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Forum DIET & CARE Another Q about grooming…Preparing for vacation, leaving bunnies with pet sitter

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    • Ali925
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        I wanted to ask an additional question so I updated the subject to alert of a new Question  

        Anyhow, Oreo and Blu are both going through monster sheds…so I am on top of it daily..  However, they don’t care much for being groomed with a brush, I can get them to every now and then, but typically I use my hands while I’m petting/distracting them…Oreo is okay but Blue is close to impossible sometimes.  I asked the pet sitter to brush them if she can every so often, but I’m not sure they’ll let her..I told her this too.  I am just worried if they go for almost 2 weeks with no grooming during such a bad shed they’ll be in bad shape (Oreo went into stasis during her first big shed last year before I realized how much I needed to groom her, so I get paranoid…)  What do you think?  Thanks again!

        Original post is below…

        Hi all,

        I recently started a topic about caring for bunnies while on vacation and now that it’s fast approaching I wanted to ask a few more things.  We will be gone for about 12 days…first long trip since we got both bunnies.  They live separately, in cages attached to pens with proper space for daily living.  However, I bought some more cage grids to expand both of their pens for while we’re gone.  I’m very concerned with their lack of exercise/free run time while we’re gone.  I don’t know any other way around it though.  Hubby wanted a long vacation and of course I’m excited, but I can’t help but worry constantly about how the buns will be…and we’re not even gone yet!  We have a pet sitter coming twice a day to care for them…but I won’t let her let them out or anything, so it’s just to feed, play with them a little, etc.

        My question right now has to do with their salads.  I typically prepare all breakfast and dinner salads for them before we go away anywhere…however with the length of the trip I’m afraid that’s way too long to have a bagged salad?  I plan to make up to a week of them and then ask the pet sitter to freshly make the rest??  I know romaine is the only reliable green (plus parsley or cilantro) that I can be sure will hold up over the time we’re gone…but I know that makes for very unhappy bunnies, they love their variety!  I’m thinking of asking my neighbor to pick up some red leaf or green leaf lettuces after the first week and drop it at the house?  Am I worrying too much?? 

        Also, since I know they’ll be a lot more bored and have a lot of energy to burn…so do you suggest anything in particular to give them?  I know they love chewing and playing with cardboard and paper, so I could give them each a box with paper, but I don’t like leaving things like that permanently in the cage…something makes me nervous about them eating too much of it?  But that’s what they play with when they’re running around our family room during free time.  I think I’m worrying too much? 

        Any help is greatly appreciated!  Or at least a word of reassurance that they’ll be okay…  

         

        Thanks for reading…


      • Beka27
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          I wouldn’t worry about providing a lot of veggie variety. Make it as simple as you can on the petsitter. If that means she picks up several heads of romaine and that’s all they get, that’s good enough for the time being. I also think you’re doing the right thing by not having her bring the bunnies out. You wouldn’t want them to get away from her somehow and she not be able to get them contained again.

          There’s no doubt that they’ll be a bit peeved off when you return, but they will get over it.

          What are you doing in terms of pen cleaning? When we went on our vacation last summer I bought two new cat boxes and prepared them with newspaper and litter before I left (we needed new boxes anyways, it had been about a year since they’d been replaced). I cleaned out their pen/litterboxes LAST thing before we left. On the instructions for the petsitter, I specified which day (at the halfway point in our trip) to take out the old boxes and replace with the new (already made-up) boxes. He then put the old boxes right into a garbage bag and threw the whole thing out. So the buns got new litterboxes, their old icky boxes were replaced, and I didn’t have to clean the old boxes when we got back.


        • Ali925
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            Thanks so much Beka, you made me feel better already! I’m just worried if they stressed over the whole situation and stop eating…that’s my biggest concern … but we’re already prepared withe vet instructions if something were to happen…

            As far as pen cleaning goes…I guess I could be considered a little crazy? but we do litterboxes twice a day… Well actually more like once, the PM is a cleanout of any soiled litter replaced with new litter and replenished hay…the AM cleaning is just layering a small amount of fresh litter over what is dirty and replenishing hay if needed… This is all part of the instruction I gave the sitter, so they should be good with this, it’s what they’re used to and she was fine about it. The pens themselves we’ll just take care of when we get home, the only “mess” they have is a tornado mess of hay … aside from the occasional run through their salad plate and leaving wet paw prints … haha. Unless of course they decide to express their disapproval of our leaving them and make an unusual mess…which I hope not..

             


          • Beka27
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              Those must be some clean litterboxes! We clean litterboxes AT MOST 3 times a week… and it’s usually more like twice a week…


            • Ali925
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                Well Oreo seems to need it daily…She likes to poop on her hay if it’s not clean enough! little princess. or she’ll poop next to the box…But I only fully clean them (vinegar/water) once a week, and again, Oreo reminds me if I let it go longer than a week! She and Blu have excellent litter habits, but she seems to be picky with the cleanliness!! Funny thing is, Blu is MUCH messier overall, but his litterbox is immaculate. Poop is in one distinct corner, hay is maintained in the right spot and never soiled..and he’s my messy boy in every other respect. lol


              • Elrohwen
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                  I think they’ll be fine!

                  First, for exercise, I’m sure they’ll be good with a little extra space. Hannah is very active and she stayed with our friend in a 4’x4′ cage (we can’t travel with their entire set up) and he was supposed to let them out, but didn’t. For almost two weeks she was only let out once and she survived. Sure, she destroyed everything in the cage 😉 but she was ok.

                  For veggies, I would get lots of romaine, since that holds up for a long time. When we got out of town for more than a week (about as long as veggies seem to last) I typically leave money and ask our friend watching them to pick up some more veggies. Not sure I’d ask a regular pet sitter to do this, but if your neighbor is going shopping anyway and wouldn’t mind picking up some lettuce, that could work. Or you could just buy a ton of romaine and tell the pet sitter to make sure she makes it last the whole time.

                  And I’m with Beka – you must have immaculate litter boxes! I do mine once or twice a week (more like once, most weeks) and just try to clean up the hay and dump it on top in between.


                • littlemissflip
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                    I just leave a wide variety of greens and veggies (romaine, broccoli and parsley seem to hold up pretty well) in the fridge, and in my pet-sitter note, I leave a list of what he can can eat and the approximate amount of a typical meal. So i’ll say something like: “At each meal, give him 1-2 cups of any of the following…. A typical “salad” might include…. And then I let them fix it up themselves. If there are any veggies in the fridge that buns SHOULDN’T eat, I’m careful to point those out and keep them in a separate drawer from the ones he can eat.

                    When we’ve been gone on long trips (2+ weeks), we leave ~$20 for the petsitters to buy new greens and veggies as needed.

                    Also, if I’ve given the bunny a new toy, or left an ice pack in his cage (if it’s hot for example), I just leave instructions for the petsitters to check and make sure he’s not eating it (take it away if it looks like he is), and replace the ice pack on hot days, etc.

                    Your bun will be fine! He’ll miss you, and will be happy to see you when you get home. But he will be ok. That said, if you’re paying your petsitters, don’t feel bad about asking them to do exactly what you need them to do. I’ve done a lot of pet-sitting, and I have no problems assembling complicated meals, administering meds, or any odd routines that are asked of me…


                  • Ali925
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                      Thanks Elrohwen and littlemissflip for your advice and reassurance

                      Elrohwen,
                      I agree…I buy romaine in bulk at a wholesale club, thank goodness for that or I’d be at the store constantly!! So I was going to stock up on double what I normally get and it typically does fine for over a week…I just don’t think I can prepare all the salads in advance like I usually do. I already spoke to the pet sitter and she’s fine with doing it…I’m just so picky about how they’re made..lol I’m going to be the most annoying mom when I have kids!! I’m sure she’ll do fine though.. She actually offered to buy veggies for me if need be, but I’ll just keep in touch with her during the vac. to see how it’s going..and use my neighbor if necessary to restock. I wish I didn’t clean the boxes so often, I didn’t realize I was doing it more frequently than other bunny owners? Maybe because they aren’t that big of boxes?? They’re the medium size cat litterboxes, so for Oreo it’s very easy to dirty it up over the course of a day and I hate thinking that she’s sitting in it … so that’s why I clean so often. Since Blu is smaller, his poop is smaller and he doesn’t dirty it up as much as big mama Oreo lol.

                      littlemissflip,
                      Thank you!


                    • Monkeybun
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                        I use large boxes for my buns, and clean them maybe twice a week, more if its hot and humid. Twice a day would drive me up the wall

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                    Forum DIET & CARE Another Q about grooming…Preparing for vacation, leaving bunnies with pet sitter