Minimizing stress when moving/relocating

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This topic has 6sd replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 8 years ago by Sirius&Luna.

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- 04/22/2018 at 9:19 AM
  Lemony
  Participant
  32 posts
  Within the next week, I will be moving. It’s not far, just about a 30 min drive. I would normally have no concerns with moving my rabbit Luna, she’s handled environment changes pretty well in the past. However, only two days after moving into my new place I will be going on a family vacation for about 4 days. I’ve asked my current roommate (who will be moving in with her significant other next week) to watch her and thankfully she agreed. She lives too far away for me to ask her to just visit my house each day and make sure my bun has enough food/water/clean litter, so I’m bringing Luna over there. In short, I will have to move my bunny 3 times within the next two weeks and I’m worried about stressing her out too much. Are there any suggestions on what I could do to minimize stress? And should I be handling this differently? I don’t think I trust any of those animal hotel establishments to properly take care of her.
  
  Part 2 of my question (apologies for the long read, this is related I promise):
  This is the first time I will be living alone while having a rabbit, so leaving for the weekend to visit family or otherwise has never been a problem because there would always be someone else home. I have a few weekends this upcoming summer where I’ll be gone and I’m already stressing out about the logistics of having someone take care of Luna. I don’t have many friends within a 30 mile radius of where I’m moving (outside of coworkers but I’m not very comfortable with asking them), so asking anyone to come over once a day during a weekend would be asking a lot, and I want to minimize moving her around. Any advice for someone who lives alone and occasionally leaves for the weekend (not often, about once or twice every 3 months)?
  
  Thank you in advance!
- 04/22/2018 at 9:55 AM
  Mikey
  Participant
  3186 posts
  Moving her so much in a span of 4 to 6 days can cause stress and stress can cause a lot of health problems (including death). The best ways to minimalize stress would be not to go on your 4 day vacation so soon of course. But if it is too late to put off, your friend really should stay at your new place instead of you bringing your rabbit there. Whatever you choose, make sure she has stuff that smells like her (a messy litter box would also be helpful for this) and a blanket or article of clothing that smells like you.
  
  The only way is to board, move her to a family members house, or (best option) have someone visit (atleast twice a day; once is too little and leaves a lot of room for possibly deadly errors).
- 04/22/2018 at 10:18 AM
  Bam
  Moderator
  17033 posts
  You can give her a probiotic starting now and keep giving it for the duration of these moves. The most common issue when a bun gets stressed is tummy trouble. A probiotic can help keeping the gut in order. I have a type that I give my Bam for trips (to the vet or to my mother’s where we occasionally stay). There are many types of probiotics depending on where you live, the most easily obtainable one for small pets is probably Benebac.
- 04/22/2018 at 10:39 AM
  Lemony
  Participant
  32 posts
  It’s a family vacation and unfortunately it’s way too late to reschedule… would it be better to ask my friend to keep her for a full week, and bring her there right when I move and pick her up after vacation, instead of moving her 3 times? Luna has stayed at my friends house before if that helps. Thanks for advice
- 04/22/2018 at 11:03 AM
  Lemony
  Participant
  32 posts
  @bam this is a wonderful idea, thank you! Looks like a lot of the reviews for it are from bunny owners trying reduce stress while moving. I’m picking some up today. I appreciate the info
- 04/22/2018 at 7:40 PM
  Mikey
  Participant
  3186 posts
  Three days is better than a week as its better for rabbits to get to their final destination asap (final destination being your home, and staying there).
- 04/23/2018 at 6:21 AM
  Sirius&Luna
  Participant
  2320 posts
  Could you not take her straight to your roommates, then collect her and move her to your new home after the holiday? It would mean she would be with your roommate for an extra couple of days, but at least it gets rid of one move, and you’ll be able to monitor her yourself when she does the final move after the holiday.
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