Bunny boarding questions

Hi Guys,
Ive been thinking about this for a while, and after all the coments about bunny boarding ive decided to give it a go, Ive a done a bit of research and just wondering what you think makes a good bunny holiday home. Most places seem to charge about £5 per night but vary on what they offer for this. I will be offering Large hutch run combo, would you expect your bunny holiday home to also give your bun free range time in the garden? Would people pay more for, say an hours supervised free range a day???
How far would people travel to a good bunny hotel?
Thanks, I know a lot of QQQs but I think they may be a gap in the market and spoiling animals is what I do Best.
k

Bunny Holidays

We are new to bunnies, but sounds good Our neighbour would come over once a day to feed and check on our bunnies if we were away, but if they couldn't we'd have to take the bunnies to my parents in Cheshire, which is two hours drive away. Stoke is 45 minutes and I'd consider taking them that far - especially as woudn't need to try and pack giant dog cage into car! And I'm not sure about what we'd do when they have moved outside!!!

Hi, i run a Boarding establishment at my own home, we cater for all pets except cats and large animals such as horses etc...

You can check out my website here...

www.freewebs.com/petsonvacation

might give you some ideas :wink:

I wouldn't mind paying more for exercise time etc - what I'd get for my money would be more important than what I was going to spend. I don't think I'd want to travel too far though - mainly because when we're going on holiday it's always a mad rush! :lol: Plus it's obviously stressful for the bunnies.

Hi Kiri! There's some good advice about some things you need to think of in this thread here http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/viewtopic.php?t=2718&start=0

Personally my main concern with hutch/run buns would be security - I'd want to be 100% sure that the setup was completely foxproof - very strong mesh, no way the run/hutch could become separated or tipped over, proper bolts etc on the doors, no way a fox could dig in (or a bun out!), etc etc...

Garden time is difficult - my buns are used to grazing but it would be very difficult to maintain good infection control between buns if they were all allowed onto the lawn. At least with patio, you can thoroughly disinfect it between buns and they aren't eating it as well! On the one hand, if there was free patio time I'd definitely pay more for that sort of thing, but I'd also be more likely to choose a boarding establishment if it offered that as standard (even if the price was higher to start with).

Good luck!!

Thanks for the ideas, Im just going to be small scale I think-I want to do it because I love looking after the animals and can earn a little extra to spoil my own more.
Ive looked into it locally and i cant find any boarding places nearby, and I couldnt leave my pair anywhere that couldnt provide 24hour access to large secure run. Il only be taking a couple of pairs at a time for now. Ultimate luxury would be difficult to provide with large numbers I think.
Lucky I have a web designer husband designing my website going to keep him busy...
Nothing to lose and only bunny snuggles to gain

Hmm... yes I hadn't thought of infection control. That would be an issue.

I don't charge anything extra, apart from on our forms, we often get little (or sometimes big) letters telling us all about habits, all about the animals life at home eg. what time they get fed, how many hours they spend out, whether they come indoors, how they are picked up, things they like and dislike....etc...

and believe me we get more of these for buns than we do dogs :lol:

and we do our best to meet these

we look after a guinea-pig for an elderly woman, well i say elderly aged is a better word, the guinea-pigs called Hav she is approx 6 years old so gettin on, she has had 4 major operations to remove lumps, she also suffers from dry eyes and recently lost the use of her back legs, but this woman loves her dearly, she is an indoor pet, she has eye drops, she gets whatever she wants when she wants especially food :roll: such a gorgeous little creature, and a lovely woman the owner is too

shes one of our regulars and dear god do i worry these days that the guineas gonna snuff it while shes shere i do whatever i can to make her comfortable though.

and on the other hand we have a young asian couple that bring their dutch bun here, and oh my god is he spoiled, lol, hes treated like a child, we got a letter off them...

'oh he has a bowl of pellets at 8.30am as he likes his food before he goes out, he goes out at 9am, he comes in the house for cuddles at 3pm, he likes to sit on the sofa with you and watch telly, he goes back out after about an hour, he is then put back in his hutch at around 9pm weather permitting...and it goes on...'

they even rang up before hand to make sure he could have the biggest hutch etc :roll: which he has, hes coming again next Wed, wonder what else there is now hes a big boy! and boy it was rather strange at first but you've go to try and do as they say, and its rather enjoyable doing it, you get to spend time with the rabbit and learn about them, you find that yeah you were told he likes to sit on the sofa with you and watch TV, but you weren't told he likes to spread out and hog it, or his ears move like radar when a fighting scene come on :lol: :lol: :lol:

little things like that, its lovely

thanks for the link will have a look.
I was wondering about infection control type thing but I think any bunny hotel that uses runs is likely to have the same issues.
I know what you mean about fox security, but my run is as secure as the hutch and also has a plastic mesh base and is on grass. Bunny hotel run has a wooden base too and a roof
My 2 spend most of the night time sat on top of their box in the run(although they may come in when it snows time will tell...) so I am a bit of a 24h access run convert. If a run isnt fox proof then its probably not safe to use it at all, a friends bun was taken by a fox early evening while they were in the "daytime" run.

kiri said:

thanks for the link will have a look.
I was wondering about infection control type thing but I think any bunny hotel that uses runs is likely to have the same issues.
I know what you mean about fox security, but my run is as secure as the hutch and also has a plastic mesh base and is on grass. Bunny hotel run has a wooden base too and a roof
My 2 spend most of the night time sat on top of their box in the run(although they may come in when it snows time will tell...) so I am a bit of a 24h access run convert. If a run isnt fox proof then its probably not safe to use it at all, a friends bun was taken by a fox early evening while they were in the "daytime" run.

Click to expand...

Did you make your hutch/run yourself or buy it? It sounds good and fox proof Do you have any pictures of it? I think it sounds like you'd be just the sort of person to leave my bun with, pity you're too far away - I'd only want to travel for about 45 mins tops as one of my buns gets really stressed in the car

Yes we built the hutch and run ourselves, and man is it strong...all proper joints used, the square type mesh instead of chicken wire and the sides of the hutch are thick ply with sliplap as well. Il try and put some photos up, were pretty proud of it. The 2 tier hutch is on the patio with the run lower down on the grass conected via a massive piece of draining tube, I think they love it becasue it feels like the are going down into a warron. It took a LONG time to make but its so worth it. There was a massive instant change in her behaviour when we finally attached the run full time so she could go in at night.
I realised I was putting her into the run in the daytime while she wanted to sleep and putting her into a hutch at night time when she wanted to play. :roll:
Shes still a stroppy teenager, but a happy one

Intersting point raised regarding infection and grass runs. Am I right in thinking that E.C. can be spread through rabbits urine? How do you prevent bunnies exposure to this? :? (Not you personally Kiri, 'tis a general question :roll: )

thanks alison for the link,
some good info about how to run as a business, Im going run it by the book although I dont expect to make anything more than enough to buy more bunny tunnels and a pint of guiness a week.
Itl give me experience of running a business without the risk of losing much money. I want to learn how to do things such as tax returns etc because eventually husband and I would like to start a business that could actually bring in money, this isnt likely to be bunny boarding its more of a hobby.
As far as infection from grass I have no idea. Another bunny boarding place uses 4by2 hutches and each bun gets an hour a day in a run, they must use a few runs to serve all the buns-I wonder how they work it having so many diff buns using the same run every day?
How do other rescues/hotels work it?

well, we make sure all buns we look after have their vacs and are healthy, if i feel somethings not right then the bun goes to a seperate part of the garden or doesn't go out if they are ill, i bring it up with the owner, or obviously if bun is poorly they go to the vets.

But with people who know alot about buns like us fellow bun keepers, you can usually detect in the early stages when a bun is not right, most boarders may not know if they specialise in say dogs.

Hi Kiri,
you will need to get insurance and I don't just mean to cover you but for the buns on your premises. I am insured with Petplan for the hotel which is an excellent policy. All rabbits that board with me have their own run for the duration of their stay but the all get disinfected everynight and are kept in a secure sheds at night but spend all day in a run.
I am obviously to cheap to after you saying what people charge per night and I provide everything even the owners make of food.

Not very clear, its hard to get a good one of the hutch and run together as the tubes quite long. Its securly fixed to the side of the hutch and to the side of the run. A close up photo might make it clearer.

Yes I cant believe how cheap some places are, ive looked at some others and they only charge £2 per night!!! Maybe these places can do it so cheap if they look after many many buns. I think to provide good care to one pair of buns, living in the same accomodation they would need at least 1hours attention per day. Minus any other costs of hay/insurance thats a grand total of £1 per hour :shock: Il be charging morre than that, I may no make much profit but theres no point doing it to make a loss.

I suppose the problem with bunny boarding is most people just get their neighbours to throw in some food and fill up water bottles which costs them nothing but doesnt really constitute as good care...hence people dont want to spend much on something a neighbour can do for free.

I wanted to call it the rabbit ritz but someones beat me to it!
ps I just wanted to make clear Im not using this as advertising-just want some advice and ideas, im not set up properly yet... :wink:

What did you use to make your tunnel and how did you attach it to stop it being pulled out by, eg, a fox? I've got a two foot gap between where my buns sleep and where the run will go and I need to connect the two but not sure how to. Looks great!

Il try and take some close up photos of where its all connected tonight. It was a really fiddly job cus it involves cutting lots of circles out of ply, cutting and shapping the shiplap from the side of the hutch and making a frame to make the round tube fit in a square hole in the run... and we had to try and bend a very un bendy tube around a corner...
It took two of us and 8hour day to get our heads round how we were gonna join it securely but that tube will never move. It was worth all the effort tho. My friend call it the rabbit rotastack cage. :lol:

Oh the tube I 'borrowed' from work I believe its a very wide drainage tube, not very common but you must be able to buy um from somewhere.

What about house bunnies?!

My Sophie has never been outside overnight - would you just be taking on buns that the owner would be happy to go in a hutch?!

I'm not picking (just re read the bit above this and it sounds like I'm being sarcy :lol just asking for other people who might be wondering the same thing

Ive just realised my garden looks a tip in this pic! Sorry I was midway through cleaning the hutch and patio when i took the photo. Wanted to take it before it got dark :roll:

Il just be catering for outdoor buns, I started off with my own house buns but it didnt work out...it became to dangerous to leave her free range unsupervised, we did make every effort to sort out wires but we had one too many near misses and I couldnt cope with the stress, so she wouldve been stuck in a small indoor cage while we were out.

She also became so utterly obsessed with weeing in my dogs bed and my dogs such a placid gentle little thing I felt like she was being bullyed by the rabbit.

They get on fine, but i think its common sense to keep other peoples bunnies away from dogs, just the same as people are rightly saying to keep boarding bunnies away from your own.