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Moving tips for a long drive!

Nic.

Warren Scout
Hi everyone.

In a couple of weeks i'm going to be moving from South Wales to Glasgow. It's about a 7/8 hour drive and my dad will be driving me down. I'm worried about the drive and move and how my rabbit will be during the journey. Do you have any tips? He'll be in his pet carrier but not sure whether to put it on the seat or put it on the floor by my feet? I plan to cover it with a blanket so it's dark as long as it's not too hot. Should I fill the carrier with hay? Or put vet bed down and a small amount of hay? I'm hoping he'll eat on the way so I'll put some treats and pellets in there. He doesn't really like veg or herbs so I probably won't bother adding any and will stop and give him water when I can (if he'll drink it). I'm especially worried because he's on his own :( The plan was originally for a move of 4 bunnies so they'd all have eachother for company but my other 3 bunnies have all died within the last 6 months (the last one only 2 weeks ago) and he'll have to be on his own for a little while atleast.

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I'm so sorry for you losses :(

I would put his carrier on the seat as there will be less vibrations etc there. If there is any wet food he will eat I'd take that along. Have a couple of rest stops & offer water & food. Hay in the carrier seems sensible but water would no doubt soak everything. If its really hot maybe covered the carrier with a damp sheet or towel.

Something absorbent under the hay will keep any wee of him

Over to others & good luck.
 
I drove my girl up to Canada from America last year, although it was a 4 hour journey rather than 8 so not sure how useful it will be to hear what I did!

I used a Sherpa carrier, mostly because we were flying a few days later and it’s airline approved, but I would definitely recommend these types of carriers for travelling in general. The sides are like a mesh which helped her to feel safe and covered but still able to look out, and also let’s enough air in to keep her cool. And they are designed to be strapped in with a seatbelt for safety.

The carrier already had a fleece lining, but I put a layer of vetbed over it, and also put one of her blankets in the corner for something soft to cuddle up to. I kept a small blanket next to the carrier for the journey just in case I did want to cover the carrier more, don’t think I ended up using it though. I sprayed the carrier and blankets with pet remedy spray the night before our journey.

You know those shade things you can get for the car windows? They like stick on with suction cups, I have no idea what they are called. I got a few of those and stuck them onto the window next to the carrier to keep the sun off her.

I put food in the carrier with her, a hay cake, some pellets scattered on the floor, a few of her oxbow vitamins and some water soaked herbs and greens in a travel bowl to stop it getting everything else wet. I stopped to offer water in another travel bowl every hour, and refreshed the greens with water at the same time. She did slowly eat the greens throughout the journey, she definitely ate the pellets, and she drank at every rest stop. I would definitely stick with the food you know he loves.

I would keep the carrier on the seat to be honest, strapped in with a seatbelt. In case of an accident you will want him to be secured in place and to be able to remove him from the car easily and quickly if you need to. I know it’s not nice to think about potential accidents, but you never know who else is driving on the same road as you. There was actually a collision up ahead of us on the freeway when I was driving my bunny up and we had to break quickly, even that could of thrown her carrier around a little if she wasn’t properly strapped in.

Feel free to pm me if you have any questions or anything. I remember how anxious I was!

I’m sorry to hear that you lost your bunnies :(
 
Thank you both so much for the advice. This is really helpful [emoji16]

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I drove two bunnies from Leicester to Norfolk (3hrs) last year in the heat: they were on the front seat next to me in my Catit Cabrio, with newspaper and hay (longer I would've put a layer of newspaper then litter pellets, the paper ones I use, then another layer of newspaper). I also put some veg (celery, cucumber) in there. I went alone, which is why the front seat was spare, and I covered the top and front of the carrier (where there aren't vents) as the sun came through the windscreen. I directed the air vents onto the carrier, into the front and side vents, and had the air conditioning on relatively strongly. When I stopped for a wee, I opened the windows as it was pretty breezy.

We also took a bunny from Leeds to Basingstoke, but there were two of us and we split the journey with a few days at home. The longest stint was about 4hrs to Basingstoke but it took us 5 due to traffic :S Bunny was fine, it was hot again but we had the aircon on pretty strong and made sure we put bunny out of the sun: driving mostly south that was pretty easy! We offered water and more food at the one stop we made.

If you're lucky, it'll be cool and cloudy! Good luck :)
 
i agree with all the above. We did an 8-9 hour journey with our tribe of 13 buns a few years ago and had no big problems apart from my stress! Try to the put the carrier you intend to use in their area for a few weeks before hand and put yummy stuff in it - that way it becomes their safe place. They didn't eat when we were travelling and only nibbled a bit when we stopped to give them rests but they were eating the next morning - we had brought lots of nice grass and forage for them to have when we arrived so it smelled familiar. Smell is really important to buns so when you arrive allow them the use of the carriers you used to transport them for as long as they want. Our Rupert and Rosie were the only ones who seemed really uncomfortable and they didn't move out of their carrier for 48 hours after arrival as far as we could tell. They were all fine though. Good luck!
 
i agree with all the above. We did an 8-9 hour journey with our tribe of 13 buns a few years ago and had no big problems apart from my stress! Try to the put the carrier you intend to use in their area for a few weeks before hand and put yummy stuff in it - that way it becomes their safe place. They didn't eat when we were travelling and only nibbled a bit when we stopped to give them rests but they were eating the next morning - we had brought lots of nice grass and forage for them to have when we arrived so it smelled familiar. Smell is really important to buns so when you arrive allow them the use of the carriers you used to transport them for as long as they want. Our Rupert and Rosie were the only ones who seemed really uncomfortable and they didn't move out of their carrier for 48 hours after arrival as far as we could tell. They were all fine though. Good luck!
Thanks for the advice! It's a relief to hear from someone who's done a similarly long journey. I've had his carrier in the room with treats in for the last couple of weeks. Unfortunately he's going through his first bout of stasis and hasn't been back in the carrier since I took him to the vet so that's ruining things a bit! He's also very stressed right now as he really hated being handled and I'm having to force feed him meds twice a day so I'm hoping he'll be 100% back to normal by the time I need to make this trip or I may be looking at leaving him behind with my family and coming back for him once he's better :(

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