Working, kids and having a rabbit

[Shan]

So I posted yesterday in regards to my anxiety and having rabbits. Eventually I want to get a new rabbit or a bonded pair. When we had our last rabbit that I rehomed due to my anxiety, I was constantly worrying about time. Every spare second I had I’d quickly get her out and play because I was so afraid that she was going to get fed up depressed or I wasn’t doing enough for her.
I work 9-3 and also have a 6 year old who is very demanding. Do any of you work and have children, how do you fit time in for your bunnies? Crazy as it sounds even though I had all of this when having my previous rabbits I never worried about these things before or clearly remember how I did things.

[Wick & Fable]

Establishing a routine that’s plausible to adhere to is important. Structure provides a good sense of security and safety for both rabbit owners and rabbits themselves. You do have variables I don’t, like children, and Wick has another parent in the house that’s typically home when I’m not, though Wick is usually sleeping at those times anyways. Based on your schedule and responsibilities, I do think a bonded pair is best.

Including my commute, I’m gone about 12 hours a day, which is a large chunk of time. I adhere to my Wick-related schedule very strictly, to ensure his best health and happiness. Whether the items below are plausible for you, or may inspire your own ideas, I hope they are helpful:

1) Waking up – I wake up earlier than needed each morning so I have time to not only clean all of Wick’s litter boxes and get everything with him situated, but also so I have some time to sit with him, talk with him a bit, and just generally be around and active with him.

2) Cleaning after work – No matter how tired I am, I always make sure to do the same things I did in the morning for cleaning again when I get home. I do it either right before I go to bed or right when I get home AND before I go to bed. It happens before going to bed regardless.

3) Weekend time – I still wake up at my normal work-week time on the weekends because it fits Wick’s feeding schedule and again, it gives him more time with me.

The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.

[LittlePuffyTail]

Wick gave you some great advice. And I agree, you’d probably stress less with a bonded pair. Just don’t try to bond two buns yourself. As a person with severe anxiety, I will tell you, bonding is super stressful. I have tried several pairings in the past but was never able to successfully bond any pairs. It’s crazy hard because they can really hurt each other if you intervene but intervening too much and they can’t work things out themselves enough to bond. 

I can totally relate to feeling rushed to let bun out all the time. As mentioned, I have anxiety, and worrying about my rabbits was a big thing for me. When I had 2 unbonded bunnies, I would not make plans in the evening and seriously go without much sleep sometimes to make sure they got enough out time to make me not feel bad. For me, it was a guilt thing. I’d just feel bad, thinking of their little faces. What sometimes helped was thinking that, even on the days when they were not out much, they still had it so much better than so many rabbits.

t’s a lot easier now that I just have the 1 bunny. When I’m home, I let her out and when I’m out (which isn’t that often since I’m a stay at home Mom) I put her in her big condo.

[Taloan7]

Do you have a a large indoor space a bunny could roam around? A separate room they could have the run of? I found myself worrying about my bun a lot less in the day when I started letting her go free range so I didn’t just think about her sitting in her enclosure all day.
I don’t have anxiety, but I do have a LOT of pets, and I agree with the others, routine is absolutely essential. I have two dogs, three cats, a bunny, two fish tanks, a tortoise and geckos. I’m also 9 months pregnant with my third kid lol (though I am an at home mom so I have more time to commit to chores at home than you do). It sounds like it should be an overwhelming amount of work, but honestly I have my routine down to an art and feeding all the pets takes about 15 minutes first thing in the morning, and then another 15 minutes later in the day. Then I cycle through other pet related chores through the week so I never have more than one to do on any given day.

[Azerane]

I don’t have kids either but I work and have other pets.

I think the easiest relief time wise for you would be to get a bonded pair so that they have each other and you need to spend less one on one time, and secondly to have a large playpen around the bunnies’ cage that you can let them out into when you’re home so they can have plenty of exercise but you don’t need to be around to supervise.

I have 4 pets (2 buns,1 cat and a parrot) and my routine is roughly below
1. Get up and let buns out into their playpen.
2. While getting ready for work I feed the cat and last thing before I leave I top up the bunnies’ hay which sends them running back into their cage and I close the door behind them. Hubby feeds the parrot before he leaves for work.
3. When I get home from work once again I open the door to the bunny pen so they can come and go as they please. I then feed all the pets and while they’re eating I take the bunny litter tray out to be cleaned.
4. Later that night all the pets are fed again and I change the buns water before I go to bed and top up their hay again and lock them away before I go to bed.

Yes they are messy but with pees and poops contained to a litter tray, the rest is mostly just hay mess, and while I like to give a quick sweep every day, in reality it doesn’t happen so changing the litter tray every day and cleaning the cage once a week is really all that’s required around feeding and water. Having a playpen around the cage is really the biggest time saver. It allows them hours and hours of time outside their cage in a safe space that I don’t have to supervise them in.

I don’t have many daily chores for the other pets because the cat tray only needs cleaning twice a week and the parrot cage is fine 1-2 times a week. If I’m in a rush, my afternoon routine of feeding all the pets and cleaning the rabbit litter tray can be done in probably 15 minutes. I usually spend 30-40 minutes on it because I like to interact with them when i do it.

[Heaven]

I completely relate to the guilt thing. It can be hard to spend as much time as possible with them but still live your own life. I’ve definitely cancelled plans/not attended evening engagements because I’ve been at work during the day and Sam hasn’t had any company!

As Taloan7 said, it’s a lot easier on the mind when you know they’re free roam & safe at home (Sam has the run of my bedroom & adjacent ‘box room’) rather than stuck inside an enclosure. A routine is important too. I spend around 2 hours with him in the morning before work, an hour at lunch time, and about 3-4 hours in the evening if I’m staying at my boyfriend’s place (or all night, if I’m home). In 2 weeks we’ll be moving in together though so I’m looking forward to not having to divide my time between boyfriend & rabbit! haha. So this situation is not ideal, but it’s temporary.

I’m sure having the company of a bonded pair would help too, because they’re not on their own. But I’d say that if you’re home for a good few hours in the morning, and from mid afternoon for the rest of the day, you should be okay – they do sleep for a decent amount of time during the day too.

[joea64]

While I don’t have (human) children myself, I do have a work schedule that keeps me away 12-13 hours a day including commute time, so like Wick, I’ve established a schedule that I keep to as rigorously as possible on weekdays for my buns’ best comfort. Rabbits are tremendous creatures of habit and very much prefer to have everything done at more or less the same time everyday. This means, for instance, that they do have to have their breakfast in the predawn hours, but they’re well-used to it after nearly 9 months. What’s funny about that is that Panda and Fernando have by now learned that when I get up in the morning and start moving around, it’s time for them to go back into their condo cage so they’re very often already inside when I go to latch the door and take down the X-pen!

[Heaven]

So true Joea! Once Sam wakes me up (by clambering over my face usually), he’s always sat waiting by the pellet cupboard in the morning

[dogmom]

It does sound like you have a very busy life with many responsibilities that can inspire guilt and anxiety! My kids are older and I have a partner, but here I do it.

We have a rescue bunny. She’s an indoor bunny, with a 4X6 Xpen and a 3 level condo. We take her out once a day when we block off the family room from the dogs. We aim for an hour, sometimes it’s less because she’s lazy and we are tired. We tend to take her out at the end of the day, which is a good time for her also. With a 6 yo you can do it after kid bedtime. We use that time to change the litter and lounge around with her. Sometimes I might bring laundry in to fold, or mail to sort, etc. But it’s my down time. I might have a glass a wine and hang out of the floor and just do nothing but watch the bunny hop around. Talk about stress releif! It think it’s better than meditation. Yes, it seems like a chore at first and how will you ever find the time, but I now look forward to that bunny time. There there are days it is cut short, or a few days it never happens. On those days I start to feel guilty and then my husband reminds me that the bunny has got it pretty good compared to all those other bunnies that weren’t rescued, that live in outdoor wire cages with little contact, etc. I would feel even better if it wasn’t a single bunny

During the morning/after work or school we change the water, throw some greens at her at some point, and give her pats. She will come out to the Xpen when we come by and she wants attention. When she doesn’t she just hangs out in her loaf position. Sometimes she comes out to taunt the dogs. If I remove my personal anixety and mommy guilt I have to acknowledge she’s a pretty happy bunny.

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