I also live in an apartment complex where pets are not allowed…. so Wick gets hidden in his hutch and all his stuff gets hidden away. Despite being confined, for potentially 8 hours, he comes out feeling pretty fine; just hungry. The important note is wherever they end up being, it’s somewhere they feel safe and comforted, or they can get somewhere they’ll feel safe and secure.

If they’re free roam, I’d suggest putting them in a pen so visitors don’t… accidentally step on them or kick them.

Ophelia gets very spooked when she sees new people.

Your bunnies are in a NIC grid condo during the day right? I’m not sure how your apartment/bunny condo is set up, but perhaps you could drape a blanket over a side of the condo so their view is limited? The noise and different smell may still cause them a little bit of uneasiness, but maybe if they don’t see they won’t be so stressed.

I think if they are in their enclosure they will most likely be just fine…they may be more annoyed to be disturbed than stressed.

I definitely understand the nerves! But like I said, when someone brand new comes around Ophelia may dart out of her litter box (flinging litter everywhere) or run around terrified knocking things over when she first lays eyes on them. She is very wary with strangers lol. I’m not sure how your buns will react, but I think a blanket so they cannot SEE may be helpful. Obviously you don’t want to black them out in darkness, but if there is a specific section of the condo that you can block off that may help

Hahaha, not to worry! I often jump the gun as well. In fact, just last week the complex manager called me and said the following:

“I need pest control to spray your unit. You can put the bunny in your room and Ron can come let it out when they are done” Ummmm let’s just say I did not take that very well.

1st off, I have Quincy in my room so she is obviously not going to be kept in there. She doesn’t have a cage, I built the hutch for things like this but I don’t want to introduce it to only her, I want to introduce it to them as a bonded pair.

2nd, I feel like they don’t get to call me and demand that I have chemicals sprayed in my unit when I don’t want them. I understand that the whole building has a roach problem, but I have spent a lot of my own money on those little traps that have the poisonous stuff that they eat. I have a ton of them in all my cabinets, and on counter tops, out of buns reach. Yes, it’s not ideal to have some roaches, but this is Florida!! There will ALWAYS be bugs. I absolutely hate roaches, but I’m not having industrial grade poison sprayed in my tiny 600 sqft apartment with my little babies. Not ok.

Once they came in my apt and sprayed when I wasn’t home and bun was out. I walked in the door after work and nearly choked on the fumes. I was furious. Not to mention the whole fiasco of bun stepping in a puddle of the poison they left and then proceeding to lick it off her paws….

Posted By joea64 on 8/31/2017 10:51 AM

I know how that is. My apartment complex management has the units sprayed for pests once a year or so, and won’t that be fun when the next occasion comes around.  I may have to either arrange for bunny-sitting that day or insist they come on a specific day and take that day off to monitor.

They want me to have it sprayed every MONTH!!! Not happening.

I have been refusing sprays for a decade now. I have allergies and allergic asthma, get migraines, and have survived some other nasty stuff, so chemical fumes are NOT happening in my flat. Instead, I bought a family of geckos my first year here and released them into my ceiling via the giant holes around my boiler (in the kitchen) and AC compressor (above my guest bath). I’ve only seen a handful of tiny bugs in a decade (not including the hoppers the few summers Kuwait got swarmed) and the geckos seem to be happy and thriving.

Re: the visitors, your buns, Joe, might be more stressed by sounds and smells they can’t see and identify, so I suspect that as long as they still have the hidey in their hutch, they should be fine during the visit. Just make the crew aware that there are buns in the house and to be mindful and gentle in their actions and sounds.

I know Mr Geico Gecko.

All three of my buns hate maintenance. Even when theyre as quiet as they can be (which, honestly, is never very quiet), I will always get terrified looks from my buns while theyre in the apartment, and spooked thumping the moment they leave. Typically, I sit next to the buns’ cages and talk to them softly, maybe stick my fingers through to lightly pet one of them if they allow it.

Since Im moving in November, maintenance has been in and out the last few days fixing a few things. Bombur is not doing well with it at all. He stopped responding for a few hours yesterday, and then escaped the cage (bashed his head into it to make the grid pop off; I left the grid loose accidentally as the buns are free roam when maintenance is not around) and hid under the couch. I just laid with him and talked to him until he sprawled. He refused to let me pick him up, but I knew he was ok since he was responding again. I ended up letting him hide for a bit then luring him back into the cage with pellets. Very nervous as maintenance is coming back again today to fix more things. But, atleast this time, I have the cage completely locked up.

Thats crazy to hear about the sprays, though! In my apartment complex, they only spray the outside, and being on the second floor, that doesnt really effect me or the buns.

The last time maintanance was in unexpectedly (an electrician), Chewie bit his toes and growled at him.

…….

Then when the guy LOLed and stomped his foot playfully at him, my brave little wookie bolted under the sofa and thumped warnings to his mommy.

Idk why they want to do it so often. I mean, Florida is just absolutely full of bugs so that could be the main reason. But also, most of the apartments in town that are NOT shared units for student housing are quite old…thecomplex I currently live in was built back in the 70s, so that could be another reason that bugs get in so easily.

For todays visit (in about an hour), I am expecting a lot of scared warning thumps I had to hide Badger to avoid him from becoming too freaked out as they need to access near where his cage is normally located. Since they wont be near Bombur and Blue’s cage, I am hoping they wont be freaked out too much, other than thumping. But they will be drilling into the wall, and Blue hates when they drill. I am preparing to be bunny butted for the rest of the afternoon after maintenance leaves

Edit: Buns handling it better than I am, lol. Aside form the incredibly loud drilling, all is fine. Buns are trying to sleep, and thats clearly not going well. 

Hopefully they are quiet enough for your buns and that all goes well