Forum

OUR FORUM IS UP BUT WE ARE STILL IN THE MIDDLE OF UPDATING AND FIXING THINGS.  SOME THINGS WILL LOOK WEIRD AND/OR NOT BE CORRECT. YOUR PATIENCE IS APPRECIATED.  We are not fully ready to answer questions in a timely manner as we are not officially open, but we will do our best. 

You may have received a 2-factor authentication (2FA) email from us on 4/21/2020. That was from us, but was premature as the login was not working at that time. 

BUNNY 911 – If your rabbit hasn’t eaten or pooped in 12-24 hours, call a vet immediately! Don’t have a vet? Check out VET RESOURCES

The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.

What are we about?  Please read about our Forum Culture and check out the Rules

BUNNY 911 – If your rabbit hasn’t eaten or pooped in 12-24 hours, call a vet immediately!  Don’t have a vet? Check out VET RESOURCES 

The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet.  It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.

BINKYBUNNY FORUMS

Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A Leaving Rabbit for 3 Nights

Viewing 12 reply threads
  • Author
    Messages

    • olivehotot
      Participant
      16 posts Send Private Message

        On Wednesday at noon I leave for a family vacation until Saturday afternoon. I’ve done some research and found very mixed opinions on whether it’s ok to leave a bun alone for three nights and technically only three full days. I would love to take him with me but I can’t. I thought to board him at a vet but there’s no vets around that will take exotic animals unless they have a health issue and need overnight monitoring (and it’s too stressful for him!).

        I will leave tons of hay (four days worth divided into two litter boxes and five heavy bowls of water, one of which will just be a frozen block so itll melt slowly and be cold/fresh). He’s pretty good at not gorging on food all at once and he never flips his bowl. I know the weather’s getting hot so he’ll be in his large ex pen in the garage which is the coolest room in the house. But just in case I’m also leaving him two large frozen gateraid bottles to lean on.

        Any opinions on what to do? I cant have anyone check in because mom isn’t comfortable with people in the house when we’re not home lol. Will he be ok?

        Thanks guys! Sorry for the long question!


      • MissGabbster
        Participant
        718 posts Send Private Message

          Do you have a friend you trust that he could stay with or who could visit him the garage? You could also ask your vet if they could recommend someone that does rabbit boarding.


        • Shannon
          Participant
          158 posts Send Private Message

            I’m not really sure where you are reading these “mixed” reviews at. I’ve never found anything that has said its ok to leave a rabbit for more than 24 hours and I have to agree. Someone should be checking on your pet or it should go to someone’s house. IMO 3 days is way way too long. We are currently having the same dilemma.


          • olivehotot
            Participant
            16 posts Send Private Message

              @MissGabbster unfortunately my mom is very uncomfortable with even my close friends being here when we’re not. I would tell them to come in through the garage door and keep the door to the home locked, but conveniently, our garage door is smashed at the top & we’re not supposed to use it anymore until next week when the repair people come. I did email my vet and she said that she’d be willing to board him at her clinic but its generally only for sick/injured animals that need overnight watch. It’s very expensive for me to board him when he’s not sick, not to mention it’s stressful for him to be in that environment and I don’t want him to catch anything contagious another animal has. I also looked on the House Rabbit Society website for exotic pet boarding in my state but there are none. Only pet-sitters, which both my mom and I are uncomfortable with.

              @shannon oh, there are plenty. Even here on BB. There are old forums where people say it’s perfectly fine to leave your bun for a few days with adequate food and water. And many who say it’s not. On many rabbit forum websites everywhere there are many debates on wheter it’s worth the risk or not. I suppose it’s personal preference, although I did really want to hear other opinions.


            • Lee
              Participant
              213 posts Send Private Message

                The issue with leaving your bun unsupervised for more than 24-36 hours is that if your bun gets stressed and stops eating, gets GI Stasis or otherwise gets sick by the time you come home 3 days later it could be too late. Where as if you had someone make a check in every evening or something it is much safer. This also goes for things like food and water, although you feel like there is enough, or you feel he won’t knock his bowl over there is every possibility he will when you are gone. He could escape his play pen and not be able to get back in to food and water etc. For these reasons I would never go more than 24 – 36 hours TOPS without someone to check in.

                I have an older dog who is very well toilet trained, very good in the house etc but I still do not feel comfortable leaving her for more than 36 hours, just in case. And bunnies are much more prone to issues than dogs.


              • olivehotot
                Participant
                16 posts Send Private Message

                  @Lee I truly of course would love for my friends (that have rabbits) to check in – or even stay at my house with him for the three days. But my mom is very, very strict about this kind of thing, and being only sixteen, I don’t have much say in it. However she did say that I could try to get my next door neighbor to maybe check in, but she knows nothing about rabbits and the best she could do is check if he’s still alive. Maybe I could tell her to try to check his waters and feed him some of his favorite veggies every day and let me know if doesn’t (sign of stasis)? Would this be enough?


                • Lee
                  Participant
                  213 posts Send Private Message

                    @Olivehotot that seems like a much better option than nothing at all. Even if you write her a little dot point checklist like

                    – Check he has water / water is fresh
                    – Refresh Hay
                    – Feed 1/4 cup of fresh veg
                    – Ensure he is pooping (ie: just check there is poop in the litter tray and it isn’t mushy)

                    That way she knows the main things to look for and do and it isn’t too hard for her. And obviously leave her your number and the vets number in case of emergencies.

                    The other option is, do you have a friend who is rabbit savvy where he could go and stay for the 3 days? At their house?


                  • olivehotot
                    Participant
                    16 posts Send Private Message

                      @Lee I will let my mom know that its a good option, thank you for the tips!! I feel much happier leaving him knowing he has at least a little protection.

                      I wanted to do that but all my bun-savvy friends have other pets as well (everyone has at least one dog except one friend who has four buns, a cat, geckos, a sugar glider, and some other strange exotic animals). And I don’t want him to get freaked out by new animals (not to mention the trip there and the new environment will be stressful). I think I’ll go with the neighbor check-in. Thank you so much for your tips!


                    • Flopsie
                      Participant
                      388 posts Send Private Message

                        is your garage insulated? I find that garages are the worst places because they lack insulation, during the day it is too hot and during the night it is too cold. If your garage is insulated thats a different story.


                      • BunsAndDolls
                        Participant
                        214 posts Send Private Message

                          Glad you’ve found a nice compromise. Even having a non-rabbit-savvy neighbor check in on him is better than nothing. She can at least make sure he hasn’t escaped and gotten tangled in some garage shenanigans, or tipped over his water bowls in his boredom, lol.

                          We’ll be doing the same thing in a couple of months. Hopefully I’ll be able to talk my brother into dropping in to check on him.


                        • arca9
                          Participant
                          14 posts Send Private Message

                            I see where your mum is coming from about letting people in the house, but she allowed you to get this rabbit and as the adult here she is ultimately responsible for his welfare. If I were you I would be tempted to put my foot down and say I’m not going with them on holiday if she won’t allow for someone else who knows what they are doing to check up on him.


                          • So Fluffy Bunny
                            Participant
                            120 posts Send Private Message

                              It all depends arca9 on the person age as well, I can understand where your mum is coming from with not wanting a bunch of people in the house while on vacation. However, are you able to put your foot down and say I’ll stay here with the rabbit to take care of it. I understand wanting to go on vacation, however I was a responsible enough teenager and young adult growing up that I was able to say if I wanted to go on a vacation or not. Most of the time, my family went on vacation without me, due to reasons other then cost. Sometimes it was more convenient to stay with our animals that we had as a family growing up.

                              I wouldn’t leave my own bun alone for several days without someone checking in on her. I know that when I get married next year, our bun(s) will be boarded for that honeymoon so that I am not stressing out me, my fiancee or even someone else because I know that they would be taken care of. Have you called your rabbit-savvy vet and asked if there was any type of service that pet-sat for rabbits?


                            • Flopsie
                              Participant
                              388 posts Send Private Message

                                this is a challenging situation, I think being young and 16 makes it more challenging. I understand where you are coming from and saying to put your foot down, but sometimes being underage and dependent on your parents makes that an impossibility. The best thing is to find a compromise that both you and your mom can live with. Its easy for me to put my foot down now, but i’m 35 so i have the means to control my down decisions.

                                however, that said, being a pet owner means that you have to be responsible and that you are in charge and responsible for the well being of another living person/thing/animal. Your rabbit is dependent on you and just as you would not leave a toddler home for 3 days, its a good idea not to do that for a rabbit. Please don’t mis understand my point, i’m not saying that you are irresponsible, quite the opposite, the fact that you are trying to find a solution and having open conversations about it seems like you are an incredibly responsible person, you just have your hands tied.

                                in the end, I always do a “worse case scenario” analysis. In this case, I think what would be the worst case? And it would be that your rabbit dies while you are out. Then you have to decide how likely that is to happen. While I believe there is a good chance it wont, I feel like 3 unsupervised days it too much of a risk for me to take so as a result, I will have to take action. So what options do we have?

                                Can you stay and not leave?
                                Can you educate your neighbor with the time left so that at least they can do some basic maintenance?
                                Are you able to take your rabbit with you?

                            Viewing 12 reply threads
                            • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.

                            Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A Leaving Rabbit for 3 Nights