Moving for a week?

[BunnyLiz]

In about 2 weeks my Dad, stepmom, brother and sister are going on vacation for a week.  I dont live with them, I live with my mom, but im staying at my dad’s house while they are away to watch their dogs and the house.  I will not be going back and forth from my house to theirs, because they live 45 minutes to an hour away.  I have two opitions for Hammer and Lucy.  Either they stay where they are and my mom will feed them, but they will not have any play time or interaction, litter changes etc.  They would be fine, their cages wouldnt be gross or anything.  I just worry that they will be upset with no play and that my mom does not know what a bunny illness would look like if something happened.  Or they can come with me for the week.  I would try to bring as much of there normal life with me, all their toys and rugs and pens would not change.  One concern with that is the car ride, Hammer hates them and wont poo for a while after long rides.  And that it would be all new space and sounds and smells (their dogs).  And Hammer doesnt do well with change, my guess is he feels insecure when there is change in anything.  He is going through some changes now, but this one is big even if its only a week.  Ill be stressed either way, either i worry about them when im not there, and Hammer adjusting to being without me.  Or ill worry about Hammer adjusting while i am there.  Ive gone back and forth with this for a few days and cant decide which would be less stressful for Hammer and Lucy.  Im probably over thinking this lol, but what do you guys think?

[MooBunnay]

If it were me, I think that I would probably leave them where they are. Can you go visit them at all? Even just once or twice? The reason for me saying that is that I know bunnies have a hard time dealing with changes in their lives and I think that they would be able to deal better with a temporary absence of play time and seeing you, than with moving to another house. Would your mom be able to keep them on the same schedule, such as the same feeding time, same time for veggies etc? I am concerned that you say she wouldn’t be able to identify a rabbit illness, because if you are gone I’m not sure if they would experience any depression and maybe stop eating. If you think this is more likely than them stopping eating because they are in a new house, then I think you probably could take them with you.

Sorry, I don’t think I’ve been much help one way of the other yet, but let us know the answers to those questions and maybe it can eventually get us to a solution!

[BunnyLiz]

Visiting them would probably not be possible, ill most likely not be able to really leave their house at all.  And Hammer is especially sensitive to change in the last few months, because he was gone through more change then was probably really healthy for him recently.  Small changes and big changes but he freaks out over almost everything.  Hammer’s feeding is salad at 7am, pellets at 3pm, salad at 11pm.  Lucy’s feedings are currently just a guessing game, I feed her when I think she needs it because im restricting pellets to hopefully get her to eat veggies, but she always has hay.  So I just watch her through the day and feed depending on if she ate enough hay or any veggies etc.  So I treat her diet delicately.  I do worry about leaving her because she has hairy poos (that I check everyday) and sometimes a few stuck together by hair, because she wont eat veggies!  My mom would probably do a 8am salad, 7pm pellets and 10pm salad, because thats when she is home.  However weekend days would be totally up in the air and she works a second job some nights, so pellets might be closer to evening salad time.  Whatever she did she couldnt keep up the normal, or have a consistant time for everything.  I do keep Hammer’s timing strict, ive noticed that he needs it to be a happy bun, if something is off he will not come out to play, or be himself that day.  Honestly I just think he is scared because if something is off he doesnt know what to expect and gets anxious, which follows him the rest of the day. 

My mom does know some about illness, but some things I think only I would be able to recognize.  What I mean is I know Hammer and Lucy by personality, my mom knows them by looks.  So I can tell when someone is having a bad day, and when something is wrong where as she maybe think its just nap time, or a bun loaf just means they could be getting comfy.  And I know what is normal poo size and amount for both of them, where she doesnt, nor would she check. 

Hammer slipping into a bit of depression is my main fear.  If you dont remember, after Rose passed Hammer stopped eating for several days and I really thought I was losing him too.  He either had a bad experience with having his teeth filed a few days prior or was depressed because of Rose, no way to tell but it makes me nervous.  They were almost bonded before she passed, so they were close but not bonded.   I really think im thinking this through so much because I havent left them for more then a weekend before, and Rose was sick while I was gone, my mom didnt catch it, and so it was not noticed until I got home.  I really feel like Im raising kids here lol.

[BinkyBunny]

It sounds like it would be less change than if you took them, and since Hammer seems to be sensitive to change, it may be best to keep them where they are.

The other thing is that if you bring them to another household with animal smells etc, and then back to your place, you may deal with territorial marking.

Plus, you aren’t too far away it seems that if something does happen your mom can call you and you can head over there.

You can just make sure your mom makes sure they are pooping and eating everyday. When I have a petsitter, I make sure she offers a treat with every visit, so that if they refuse, then there there is something obviously wrong and it’s urgent. So you might have your mom do that.

[Adalaide]

That’s a really good idea with the treats. Just a thought though, you may want to make sure that they’ll actually take treats from her first. I let Freya meet my best friend and her husband last night. She wouldn’t come out at all until the husband left. Freya just didn’t wanna be around him I guess, but she loved Susan and played with her and climbed on her after that. I suppose that they may not be fans of just anyone.

[BunnyLiz]

That is a good idea BB! I could get her to do it maybe 3 times a day and if they dont take it have her call me asap. Im still undecided though, i dont want to leave them with anyone, yet i want what would be in their best interest. I want to do whats right for them, i just dont know whats right. Maybe I should be making some pro vs con list lol.

[BunnyLiz]

Just bumping the thread to see if anyone else has any opinions! I still dont know, ill probably decide the day of lol

[RabbitPam]

Since you bumped for more opinions, I thought I’d reply.
I agree that it would be the better choice to leave them where they are with your mother. Hammer is sensitive to change, and it really would be a total change for him to have his secure surroundings changed. He won’t know it’s only for a week. But mostly I think the dogs would be very scary for him. The first time they bark he might be frightened, and if they get into the room he’s in, no matter how careful you are, he will be stressed even further.

You can give your Mom a feeding schedule, but don’t forget that unlimited hay replenished daily will take the edge off of any eating schedule conflicts. Unlike dogs, bunnies will eat when they are hungry, then stop and come back later. With available hay and water, and possibly more pellets than usual, your bunnies will eat that if it’s supper time in their minds regardless of the arrival of their greens.

You can give your mother a little list of things to watch out for – grinding teeth, refusal of treats, mushy poops or no poops in 24 hrs. You could (it’s gross) give her a picture of what their poopies should look like, so she’ll notice any change. But I’d just call her and while she’s on the phone, ask her to go over and describe the bunnies and their pen’s appearance. She may be more careful since your other bunny got sick that time.

A week isn’t long enough to create a serious depression if they have a human coming in and out daily. His depression was grief. I went on vacation several times and Spockie did fine with other people to care for him.

[jerseygirl]

I’ll throw my 2 cents in too…..Personally, I would leave them in their own environment. I think you can guarantee that a move across town, new environment and new animals will cause them some stress. At home, there will be less so, perhaps just some major disapproval though!

I had a similar dilemma last year when I went away for a short time. I had only Jersey then and hadn’t left her before, so I considered taking her. In the end, I left her home and had family come check in & feed her. All was fine but the main thing was I needed to do this so that I could go away in the future as I’d been avoiding doing so from fear of leaving her. It was a good exercise for me.

Another consideration is, what if you do take them and there is some reason they’ll need vet care (lets hope that doesn’t happen!!!!). How far would you be from your vet and how easy would you be able to get there?

[BunnyLiz]

Ok, thanks guys, someone else reasoning makes it seem much clearer. So ill print out BB’s bunsitter form, call all the time, and leave out all my vet and emergency contacts, directions to the vet and emergency vet, and get a folder for all the vet history papers (new vet now- nothing would be on file), and give a quick lesson on bun poos and hopefully she will listen lol. That should cover it lol, a bit much actually if you werent talking about buns haha. She is gonna have pages of instructions lol, and im sure over half will be common sense but.. this is my buns here!

[BinkyBunny]

Sounds like a good plan! Believe me, I can TOTALLY overwhelm my friend aka:pet sitter. I remember the first time she did it, she’d listen to me babble on and she’d nod her head and say, “uh huh, okay, uh huh, uh huh, uh…okay, okay, and I coiuld tell she was trying to digest it and began to look at me as a “crazy bunny lady”. She got the hang of it though and it became a piece of cake later.

[BunnyLiz]

O yes I think I would overwhelm anyone with info. The trouble with my mom is she probably thinks she knows everything she will need to know, simply because she lives with them, so she might not listen at all : ( I just worry to much!

[Beka27]

I’m late to this thread, but I agree… leave them where they are. It might not be as big of a deal if they were already bonded and there were no other pets where you were going, but I think in this situation, moving two separate buns for a week and dealing with marking and protecting them from the other animals sounds like it may be more work than if you left them at home.

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