I think those are all great ideas. You can also try and do what the Chicago Red Door Shelter does, and have bunny spa days which includes nail trims, scent glands cleaning etc to bring in extra $$.

I’m sure others that work with rescues mayh have some more good ideas!

We do all kinds of things to raise money.  We have a large pool of volunteers to pull from , so we can have different people do different things that they are interested in.  I’ll give you some ideas here, I am not sure how they would fly in your one woman operation.  In no particular order:

– grants.  We get money from companies and foundations to do spay/neuter, capital expenses (pens, cages, etc.), vet bills, etc.  The process for getting these is quite involved and requires knowing how to find the grants, fil out the applications, and do the grant followups (telling the people how their money was spent).

– vets. We get a certain number of free spay/neuter from different vets each year.  In return we refer these hospitals to adopters.

– cash donations. Since we are a registered charity, we can get money directly from contributors via Pay Pal and with checks.

– pet sitting. Foster families do bunny sitting for people (particularly in the summer and around Christmas) and the money they get goes to The Haven’s bunnies.

– shelter foundations – many of the shelters around here have a charity that is assiciated with the shelter that raises money for the animals.  These foundations also provide spay/neuter and health care for rescues.  Here are a couple of examples:
  Friends of the Watsonville Animal Shelter fowas.org/
  Friends of the Fairmont Animal Shelter http://www.fofas.org/

– product sales – We buy wholesale from Busy Bunny, For Other Living Things, etc. and resell the product.

– home made product sale – Volunteers make bunny biscuits, popsicle stick toys, hay rings, etc. and package them up with commercial toys and treats to make gift bags.  We then sell the bags.

– nail trims/grooming – We provide this as a free service, but most people make a donation after we do it.

– garage/yard sale – We take in donated things and have a yearly garage sale

Oops Hedi, I fogot all about cafepress.  Yes, we have merchandise on there.  Shirts, mugs, bags, that sort of thing.

the other thing that red door did here in chicago was go to jewel supermarket and get voucher coupon type things. so they hand these out and during certain days go into the supermarkert to shop and then give the cahsier the voucher coupon thing. It doesn’t cost anything and part of the purchase went to the shelter. It might be something to look into- I know in california there was something called script for ralphs and vons… where you sign up with your credit card and a part of each purchase went to (in my parents case school and church) an organization. It’s great cause everyone needs to buy groceries. good luck

I commend you Hedi for all you’re doing and the changes you are making in such a short period of time.  You rock!.  Sounds like you’ve found your calling and are very good at it! 

I personally wouldn’t worry about dying the wood.. It makes me really uneasy when I see bright colored wood chew toys- I stray far away from them. I did buy Fujoe these wooden carrots, and he wouldn’t go near them.

I don’t know if this is because I’m an artist- but natural wood looks nice- I like having the toys my bf has built for the bunnies around the house because they aren’t really bright. They look like little sculptures. But for me, natural means healthy. maybe someone else has a different idea- btw- good job and doing all of this work. (and if you do decide not to dye the toys, then that means one less step for you!)

Hi Hedi! Wow, what a make-over you are doing with the shelter! Thats great!
I also wanted to let you know that we have someone that applied to rescue two of our Garden Grove bunnies and she is located in Chillicothe OH – I saw thats a little over an hour from Dayton – so I thought I’d send her the info. on the shelter you work with as well.
Have you thought of posting an ad on craigslist looking for rabbit friendly volunteers to help you out?

wow it sounds like you’ve made some fantastic progress! go you for being creative 🙂 i really hope it helps raise the funds you need

We use Craigs List often, both to ask for help when we have shelter emergencies and to advertize our adoption events.  If you ask for more than $10 as your adoption fee, you have no need to worry about snake owners.  They can get food cheaper than that.

Craig’s List is very strange, with loads of people who love to flag off ads, particularly in the Community Pets area.  Once they get to know you, they give you some slack, but the first few posts may draw some flags.  If you ever need any help, please let me know.  I’ll be glad to help.  I can also help with some HTML formatting if you need it.

Here are a couple of my ads that are still up.  This one is for our upcoming adoption show:

sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/pet/339772197.html

This one was an appeal for help with the guinea pig dump:

sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/pet/339432933.html

If you want to, send it to me or post it here.  I have a pretty good feeling for what they flag.  What was the ad for?

Also, if you get the reputation of posting bad ads, you’ll get flags even on good ones.  This is the chaos called Craig’s List.

A couple of things that I can see:

– You don’t mention the shelter or its location.  Maybe getting flagged because too vague?  Is there any way you can mention the shelter name without making it seem like they are in an way sanctioning your post?

– No contact information.  maybe set up an email account just for this and use it in your posts?

– Was this flagged right away, or did it stay up for a while, then get taken down?

– You posted in Community Pets?  What was the title of the post?

Do you know about the craig’s list flag help forum?  I will post it there and see if they have any suggestions.

forums.craigslist.org/

Good, let’s hope that this one stays up.  If you are going to post about available bunnies, here are a couple more tips to avoid the flagging horde:

– Be up front about adoption fees

– Tell if the animal is spayed/neutered

– Mention the shelter so that they do not think you are selling your own bun

Hi! Right now I am trying to raise money as well, and am baking dog treats to sell…that might be a good idea, especially around a shelter where there are lots of dog people! I found the recipe on http://www.recipezaar.com , i typed in "dog treats"

Hey Hedi,

In regards to the chew toys – I also really like the natural look too!  Plus, with the dyes you have to make sure they are non-toxic and pet friendly, so like ya said, it’s just one less thing to worry about. 

What kind of wood are you using?

Ya know, if you end up becoming interested in really selling this, let me know.  I’d be interested in carrying it once it was tested for safety – (which all products that are being sold on a larger scale should go through)  I know they test it for toxicity, and for things that may cause a problem that we may not have thought of.  Usually it will pass or they’ll say what needs to be improved. It costs around $200 dollars here.   I’m not sure who or where you would look for that there.  But if you are interested in this as a business venture, email me.

Absolutely, material cannot be patented unless it’s a new type off material. And since it’s not a direct copy of something, then it’s okay. The unique part about it is that it’s flavored. There are flavored woods out there (usually brightly colored) but I doubt they were simmered in, because they don’t seem to hold the flavor.  And again  I am just not a fan of brightly colored chew toys…seems so unnatural to me.  

The toy you made is far more attractive in my opinion.

I have a list of safe wood and toxic woods so I need to check that out. And even some kinds of wood (usually the soft kind) that aren’t good for bunnies can be made safe if the oils are processed out of them first. Sisal and Jute are fine.

Also, once you’ve decided on the type of wood and pieces, you can buy them then wholesale which will even be cheaper.  You would have to get a resell license, but it’s fairly cheap and easy to do.  This allows you to get it at the wholesale price as well as you become exempt from paying taxes since you would be reselling it.

Anyhoo…I can help guide you if you want to go that route, so you can email me if you need any more info.

I would buy some !

If I’m not mistaken, pine is okay. It’s the sap in the pine that is bad for the bunnies. If the pine is totally dry, then it should be okay. I don’t remember where I read that. I’m going to look for the source.

From http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/toys.html :

Good toys to start with:

"Untreated wood, twigs and logs that have been aged for at least 3 months. Apple tree branches can be eaten fresh off the tree. Stay away from: cherry, peach, apricot, plum and redwood, which are all poisonous."

From http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/chewing.html :

Yes. You can give rabbits pieces of the thing they want to chew: their own small towel, for example, providing they aren’t ingesting it. This is especially useful when the attraction is the particular consistency.

Here are some items that are OK for rabbits to chew on:

• apple, willow, aspen branches;
• pine firewood;
• cotton towels
• untreated fresh pine lumber attached to cage so it doesn’t move–piece of molding, 1"x2"s, or 2"x4"s;
• basket with hay in it–let the bun chew the basket as well as the hay;
• compressed alfalfa cubes

   

Fruit tree branches, such as, apricot and peach are toxic while attached to the tree but not after they’re cut and dried (a month or more). Lisa McSherry and Rusty Fayter, who package The Busy Bunny baskets, share this research. Another tip they offer for your bunny’s safety is to keep your purchases of imported baskets limited to willow, the only basket material not sprayed with pesticide.

I’ve attached three pics of toys that my bf has made for the buns. They are made out of pine 1×4 or 1x6s. We can’t remember.

162473729071.jpg
162473744754.jpg

no… they’re only 6 inches tall.. so the can just get their mouths in the center to chew on. sorry that I didn’t say how big they were.