Hay in real quantity, plus pellets and the greens list
For a Harlequin rabbit, packing starts and nearly ends with hay. This is a medium, solidly built breed, famous for its two-tone patterned coat, and an adult eats a pile of hay roughly its own body size every day, so a week away means a genuinely large bag of the exact hay your rabbit already eats. Do not substitute a different hay for the trip; picky rabbits refuse unfamiliar hay, and refused hay is the first step toward a gut problem. Pellets travel measured, with the daily amount written down and the scoop packed. Greens should be packed as a list, not a load: which leafy greens, how much daily, and what to avoid, so the sitter buys fresh across the week instead of serving ageing leaves from your fridge on day six.
Litter tray kit and the home-smell blanket
Pack the litter system whole: the tray if it travels, a week's supply of the same litter, and hay for the feeding end of the tray, because rabbits eat and toilet in the same spot and a recognisable tray anchors the new pen. A Harlequin dropped into a sitter's home settles faster with one item that smells of its own territory, so add the blanket or fleece from its usual sleeping corner, unwashed, plus a clean spare for midweek. Non-slip matting for under the pen is worth packing if the sitter has hard floors; a rabbit that cannot get traction when it moves will grow reluctant to move at all, and movement is part of digestion.
Pen panels, water gear, and a week of chewing
A Harlequin cannot be boxed for seven days, so pack the exercise solution: folding pen panels that give real floor space at the sitter's house, set up the same way as at home if possible. Water gear should match your rabbit's habit, a heavy crock that cannot be tipped, or a bottle plus a spare, since a medium rabbit drinks more than sitters expect. Chewing supplies need to last the whole week and then some: willow and applewood sticks, cardboard castles or tubes, and seagrass toys. A Harlequin's teeth grow constantly, and an under-supplied rabbit will spend the week redesigning the sitter's skirting boards, cables, and carpet edges instead, which is a poor way to be invited back.
Carrier, handling notes, and heat warning
Include a rigid carrier big enough for your Harlequin to lie out in, lined with hay, even if the sitter never plans to move the rabbit: it is the vet-trip insurance neither of you wants to improvise. Handling notes should travel with the rabbit and be specific to a strong, medium breed: support the hindquarters with one arm, hold close to the chest, never lift by the ears, and expect a kick if the back end dangles. Add the heat warning in plain sight. Rabbits cannot sweat, and a Harlequin in a warm room on a hot afternoon can overheat quietly; the notes should say where the coolest spot in the sitter's home is and that frozen water bottles wrapped in a towel, packed or noted, are the first response while the vet is phoned.
The routine sheet and emergency thresholds
The final pack item is the written routine: feeding order through the day, pen time, litter change rhythm, and the thresholds that turn observation into action. For a Harlequin those thresholds are unmistakable once written down: refusing hay or greens, pellets untouched, droppings shrinking or stopping, a hunched posture with tooth-grinding, or a rabbit sprawled and listless in the heat. Your number, a backup contact, and the rabbit-savvy vet's details go on the same sheet, with permission to act first and report after. Keeping the sheet and the packing list together in KinsLe's Care Pass lets your sitter verify at the door that the hay, the panels, and the emergency numbers all arrived with your Harlequin.