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Neighbours having an extension...

Chrisrules334

Warren Scout
Hi all,

My next door neighbour has just submitted a planning application to have an extension in their back garden. Itll be a conservatory type thing (orangery I thinks the technical term) and the building work will be directly behind the fence which the rabbits are situated.

So...

What do we do about the rabbits? I imagine there'll be a week or two of sustained loud noises that will frighten and stress them out.

We need to rubber mat/slab where the hutch is as the grounds starting to become a mud bath, so I am thinking we move their hutch in doors and keep them in whilst the work happens? Assuming it's not winter then we'll send them out after the works finished, but if it is we'll just have to have them inside for a couple of months...

Thoughts? Anyone else had a similar situation?
 
We built a huge shed and an aviary practically around our rabbits and they were absolutely fine. They did have their own shed to hide in though so probably felt quite safe. Now they are absolutely bullet proof and no amount of banging, drilling or nail guns scare them (OH says we've trained them like they train police horses lol).

If yours only have a hutch to hide in it might be an idea to maybe move it a little way away from the fence, is that possible? Even just to the opposite side of the garden would help. The trouble with taking them inside is the time of the year . . . it's likely that you'd have to keep them in until the spring if you take them inside now.
 
We had building work next door with an inside rabbit - like Lisa, ours was fine as long as he could hide.

If you can have them in, I'd say do it, just because house rabbits are the best thing ever :D But if they have to stay outside, I imagine they'll be ok as long as they have somewhere dark to go. (Bonus points if it has hay!)
 
Hi all,

My next door neighbour has just submitted a planning application to have an extension in their back garden. Itll be a conservatory type thing (orangery I thinks the technical term) and the building work will be directly behind the fence which the rabbits are situated.

So...

What do we do about the rabbits? I imagine there'll be a week or two of sustained loud noises that will frighten and stress them out.

We need to rubber mat/slab where the hutch is as the grounds starting to become a mud bath, so I am thinking we move their hutch in doors and keep them in whilst the work happens? Assuming it's not winter then we'll send them out after the works finished, but if it is we'll just have to have them inside for a couple of months...

Thoughts? Anyone else had a similar situation?


I would say that if you can bring them in then do it but if you don't want to then you can have them outside as long as they have somewhere to hide. My rabbits come indoors at night. They have the washing machine in the same room and mine are happy.

Hope this helps ;)
 
We had an extension built a few years ago. We moved our rabbit Toffy to the back of the garden initially, about 10 m from the building works and she was absolutely fine. She seemed curious about the whole thing and very rarely showed any sign of discomfort.

In general, I have found that rabbits soon get used to new noises and after a few days they just ignore it. When I first used the lawnmower, Willow dashed into her hutch and wouldn't come out for half an hour after I finished cutting the grass. The second time she still hid but not for long. The third time she just ran to the far corner of the run. A few weeks later she didn't even bother looking up, just carried on grazing. Once they find that there is no actual danger, they learn to filter out noises.
 
Thanks all.

Will move them to the back of garden so they'll be a few metres away. Will give us chance to slab over their current location too.
 
What do we do about the rabbits? I imagine there'll be a week or two of sustained loud noises that will frighten and stress them out.

I have a soccer field close to the rabbits, with 3-4 weekend tournaments per year, they don't care. When working with power tools like chainsaw or circular saw I need to fence them off, there's always one between my feet. Fireworks at New Years Eve? "Great, someone is up at midnight to feed us...". At my former appartment there was a building rubble recycling plant right behind the hutches - guess who didn't care.

So, imho, they may be alarmed for half an hour, but then realize that it isn't a danger (rabbits are much, much better in that than dogs or cats) and ignore it. It helps when I too ignore whatever is going on, they take the clue.

You'll still need to keep an eye on them, since all rabbits are different, it may be that one actually gets stressed, some treats when it get's loud may help too.
 
Aboleth despises me sawing, but the electric saw just down the canal is fine :roll: We live in an industrial estate and the really loud noises we get sometimes (over the road banging skips, next door's car spray booth) don't fuss either of them. If someone's up on the roof of that booth though, she HAS to be able to see them: she won't use the playhouse or run, only the hutch, which is opposite rather than adjacent the car repair place. She also wasn't keen on the owner of next door doing some angle grinding in his camper van yesterday. But when the people from the canal boats let off fireworks in the road? No problem.

Lopsy's kinda deaf and pretty stupid so none of this applies to him ;) Do what you think is right and they'll let you know!
 
We had an extension built a few years ago. We moved our rabbit Toffy to the back of the garden initially, about 10 m from the building works and she was absolutely fine. She seemed curious about the whole thing and very rarely showed any sign of discomfort.

In general, I have found that rabbits soon get used to new noises and after a few days they just ignore it. When I first used the lawnmower, Willow dashed into her hutch and wouldn't come out for half an hour after I finished cutting the grass. The second time she still hid but not for long. The third time she just ran to the far corner of the run. A few weeks later she didn't even bother looking up, just carried on grazing. Once they find that there is no actual danger, they learn to filter out noises.

That's been my experience with rabbits as well. Even if they're initially disturbed by noise they do seem to get used to it and then ignore it. A few months ago the flat above mine was completely renovated and there was weeks on end of hammering and drilling. The rabbits coped with it a lot better than I did. It nearly drove me up the wall!


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