Hi Pancakes
What exactly are you looking to buy for the new bunny? Pet stores here aren’t that well stocked when it comes to rabbit supplies. Thing is, most that stuff in general pet stores is really unneccessary for rabbits, some of it even unhealthy! If your looking for toys, you can make stuff from things you have around home. Simple as a cardboard box with two entry holes in it. Phone books and paper towel cardboard rolls. Many of use have bought specific toys for bunnies only to have them snubbed in favour of a cardboard box!

We have other members on here from Sydney. Perhaps they may be able to help you find a good food supplier and vet etc.

I think that in order to not get too overhwhelmed, just focus on the most important things you need to find. Very first is hay – were you able to find a good kind of hay? I’m sure some of the Australia members can help you with what the good kinds of hay are that are available to you. You want to find a good grass hay.

Also important is the cage and litterbox, were you able to find something for both of those? Cages can be made from all kinds of things. The easiest is the dog pens that you can fold up. They are often called exercise pens, and you can use that to keep bunny enclosed, and for a flooring you can use linoleum cut to the right size, with carpet squares or towels or something soft so your bunny can get traction.

When it comes to toys, don’t worry about getting anything fancy. Mine looove upside down cardboard boxes with a hole cut in them for them to use as a little hidey place. They chew those all up.

Things I have gotten from pet store have been ignored.  What isn’t ignored are the simple cardboard boxes, newspaper, phonebook.

Just have to make sure the ink is soy.  Not sure about where you are if they use soy ink or not.

Jersey makes a GREAT point-although I LOVE petstores and shopping for my bunnies-there really isn’t *anything* I buy for them in petstores-most of the stuff is junk food and overpriced toys they will *never* play with.

*Food-you will want to purchase pellets and hay in a petstore. This is really the only thing I buy in petstores-choose a plain timothy based pellet. I know there are lots of gourmet type pellets you see online maybe but they aren’t healthy anyways! Choose grass hay-basically anything but alfalfa (unless they are young-then alfalfa is good) is good to give; And then veggies which you’ll buy at the grocery store anyways!

*Treats-I don’t think there is any healthy treats sold in petstores around here either! Good treats are purchased in the grocery store! -Herbs-like Oregano, Basil, & mint are great! I also buy raisins, craisins (Dried cranberries) and banana chips (dried banana) to keep in a tin for treats-they last forever, they love to eat them and they are healthy!

*Toys-Check out the ‘toy test’ section and forum for ideas on stuff you can make at home! Some great toys are Cardboard boxes and phone books and towels! Also some cat toys are appropriate and fun-neoprene cat tunnels and low carpeted cat condos are some that my bunnies all enjoy!

Pancakes is 8 weeks old (edit: make that 11 wks!) so definately get alfalfa (Lucerne in Aus) based pellets.  Like you said, there’s heaps on offer in US based sites but not so here.  You’ll find here also that the timothy based pellets (for adult buns) referred to are hard to get unless online and they’re pricey!  More !

So, in the future, it’d be good to find a top quality lucerne pellet and give little once Pancakes is over 1 yr old.  You can give loads of hay and veggies instead by then.

Most rabbit supplies sold in the US are junk- either they are not good for the rabbit (treats high in sugar), completely unnecessary (like vitamins to add to water) or are not appropriate (most cages are way too small).

But you have come to the right place!  Once you get the basics like litter, litterbox, food pellets, hay, etc…… you can really make a lot of your own toys that they bunny will probably enjoy much more.  It is really only the specialty rabbit places that really sell what is healthy and been proven by the bunnies to be entertaining and worth the cost. 

hi pancakes, i agree the pet shops here suck!! most of the stuff i bought from a pet shop i don’t use. the best thing i bought was a pen from petbarn, and i used to get lucerne hay from there too.

anyway we have been buying pellets from oxbow via ebay… very expensive, but there’s nothing else, if you buy 2 bags it lasts a long time and saves on shipping. and we have amazingly found a pet shop (pet city in mascot) who supplies oaten hay, we also got a giant litter box from there.

got some seagrass mats from bunnings, and some treat balls from petbarn…the rest of the toys are boxes/toilet paper rolls etc.

My bunnies love to chew on wood…I’ve actually gotten untreated 1×2 boards from the hardware store and cut them up into six inch strips. The bunnies go to town on them. They don’t ingest the wood, they leave a bunch of dust for me to shop vac up, but the wood blocks keep them from chewing on the wood parts of their cage. I figure it’s pretty much the same as buying those colored wood chews they have in pet stores.

i don’t know which trees you have in Australia, but untreated pine is safe, as well as branches from apple tree or willow. Wash them and let them dry out for three months. You can make toys by tying together sticks with a natural fiber rope, such as jute or hemp.