In-home Bunny-sitting

[kirbyultra]

I do not have plans to go away yet but I recently found a reliable lady who has experience with pet sitting bunnies. She's a volunteer at the rabbit rescue I just started volunteering for as well. She obviously knows what she is doing. But in thinking about this possibility, I got really nervous...

For the last year, my younger brother has been a live-in bunny sitter whenever my husband and I have been away from home. It works out really well and he does a good job and loves my buns. I know that he can't do it for me forever though.

I don't want to have to board my buns because I think the change in environment would be very stressful for them, especially Kirby. The in-home bunny sitter will come over for about half an hour a day, to feed them and clean litter boxes, and just make sure they are healthy.

Call me crazy but it breaks my heart to give my bunnies only half an hour of human contact and stimulation per day if I am not home. My boys are not bonded so in that 30, maybe even 60 minutes if I pay a little extra, they have to share the play time during separate runs. If I board them, I can be pretty sure they won't get much run time at all and plus they'll be scared. It's very unsettling. I feel like I almost can't leave them like that for more than a weekend or so. It breaks my heart to think that they would be alone for that long.If they were bonded they would have each other but they're not so the most I've got is the fact that my bunnies are in the same room and can see each other through the pens.

Am I being silly? Irrational? How have you dealt with bunny sitting and being away from home? Has anyone had a in-home bunny sitter?

 

[Maureen Las]

I would not board them..very stressful and impersonal

I can tell you that if you leave music on for them and have a knowledgeable sitter over daily they will be fine.
I have been a bunny sitter for a family who leaves for probably 5 days or so. the rabbits are just fine.

By the timeI take care and cleaned up daily for 3 rabbitsI had already been there way over an hour.
You are a very sensitive person and I understand your feelings but I assure youthey won't suffer if you leave.

 

[Runestonez]

Hubby and I had to go to India for my spinal surgery...
We knew we were going to be gone for at least 3 weeks...
Iwas so torn...
I knew I couldn't get my surgery done here...but I didn't want to be away that long...I kept stalling and putting off the surgery.
We finally found a lady whose bunns had passed away and she was more than willing to bunn-sit for us. She hadn't wanted to get any new bunns yet but was excited about looking after a whole houseful of bunns for a while! We had 8 rabbits so even IF we could find a place to board them...the stress would be huge for the bunns.

We hired her to live in...her home was about and hour anda half away so we paid her to come live in our house with our buns while we were away...other than stressing her out with the care of 8 rabbits...it worked out pretty well. The bunns got to stick to their schedules and got more one on one time...

The draw backs...she taught our one girl to eat our cats...thought it was funny to watch her chase them and encouraged it...so we had to trainour bunnback out of this when we got home...I am very fussy about "mystuff" and everything was re-arranged and moved...the litter was not to the standard I prefer...but acceptable...she used upthree 40lb bags of rabbit litter over the course of three weeks...I haveno idea HOW she managed that...we use one bag per month!

All in all i think it was the better solution...it was expensive though...$2500 for three weeks bunnsitting...about $150 dollars a day...give or take with groceries etc...

The worst part was coming home to see how angry the little ingrates were!:grumpy:
They were MAD at me for weeks...not one of the 8 would use their litterboxes...I wasn't allowed to pet any of them...hubby was fine...apparently they weren't mad at him!:grumpy:

Danielle

I should add that what we paid was high...but we were desperate to find someone with rabbit experience and who would be willing to leave their life and home to live in our home! So it is not typical!

 

[elrohwen]

I would definitely go for an in-home sitter. I have one who comes over and she's wonderful - my bun is always happy.

I certainly wouldn't board them. At home, they will probably barely notice you're gone ;-)

I know it's hard to leave your babies, but they'll be fine for a few days!

 

[~*sAbRiNa*~]

I had a family friend bunsit Sabrina at her house. Since their daughters are young it was easier for them that way. Had it not been over the Christmas holidays a school friend probably would have been able to stay with her in my apartment. What we did to minimize stress was to mimic her environment at home as closely as possible. I brought ALL of her stuff with her and made the set up nearly the same. They also were pretty strict with her feeding/sleeping schedule so that would be as normal as possible for her.

However, if I end up getting the grant to go to Asia for a month this summer to do research I will hire someone to stay in my apartment (a friend or my brother's girlfriend) since a month is way to long, in my opinion, for her to be living in another home.

 

[kirbyultra]

Thanks for everyone's input! It's all very insightful.

I like the music idea. But I wonder if it would drive Kirby crazy. I had a radio in the rabbit room for a day and he was ballistic for the entire time. I'll experiment with that and see what he can tolerate. The other thing I can try is maybe turn the radio on in the living room so it is there but not as loud and direct. I would want the radio to be on only part of the day instead of 24/7, I'll see how I can do that.

Danielle, I don't think any number of buns could justify 120lbs of litter!! Could your sitter have just taken some or ruined a bag or something? I guess it's hard to say but even if your buns each got a box full of litte changed daily I don't think it would have been so much!

I would be extremely upset if a sitter went rummaging through things and encouraging naughty behavior but I doubt mine would only because she is a shelter volunteer and we offer people lots of advice on how to achieve the exact opposite of bad behavior.

Live in is ideal for the buns but I doubt my husband would allow it. We trust my brother and family but that would be it.

I feel better about the possibility of in-home bunny sitting now though! I also have bunny webcams to make sure they are generally ok when no one is home.

 

[kahlin]

I've done it both ways....I've had family members and neighbours come to my house...my sister did it really well. She gave them lots of play time and everything.

But my neighbours not so great. I even wondered how often they actually stopped by.

Now we take them to someone's home. I don't live in town, so it would require a 20 minute drive (minimum) to get anyone I trusted to come out. I would worry that they'd have car issues, or road closures or something (especially in the winter).

I don't find that they've been too stressed at the bunny sitters house. They are probably just stressed enough that if their routine is changed a bit they won't freak out (whereas at home they'd have a hissy fit if they were fed five minutes late).

Also, by having them in someone's home, it's more likely that *if* something goes wrong, it will be caught earlier.

But that's just my opinion.

 

[degrassi]

I"m a petsitter and I've done a few people with bunnies.

Usually for bunnies, small animals and cats I visit once a day and it costs 20$ for 1 hour(I usually end up staying a bit longer anyways), more $ if they want longer. Thats also for 1 animals, each additional animal is 5$ more.

I also do "live in" pet sitting which is more of over night stays and afternoon visits(I don't expect groceries or living expenses to be paid) and that starts at 50$ for just an over night stay(12 hours) and goes up to 60$ for over night + 1 afternoon visit for 1 animal.

All in all i think it was the better solution...it was expensive though...$2500 for three weeks bunnsitting...about $150 dollars a day...give or take with groceries etc...

I wish I was your petsitter for those 3 weeks! I just took care of 4 cats, and a bunny for 10days and got 750$. 2500$ is ridiculous for a bunny, even if it was a live in. I would have charged closer to 1200$ if you wanted me to stay over night and check in the afternoon too, or 1100$ for just over night. Yikes! But I guess peace of mind is worth it.

When I do rabbits they always do well during the owners absences. Even when I leave my rabbit, I get a friend to petsit for me and she only comes one a day to feed and play with Gimpy.

Since its only temporary(a few days/weeks) I dont' think not being played with as much or having as much attention will hurt them. They might be a bit grumpy when you get back but they will get over it. The owners are usually the guilty ones and the animals just go along as normal. As a petsitter I see it, especially with dogs,lol. The owners think the dogs are going to be so sad and miss them."Oh, how can I leave my baby! He is going to miss me so much!" The first day the dog is a bit sad, and knows something changed. Then by day 2 he has warmed up to me and everything is fine. We are best buds, curled up on the couch, and everything is back to normal.

I"d suggest finding a good pet sitter you can trust and either getting them to come once a day for an hour or 2, or if you can afford it get them to stay over night if that will give you peace of mind.

 

[Runestonez]

degrassi-I wish you lived closer!
Unfortunately, there was no one in this area that I liked! lol
I must have interviewed 10 petsitters and no one had experience with rabbits...I even checked at the vet clinics for techs looking to make a bit of extra cash...and no one had any idea about rabbits...although to give the one petsitter credit they went back and read up on everything that they could find!

I finally settled on a lady who had owned rabbits for years (we knew her from OREO)and they had passed on recentlyfrom old age and she was willing to live in 24/7 at our house while we were away...I am also horribly particular about our kids care and their schedules! :biggrin2: There's a word for it but I'd get kicked of the forum if I typed it!:biggrin2:

So I think of it as paying for peace of mind!:biggrin2:

I still want to know what someone does with that much litter! And the best part was all I could smell was litterboxes when I walked in the door...so after 18 hours in theair we changed all the litter before bed for the night!:shock::grumpy:

Danielle

 

[Maureen Las]

kirbyultra wrote:

Thanks for everyone's input! It's all very insightful.

I like the music idea. But I wonder if it would drive Kirby crazy. I had a radio in the rabbit room for a day and he was ballistic for the entire time. I'll experiment with that and see what he can tolerate. The other thing I can try is maybe turn the radio on in the living room so it is there but not as loud and direct. I would want the radio to be on only part of the day instead of 24/7, I'll see how I can do that.

Danielle, I don't think any number of buns could justify 120lbs of litter!! Could your sitter have just taken some or ruined a bag or something? I guess it's hard to say but even if your buns each got a box full of litte changed daily I don't think it would have been so much!

I would be extremely upset if a sitter went rummaging through things and encouraging naughty behavior but I doubt mine would only because she is a shelter volunteer and we offer people lots of advice on how to achieve the exact opposite of bad behavior.

Live in is ideal for the buns but I doubt my husband would allow it. We trust my brother and family but that would be it.

I feel better about the possibility of in-home bunny sitting now though! I also have bunny webcams to make sure they are generally ok when no one is home.

You really cannot put on music that is popular but better to go with classical or slow jazz or something easy on rabbit ears..
Ihave music on all the time as my parrot toally enjoys all kinds of music and the rabbits have adapted.

 

[hln917]

It's funny that I see this subject topic today. Hubby is going away for the weekend and I refuse to join him b/c of Baci's condition.We rarelytake trips together since we've had the buns. (Our friends are alwaymaking fun of us for taking separate vacations.) When we do, we only trust his mother to stay here and bunny sit. In fact I'm usually out of the house by 2:30am and I'm planning on asking her to come up Sunday to help me stay with them on Monday until I come home from work usually around 4pm. I'm a bit nervous leaving them alone for the extend time. It usually takes them a day to adjust to her. However Sebastian, the snob, will not come out of the bedroom the entire time she's here. The last time she was here, it was so funny. He came out of the bedroom looking for his treat. He looked up on the couch, saw her andall you saw with the white tail zippingright back into the bedroom!

My suggestion if you do have a bunny sitter. Have her come over for a day or two while you're at the house so they can adjust to her with you being there. You'll be their comfort zone with a stranger in the house.

 

[kirbyultra]

Classical music! That's a good suggestion, Maureen. Thanks!

Helen, it's funny that you mention all this. I was reading my prospective bunsitter's services again today and she also does visits to do things like teach you to do sub qs or do the medicating for you if you cannot. She can and has sat for buns with medical needs. I feel like I can trust her because of her work at the shelter - that she has the expertise as well as the rabbit specific knowledge.

With all that said, if it were my bunny and I were in your shoes, I would just be as nervous and protctiveand honestly couldn't leave Baci's side no matter how experienced the sitter was. I think knowing myself, I could only peel myself away if my bunnies were healthy and stable to leave them to a sitter. The get-to-know the sitter period is something to consider. It might be a good idea the first time to just see how they react to a stranger. My Kirby is like Sebastian.... Smell stranger = run and hide.

It's an internal struggle about what to do. I could possibly entrust the sitter with short trips. Just to see how it goes. Andif it is ok, maybe longer trips. In so many ways I think I am more nervous on my account rather than the buns'. I can be such a basketcase when it comes to this stuff. Like it was mentioned before, the bunnies might just not even think anythings different, meanwhile I'm all tormented while on vacation. LOL

 

[Flash]

Danielle where are you in NY in Westchester County? If your in the area of New Rochelle, Pelham, Larchmont I could help you since I'm a petsitter. I know how you feel I had a trip for the Bahama's and Flash got really sick and I canceled my trip for another month until he was better and eating normally. My friends who were also petsitter's didn't know that much only what I told them and even a hint of not eating I told them to take them to the vet immediately. I know longer consider them friends, so they're out. My parents used to take care of my pets but I moved away and it would be hard for them now but if I had to I would bring them to their house since Soph & Bentley are good travellers and Soph is familar with them and the house.

It's hard to find someone close by to care for my bunnies so I haven't been away but a night here or there. With all of us here ya think we would be close to someone.

The bunnies I take care of I usually let one of them out while I clean up but she's not very friendly so after 30 mins she goes back in and the owner usually goes away for a weekend. The other bunny owner has 5 but she keeps them in a huge hutch outside so I didn't have to let them out since they dug tunnels underground and I mean it's a huge set up for them. Infact when that owner came back she said the bunnies were more friendlier, I felt pretty good after that comment.

 

[slavetoabunny]

I can HIGHLY recommend Dayna! I know her personally and you could not find a better bunny-sitter.

 

[Flash]

AWWW Thanks Patti!

 

[slavetoabunny]

Oh....Dayna also takes care of dogs, cats and other critters!

 

[kirbyultra]

Flash wrote:

Danielle where are you in NY in Westchester County? If your in the area of New Rochelle, Pelham, Larchmont I could help you since I'm a petsitter.

Hi, Dayna, you mean me? I live in Manhattan. Kind of a far drive?

Good to hear Patti vouching for ya though! :biggrin2:

 

[Flash]

Oops I mean you Helen. Yeah the city would be a little far for me, too bad.

 

[kirbyultra]

Yeah, I thought it was too far!

It's true though... with so many members you'd think a few of us would live close enough sowe'd be able to do some bunny sitting for each other! :shock:

 

[NorthernAutumn]

^^^ Just means we gotta recruit