posted 8 years ago
Rabbits can easily be left for a night or two without problems.
The first common sense rule is to check the weather forecast. I don't know where you live, but if it's gonna be 110 in the shade on the days you want to be gone, it might be better to reschedule your trip. Same thing if it's going to be cold enough to freeze all the water.
Otherwise, we hang 2 or 3 water bottles per pen, depending on how many rabbits each one contains. Our rabbits are used to getting fresh food, so we throw in a lot of hard vegetables ... carrots, whole heads of cabbage, sweet potatoes ... that they can munch on while we're gone. They also get a bowl of pellets, which they most likely finish off the first day. Obviously, if your rabbits aren't used to fresh food, you'll want to introduce it gradually before you plan to go anywhere. If you object to feeding anything other than pellets, you'll need something that will hold a LOT of pellets, because rabbits offered free choice pellets will usually take advantage of it.
As for keeping them cool, we're in West Tennessee and it gets pretty hot here, but our rabbits are used to it. We just make sure they have shade at all times. We move the grower pens inside the barn. The outdoor pens have corner tarps and are surrounded by trees, so they do pretty well. We triple check the tarp ties so they won't come loose while we're gone.
When we come home after a weekend trip, the rabbits are generally out of food and are obviously ready to be fed, but they're not frantic. They're about as hungry as they usually are at feeding time. They always have water left in the bottles. We've never had anything happen while we've been gone.