I shot this video this AM to perhaps help those potentially interested in understanding WHY I’m currently working pretty aggressively to relocate my two rabbit colonies from their current homes (two geodesic domes) to new cages that I’m building.
Fair warning: There’s a dead baby bunny in the video, but it’s not a graphic shot.
I’m pretty sure I’ve figured out why the rabbits have suffered a serious outbreak of mucosal enteritis (ME). Rabbits, especially young rabbits, have a complex and sensitive digestive system. If you ask me, as a species they are pretty damn fickle. Seemingly innocuous events (minor stress, change of food, change of temperature, exposure to various molds) can upset their gut microbes and cause them to suffer from severe diarrhea, dehydration, bloating and eventually death.
My current hypothesis re: causality is the dome cover, which is a system of poly tarps stitched together. The tarps do a pretty good job of keeping most of the rain out, but the humidity alone around here is enough to ensure there is always a lot of moisture in the dome.
The tarps are completely opaque, so little if any sun light gets directly into the dome. You may recall from a PSA post I made over the weekend that our planet is currently being bombarded with abnormally high levels of ultraviolet radiation, so blocking the sun from the inside of the dome is … in that regard … a good thing. However, (there’s ALWAYS a ‘however’) the same UV radiation provides a natural defense against mold and mildew growth.
So, by blocking all UV from the inside of the dome, mold and mildew have grown out of all the inherent humidity-driven moisture. Which has triggered the ME disease outbreak.
My current plans are to empty the domes of rabbits, and redesign and re-construct the dome cover using clear greenhouse plastic as a barrier to rain, but allowing UV to pass through. I’ll then layer some 65% or 85% shade cloth over the plastic to limit how much UV passes through. More work, more $$$ … but the right thing to do, because I really don’t want to raise caged rabbits. That’s just too depressing (to me, at least).