.
- Keep the space big enough to move. A rabbit who cannot exercise gets cold faster and runs into gut problems. Winter is not a reason to shut a rabbit into a small box.
Rabbits are social animals, and a bonded pair will keep each other warm. If you have a single rabbit, that is worth thinking about for next year as much as for this one.
Water is the thing most people get wrong
A rabbit who cannot drink will stop eating, and a rabbit who stops eating is in trouble within hours rather than days. Bottle spouts freeze before the bottle does, and an owner glancing at a bottle that still has water in it can easily miss that the rabbit has had nothing since yesterday evening.
Check the spout itself, not the water level, at least twice a day in freezing weather. Heavy ceramic bowls freeze less readily than bottles and most rabbits drink more from a bowl anyway. Having both is the safest arrangement.
Feeding in winter
Unlimited good hay is the whole foundation, winter and summer. Rabbits use more energy keeping warm, so most outdoor rabbits need more hay available rather than more pellets. Keep fresh greens going, but bring them out in smaller amounts more often so they do not freeze or spoil in the hutch.
Watch body condition by feel rather than by eye, because a thick winter coat hides weight loss completely. Run your hands along the spine and ribs weekly. A rabbit losing condition under a full coat is easy to miss until it is advanced.
The signs that need a vet today, and some that need one now
Rabbits deteriorate faster than dogs and cats, and they conceal illness as a survival instinct. These are not wait-and-see situations:
- Not eating, or not producing droppings, for eight hours. This is the most important line in this article. Eight hours with no food and no droppings is a genuine emergency rather than a wait-and-see. A rabbit who is simply eating less, or passing fewer and smaller droppings, should be seen the same day rather than watched to see whether it reaches eight hours.
- Sitting hunched, pressing the belly down, grinding teeth loudly. These are pain signs. Loud grinding is not the same as the soft tooth-purring a relaxed rabbit does while being stroked.
- Soft stool stuck around the back end, which needs cleaning and investigating, not just cleaning.
- Laboured breathing, or any discharge from the nose or eyes.
- A head tilt, or loss of balance.
- Lethargy, or a rabbit who does not come for food. Rabbits do not get quietly sleepy in winter.
Our rabbit care page has more on routine rabbit health checks, and a wellness visit before the coldest months is a sensible way to catch dental and weight issues while they are still small. For anything that cannot wait, we offer urgent care.
Our hours
We are open every day from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm, which covers most of when a rabbit owner notices something is wrong. If your rabbit stops eating or stops passing droppings while we are closed, late in the evening or overnight, do not wait for us to open.
Go straight to an emergency hospital, and call ahead to confirm they have a veterinarian who sees rabbits. Many emergency hospitals see only dogs and cats, and arriving somewhere that cannot help costs you time you do not have. Gut stasis in a rabbit is measured in hours.
Common questions
Should I bring my rabbit indoors for the winter?
You can, but do not move them back and forth. Repeated large temperature swings are harder on a rabbit than a consistent cold. If you bring them in, keep them in, and keep them away from central heating vents.
What temperature is too cold?
For a healthy adult rabbit with dry shelter and deep bedding, a Cloverdale winter is manageable. Young, elderly, thin or unwell rabbits have far less margin and should come inside or into a shed. The exception for everyone is a cold snap with outflow wind, when temperatures sit well below freezing for days at a time. Bring any outdoor rabbit in for those stretches, healthy or not.
My rabbit is eating less but still eating a little. Is that alright?
No. A reduced appetite in a rabbit is an early warning, not a mild version of normal. Call us the same day.
Can I use a heat pad in the hutch?
Only one made for animals, and only where the rabbit can move off it. Rabbits burn easily on surfaces that feel merely warm to us, and they will not move away in time. Outdoors, a microwavable pad is safer than anything with a cord, because rabbits chew cords.
Do guinea pigs need the same care?
No, and this matters. Guinea pigs are considerably less cold-tolerant than rabbits and should not be housed outdoors through a Cloverdale winter. Bring them inside or into a well-insulated, frost-free space.
Speak to the team at Apollo Animal Hospital
If your rabbit has gone off their food, stopped passing droppings, or simply is not behaving like themselves, call us the same day. With rabbits, early is the whole game.
Published by the team at Apollo Animal Hospital.
This article is educational in nature and is not a replacement for hands-on assessment of your own pet by a veterinarian.
Apollo Animal Hospital
17525 56 Ave, Surrey, BC V3S 1C4 (Cloverdale)
Phone: (604) 372-4411
Hours: Open every day 8:00 am to 10:00 pm