transport cage setup

[shazza]

in preparation for my move, i've been stocking up on transport cages for the buns. i know that you can buy tiny little crock feeders and water bottles for them, i'm assuming i can get them on bunnyrabbit.com and i have a coupon for cyber monday, i'm just not sure what ones are the ones i'm looking for. it's kinda hard to tell the sizes from the website.

additionally, this is gonna be a long move - like 3 or 4 days of driving. i know that rabbits aren't the best candidates for cross-country travel, but the current breeders i have are valuable to me and my breeding goals. what all can i do to make them more comfortable? i am going to try to keep them in the cabs of the vehicles if possible, but i know it's still not a fun time. i plan to pack the holes with hay for them to hide in, food/water, and tons of their favourite treats in case anyone goes off food. what else can i do?

 

[KimitsuKouseki]

I would give them small bedsheets/towels so they can be a bit more comfy and have some grip inside the cages so they dont end up being pinballs after every bump.
How long of a drive are we talking about?

 

[Ferra]

For my recent rabbit trek (3 angoras, by air, ~12-14 hours total cage time), I bought these: They're very small waterers with a strong spring-loaded nipple. As long as I kept them upright, they were very leak-proof. That top has no seal, though - the one weak point.

My thought was I wanted the rabbits to have water access at all times, but did not want them flooding out the trays in their carriers.

Not sure the rest of my experience is valid for you though, my transport was only about 12 hours, cage to cage.

 

[Random Rabbit]

in the for what it might be worth department.....
When we drove from NY to OK to pick up our nucleus Palomino rabbits... we used the small black cage crocks. Only half filled them... as the rabbits do not usually drink while the car was in motion. Once we stopped for the night... we would dump out and refill with fresh water until morning.
We had found that the water bottles had a bad habit of juggling and leaking. Also most of the bottles with the pin spigots need rabbits that know how to use those. ( ours Never figured those out)
The puppy pads make fantastic tray liners ! We would change those each morning and evening.
The rabbits rode for a good 3 days of hard driving and did fine.
Good luck with Your move.

 

[Ozarkansas]

Definitely use puppy pads in the trays! It might not seem like a huge deal until you are trying to clean trays in a parking lot :x You also might want to give each rabbit something to chew on during the trip. It can distract them from feeling nervous or cooped up especially when your not driving and all they want is out of their carries!

 

[shazza]

great idea about the puppy pads, i was just going to have used pine pellets or something and probably hated myself for it

i had thought about the bottles maybe leaking, but i also don't trust crocks to not splash around either, especially not in my old rattly truck. if they don't really drink while on the move anyway i might just not give them anything until we stop anyway. i prefer bottles for water since they're less likely to get hay in or dumped. my rabbits are on a auto-water system so they know how to use the pin spigot bottles and the ball type ones, so any type of bottle will work.

i guess my big issue is having to buy 15 of them we'll see how much of a discount this coupon gives me tomorrow.