Traveling with Rabbits.

[tanlover14]

SO – we’ve made the decision to go back to New York for a few days for Christmas.  The lady who watched the buns the last time I was gone on vacation will also be gone.  We really don’t trust anyone else to watch our buns for us since none of our other friends/relatives know ANYTHING about bunnies.   This leaves us with the option of taking them with us.

It’s going to be a 4 1/2 hour drive back to New York from here.  We have three bunny carriers but I’m not sure how I should go about fitting them all in together or separate or what will be better for the drive there.  I have put all three in one of the carriers but they were a tiny bit cramped and it was only for a half hour when our fire alarm went off and we had to get out quickly.  Our buns are all about 4 lbs and there’s three of them.  I worry about leaving them confined in such a small space for that long.  One of them is perfectly fine in a carrier and spends the whole time romping around and throwing everything every which way, one of them is kind of okay, and the other one gets absolutely terrified.  I wonder about keeping her with another bun to make the trip easier for her and possibly leaving the bun who is perfectly okay in the carrier alone?  Thoughts/opinions?  I’m guessing I should keep hay in the carrier but what about water?  I worry about them going that long without water but don’t really know how I would give them water since it’s going to be a car trip. 

The next thing is the set-up I should have when we get there.  We are having a separate room for my boyfriend and I and of course the bunnies.  Their condo is quite a complex set-up so I was thinking about just bringing the outer layer of the condo without the levels and bottom and putting them in there.  They’re going to be on hardwood floor though so I’m not sure about what kind of flooring I could bring with us to make them more comfortable.  Our current condo has wooden shelves with carpet over them and the bottom is their cage from their first bunny store-bought house but it doesn’t fit in the complete bottom of the condo outside so I’m not really sure how I should go about making them the most comfortable and it being efficient.

 

Thanks for any advice/help!

[peppypoo]

Your two-carrier arrangement sounds like the best option from what you described. The bunnies I’ve had have never been interested in eating/drinking in the carrier, so I usually don’t bother with food. To hydrate beforehand (since you can’t exactly tell them “we’re going on a trip, drink up!”) I usually give Peppy a heaping pile of wet veggies which she is more than happy to eat. I think 4.5 hours should be okay.

Do your bunnies chew fabric? Maybe you could put a sheet underneath for traction. If it’s within your budget, expens are great for traveling…when I kept Peppy in a condo, traveling was a nightmare haha.

[Svandis]

I’ve bought a tiny water bottle for when I’m traveling to my parents house for weekend trips. The ride is only about two hours, but I feel like having water avaliable for Bosse calms me down  

As for the set-up, you could use the condo as a pen, and not have it as a square. You could have them in a corner of the room (if possible), and just make two “walls” out of the condo. Then they would have much more space to move around. I can show you how our set-up is when we are visiting at our parents house. 

For flooring we just use an old fleece, it pretty thick so its almost like a rug. If he gets warm he just digs away a part of the fleece and lays on the floor. This weekend we are going to offer him a place to cool off aswell.

[Svandis]

The pen-walls were supported by the oven on one side and by the couch and his kennel in the other corner  

The “pen” is actually a Wire Compost Bin Saved a fortune bying that instead of a dog/puppy pen! It cost me about 17 dollars. I just keep it at my parents house so I don’t have to bring it back and forth. 

I tried to resize the pics, but I couldn’t figure out how

[peppypoo]

(Svandis – I went ahead and sized down your pictures for you. For future reference, you can go back and edit your post, right-click on the picture, and there should be an option to set pixel size for each picture ).

[Svandis]

Ahhhhh, thanks! I forgot to right click

[Elrohwen]

For a trip that short, I would probably go with one carrier so they can keep each other company – they’re all small. My 4lb and 5.5lb bun fit in a medium carrier with enough room to spare to add a cat (not that I would put a cat in there with them, haha, but they just snuggle together and hang out at one end). Three in there would not be a problem, but then I don’t think it matters which way you do it. I always prefer to keep bonded bunnies together.

I wouldn’t bother with food or water – it’s a short trip and they wouldn’t need to eat or drink in that amount of time at home, so it’s not a big deal. Personally, my bunnies only drink water once or twice a day, so a couple hours without it doesn’t phase them. I’ve seen them sleep in their maze haven without coming out at all for food or potty breaks for half the day. Mine also never take offered food or drink even on trips up to 8 hours, so I stopped providing it. Make sure you put down something to absorb any accidents, like newspaper and papertowels (I like to cover that with a piece of fleece).

For temporary flooring while traveling, I like to use plastic tablecloths. They’re cheap and waterproof in case of accidents or water spills and if the bunnies tear it up I can get another one. I like the thicker ones (meant for protecting the table a little under a regular tablecloth) but a thinner one would be fine too. I would definitely get an xpen if you can, or make a temp one with NIC grids rather than dealing with the condo. They don’t need that much space for a short trip (mine get about half their usual space when traveling, down a 4’x4′ xpen) and they’re fine.

[tanlover14]

Thanks for all the advice guys. I really do appreciate it. I feel like I’ve been on this site long enough to know the protocol BUT I’ve never actually had to travel farther than the vets with them (except when we brought them home) so I’m being absolutely paranoid. Especially bringing them to a place they’ve never been.

I will probably go with the plastic tablecloth idea since they’ve JUST gotten re-litter trained and I worry they’ll pee on the fleece and then I’ll be out of luck! LOL. I think I’m going to go with your idea though, Svandis! And use our NIC cubes to create something along the lines of what you did.

Still at odds about what I should do with the carrier. I just know I don’t wanna stress Sidney out for that long without a buddy with her. The only carrier we have that would fit all three would be our soft carrier. The other two are small and would be way too cramped. We got them when we only had two bunnies so didn’t think about the possibility of fitting THREE in there! LOL. The soft one is slightly bigger but only 20 inches by 12 inches with a height of 11 1/2 inches. Do you think that size will be big enough for all 3?? If so, then I’ll keep them together I just worry about it not being big enough for all three of them. I’m not sure if that size is medium or still in the small range? I know it’s slightly bigger than our hard ones though.

[Svandis]

Sounds good. I don’t know what you should do about the carriers though.

[Elrohwen]

The larger carrier sounds fine and about the size of my “medium” one that I would put three bunnies in. You could always bring another smaller one in the car and if one bunny seems to be too rowdy you could switch them up. I know mine love to have someone to snuggle during the ride.

[tanlover14]

Good idea — three bunnies in one it seems to be! Sidney and Fleury cuddled the last time and I put my hand in there and pet them and it seemed to calm her down a bit, Tanger is the only really rowdy one 24/7.

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