Hi everyone!
I have a gorgeous bunny (who is curled up against me as I'm writing this) named Genepy... she's big, sweet snuggle monster and I love her dearly. She is 4 years old and in good health. I currently live in Italy, but I am moving to the US in January. I don't want to leave Genepy behind - I love her too much and someone would likely eat her if I left her in Italy (seriously!). Does anyone have any recent experiences with flying internationally with rabbits? Specifically from Italy, or potentially Switzerland, as I live on the border. The only airline that I've found which is a possibility is United, but they don't have any direct flights anywhere near to where I'm going (North Carolina), mainly to NYC. The customer service representatives seem to all indicate that it is probable, but I won't know for sure until I buy my ticket.
Here are my questions:
1) how do you deal with layovers with a rabbit, with all the moving around? what if the connecting plane has a tighter under the seat space?
2) does anyone know the policy from flying from Italy to the US? On United's page it seems to say that only commercial breeders can bring rabbits, but none of the customer service reps knew about that
3) do rabbits usually handle air travel decently? My rabbit is pretty chill- she loves being handled and deals with strangers and loud noises reasonably well, but gets nervous in the car. She freaks out if she gets near a dog, but cats don't bother her. Is a sedative a good idea or bad? My instinct says bad, but who knows.
4) any other airlines that permit rabbits as carry on?
5) can you recommend a good travel case that is suitable for airline travel? She's a pretty big bunny (around 4 kg)
6) anything else that I am not thinking of?
Thank you for the help! I know that it will be extraordinarily stressful for her, but I can't find any other options. Freighter ships won't accept pets, and cruise ships are too expensive and rarely accept pets anyways. As I said above, if I try to adopt her out in Italy, it's likely someone will eat her.
I have a gorgeous bunny (who is curled up against me as I'm writing this) named Genepy... she's big, sweet snuggle monster and I love her dearly. She is 4 years old and in good health. I currently live in Italy, but I am moving to the US in January. I don't want to leave Genepy behind - I love her too much and someone would likely eat her if I left her in Italy (seriously!). Does anyone have any recent experiences with flying internationally with rabbits? Specifically from Italy, or potentially Switzerland, as I live on the border. The only airline that I've found which is a possibility is United, but they don't have any direct flights anywhere near to where I'm going (North Carolina), mainly to NYC. The customer service representatives seem to all indicate that it is probable, but I won't know for sure until I buy my ticket.
Here are my questions:
1) how do you deal with layovers with a rabbit, with all the moving around? what if the connecting plane has a tighter under the seat space?
2) does anyone know the policy from flying from Italy to the US? On United's page it seems to say that only commercial breeders can bring rabbits, but none of the customer service reps knew about that
3) do rabbits usually handle air travel decently? My rabbit is pretty chill- she loves being handled and deals with strangers and loud noises reasonably well, but gets nervous in the car. She freaks out if she gets near a dog, but cats don't bother her. Is a sedative a good idea or bad? My instinct says bad, but who knows.
4) any other airlines that permit rabbits as carry on?
5) can you recommend a good travel case that is suitable for airline travel? She's a pretty big bunny (around 4 kg)
6) anything else that I am not thinking of?
Thank you for the help! I know that it will be extraordinarily stressful for her, but I can't find any other options. Freighter ships won't accept pets, and cruise ships are too expensive and rarely accept pets anyways. As I said above, if I try to adopt her out in Italy, it's likely someone will eat her.