<p>We’ve had rabbits inside for years. We only had one that made a mess. He sprayed every time he hopped. (And we did get rid of him) The cages we have are wire with high plastic sides. We change them about every 5 days and use the fluffy pine shavings. We’ve never had flies and they do not smell. He does throw little pieces of the pine out when he hops around occasionally. Nothing a broom or dustbuster can’t clean up though.</p>
<p>My son’s college does allow some pets, I saw kids carrying out cages on move out day.</p>
<p>Wow, with the prevalence of allergies nowadays, I am having trouble understanding why colleges are turning a blind eye to the pet situation. The year I worked at a small college was the year I was the sickest I have ever been. I developed one sinus infection after the other, and was regularly losing my voice. One day I was commenting on the problem to a co-worker and she told me that in the same building where my class was being taught was a laboratory that housed mice. She said she herself had to take mega-doses of meds to work there. I would have been a bit perturbed if the mice were mere pets!</p>
<p>The fact that your daughter doesn’t want the bunny in the room should be reason enough for the roommate to leave it at home. I love animals, but would never force my preferences on anyone else. The roommate’s parents should also know better, really.</p>
<p>And finally - is a dorm room really a good home for a bunny? Could be, but doubtful. There are too many horror stories involving drunk kids or just unintended carelessness that have resulted in harm to animals at colleges. There’s just too much that could go wrong.</p>
<p>I don’t see how the daughter and roommate could ever get along if the daughter or mom called the administration to ask about pet policy, unless the call was anonymous.</p>
<p>I think this should be worked out between the daughter and roommate, and if that is not possible, then the daughter should tell the roommate in advance if she wants to involve a third party as mediator.</p>
<p>My daughter had a roommate with a pet hedgehog. It was not allowed by policy, and was snuck in. I don’t know how the inspection of rooms was handled: the admin. had housing inspections randomly every semester.</p>
<p>All the suite mates had their own rooms. The smell was awful but worse was worrying about the poor, confined, animal. We ended up taking care of it on vacations, and I found I had to clean the cage thoroughly every morning. The roommate was definitely NOT doing that.</p>
<p>This year, the hedgehog has been given away to a grad student, and I hope its life is improved.</p>
<p>I have told my kids, no pets while in college or during their early-adult- moving-a -lot years. Not even when they first are having gtheir own babies. It is too hard on the pet (toddlers are hard on pets too, and having both a couple of toddlers and a puppy is hard on Mom!).</p>
<p>The beloved owner is away all day at work or at classes/labs, and the lonely animals lies around waiting for him to come home. Then he does, and feeds the pet, and then off to the library/ parties, whatever. Back to waiting for Master until late at night.</p>
<p>Then there are the liability issues, allergic roomies or friends, if a dog or cat there are usually accidents, litter boxes and all those things. Mishandled pets can scratch/bite. With rabbits, a smelly cage.</p>
<p>When graduation comes, the young adult starts on the round of rental units, nearly none of which allow pets. </p>
<p>No thanks. The animal lives, how many years for a rabbit? It is not fair to him to be living in a cage in a dorm room so much of his life. If cats/dogs, you are talking about 10 -15 or more years. I have a 16 yr old cat in my lap right now. When graduation arrives, where will the bunny go to live? Your daughter should point out the rule book & say, sorry, it is not fair to the rasbbit & I don’t want to be part of that for the rabbit so I won’t OK it.</p>
<p>I love animals and living without a pet was my least favorite thing about dorm life. That said, an illegal rabbit pooping all over the hallway was a misery for everyone on my freshman hall. Ugh.</p>
<p>It’s unfair that the rule-abiding student has to be the bad guy instead of the rule-breaker, but that’s the inevitable dynamic if your daughter complains. It doesn’t surprise me that she dreads it. It’s still probably the best thing to do in this bad situation, unfortunately.</p>
<p>My D and I are highly allergic to cats and other fur based animals such as rabbits. I would be very upset if someone brought an illegal animal in. I know everyone loves their animals but not everyone can be around them.</p>
<p>Cat dander stays forever, gets on everything and is impossible to get rid of. I would not buy a house that had a cat and my D would not rent an apartment that allowed pets.</p>
<p>Older D became interested in her college when I pointed out that they had a cat dorm.
( One person could bring a cat which was allowed to roam around I guess)</p>
<p>I do agree that in general, pets are more than college students need to take care of.</p>
<p>( bunnies unfortunately don’t live very long, as we found out a few years ago, when we took one home for the summer)
:(</p>