Frozen Water's and Tarps

It's been getting colder each day and because of this, I've been having issues with the water bottle's freezing.  When they freeze, I've been gathering them all up and taking them to our basement where I defrost them in hot water.

It takes at least 15 minutes for everything to defrost and it's rather time consuming having to drag them from the rabbitry, to the basement, and back up.  I've been using a little wagon to help me do this.

However, I'm trying something new.  Starting today.  My sister and I went out and bought a whole bunch of plastic bowls.  I distributed them amongst the rabbits. 

Here's my plan with the bowls.  When the water freezes in them, all I have to do is pop the ice out and using a pitcher of water, re-fill it.  Not only that, but my one rabbit who has a bowl broke a hole in the ice when it froze over and was then able to drink the water underneath. 

So using this logic, I figure this would be a better approach to watering my bunnies throughout winter.

Piccolo has his purple plastic dish for water.  I had to use an old bowl, because the new ones would be too big for his small cage.



 

These photo's were taken BEFORE I filled them with water.  The reason?  If I were to stick new bowls in their cages with water, they would be so busy smelling the new scents and checking this new thing out that they would simply end up dumping their water.  Verses if I waited a while for them to check them out first, then fill them, they wouldn't dump the water.

The babies :)

There were mainly black water dishes, but a few colorful ones.  I really liked the ones with color.

 

There were only 13 of the bowls I wanted, so LE (above) was one of the rabbits who got a different type of water dish.  Still plastic, just bigger and only had one section for water instead of two. 

I also have my handy-dandy gloves that help keep my hands warm when I scoop up water for the rabbits.

 

And the gloves are really long, they come all the way up to my elbows!  But they're great because they're insulated and super soft. 

I was also able to get some pictures of how I covered up my rabbitry using the tarp and old feed bags.

These above are all the feed bags, then below is the tarp which covers 5 cages.  You'd be shocked as to how nice and warm it is behind them! Especially when the sun's beating on it.

Now, I know what you're thinking.  And yes, it IS ugly!!! But when it comes to keeping my rabbits alive, I'd rather use something practical and something I have over what's more esthetically pleasing. 

So there you go, now you know what my rabbitry looks like and what I'm currently doing in preparation for this cold weather!