Moving house with bunnies!

[sarahthegemini]

Hi guys, soon I’ll hopefully be moving from a small one bed house to a one bedroom flat. I’m looking for any suggestions on making it as stress free for P & B as possible. They’re free roam but I plan to pen them at the new place and increase their space to full roam over the space of a week or so to try and prevent them feeling overwhelmed. Does this sound right? In terms of their bond, should I expect a little bit of dominance assertion? I believe Buttercup is top bun and won’t tolerate being mounted (she’s not aggressive, she just moves out the way) They’ve been officially bonded since February. Will limiting their space at first help this?

Any other tips would be much appreciated! I’m quite excited. Peanut hasn’t ever hone upstairs so being in a flat means he’ll be able to follow Buttercup everywhere 

[Dface]

I’ve always been surprised by how well rabbits seem to just accept a new place as home.
For the day you are moving the rabbits try have everything set up-litter tray, water hay etc. Give them extra places to hide, and try to avoid hoovering or changing anything about their cage for about a week, to let them get to grips with their territory. Bringing some blankets that haven’t been washed from the old house that smell like them can help too!

Small space is better to start with (incase someone panics and also helps stop the inevitable urge to mark the new house as “theirs” )

You might see re-establishing of dominance, or even a switch. I’d a weird situation where one of my buns was dominant in one house and the other in the other house, and it would just switch when we moved between houses.
However your rabbits will benefit greatly from having each other during the move

[sarahthegemini]

Posted By Dface on 8/28/2017 9:55 AM

I’ve always been surprised by how well rabbits seem to just accept a new place as home.
For the day you are moving the rabbits try have everything set up-litter tray, water hay etc. Give them extra places to hide, and try to avoid hoovering or changing anything about their cage for about a week, to let them get to grips with their territory. Bringing some blankets that haven’t been washed from the old house that smell like them can help too!

Small space is better to start with (incase someone panics and also helps stop the inevitable urge to mark the new house as “theirs” )

You might see re-establishing of dominance, or even a switch. I’d a weird situation where one of my buns was dominant in one house and the other in the other house, and it would just switch when we moved between houses.
However your rabbits will benefit greatly from having each other during the move

Thank you Dface. Now that you mention it, both buns have dealt with all the changes we made very well. We changed things a lot when we first got them as we were learning so much! I’ll make sure to have everything set up so as soon as we get in the new place, they can go straight to their little penned area. I keep blankets in their carrier so I’ll be sure to put the carrier in their new area. For litter trays, I usually change them every evening so if we move in the morning, the soiled litter boxes will go straight to the area too so they’ll have that familiar scent. Plus hopefully it’ll curb any accidents if they know where to go. I’m hoping there won’t be too much marking, that’s never been a problem until this week Peanut decided to pee on his diggy blankets after they were freshly washed so they’ve been confiscated at the moment 

Do you advise supervising them at first if they need to re-establish their arrangement? We marathon bonded them in the middle of January and so we supervised them 24/7 for about a fortnight. After two weeks, Peanut had stopped attempting to mount so we were confident to leave them. Do you think because they’ve got along so well for the last 6 months, the chance of any aggression is quite low? The only time during bonding they had a scuffle was where Peanut tried humping Buttercup and she felt trapped and acted out (circling and a bit of fur was pulled – nothing major but of course we were there to stop it)

It’s interesting that yours had a complete switch in dominance. Altho Buttercup won’t accept being mounted, she does the majority of the grooming. Peanut can be quite greedy. Perhaps they’re equal?

[Dface]

In a good bond, it should be unclear who top bun is.
It’s actually a frequent misconception that the one who is grooming is not dominant- grooming releases endorphins and makes the groomer feel happy.

But tbh keep an eye on them but I doubt they’ll need actual monitoring. You’ll notice yourself if there’s something amiss with either of them

Even though mine seemed to switch there was no aggression or actual fighting

[sarahthegemini]

Posted By Dface on 8/28/2017 10:55 AM

In a good bond, it should be unclear who top bun is.
It’s actually a frequent misconception that the one who is grooming is not dominant- grooming releases endorphins and makes the groomer feel happy.

But tbh keep an eye on them but I doubt they’ll need actual monitoring. You’ll notice yourself if there’s something amiss with either of them

Even though mine seemed to switch there was no aggression or actual fighting

That’s really great to hear actually! I mean, aside from not putting up with being humped I’d say they probably are equal then. Buttercup has never humped peanut. Buttercup is obsessed with grooming him sometimes (seriously sometimes when they are waiting for me to bring their food over and they are all excitable, she’ll give his ears a quick lick ) but maybe that’s because it feels good for her like you said?  She groomed his head the other day while he was drinking from the bowl. His face kept bopping into the water 

I will definitely keep an eye on them the first day and I’ll keep the bedroom door open at night so I’ll hear if anything needs interference. 

[sarahthegemini]

Just thought of something that might be an issue…flooring. They primarily reside in our living room (they can go elsewhere they just rarely choose too) which is carpeted. The new flat I think is laminate flooring everywhere. Buttercup is quite happy on the tiled kitchen and bathroom floors but Peanut…well, he does occasionally go in the kitchen but not often and he’s never ventured upstairs in the bathroom. I’ve put a new play mat down and he’s very skeptical of it. He’s avoiding it mostly. I plan to put rugs down for their comfort but obviously I don’t want him to ever be limited due to parts of the floor that we can’t cover. Any tips for dealing with that?

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