Need advice for a long, long drive.

[amandafaith90]

 So, I’m moving back up to Pullman this Saturday for school, and Bambi and I have a 6 hour long drive ahead of us. He’ll be in his pretty large carrier with some nice fresh hay for him, a frozen water bottle, some towels, and newspaper under that. The real question is what to do about water. It’s so warm outside that I need to make sure that Bambi, even if he won’t eat (which he won’t- he freezes up in the car) stays hydrated. I decided to completely forget about water in any form other than his frozen water bottle and what I’ll give him from the kind of things you use to give bunnies liquid medicine. Does this seem like a good idea? I figured everything else would be too messy, and he probably wouldn’t drink it anyway. I was also wondering how often I should give him water. The medicine thing holds a tsp of water, and I’m not sure what he’ll need.

 

Thanks so much for the help! 

– Amanda 

[Beka27]

What you may want to do is stop halfway somewhere for about 30-45 minutes and allow him to relax and hopefully eat and drink something. You can try some of his favorite veggies, get them wet first to increase water intake. My buns won’t eat in a moving car either, so it would be necessary to make some stops.

[wendyzski]

Pepper and I drove a couple of 10-hour days recently, and I tried the syringe-water – she ignored it.

What did work was wetting down some nice fresh veggies (I made sure to pick some of her favorites and strong scented ones like mint and cilantro, and kept them in a cooler) and gave them to her at a nice long mid-day break.  On the way out I took her carrier out into the shade at a rest stop and ate my lunch with her, but on the way back it was hotter so I took her carrier into the air conditioned rest area and played on my wifi while we both rested and ate.  The smoothie place even gave me a bit of frozen banana for her!

I had plenty of room in the car so I made a pen from the sheet-covered back seat and she had her open carrier, a small dish of water, and her litter box.  I adjusted the fade on the radio so it was only playing in the front seat, kept the AC on and when it got really sunny I put an old sheet over the carrier so she had shade.

[amandafaith90]

 Bambi is still too young to be eating very many veggies (he’s 4 months, and most of them even in small amounts upset his stomach). I feel like he couldn’t “ignore” the syringe water, since I’ll basically be forcing water into his mouth.  As for the whole stopping to eat thing, I tried that on the last trip I went on. After three hours in the car, we stopped to offer him pellets and alfalfa hay (at that point he was only 8 weeks) but since he gets all of them as much as he wants he doesn’t really se any of it as a treat, and in his freaked out state he completely ignored it. I also worry about where I’m going to stop on the trip. There aren’t very rest stops, and most of them aren’t nice and air conditioned which won’t be an option since it’ll be over 100 degrees, and if I stop but keep him in the car he’ll be just s freaked. 

I guess I’m just kind of worried for him. It’s not the most forgivable trip for buns, but, thankfully, my move out there is permenant- he shouldn’t have to travel like this for at least another 4 years.

[RabbitPam]

I would keep a small cooler, like a lunch bag with a frozen cold pack in it, with a few bottles of water in the car for both of you. Then you can even pull over at a smaller rest stop, pour some cool fresh water into a small dish near him and touch it to his mouth so he knows it’s there. He may start to drink after a minute. You could also bring a small water bottle of water with a bit of apple juice mixed in, in case he likes the flavor and drinks it more. Try to stick with clear water if he’ll take it.

[bunnycutie]

when you take a rest-stop. you can wet veggies for hydration. hopefully he will be calm enough ti eat them. also, this is a weird idea, and i don’t know how safe it is, but… you could put a pinch of sugar free jello powder in his water. this may encourage drinking because it would taste better. if this isn’t safe(i haven’t done any research, and have never tried it) you could juice an orange or apple(in a juicer) and add some to his drinking water. he might enjoy the taste

[RabbitPam]

Bunniecutie, wetting the veggies is a good idea, but I’d stay away from the jello.

[bunnycutie]

thanks rabbitpam. just an idea to throw out there

[lwayne]

You could try putting a damp washcloth in there with Bambi. I would definitely still keep a water bottle attached, just in case he wants a drink. Good luck moving back to town! Maybe I’ll see you around sometime.

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