Bunny on a budget

[sr2011]

I am a college student and just purchased a two year old mini lop to keep me company in my apartment.  She is great so far and I’m absolutely loving her!  I wanted to ask if I can still have a healthy rabbit while on a budget.  I’d like to save as far as food, litter, and hay goes so does anyone know some brands that are good, yet cheap.  Any advice would be appreciated.  Thanks!

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Welcome here! Depending on where you live, you can try a farm supply store to buy hay and food in bulk that’s local; I save a ton of cash that way. Also try to put a couple bux aside from time to time as an emergency vet fund. Is your bunny spayed already?

[(dig)x(me)x(now)]

Hey SMU – whereabouts are you? We can help you locate resources in your area.

I’ve had luck finding hay and veggies cheap by getting them from local farmers and other supplies from my local House Rabbit Society chapter.

[jerseygirl]

There are oodles of ways to save. As the others said, markets and farm supplies for food & hay are great. Alot of people use wood stove pellets (also same as horse bedding) for litter. It aborbs smell & liquid and is really CHEAP. Also, you can use every day items for your rabbit habitat. Plastic tubs for litter boxes or cheap cat ones. Cardboard for chew toys, old phone books, straw or seagrass mats. Most actual toys I offer my rabbit are ignored and she just goes for stuff laying around or things I’d normally recycle. Use ceramic dishes for food and water, there’s no need for specific pet dishes and most can use a crock more easily than a sipper bottle.

[sr2011]

Thanks! And yes, she is spayed. I live in the middle of Dallas so all the feed stores I know are outside of Dallas. I wouldn’t mind making the drive to save a little though.

[Balefulregards]

Do you have “local” grocers? In Montreal I have two independently owned grocers within walking distance ( and the middle eastern one in a short drive) and I find that they will save and give me less than perfect greens for cheap – I just have to clean them up a bit. Otherwise they would throw them away.

[Sarita]

If you can find good hay at feed stores that is fine however if she is eating pellets they will most likely only have alfalfa based pellets and she needs timothy based pellets. Also the problem with feed stores and hay is that you will have to buy a bale which is about 50 pounds and you may not want to store that much or have the ability to store that much.

I live in the Dallas area and as far as produce goes I think your best bet is Fiesta since you just have one rabbit. There is the farmers market but I don’t think they sell things like cilantro and parsley and you would have to get a large amount that might likely go to waste.

[RachelF]

I’m a college student too, working with around $7,000 in school debt so far! Its really stressful sometimes, I DEFINITELY know what its like to be on a budget.

Food-wise, you will really save money if you buy the big bags of pellets. I don’t know what is available in your area, but I can get a 10lb bag of pellets for around $7.50– and that will last me atleast a month, though I haven’t really kept track. I rely on a good quality pellet because I cannot afford a huge variety of veggies on a daily basis. I usually go for Romaine and either cilantro or parsley each day, which stretch pretty far for me and aren’t a bad price.

Broccoli is also a favorite, and seems to keep a bit longer. It is usually inexpensive, especially if you get it per lb as opposed to an already packaged/portioned bag.

Hay-wise, you can get bales of hay, which I used to do when I was living at home because we could keep it in our shed however it is not really practical or possible in an apartment situation. Right now all I have is a back patio, and its not safe from rain/mold out there, so I buy Kaytee Timothy hay in the smaller package. It is really cheap at our local walmart or kmart– and is the same quality hay, same brand as the expensive pet store down the street. We get oxbow orchard grass as a treat every now and then, and i mix it with the timothy if Honey seems to be disinterested with the Timothy– which she does often, picky little thing.

Also my local House Rabbit Society offers willow toys for something like 1.99 each, which is AWESOME. I usually buy four or so at a time and offer her a new one each month. She loves them, and like jerseygirl said– doesn’t even touch petstore “expensive” toys that i’ve tried. she would rather have the empty cocacola box that a 12 pack of cans come in(I don’t know if you drink soda)– have you ever tried that? Its as if I’ve given her a piece of gold Also, she likes tupperware containers. Call me crazy,but I put one raisin in the container and put the lid on loosely, and she has a field day.

Hope I helped !

[msarro]

1) Show all of your college friends your adorable bunny! Letting them hold and play with the bunny really helps getting the adorable part across.
2) Tell them that you need help getting bunny supplies, and note how many veggies go to waste every day at the college food court and salad bar.
3) Enjoy watching your bunny get quite portly on smuggled veggies and supplies

…not that I know this from experience or anything… *cough*

[KatnipCrzy]

I think by buying hay by the bale- make sure to buy grass hay and NOT alfalfa hay.  I bought a bale for $4.  I also buy woodstove pellets for litter- 40 lbs for less than $5 (or pelleted horse bedding can be used too and has similiar pricing I believe).

By saving money on litter and hay- you can afford to buy a good quality timothy pellets and fresh veggies to keep your bunny in good health.  By buying the veggies that are on sale or the more inexpensive veggies and greens- you can still provide a varied diet.

[kralspace]

You can also check around your local grocery stores for how they bunch their veggies. After I realized that one grocery store considered a ‘bunch’ of parsley, cilantro, etc to be about 3 times the size of the other store’s ‘bunch’ size, I started shopping there instead. Just getting 5 bunches a week instead of 10-12 saves me quite a bit with 6 bunnies.

[sr2011]

thanks! are the wood shavings ok for litter at feed stores? and can i use the orchard hay instead of timothy? im thinking im allergic…

[jerseygirl]

From what I gather Timothy hay is often a cause for allergies. Orchard hay and Brome are better alternatives and fine for bunnies. There’s certain types of wood shavings you should avoid because the phenols in the wood are toxic to rabbits. The pelleted wood litters don’t have this problem as the heat process in producing them deals with the phenols. Soft woods like pine & cedar can cause liver problems.

[BinkyBunny]

WELCOME!! i also wanted to encourage you to set-up a piggy bank or something where you save a buck a day toward vet care. Also, if you can afford $12 bucks a month, i also would check out VPI vet insurance. It has saved me alot of money over the years.

Regarding the hay and shavings. Orchard is absolutely fine to use instead of Timothy.

Stay away from Pine Shavings as they are not good for rabbits – can cause health problems over period of time. At a feed store you may be able to find pine pellets (horse bedding i think) that would better – the toxic oils have been processed out (unlike the pine shavings).

The cheapest litter by far is actually pine wood stove pellets.  I find them at hardware type stores like OSH.  Something like $5 for a 40 pound  bag.

[sr2011]

Thanks so much! This is a huge help. I’m just trying to figure things out with the new bunny. I’m already so in love with her!

[RachelF]

aww! when can we see pictures??? where did you get her?

when I first got Honey I knew didly squat about rabbits– and when I first “fell in love” I came here and t ried to learn as much as I could as well =) I’ve been bunny obsessed ever since!

[sr2011]

One more question…where is the best place to get wood stove pellets? At a feed store or hardware store? I think I’m going to try that!

[jerseygirl]

Posted By SMU2009 on 01/03/2009 9:17 AM
One more question…where is the best place to get wood stove pellets? At a feed store or hardware store? I think I’m going to try that!

 Hahaha! There’s never  just one more question, believe me!  Lucky now you’ve found binkybunny.com though  You should find them at feed stores, hardware or tractor supply stores.  They may be in high demand this time of year.  Also as mentioned, pelleted horse bedding same thing.  I just bought “Woody Pet” sold as horse bedding and litter for small animals.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

I found my woodstove pellets at RONA so I’d assume most home type stores will carry them too! I phone ahead to make sure I’m not on a wild goose chase…When I go into a store and ask for them -first they look at me like I just landed from Mars , then they take me and show me wood pallettes then wood stoves then give up! (This is a similar response when I ask where the NIC Cubes are…) But I find when I phone they have no problem understanding what I’m looking for

[Hedi]

Ive bought wood stove pellets from Tractor Supply Co. Chances are any feed or tractor/farm store will have the wood stove pellets. I bought a 50lb bag for like $4. With one bun that will last quite awhile.

A good suggestion would be to find someone you know (or you) who reads the daily paper and get it from them before they throw it out. I always use newspaper to line the bottom of all of our litter boxes and that will save you some serious cleanup.

Also…using a water/vinegar mix to clean with helps clean out the litter box and is not harmful to your bunny. The smell always evaporates so dont worry about that.

Continue to ask questions! Even veterns have questions too! This is a great forum to ask questions and people are all really nice.

[sr2011]

Thanks everyone! I’m so glad I found this site- huge help!

[Sarita]

You won’t find wood stove pellets in Dallas most likely. I go to D&L Farm Store in Denton and stock up on Lone Star Pellets which are around $6 for 40 pounds.

[Cajunboi]

I am in Waxahachie and I buy my wood stove pellets at The Ark Country Store… I also buy a ten pound bag of good Pellets at Walmart for $4.88 and that lasts me about a month with two bunnies… I am trying to figure something out on Hay… I buy my hay in the small bags because I don’t have room to store it and that’s a little expensive… One of my bunnies loves his hay and the other thinks he can do without it… He much rather eat Pellets or veggies all day… When I got him he was being fed this Cheap junk rabbit food with all the extra junk in it and he was FAT! When I got him I switched over to the good plain pellets and Hay and he got Diarrhea, BAD! It scared me… After a few days he was fine… I was a very novice Bunny owner at the time… Now he’s totally on track!  

Welcome!

[dlscanne]

Wow I’m learning too! I never knew about wood stove pellets…I didn’t know they were safe. Seems like they are a staple for people here. Even though they are pine all the bad stuff gets cooked out, huh? Gosh and I’ve been spending so much on paper based cat litter for 1.5 years! Do the pellets absorb and take care of odors just as well?! This is going to save me so much $! More to spend on presents for the bunnies That or books or human food….hmmmm….I think I’ll have to go with presents for the bunnies

[MooBunnay]

I live in Dallas as well – and I go to the “Tractor Supply” in McKinney to purchase “Equine Pine” pellets which are approximately $6 for about 40 lbs. This works great, I have 8 bunnies and no smell

For me, I have found my bunny’s favorite parsley is the organic parsley at Kroger – it costs the same as the regular parsley oddly…but I don’t have the best ideas for veg so I’d go with what Sarita recommended.

For my hay, I buy a bale from “Master Feed” which is located closer to Fort Worth (but on the East side of it so not too far from Dallas) and store it at my house. I buy the timothy bale for $32, and we have found it to be a pretty good quality, but of course we are always looking for places more nearby! I volunteer at the local rabbit sanctuary – North Texas Rabbit Sanctuary – http://www.ntrs.org, and they sell nice Oxbow hay there, and it is $10 for one of those smaller kitchen sized trash bags full, its a much better deal than going to a petstore in my opinion. Shoot me or the sanctuary an email if you’d like to buy some – they also sell bunny pellets and hay, and toys. You should stop by sometime and see the bunnies! Just email ahead of time, since it is actually someone’s house – so there are just certain hours on Saturdays that the sanctuary is open. Also, feel free to email me if you have any questions about any of those places I mentioned!

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