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If a decision is made to keep animals on the street, it is worth figuring out how rabbits winter in order to provide them with the necessary conditions and not to destroy the livestock. In winter, you need to make a special diet, insulate cages and aviaries. What are the features of breeding in winter and how to protect pets from diseases can be found in this article.
Benefits of keeping herbivores outdoors in winter
Experienced breeders are not afraid to keep herbivores outdoors in winter. At what temperature can rabbits live outside? Do not worry that animals will be cold in winter - their warm fur allows them to tolerate low temperatures well down to -30 ° C. Almost all breeds are well adapted to frost.
Keeping rabbits outdoors all year round has several advantages:
- frosty air hardens the animal and increases its immunity;
- saves money for the breeder - building and maintaining street cages will be cheaper than building a special shed;
- protects pets from infectious diseases - low temperatures exclude the possibility of ammonia fumes.
How to prepare a cage for cold weather
Before you take the cells out into the cold, you need to properly insulate them. Usually, blanks for insulation are collected in summer or autumn.
Materials suitable for insulating rabbit cages:
- dry leaves,
- straw,
- small branches,
- moss,
- Styrofoam,
- felt,
- polycarbonate.
The outer walls are upholstered with materials and the free space between the cells is filled. Wooden pallets are placed at the bottom, and a bed of straw is laid on top. In extreme cold, the cells are additionally insulated outside with cotton blankets. To prevent moisture ingress, the cells are covered with an overlap of iron sheets. Experts recommend raising the cage 80 centimeters from the surface of the ground to avoid getting wet and hypothermia.
Note! If you fill the cage with straw, the animal will receive additional heat - from the pet's breath, the material will heat up and warm.
More affluent farmers can afford special thermal films, self-regulating cables, and auto-heated drinkers. To protect your pet from disease, you need to place the cage away from drafts.
Decorative breeds are more delicate, therefore they are not allowed to be kept outdoors. The pet can get sick even when the owner opens the window to ventilate the room. Bathing in winter is prohibited, in rare cases, you can partially wash your pet, but then you must dry it thoroughly.
Arrangement of the aviary
Some villages keep rabbits in a greenhouse in winter. This option is considered the most economical, since it does not require the construction of an additional room for pets. Most often, ordinary greenhouses are used, they protect from drafts and are suitable for rabbits due to the special microclimate. Before the herbivores are allowed into the room to overwinter, the greenhouse is prepared as follows - the top and walls are reinforced with a net so that the eared ones do not break or gnaw through the walls. It is also rational to extend the walls of the room downward, since animals can begin to dig holes.
How to keep rabbits outdoors at home? For these purposes, you can build an aviary. For its construction, wood, sheets of metal and slate are used. One wall should be made of mesh to ensure constant access of fresh air; in extreme cold weather it is covered with warm things. The floor is insulated with layers of sawdust or straw.
Rabbit winter diet
The diet in cold weather should take into account the needs of herbivores for nutrients. Pets spend energy on heating the body, so you need to use high-quality and nutritious feed to feed them. Experts recommend warming food before serving the animals, it is also necessary to follow the feeding schedule, prevent freezing of feed residues, and regularly clean the contents of the feeder.
How to feed rabbits in winter? During this period, animals need to increase the content of hay and roughage in the diet. In cold weather, food must contain special additives. The food should be varied, animals can be fed with carrots, beets, Jerusalem artichoke, branches. These products are closest to natural feed. It is best to prepare a mash for animals, consisting of several types of feed. For a quick increase in body weight of the herbivore, you can give him boiled potatoes.
Important! Rabbits must be fed with branch feed. It contains useful trace elements and vitamins. Pets, instead of chewing on the cage, can sharpen their teeth on the branches.
In winter, herbivores are fed 6 times a day, since the animals need to replenish the spent resources for heating. It is also necessary to observe the drinking regime - warm, fresh water is supplied to the animals 2 times a day. In ecologically clean areas, the use of melted snow is allowed. Lack of clean water leads pets to drink their urine, which can harm them.
Particular attention is paid to the nutrition of pregnant rabbits. To bear healthy offspring, females should receive vitamin feed and mineral supplements. For these purposes, pelleted feed is often used. Rabbits' diet should contain boiled potatoes, carrots, sprouted oat grains. The same requirements for the nutrition of lactating females, since good nutrition helps to increase lactation.
Breeding features in winter
Low temperatures affect the lifestyle of rabbits. In severe cold, the number of mating decreases, the breeding rate falls. During this period, pets are intensively gaining mass to protect themselves from frostbite.
Mating in winter occurs according to the regimen, females need to be planted with rabbits in the daytime. When choosing a future female rabbit, the key factor is the level of her milk production. It is possible to increase the sexual activity of animals thanks to artificial lighting. In winter, individuals are not so active, so mating is best done in autumn. Youngsters born in winter acquire a beautiful thick coat, strong immunity and are distinguished by increased endurance.
Preparation of winter mother liquor
Breeding of females in winter can also occur at -25 ° C, so the mother house should be properly insulated to prevent the death of rabbits. The walls of the cage are upholstered on the outside with polystyrene or garden canvas, and all the cracks are also closed. Several layers of cardboard or oranite are placed on the floor, and a warm mat is laid on top.
Note! Care must be taken to conduct light into the mother liquors, since these cells must have an extended daylight hours.
Keeping the mother liquor in winter requires particularly careful observance of sanitary and hygienic standards. Lack of fresh air and indoor pollution can affect young growth. For heating, some farmers turn on a red light or put a warm heating pad.
Rabbit health in winter
- cold. Symptoms: lethargy, sneezing, runny nose, loss of appetite, dull eyes, lack of response to external stimuli;
- infectious rhinitis. Symptoms: discharge of pus from the nose, hyperemia of the mucous membranes, frequent sneezing, fever;
- heatstroke occurs due to heating of the cell by the heater. Symptoms: lethargy, redness of the mucous membranes;
- frostbite. Paws and ears are most often affected. Symptoms: stage I - redness, swelling, itching, stage II - the appearance of small bubbles, stage III - wrinkling, necrosis of the affected area.
Grooming, keeping and breeding a rabbit outdoors is not cumbersome. It is important to take care of the cage insulation in advance, then the animal will be cheerful and healthy. Also, in the cold period, you should pay attention to the nutrition of the pets, since the correct diet will allow you to survive even the most severe cold. A special group is pregnant rabbits and young animals; when feeding them, special vitamin and mineral supplements should be used. It is possible to breed herbivores in winter in street cages, aviaries and pits.