bunnylover177
Alpha Buck
We moved from Essex up to Northumberland with our 13 rabbits, 3 guinea-pigs and 2 degus. I'm posting this as I think our experience might be of interest to others. I was very concerned about doing an 8 hour journey by car with our menagerie but actually it went really painlessly. As we were renting we were able to move the bulk of their cages up to Northumberland before we travelled with them which helped.
We did a couple of things which we think made it easier on them:
1. We put their pet carriers in their areas with them the week before so they could thoroughly chin them and generally own them.
2. We mostly kept them in the same cages and the same environments e.g. outside buns stayed outside in their familiar cage, they kept the same litter trays so as much as possible things smelt right for them. I think familiar smells were a big part of why they deal with it all so well.
Only one pair of rabbits, Rupert and Rosa, were clearly not happy because we had to move them into new caging in a garage close to other rabbits when they had previously been in an aviary so they were dealing with extra change - they had adapted fine within a week.
They didn't eat much on their 8 hour journey but by the next morning all of them had polished off their pellets and extra tasty dried food and veg which was a massive relief.
Our degus were put back in their large cage when we arrived and within 24 hours were acting like nothing had happened. The guinea-pigs were put in a brand new set up which had lots of food in it so they were immediately happy - never hard to please a guinea-pig
I worried more about this aspect of our move than anything else by a long way and I couldn't find anyone who had done this sort of journey to a new place with rabbits. I wish I had known that rabbits could travel well and deal with a mostly new environment so easily - phew!
PS: In case you are wondering what size our car is, we took some buns and the guinea-pigs up on the day of our move and came back with the rest a week later!
We did a couple of things which we think made it easier on them:
1. We put their pet carriers in their areas with them the week before so they could thoroughly chin them and generally own them.
2. We mostly kept them in the same cages and the same environments e.g. outside buns stayed outside in their familiar cage, they kept the same litter trays so as much as possible things smelt right for them. I think familiar smells were a big part of why they deal with it all so well.
Only one pair of rabbits, Rupert and Rosa, were clearly not happy because we had to move them into new caging in a garage close to other rabbits when they had previously been in an aviary so they were dealing with extra change - they had adapted fine within a week.
They didn't eat much on their 8 hour journey but by the next morning all of them had polished off their pellets and extra tasty dried food and veg which was a massive relief.
Our degus were put back in their large cage when we arrived and within 24 hours were acting like nothing had happened. The guinea-pigs were put in a brand new set up which had lots of food in it so they were immediately happy - never hard to please a guinea-pig
I worried more about this aspect of our move than anything else by a long way and I couldn't find anyone who had done this sort of journey to a new place with rabbits. I wish I had known that rabbits could travel well and deal with a mostly new environment so easily - phew!
PS: In case you are wondering what size our car is, we took some buns and the guinea-pigs up on the day of our move and came back with the rest a week later!
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