moving bunny UPDATE: question about lead based paint

[Lani]

I’m moving to a new apartment on Friday and am wondering what to expect and how I can make the transition easy for Oreo. Just for background, I’m moving about an hour away from where I live now with my parents. I’ll be moving into an apartment with 2 roommates and Oreo will live in my room with run when someone is home to watch her. My plan is to move all of my belongings and do the bun proofing on Friday and Saturday and move her in on Sunday. My mom and brother will watch her here at the house until Sunday so that Oreo doesn’t have to be around when there are movers in the apartment, rearranging furniture, etc.

So I am wondering what to expect from her in terms of adjustment to a new place. Will she keep her litter habits? What about marking? Is there anything I can do to keep her stress level down? Do I need to let her get adjusted to my room before I give her free roam of the rest of the apartment? Although she’s been an, adventurous bun when given new rooms of the house to explore (as long as she can run back to “her” room), I’m concerned about the complete change causing a lot of stress. The hour long drive will be bad enough seeing as how she doesn’t tolerate the 15 min drive to the vet very well.

I know that a lot of how a bunny reacts to this type of thing is dependent on their personality. I’m inclined to think Oreo will do ok as she is a very curious girl, but she’s also very opinionated and set in her ways and when its a change she doesn’t like, she makes it clear. Any suggestions, tips, tricks on what I can do to make this as easy as possible are greatly appreciated.

[KatnipCrzy]

I think you are off to a great start with the move by moving her in on Sunday and avoiding all the noise and confusion with movers, etc. I would not be surprised to see a small step back on litter habits as bunnies can be territorial and she might feel the need to mark her territory again.

[LoveChaCha]

Chacha is the same as Oreo. She does not tolerate car rides. She was scared when she came to my house for the first time. It was an hour and a half drive back home.

Oreo may have a change in litter habits. Chacha wasn’t too bad when I moved into the new apartment. She still poops out of her litter box that is in her condo, but that is about it. I kept Chacha confined to the sunroom for a few days, to get used to her new surroundings. After my dad and I unpacked some stuff, (and got the stuff with wires put away) I let her roam around her new digs.

What I did was, my dad and I moved Chacha last. We didn’t want to make her panic, as the move was a lot of stress as it already was. Because she was moved last, I could relax after getting her into the apartment!

Warning: Oreo might thump a lot Just sayin That’s what Miss Diva did, and I wouldn’t be surprised if little Oreo does too

[Zap]

It depends on the rabbit, but like LoveChaCha said, Oreo might have a few accidents at first. You say your rabbit is curious, which is good. Once she settles down and gets over any initial fear she’ll most likely go into “explorer mode”. When I first moved my rabbit into my apartment, he went in search of the perfect spot to flop down and relax! (After having a good run, of course!)

[Lani]

I just remembered another question I wanted to ask. I’d like to do an overhaul cleaning of the apartment when I’m there on Friday. Would it be safe for me to use things like Lysol, Comet or other similar cleaners since she won’t be there for a few days?

[Allie2620]

I just moved 2 days ago with Daphne – and he was a little annoyed to be in his smaller pet-store cage for the moving day as it was a complete disaster area and I just put him in the corner for a few hours so he didn’t get trampled. By mid-afternoon, I got the X-pen set up so he could run around that. Finally, last night, my bedroom was clear enough to let him roam around and it was like the first day I brought him home – he hopped around sniffing everything, and then started to figure out a good running track, and was binkying within 15 minutes. I’d say the adjustment process was pretty fast.

I can’t really comment on litter training issues as the dear bun is going in for his neuter tomorrow so I gave up on poops being in the pan a good month ago, haha. But, even with the move, all the pee has remained in the pan (*knock on wood).

Sooooo, to answer your questions: I think you’ve got the right idea by getting your new place set up before Oreo gets there. I would guess Oreo will adjust pretty quickly, and you’ll have fun watching the bun hop around smelling everything Not sure about cleaning products – in general, I try to avoid using products in areas that Daphne might lick or try to chew. But, if you need to clean, then you need to clean. Maybe wiping it down with a wet rag afterwards to get rid of some of the chemical residue?

[Lani]

So when I went to sign my lease today, I was informed that some random testing of the building showed small amounts of lead based paint in some of the closets. The leasing office is getting me a copy of the full study/report so I can review it but I’m wondering if anyone can tell me what, if any, health risk this poses to Oreo. Obviously I don’t want her chewing on baseboards anyway, due to the expense for me, but I’m a bit more concerned now. Thoughts?

[Monkeybun]

If it is juts in closets, then it should be easy enough to keep her out of them.

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