What to do w/ unbonded girl during holidays

[skunklionshow]

DH & I are going home to visit my family in Chgo for the holiday.  We will be driving out xmas eve and staying in Chgo until the 29th, then we will start our drive home making some stops along the way (Maybe Cleveland & Pittsburgh).  Normally I hire my pet sitter to come in twice a day for the 4 cats and 2 rabbits.  The rabbits maintain free range w/ an open cage door when we’re not home.  Unfortunately, the clock is ticking and there’s no way that our new girl Chewbacca will be bonded b/f the holiday. 

As crazy as this may sound, we do not have a solid door on our storage area or bathroom.  So Chewie stays in her tiny cage until we come home from work and she hip hops for about 4-5 hours.  She still needs regular supervision b/c she’s a major chewer, likes to play in the cat litterboxes (we have to put a barrier up), and we have our stairs barricaded so she doesn’t get upstairs into the bathroom or storage room.  There’s no way we can let her roam free at this point.  I’m not sure if I should:

board her at the vet (she’d be in a cage all by herself )

See if I can get someone else to take her in for that week (strange home again by herself )

Keep her in the house, but force her to stay in her cage all the time (its waaayyyy too small) or work out some kind of schedule where she gets to come out during the day and gets caged at night.  My only concern is that we don’t trust her unsupervised yet…she’s a major chewer and has already taken out multiple cords, our rug, our ottoman, books, etc.

Input please…..I love her and want her to be happy.

[MooBunnay]

One option you might consider would be converting an exercise pen into a cage for her, then she could get all the exercise she needs in there but still be confined. If thats not an option then I think if it were me, my first choice would be to have her go to a rabbit friendly home where she would be given exercise time. Do you have any friends that have bunnies? My second choice would be boarding. Here in TX our sanctuary does boarding, so you might want to see if any local rabbit rescues do boarding, because then your bunny would be with rabbit-knowledgeable people and you would ALSO be supporting a rescue. The vet is also a good option if it is a rabbit savvy vet. The only thing I don’t like about the vet option is that cats and dogs and such would be around, and those smells and noises could potentially frighten her. You might want to talk to the vet about where she would be boarded and what the cage would be like.

[Elrohwen]

Could you get a baby gate for a bathroom or something? You say you don’t have doors, but could you turn a baby gate or xpen into a door? At least then she would have some space to move around.

[skunklionshow]

She is a sneaky little beast!  Baby gates do not phase her at all.  We initially  used a baby gate & she lept over it no problem.  We use a 3 panel screen that we keep at the bottom of the stairs so she can’t get upstairs & every now & then she’s able to sneak a spot open.  We checked out xpens last weekend and it really looks like she can hop over it no problem.  My vet says that lops are sneaky little beasts that don’t necessarily get that they are rabbits.  Do they make xpens that are high?  I think the ones we saw were about baby gate height.

The other problem are our cats.  They feel that they should have access to everything & everywhere, so sometimes they knock over the screens or gates to get wherever they want and then that creates access for her.  I think we might see about putting up one of the doors on the storage room and keep her in there.  Is it better for her to be in her home environment even if she’s separated from all the other pets?  Our vet will keep rabbits in a separate room from the dogs & cats, but she would still be in a cage the whole time…..but I guess she is now anyway   The Bunny Rescue in NJ works w/ foster homes.  I’ve never been able to get the Houserabbit society in DE to return my messages!

[Elrohwen]

You can definitely get 3′ xpens and from Katnip’s posts it seems you can get 4′ ones as well. Her Elop is an escape artist, yet my holland lop doesn’t even jump over the one NIC grid high fence in our living room. He’s as unsneaky as they come 😉

Have you traveled with her before or taken her to a new place? Does she seem like that would upset her? If she’s unphased by new places, then maybe just taking her to the vet would be best. But if you think it will unsettle her, I would keep her at home, even if she has to be in a small cage. We left my bun with friends for a week where he was stuck in a 4’x4′ xpen with no outside time (except the time he escaped when the door was open). He was a bit more destructive than usual, but he was ok in the end.

[lwayne]

check out petco for xpens, they have really high ones.

[Monkeybun]

Of course, if you can’t figure anything out, I’ll gladly take her! hehe you might not get her back tho…

[BinkyBunny]

And if you think she is determined enough to try and climb the the tallest ones, you can put a sheet over it. I know that one day when I was at Animal Care & Control, I saw one bunny CLIMB a tall xpen. Never would I have thought a bunny could do that. It just jumped up to the first level of horizital bars, then held on and and used the horizontal bars to jump to the next level of horizonal bars until it reached the top and propelled itself off to the other side. One of the most bizarre things I had seen from a rabbit. So if you think your bunny might have some acrobatic skills, sheets or blankets are could to put over the top.  You do have to be careful though not to let the sheet hang down where the bunny can get at it as some bunnies can pull the sheet off by grabbing at the end of the sheet, or if you have the sheet fastened, then they can just chew too much of it.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Hmmmm

Five days?

I’d probably get two different people to look after her (I believe two different pet sitters=one will do it properly and ensure vet is visited if needed… )

But i’d do it at home if possible
I would also keep her in the cage-sitters may have no idea of what is dangerous and five days is nothing. She might be mad-but she’ll be safe

[skunklionshow]

I’m going to check out Petco this weekend.  I’ll see if I can find a high xpen and set it up in my small storage room.  I know she likes to be downstairs where the action is, but I also know that she LOVES her hip hop time.  We have to keep a babygate up to block the closet that the cat litterboxes are located.  She likes to play in the dusty litterboxes.  We put the gate on it’s perpendicular end so that it’s taller.  We also hung up a curtain above it.  She went right through the curtain when the gate was at it’s standard height but now she doesn’t. 

I have a really great petsitter.  I’ve had the same people/company for about 4 years.  They had to learn about bunnies & lizards, as we were their test case, but everything has gone really well.  Now that I have a diabetic cat and the other cat has early renal disease, they need meds administered 2x day, so I need to have someone reliable.  They actually keep my pet stuff cleaner than when I left.  They definately earn their money.  I have a BB stasis & pet sitting info form and they do really great w/ that info.  No problems!

Often I find it hard to gauge rabbit’s stress levels from going to the vet.  My cats puke, poop, urinate on themselves, & scream like human babies…..so I know when they don’t respond well to a vet trip.  My rabbits are in their little carrier, in the front seat, they don’t puke or make noise….of course they poop often no pee.  So I think I’m a little slow w/ my lagomorph lingo

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