Posted By SullysMum on 05/27/2010 11:37 PM

So, I was reading through the BB article about the costs of having a bunny… And it looks like I am spending much more every month.

Don’t I know the feeling!

I have been buying the Oxbow bags of hay and I have found this to be VERY expensive.

Not sure if I can help you with suggestions on other types of hay. Mine is expensive as well. Some days we use the grass from the garden. My boyfriend wanted us to dry our grass and make it into hay, but I have no idea how to. But now that summer is on its way (well, some of you probably already have summer!), you might use the grass from your garden more often, depending on how it is mowed, if it is common to use chemical fertilizers et.c

However, I realize I am probably wasting lots of litter this way. How do you/how often do you scoop your bunnies litter? How much do you use? 

About twice a week for three bunnies. My greatest invention was to put a baby bed mat in the litter box and then put the litter on top. The mat really soaks up the pee and it helps with the smell and prolonges the effect of the litter.

You have to figure out though if the cost of these mats outweigh the cost of the litter.

I buy a bale of timothy hay for 20$ which lasts months here with 4 buns. I buy the hay off BB to offer as a treat to change things up once in awhile.

I buy woodstove pellets for litter…they are 5$ for 50lbs bag. I get them at Lowes or Homedepot. The bags last a few weeks, I change 5 boxes every other day, and some I change once a day because it’s my bedroom that 3 are in it and…yea you know :p I also use just enough pellets to cover the bottom of each box which is about 3-4 double cupped handfulls for me.

I buy oxbow pellets – these are expensive but if you feed them small amounts the bag shouldn’t go empty too quickly.

Veggies, I mainly feed romaine and redleaf, these are 1.99 a head, sometimes you can get them on sale for 99 cents. I buy 2-3 a week. I also buy 2 bunch of parsley or 2 bunches of cilantro, they are 99 cents a bunch. Cilantro was 60 cents, I don’t know why it went up. I guess the season. (Typically my mom is nice and buys my veggies for me, but if she stinges me with only 1 head of lettuce and one bundle of whatever, I have to go pick some up on the way home from work. Right now the Parsley bundles are much larger than cilantro so you can get more bang for your buck with Parsley atm here.)

I have a huge weakness for items from the BB store too and love the hay…but I can’t afford it either with 4 rabbits to feed full time. When I just had Bun I was but now things have changed

You can probably buy huge bags of woodstove pellets too, for cheaper than the feline pine. I hear they work well, I haven’t used them myself as Monkey loves her carefresh. Does Sully tend to pee on one side of the litter box? If so, you could pile hay at one end, and only put litter on the other so you use half the amount of litter.

You could probably find a farmer somewhere around that has Oat hay too, I don’t remember offhand whats available up there, been a few years since I lived up in BC

You can probably buy huge bags of woodstove pellets too, for cheaper than the feline pine.

Ditto that! You’re in BC so should have many to choose from. One I was using even came for BC! Look for it under fuels or horse bedding.
You might be able to buy a flake of the other varieties of hay from a feed store.

It would be great if they sold it in flakes. You should see me trying to fit a bale into the back of my mustang. Lets just say its 2 huge garbage bags and a mess. Unless its on the weekend so I can use my dad’s truck but he’s been working weekends too lately! Poor dad

We use the Oxbow 50 lb boxes of hay. We’ve saved over $300 a year buying it that way.

Do you just freeze most of it until you are ready to use it Becka?

Nope. Sits in the box. I don’t think you can freeze hay.

I buy oat hay in the big bales from feed stores. I have also gotten orchard grass in the past, but I stopped using the large bales of grass hay after I had about half a bale go moldy on me. I just don’t use it fast enough and it spoils, even if I keep it in the garage. I split the bale of oat hay with other Haven foster sites, so it gets used up quickly and does not get a chance to get moldy.

I have used both wood stove pellets and the Barn-Dri (I think that is what it is called) wood pellets from a feed store. Around here the wood stove pellets are a seasonal item and only show up in the winter months, while the barn bedding pellets are available year round. I still prefer the Aspen Supreme pellets to the Barn-Dri because of odor reduction. I get a 50 pound bag of the Aspen pellets for $20 in the Bay Area at For Other Living Things.

Petsmart (at least my local store!) can special order the 50lb boxes of hay, but you have to ask. It’s about $70-80 for the box, but it lasts a very long time, even with multiple buns! Drs. Foster and Smith sells the big boxes of hay also, and the good thing about that site is they usually always have very inexpensive shipping. So the cost comes out to about the same! The issue I have with bales is I don’t have a good place to store them, and they’re messy. With the big box of hay, it’s all contained!

You should try a flake of the hay you get for our horses for your rabbits.

I get a bale of very good coastal horse hay for the litterboxes (and they like to eat it) but I have enough space to let it spread out and get air. I do find when I’m getting down to the last quarter bale Toby starts sneezing and coughing so I use the rest in the garden.

If you have a rescue near you, I make a trip every few months and get a big box of the oxbow orchard hay so I both support the rescue and don’t have to pay the high shipping. (as much as the hay costs)

Paying $80 for one single bale of hay is crazy!  I’m sorry, but the hay would have to be pure gold for me to pay that much.

Find a feed store, a horse feed store.  They often sell hay by the bale.  Buy a bale, it’ll be a tiny fraction of $80.  If you don’t have room to store the whole bale, donate some to the local shelter/humane society.  Or even ask the feed store if they have loose hay laying around by the bales that you could scoop up and take, offer a few bucks for it.

You could try make your own botanical hay. Timothy plus various herbs and dried flowers etc. Or a hay mix plus herbs/flowers.
With veggies, maybe try some other as the bulk and use herbs (parsley/cilantro) as a garnish, added treat. I find escarole (curly endive) pretty robust, can be bought as a large head and lasts well.

I get my hay from http://www.kmshayloft.com/

You can get 45lbs for $26, plus s&H (they have a shipping calculator, you just enter your zipcode). They are located in Eastern Washington so the closer to here, the cheeper. Oh and let me tell you, 3rd cut is amazing, the bunz go crazy for it! She’ll also send you a sample if you want too.

Has anyone here tried the 50lb boxes of Oxbow? What is the quality usually lilke? And is it just timothy in this size? My pet store would probably order it for me if I ask so I’d like to look into it.

I order the 50lb boxes of Oxbow. I mentioned this earlier in the thread, but apparently no one agrees with that line of thinking… lol! I don’t want the hassle of dealing with actual bales of hay, and I’m weary of what I might find in there, PLUS I have no place to put it… I’d rather spend a little more money for the convenience of the big boxes, and still save a ton of money over using bags.

The Oxbow boxes are better quality (in my opinion) than the Oxbow bags. The bags have smaller strands and flakes, the Oxbow boxes have very little dust. It’s packaged in “pancakes” of hay stacked one on top of another. I can transfer a couple “pancakes” to a smaller box, break it up and use that, leaving the big box sealed up out of the way.

Drs. Foster and Smith has Timothy and Orchard in the big boxes. I’ve been getting the Orchard lately. The buns love it.

I totally agree with ordering the larger boxes of hay from either KMS Hayloft or American Pet Diner – I’m not a huge fan of the Oxbow but that’s just me. I’m not at all a fan of the bales of hay – quality is usually iffy and storing it is a huge problem.

I love the KMS Hayloft 3rd cutting as well – it’s the best I’ve ever had.

I’m nearing the end of my latest Oxbow box… is it possible to get smaller quantities of those hays to try, Sarita? (Last thing I need is 50lbs of hay they hate!)

Yes, you can still get the 3rd cut from KMS to try – she has a 5lb and a 9lb to try – she also has some 2nd cutting to try.

My understanding is that the APD 2nd cutting is very good right now – they call it the Timothy gold and they have 5 and 10 pound boxes.

The boxed hay is superior to a bale, and having to deal with a bale can indeed be a hassle. It all depends on your situation. I buy bales, but they are never as nice a hay as the boxed kind. Bales tend to be messy, have more hay fines in them, smetimes mice… plus, you have to make space for them. I am very generous with hay, use it for litterboxes and also for my dogs to make beds and toys for them so I buy the bales. I definitely see Beka’s point, there are more factors involved in choosing hay, besides price.

Mine give 6 paws up for American Pet Diner Timothy Gold (2nd cutting).  This is their favorite hay other than oat hay.

Posted By kralspace on 05/28/2010 11:28 AM
I do find when I’m getting down to the last quarter bale (…) I use the rest in the garden.

what do you do with the hay in your garden?

Boxed hay is superior over bagged petstore hay. I cannot personally compare it to a bale of hay. For convenience and ease of storage, I would say it is superior, for quality, I do not know.

I don’t think it’s a matter of it being boxed it’s more a matter of the hay company. I just find that American Pet Diner and KMS Hayloft have superior hay and I have to order it on-line and it happens to come in a box :~) I think they have more quality control too.

I’ve never liked the baled hay that I’ve found I’ve found in my area – we also don’t actually grow Timothy in Texas either so it’s even shipped from out of state.

My buns agree with Sarita, they are not fans of any of the Oxbow hays except for the new organic one, that they seem to like. They also agree that the boxed hays are better than the bags, the bags tend to be dustier and the hay is broken into small pieces by the packaging process.

KMS does not ship to Canada unfortunately.

Here is a link from APD on rescues that carry the APD in Canada – not sure if it’s the hay or the pellets or their other item though.  

http://www.americanpetdiner.com/intl_locat…anad-23314

As a recent college grad working for minimum wage (grrrblah @ the economy!), I try very hard to be thrifty with my budget without cheating my two bunnies out of the care that they deserve.

For bedding, I use wood pellets in a litter box and a grate like the one sold here in the BB store. I clean the poos off the top of it and scoop the wet pellets every day– but I only have to really change(and disinfect) the litter every two weeks as long as I refresh it with a handful every couple days. I cannot impress upon you how much easier and more cost effective this is than using wood shavings or paper litter. That said, I did figure out how to make my own Carefresh-like litter a while back, and I posted a picture-based tutorial on my blog. There is a link in my profile.

This might be controversial, but I mix my food. It is 1 part timothy based pellet to 2 parts alfalfa based pellets. I buy two ten pound bags of Oxbow T-10 (at $10+ a bag) and a forty pound bag of generic alfalfa pellets (at $10 a bag) and mix it up. You can see where the savings come in. My vet hasn’t found this to have any negative health effects. Mind, this is part of a fully balanced diet and lots of exercise.

I buy my hay from local farmers for anywhere from $3-$6 a bale. Around this time of year, I start watching the farm and garden section of craigslist for my area and make some phone calls to inquire about cut, quality, etc. Store it in a cool, dry place and it will stay good for… a year.

I am lucky to have a yard that is completely free of chemicals, so as soon as things start growing, I switch out much of the store bought veggies for home grown– before I cut the grass, I’m out there with scissors to collect a basketful of grass for the rabbits. They love grass, clover, clover flowers, dandelion leaves, and dandelion flowers. I don’t dry or store anything though- what isn’t eaten by the end of the day gets composted.

I am growing my own herbs, but I can’t see where I’ll ever have enough to give them a bunch per week. Which is ok, because my buns get the good stuff (dill, cilantro, etc) in small bits as special treats.

I look for coupons and sales in the veggie section– celery was on sale for $1.50 a bag so I snagged that (and chop it into tiny pieces). Farmer’s Markets and stands tend to be cheaper than the grocery store, and some of them will give you seconds (still perfectly good to eat… just bent or broken and not pretty enough to sell to people) for free or at greatly reduced costs.

It might not be available in all areas, but I was fortunate to find a low cost spay/neuter program for rabbits in NJ. Nibs spay cost $200! Through the program, Lola’s spay will only cost $70. (“HOLY COW! For that price I can spay two rabbits for the price of one! Time to get another rabbbbitttt!” Eeep!)

I also don’t like to skimp on vet care, but it is something to check around with. I found an equally qualified vet (with better facilities!) that is $20 cheaper per office visit than my older vet. Again, don’t let cost be the sole factor in switching medical care (duh).

I find that the more I learn and the better informed I become about rabbits, the more creative I can be with coming up with my own toys/habitats/and treats. The can make myself means the less I have to buy. =D

Very good info Sammy!

I’m not crazy about the mixing of tim with alfalfa pellets… have you checked into buying Oxbow tim in bulk (25lb boxes?) to see if that’s cheaper? Or even if there was a generic bulk tim pellet, rather than alfalfa, that would be better. How many pellets do they get per day? Pellets are so inexpensive for me b/c I feed so few…

They get about 1/4 cup each a day. It’s not a lot. My vet wasn’t thrilled about the idea at first either, but since they get regular check ups and have had absolutely no health issues, I got the green light to proceed with caution. And I guess I should have made it clear that this was done, and only should be done, after consulting with your vet. It is also temporary. When I do land that job that pays above the poverty line, you can bet that I’ll be (gradually) switching them back to 100% timothy pellets.

How big are your bunnies? My 4lb boy Moose was getting a 1/4 cup, but I’ve been reducing it for him, as he never did finish that amount a day. I’m almost down to an 1/8th of a cup, and he’s doing great. He eats alot of hay, so that makes up for the pellets he doesn’t have.

Well we buy a bale of hay lasts several months for 2 buns.   I now started using wood pellets for 12.00 a 40 lb bag.  You only use a few handfuls since it puffs up when wet.  Lasts about 3 months. 

Pellets well Oxbow Basic T.   I find that I had been feeding double the amount of pellets my buns need and they weren’t eating enuf hay.   So I cut it in half gradually and they eat lots more hay now.  The 5lb bag lasts 2 monhths.  Some months I don’t need to buy them anything to eat.

For treats I use craisins   raisins and some fruit.   I find that Petsmart now sells willow toys too.   Cotton had his  willow tunnel from bb for 2 years he is finally almost done with it.   So I got a couple of chews for them when they run out.