Rabbits on a budget

helping_hubby

Rabbits are far from cheap...mine have cost a fortune, however we got them before I knew about hubbys money troubles.

Just starting out we spent:
£40 on 2 rabbits from a rescue center
£100 on a 5x4 foot wendy house on ebay
£50 on wire (the stronger stuff, not chicken wire) to make a run
£6 on cheap wood for the frame (2 years down the line needs replacing)
Then probably another £10 - 20 on metal bits for the frame, hinge, locks, u shaped nails to hammer in the wire.

£30 on a rabbit hutch (to use as a 'bedroom' inside the wendy house
£14 on corner litter trays ( 2 * £7 )
Then approximately £10 -20 on bowls, water dispensers, toys.

We managed to get a carry case for free, but that was all that was free.

Then monthly:
£15 a month insuring them
Hay and pellets seem to average out at £10 a month. We buy the huge bags of pellets for about £12.
Hay has been trial and error...the buns seem to get fussy so we change it around when they seem to stop eating it. At the moment they love the Pets at home huge value bag which is great. It's nice and soft at the moment. They used to love the more expensive timothy hay, but have gone off it. They even stopped eating Excel Forage which they used to wolf down.
£12 a month on vegetables

Other costs:
Random vet fees that come below excess
Jabs - Myxi x 2 twice a year = approx £62 a year
VHD x 2 = about £40 a year

I'm sure there are other costs that I've forgotten about...

My only cost cutting tips are growing your own veg (unable to do that at the moment as we're on the brink of moving house)
And I use free newspapers to line the litter trays (get them from estate agents etc).
For toys mine just love making houses out of boxes. So I just replace them when they get on the brink of collapse. I've bought the shop toys and they rarely play with those.
I also nabbed a bit of scrap tubing on the side of the road once. The tubing in shops is rediculously priced. I've heard of people also getting the tubing from carpets...I tried my carpet shop but they claimed they binned them straight away and didn't have any.

So what do you do to cut back the costs?

golly99

Hi

Good to hear from someone who clearly looks after their rabbits! I get mad when I see some of the tiny hutches which people buy! We have 2 rabbits which live in a 6x4 shed, separate compartments and plenty of things to amuse themselves. Also have a long run or we open the shed door with a wire panel over it sometimes but don't tend to let them run around the garden unsupervised as some of our neighbours have cats. They are both approx 5 yrs old and doing really well, fed on Supa Rabbit Excel for Junior and Dwarf for the small rabbit and Supa Rabbit Excel Lite for the big rabbit. Have got hay from Pets at home, but they prefer the much fresher stuff from a local vets which they sell for £1 a bag. They also have a nightly treat of half a carrot!

The top tip I can give Rabbit owners reading this is to check the condition of them on a daily basis and especially their bottom so you can watch out for the presence of maggots etc and the associated conditions like flystrike. It's also imperative to ensure your rabbit eats on a regular basis as a rabbits condition can go downhill rapidly if they don't eat for a couple of days.

Good luck with the rabbits, they sound great!

Shineyhappy

Hi HH,

I know what you mean about pets becoming a lot expensive that you ever thought.

I have a small flat so I couldnt get rabbits which was what I wanted, so I got a hamster from the RSPCA. I was never intending to get one, but I went to ask advice fromt the RSPCA about what sort of pet I could have and then I met Pug. It was love at first sight.

I reserved him and went shopping. The first garden centre I went to sad that a hamster should cost 50 quid in start up fees and then five pounds a year. :rolleyes:

Just over a year later and my five pound hamster has probably cost over 200 pounds He needed a big rotastack cage and I got the biggest one and then extended it, should have got this off Ebay but hey ho! Then there are the other expenses such as carry cases and hay/bedding/treats/Christmas presents (he got lots of hamster nibbles and a see saw oh and a hamster toilet).

Yep I have probably the most spoilt hamster in the world. :rotfl: Then my mum tells me off as I dont hand feed him :eek:

Still I am not complaining, I love him and he is worth all that money and more! I dont budget for Pug as I know that it is unfair for him to go without.

helping_hubby

golly99, I also get mad too. I get upset with some people on freecycle because fairly often there are people putting WANTED messages for hutches because they can't afford them. I just think if they can't afford a hutch, how can they afford to care for a rabbit?

A lot of people have recommended hay from farms, this is supposed to be cheaper than getting from shops, so I may look into this some day.

Good advice about checking your rabbits daily. It's shocking how rapidly they can decline. My twiggy is always ill, she's got pasteurella, and now an ear infection which is virtually incurable and she recently had e.cuniculi, which racked up over £250 in bills (although got £180 back). I never even considered getting pet insurance for a rabbit, but I'm so glad I did. I'm definitely quids in over the last 2 years. Also have the life one, so luckily any pasteurella treatment is covered for as long as I stay with petplan.

Shineyhappy, it does sound like your hamster is very spoilt

jrrowleyws

Your bunnies sound very well cared for!

When I had rabbits and wanted a pipe for them.. I spied some gas works going on up the road and asked the workmen if they had any spare bits of pipe and they gave me about a length of 1.2m and its big enough for a rabbit to go in each end and then for them to cross over in the middle. They loved it, and it was free free free! Damn heavy for a bit of plastic though!

helping_hubby

jrrowleyws wrote: »

Your bunnies sound very well cared for!

When I had rabbits and wanted a pipe for them.. I spied some gas works going on up the road and asked the workmen if they had any spare bits of pipe and they gave me about a length of 1.2m and its big enough for a rabbit to go in each end and then for them to cross over in the middle. They loved it, and it was free free free! Damn heavy for a bit of plastic though!

That sounds exactly like what we got! Only I didn't ask It looked like an off cut though. Next time I need some, I shall just ask... thanks

midlandsfairy

Hi All,

I don't have rabbits.... but i do have two guinea pigs. I noticed a couple of people mentioned pet insurance for rabbits, does anyone know of any company that insures guinea pigs? tried doing a google search but got no decent responses and figured that a company that could insure rabbits might do the same for g. pigs.... hence why someone on this thread might know!

Lucy

helping_hubby

Most of the rabbit insurers seem to only do cats, dogs and rabbits. I found this one: http://www.exoticdirect.co.uk, it's accessed through petplan (http://www.petplan.co.uk/insurance/needquote.asp?Campaign=GOOGLE&WT.srch=1&WT.mc_ID=Google)

skye

Inside of buying expensive plastic tunnels my rabbit loves running through empty beer boxes - eg empty boxes 20 budweiser bottles come in (not MS I know - but if your buying them in the first place!!), joined up to make a longer tunnel,

lil_me

Been a while since I kept bunnies but a few thoughts

Corner trays - cut a £1 shop cat litter tray in half or use a full one, mine had those.

Food, I used to buy in bulk from pet shop locally, delivered it which was great too.

Allotments, if you have ny locally or keen gardners ask them for bits they chop of veg etc for the bunnies, some grocers will do this aswell but some won't.

Hay if you have somewhere to store it I used to get mine from a friend who kept horses, same with the straw and sawdust worked out much cheaper.

skye

Cheap rabbit toys can be: the tubes from toilet rolls, seagrass mats, cat toys (obviously not something dangerous for the rabbit or edible), hard plastic baby rattles/keys (not soft plastic), hard plastic balls, dried out pinecones, paper cups which the rabbit can throw, things the rabbit can tear up (eg old phonebook) - be careful the rabbit does not ingest too much though, tunnels, cardboard boxes, tunnels, dig boxes filled with hay or straw, hay in jars or toilet rolls or buster cubes (food goes in the holes rabbit has to roll it to get it out).