Advice for moving with bunnies

[ams1786]

Hey guys,

I’ll be moving with two rabbits this weekend and could really use advice for mitigating stress! Our girl is very smart but anxious — she’s 5yo and has lived in the same house since she was a baby so this will be a totally new experience with her. She gets very stressed and hyperventilates in car rides/with any changes and I want to make sure she’ll be able to handle it. We recently paired her up with a boy in the hope that having a friend would make things easier for her — they’re getting along very well and he’s a total trooper (will pop out of his carrier at a new place and just start eating and binkying) so I’m not as much worried about him.

It will be about a 2-2.5 hour car ride and they’ll be in the same carrier together. They’re moving from a suburban house to a small apartment in the city so it will be a very different environment. On top of that our girl is currently free range but the boy is a HUGE chewer so I think they’ll both need to by contained to a pen during the day. 

In terms of prep, I’ll have critical care and simethicone on hand just in case and will be working from home for a couple days until they settle in. I wasn’t going to bring her litter box up, but her castle, tunnel and blanket are coming so I hope that will help her feel more safe.

But I’m a little worried since I did touch base with my vet today, and they said I should bring them in so they could “check their vitals” to make sure they are healthy enough to move before we go. But I’m strongly leaning against this and it sounds a bit funny to me? The girl was last in in June and the boy was in for a neuter about 2 months ago and they both checked out, and my gut says bringing them to the vet (which girl bun HATES and can take a several days to recover from) would be a bad idea before they’re going to deal with so much more stress. 

Just want to make sure I’m doing this right — any advice and feedback (or assurances!) welcome!

[Sirius&Luna]

I would personally take the used litterbox, just so that as many things as possible smell of home. Can you start giving her blankets or rugs now, so that when you move you can create a space that smells like home. I think this is actually a case where it would be easier if she had a pen, so you could just set it up with everything in the same place as before! If you’re planning on penning them in the new house, it might be worth setting one up in your current place for her to explore while she feels comfortable.

I think as many things that smell normal as possible will help. You can also give her a piece of your clothing so she can smell you.

As she’s a stressed bunny, and there’s nothing actually wrong with her, I personally can’t see the positives of making her stressed by a vet visit before you leave. Presumably you have to move either way, so I’m not sure what it would achieve.

The other thing to think about is making sure they don’t overheat on the car journey.

[Fluffykins]

Whether or not their vitals check out.. (what??!) You will have to move either way… so not really any point to that.

I wouldn’t do the vet visit at all.

[LittlePuffyTail]

Agree with the others about the vet.

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