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The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet.  It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.

BINKYBUNNY FORUMS

Forum DIET & CARE Monthly rabbit cost

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    • Bella
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        If you could please be descriptive to tell where you get you rabbit supplies and the coast. Trying to budget the cost of a rabbit but will spend as much money as the bunny needs.


      • kirstyol
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          It might help if you tell people where you life, nothing specific just the country or state, something like that. Costs vary widely in different countries or even in different parts of the country.


        • Bella
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            Sorry Norh Carolina USA


          • Elliriyanna
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              Well I am not near you … But I can order Mini Bales of Hay for $25 ( you can also get a 10 lb box for about this and that should last one rabbit a month minimum) , And for Food I use Oxbow, $15 for 5 lbs at Petsmart and I use generic paper litter which is about $10 a bag. I am not sure how long that would last for one rabbit, depends on the litter box size and how much your bun potties of course.

              Toys and such are variable.


            • JackRabbit
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                I’m in VA and have 3 small bunnies. My lops are big hay eaters, and therefore also have big potty needs! Lets see….

                Hay — I have not found any east coast hays that I find acceptable so I order all hay online. My hay orders (including shipping from the west coast) range from $30 (10 lbs from Small Pet Select) to $80+ (45 lbs KMS). We go through 30 to 45 lbs a month. My lops are huge hay eaters, but some does get wasted in the litterbox.

                Litter — We use aspen pellet litter with Carefresh on top. The aspen runs $14 and the Carefresh $15 to $25 for the largest bags. I buy both from whatever store has it on sale. A couple months ago I ordered custom litterbox screens from the BinkyBunny store for my lops’ litterboxes and they have saved us a huge amount of money on litter. We were going through 4 bags of Carefresh per week but are down to 2/3 to one bag of Carefresh plus 1/2 bag of aspen pellets thanks to the screens and being able to just scoop out the used part of the litter.

                Pellets — Oxbow adult, 10 lb bag, $15.95 from a local pet store. I saw this same bag for $29.99 at Petsmart yesterday.

                Salad greens — this is where I spend a fortune. Salads for my three each *week* run from $40 to $60 depending on the quality of produce I can find and if I can find decent packaged spring mix plus herbs for variety. I don’t know about NC, but the area where I live has horrible salad greens in the grocery stores so I have to buy a ton just to get enough edible pieces.

                Treats, chews, toys — I buy most chews and toys online, including from the BB store. Treats are fresh fruit, dehydrated fruit/carrots that I dehydrate myself, or Oxbow treats/supplements.

                Vet — checkups, etc will vary by location

                When budgeting, don’t forget the upfront costs like xpen/cage, litterbox, etc.


              • Little Lion Head
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                  I think the most money for us is spent on greens and vet visits. You can get hay pretty cheap if you shop around; I cringe at all the money wasted on pet store bags!

                  And the vet b/c exotic vets tend to be more expensive and bunnies tend to have more health issues than your typical dog or cat. We have spend $800 on just Pumpkin since October :/ yikes. But we have pet insurance now too.


                • Eepster
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                    Not including emergencies, destruction caused by bunny, and initial set up, I would say about $50 is a safe budget. It usually comes in less than that and only occasionally come to more.


                  • JackRabbit
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                      If I could get away with $50 per month I’d have more bunnies!


                    • LBJ10
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                        Hmm, I’m not sure how much I spend. Oxbow 10lb went up to $20 here (used to be $15, then $18). Hay is fairly inexpensive, but they are not huge hay eaters. They eat their hay pretty well, but I might fill up their box once per day. Veggies can vary widely depending on what and how much your buns will eat. I will buy the large tub of organic spring mix for $4. Mine don’t eat a ton of veggies though, so I only put out what they will eat. Otherwise it just wilts. =\ I will have to look at the package to see how big it is, but one will last about 4 or 5 days. I haven’t bought one in awhile because my mother-in-law keeps giving us spring mix from her garden. She tried it for the first time this year and it has sprouted up like weeds. LOL

                        Litter is $16 or so for a 30lb bag of yesterday’s news. They don’t use a ton of litter, so that will last a month or a little more. I think. I sort of lose track because I will buy new bags before the current one is empty.


                      • HereComesTheBun
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                          As a relatively new rabbit owner, I’ve been spending more money on toys, supplies, pellets, and his neutering, but now that things are calming down a bit, I’m down to pretty much spending money on the basics (hay, vegetables, pellets, litter). The bulk of my purchases are online, since I haven’t liked my PetSmart’s selection, and there aren’t really any local pet stores with decent rabbit supplies. I do buy a lot from Amazon Prime, though, which is a lifesaver.

                          I’m not sure exactly how much I spend a month, since I don’t need to buy everything once a month. I think the last large bag of litter I got lasted about 7 weeks, though since Hugo is a huge hay eater and has a secondary litter box in another room, I use a bit more. Since he’s on his adult serving of pellets and is such a small bunny, I anticipate that my pellet costs will go down. I also bought hay in bulk, which I anticipate will last a while. The only thing I’m constantly buying is vegetables. Since vegetables have a shorter shelf life, I’m constantly buying more.


                        • BunsAndDolls
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                            I’d say I average about $65/month for basic supplies (hay, pellets, veggies, litter)…obviously vet visits and toys and Petsmart shopping sprees are extra, lol. I spend $10 every couple of months to get nails trimmed too, just because it’s usually easier to let the vet do those back feet.


                          • Dee
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                              I’m with LittleLionHead- the biggest cost for me is the greens and vet visits. If you have pet insurance though, that could be budgeted depending on deductible I think. If you don’t have pet insurance, you really need to have at LEAST $1000 available in case of an illness or accident with the bunny. I have spent well over $1500 on a single illness that needed CT scans, biopsy, etc. It is sad enough when a rabbit becomes sick or hurt, so to need to make decisions based on $$ just adds to the stress. Obviously, no matter how much one loves their bunny, many people have a limit to the $$ they can spend- that is just unfortunate reality.

                              There are ways to save on food and supplies without sacrificing quality care though. Buying wood stove pellets (without accelerants) is way cheaper than most bunny litter. I do as JackRabbit does when stove pellets aren’t available- aspen shavings topped with CareFresh.

                              Local farms often have great fresh hay- buy horse hay since horses have delicate tummies like rabbits and therefore their hay is usually pretty good quality. Some stable owners or nice farmers will sell you a few flakes- pieces of a bale of hay- but buying a bale is usually more economic. Just keep the hay in a dry clean place with ventilation- poke holes in a nonscented trash bag or new clean trash barrel for storage.

                              You will get to know which grocery stores have the best greens. I find the mixed spring greens around here are crazy expensive and rotten half the time. Too bad cuz they’re so easy! I buy regular bunches of greens and store them wrapped in paper towels ( in my new fridge they need to be put in plastic bags too or they wilt!). Then I wash a few days worth at a time and keep that in a big colainder lined with paper towels and covered with damp paper towels. Keeps them pretty fresh.

                              Bella, I love that you’re researching all this before you get your bunny! If only all people took the time and effort to do this, we would have so many less bunnies abandoned or given up because their humans thought rabbits were a low maintenance pet. Good for you- I bet you will be a great bunny parent ☺!


                            • LBJ10
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                                I find that so interesting because the organic spring mix that I buy seems to keep pretty well and the separate veggies (especially lettuce) spoil right away. They are usually all limp and wilted already at the store.


                              • BarbaraC
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                                  First of all, congratulations on deciding to adopt a bunny. Given the right care and attention you will find that a rabbit has as much personality and affection as a cat or dog and their antics can be just as entertaining, if not more.

                                  I live in Massachusetts and have taken care of rabbits for the last 10 years. We currently have two bunnies, Finnegan and Fiona. We adopted Finnegan in May and Fiona last weekend. We are currently in the middle of bonding! So these estimates are based on one bunny who eats a lot of veggies and hay.

                                  Housing: I built an NIC condo for my bunny in May and we both love it. Pet store cages do not offer enough room for a rabbit. Do not waste your money on one of these. I followed the instructions found at http://rabbitcondo.com. This cost me close to $200 despite what some blogs say about it costing under $100. This may be due to using a higher quality of plywood, better casters and not finding the shelving on sale. However, I learned a lot along the way. The best advise I can give you is to not use zip ties. They are ugly and difficult to work with. J Clips, which are used when building cages out of rabbit fencing, are too small for the thicker gauge wire on the NIC grids but my husband went to a marine store and picked up clips that are used to make lobster pots and the pliers to go with them. They are simply larger J Clips and they work perfectly. They are more secure than the zip ties and look a heck of a lot better. While $200 may seem like a lot you will pay close to this for the largest pet store cage and it will be completely inadequate for even the smallest rabbit.

                                  Hay: I was able to buy a large contractor garbage bag of Timothy hay from a local Feed Store (yes they have feed stores in Boston) for $18. However, I didn’t love the quality of it so I used it for compost and bought the 20lb box of 2nd cutting timothy hay from smallpetselect.com for $45. I have had this almost 2 months and I’m not even half way through.

                                  Litter: I have tried almost everything and have discovered that the Hardwood stove pellets work best for us. These cost between $5.50-7 for a 40 pound bag and can be purchased at a feed store, Home Depot or Lowes. For comparison 30 pound bag of yesterday’s news cat litter cost $19 at Petsmart and a 25 pund bag of Katee wood pellet litter costs $30 on Amazon.

                                  Note: I place the pellets on the bottom of the litter box ($3.99 local feed store), place a plastic strainer that I bought at H Mart ($2.99) over them and fill that with hay. This way I can empty the used pellets without having to dump the hay. The House Rabbit Society recommends not changing the hay every day because the bunny will eat all the tender hay first and leave the tougher stuff for later. This tougher hay is more effective for wearing their molars down.

                                  Veggies: This will depend on your area and your rabbit. Finnegan would eat his own weight in fresh veggies every day if I let him. Fiona barely touches them.

                                  Pellets: I use Oxbow Adult Rabbit food. This was recommended by my vet, the MSPCA and The House Rabbit Network as well as various blogs. I found the best price for this is on Amazon. $42.93 for a 25 pound bag. Petsmart.com sells the same size for $55, a 5 pound bag for $16 and a 10 pound bag for $30.

                                  X Pen: Unless you are going to bunny proof your home you should invest in an X Pen. You can buy these from Amazon for around $50. You just want to make sure it is tall enough that your bunny can’t jump over it. Some little guys can easily hop a 3 foot pen.

                                  My biggest expense has been vet costs. We adopted a bunny in October who was diagnosed with E Cuniculi related complications this past April. After an emergency room visit, three nights in the hospital and two weeks on supportive care at home we had to make the painful decision to euthanize her. The vet bills cost around $1500 and the euthanasia was another $100. In May we adopted Finnegan and less than a month later we had to rush him to the emergency room because he had liver torsion. This time I was more savvy about what test were necessary and more comfortable with supportive care so he did not spend the night in the hospital and we decided against surgery ($2500-$4000). We took him home with meds and Critical Care. Fortunately, he has made a full recovery but this still cost $500 between the vet bills and the cost of medication. I do not want to scare you away from adopting a bunny though, we were just really unlucky. E Cuniculi, although present in about 80% of domestic rabbits, rarely causes any health problems. Liver torsion is also extremely rare and predominantly diagnosed in New England. Even my vet, who studied at Columbia University, had never seen a case of it until he moved to Massachusetts.

                                  To sum it up you should expect to pay around $300 on initial setup, $80-100 every 4 months on hay and pellets, $30 every month on veggies, and at least $100 for annual vet checks. I would also recommend setting up an emergency vet fund of at least $500 just in case.

                                  I hope this helps and doesn’t dissuade you from adopting a bunny. They are truly worth the effort.


                                • Eepster
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                                    I don’t really count greens as part of the bunny budget. We buy greens for the whole family anyway. Before Porky, we would have a lot of leftovers that went bad and got thrown away. Now we spend about the same money on greens, but almost no greens end up in our garbage.


                                  • Little Lion Head
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                                      Barbara I feel for you!! Our first bunny, Boston, had e. cunniculli and we spent around $3,000 in just over three years before we lost her to cancer anyway


                                    • BarbaraC
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                                        Thanks LLH. I am sorry to hear that Boston lost his battle. Although it is a terrible disease and I wouldn’t want anyone to ever have to go through it with their bunny, we learned so much about rabbits because of it. It taught my children that being a responsible pet owner is about a lot more than just feeding, cleaning up after and playing with them. The animals that we choose to bring into our families rely on us for everything and it is our responsibility to provide for them. This experience made all of us better pet owners.


                                      • Little Lion Head
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                                          You nailed it Barbara!! I never even thought of it that way. Boston certainly taught us so much in so may ways what it means to be a good bunny owner!!

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                                      Forum DIET & CARE Monthly rabbit cost