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You could make friends with a farmer at the farmers market and see if they will save carrot and beet tops and broccoli stalks or rabe for you for free or steeply discounted. Also ask friends to save vegetable scraps such as the soft seeded part of green peppers and the leafy parts from celery.
 
My rabbits are all older than seven years, and one of them may be 12 years old--we adopted her about 7 years ago and she was estimated as between 5 and 8 at that time. They have never had to have their teeth treated, and they are all good weights according to our vet.

I'm sharing their ages just to provide evidence for the fact that you don't have to provide 'premium' diets in order for buns to be healthy and happy--and live a long time.

I feed them feedstore pellets, some pet-store hay and some locally grown horse hay. The first time I bought horse hay it was too coarse and my buns didn't keep weight on. I now buy slightly pricier horse hay which is still about a thousand times cheaper than Oxbow. I find my hay on Craigslist.

That said, one of my bunnies enjoys pellets and the other two will eat them last, after the veggies and hay are gone, so if your buns are pellet-hogs, your results may vary.

They also get produce a couple of times a day, and about 1/3 of that comes from our yard. We don't use fertilizer or pesticide, so we grow plenty of dandelions! They are also fond of thistles and raspberry and blackberry leaves. If you plant a single cane of raspberries, you'll have a plentiful supply of leaves within 2 years.

As treats they get plain rolled oats, craisins, the ends of all the veggies we use during the week....and they love salty snacks like tortilla chips or (I am actually embarrassed about this) Funyons. They love Funyons.

The area where I would like to save more money myself is bedding. I rarely use CareFresh because of the cost, and I hate the scent of the pine after it gets wet, so we usually use cedar. I buy it in huge bags at the grocery store but I am sure there is a cheaper way to buy even larger amounts of this or some other bedding.
 
I've got two rabbits .

Food:

£4.50 bag of burgess pellets, lasts about 5 weeks
£4 ish bag of hay, lasts about 2 months
Dandelion leaves from the garden and leftover veg from meals for free

Bedding:

£3 bag of hay, lasts 6 clean outs, bit less in winter
Old newspaper from the recycle box for nothing


That's £12 to keep them in food and bedding for at least a couple of months. Don't think there's any way to be more economic than that really.
 
Hi there,

Others may have already said the same thing but I did rabbit rescue for a number of years and had up to 13 rabbits at a time so I needed to keep my costs down. I bought my hay by the bale from a feed store but I'm sure you don't need that much! However, you can buy your hay in larger sized packaging and then store it in old pillow cases to allow it to breathe so that it doesn't go bad. I also used to go to the grocery store produce section in the mornings and ask for the cuttings from vegetables that they sold. Groceries routinely cut off the outer leaves of cabbage, spinach, etc, and the tops off of carrots before they put them out for sale. They will often give those to you for free.

Good luck! I'm happy to hear that you don't want to compromise quality care to save money but I know that it always pays to save where you can.
 
1. No need for shavings, bedding.. Line litter box with newspaper then top with hay. Clean with white vinegar
2. Go to grocery store or farmer's market. Ask if they will give beet tops, carrot tops they are tossing.
3. If you are located near a feed store (I am in Long Island, NY and there is one is Hicksville) and purchase second cut timothy hay by the bale, approx $14 and it lasts for months
4. Use cardboard boxes with cut outs for toys, remove labels and tape beforehand, also toilet paper and paper towel rolls if not a lot of glue on them... also, oatmeal containers are good toys. Go to home improvement store and get the big cardboard tunnels. I believe they use them to cast concrete

If you follow the above guidelines and feed them the right foods and they are healthy, they are very inexpensive pets to keep.
 
I currently have 4 bunnies. 2 which are actually mine and 2 belong to my sister that had no where else to house them.

What I have done to help reduce the cost is buy huge bags of litter. My 2 bunnies are bonded, so I only have 1 litter box for them. Then each of my sister's rabbits have their own litter boxes. I get pine litter (which I noticed many people do not like). It works well for us here. I get it from Meijer usually for $8.00 (and they have cedar litter as well for about the same price). Its super packed in the bag I get, so once its opened, there is even more in there than it looks. Walmart sells the big bags of pine and cedar too, but Meijer has proven to be cheaper more often and is closer to my house. This may throw some people off, but I only change the litter every 2 weeks. I found I was wasting tons of litter when I did it once a week because they usually go in one spot of the litter box. So, I just freshen it up after a week and move a lot of it around so I get more use. I don't recommend going over 2 weeks with changing litter though... I have done that and the smell is quite awful (as you could imagine). Changing the litter every 2 weeks though, a bag lasts me about 3 months. I think its pretty decent.

As far as pellets, I get those from Meijer too. It is their own Meijer brand and comes in a big yellow bag with the cutest little bunny on it. :) It is a 25lbs bag and cost about $8.50. I have used the Walmart brand as well, which is about a dollar cheaper. I know this is a no no for most bunny owners, but I have interchanged their food between Walmart and Meijer brands, but they never mind. They eat it all the same, and haven't had any health issues from it, nor have they boycotted the other food when I have switched it suddenly. From looking at the bags, both brands are fairly similar with their ingredients and % of certain vitamins and such. The 25lbs of pellets typically lasts 2 months (my 2 bunnies have a feeder that dispenses the food for me, the other two I feed certain measurements to daily). The size of your rabbits would determine how long the food would last too. One of my sister's rabbits is a White New Zealand that weights close to 12lbs. She eats a lot. :p

I always buy Timothy Hay from Meijer as well. My bunnies are interesting with hay because they love it, then don't, then love it again. I typically buy the same hay and I know they like it, but sometimes they just don't eat it as quickly as other times. The White New Zealand is the only one I constantly have to fill the hay feeder for. My 2 bunnies are the weirdest with hay. Sometimes they will eat a few handfuls within 1 day, other times they will eat the same amount over a whole week! So, because of that, my hay typically lasts me for a month, maybe 2 at the most. I buy a bigger bag (3lbs I think) and it costs about $10. This is probably my biggest expense when it comes to things I buy since I have to buy it more often.

When it comes to produce, I fall short. I am not as consistent giving them lots of veggies and such. Whenever my wife and I take a big grocery trip, I will grab a couple heads of romaine lettuce that usually run $1.19 a pound, but I'm lucky if what I get lasts 5 days. So, the bunnies don't get produce often. We always have raw carrots in our house, so about once a week I give them some of those (since carrots aren't great to give on a regular basis... the vet told me it was because carrots have a lot of sugar in them). This is probably why I save more money on the bunnies.... but I also know its not the best thing to cut back on. The good thing is that all my bunnies are healthy and happy, so it hasn't had any negative effects so far (and we have had these bunnies for over 2 years).

Hopefully this helps a little bit. I know there is tons of good advice from people on here (and they probably take even better care of their rabbits than I do :nerves1). Hopefully you find a budget that will work well for you and your bunnies!
 
We live in California. Here's our situation. We have 2 guinea pigs and 2 rabbits, so everyone needs the same stuff.

Litter: I bought one of those litter pans that has a grate, I got mine from Busy Bunny. This way I can use cat litter from costco for $10 a month. Before that I spent $30 a month on a large bag of yesterday's news/feline pine and a large bag of carefresh. I would layer the carefresh on top of a layer of the feline pine to soften the surface for my rex rabbit (sore hocks). I REALLY like the litter pan we got. We vacuum the poops out every day and ALL the litter gets used before we clean it every 5th day. Using cat litter has also been great for odor control. I do put a layer of paper towel between the litter and the "grate" part, but there is no way our rabbits can get to it. (we use shredded paper for the guinea pigs, because they don't just use a litter pan)

Food: we have this amazing produce stand near our house that operates 6 months out of the year. During those months the animals get anything and everything their little hearts desire, because it's so cheap and plentiful. No pellets.

Then the other 6 months we feed good quality pellets (our buns LOVE Oxbow and GOBBLE it, while they will leave other brands in the bowl). During those months we primarily buy the mixed spring greens in boxes from Costco (2 boxes a week, $8) and one other veggie, say green peppers, and herbs and such when it's on sale. But we don't go crazy because peppers will be like $1.50 a piece during the winter months, as opposed to the 25c at the summer produce stand.

Hay: We're lucky to be surrounded by "horse country" so we buy a "California 3 string bale" (about 100lbs) every year for about $16. We store it in cardboard boxes in our garage and it lasts us a whole year. (we've never had any pest or mold issues thanks to the dry weather in CA) We do shop around for the softest, greenest, preferably 3rd cut, grass hay we can find.

Toys: we make our own from stuff we find. We also bring home a lot of cardboard from Costco, our pets LOVE cardboard. The only toy we spend money on is the occasional twig tunnel.

I would say we spend about $60 a month on the animals (so about $15 a pet), but as one of our guinea pigs becomes a senior next year we're going to start a seperate "vet fund" of about $40 a month and we'll start spending money on annual wellness visits (we usually just take everyone if anyone has something that needs checking which isn't often).
 
HI Hannah,
Through the years I've spent so many thousands on my buns I can't count.
I now have a VERY inexpensive weekly upkeep.
First off call a feed store or if you're in the North Home Depot will have this. Get a 40 pound bag of compressed pine stove pellets OR horse pellets. The stove pellets are a better deal but both are cheap. 40 pounds for around $5-$8.
Normally pine is bad but I learned this from etherbun or disabled bunnies and HRS that the stove pellets and the horse stall pellets are both heated to such high heat to compress them the volatile oils are all gone. A 40 pound bag lasts a very long time!
The other thing I've done is order Sherwood Forest Natural Rabbit Pellets, i've included the link and some info below. AND you get a free 2 pound sample of whatever types you want to test. It's just hay, vitamins, chelated minerals and omega 3 oils. Using them has stemmed my bunnies' cravings for greens SO I give them WAY less greens at night as they get it in their pellets.
My pet sitter used to give them such a little bit of greens it troubled me but now I understand and I give them some Italian Parsley and cilantro maybe some dill, or whatever other herb I can find low cost. I do NOT feed romaine anymore. I learned from another list it contains a white substance not so good for buns and my bun no longer has excess cecals since I stopped the romaine.
I use the bottom of a long rabbit cage for a litter box, I probably change it once a month because the pine pellets soak the urine, deodorize it and then turns to what looks like sawdust, lasts a long long time.
Search around for vet costs.
I use two vets. One charges $66 per exam the other $17-$33. there are big differences. Learn to clip nails yourself with bird nail clippers.
Observe your bun a lot and put it on the earth for half hr each day to bring it's health to high levels.
good luck!
Judie
Sherwood Forest Natural NON GMO rabbit food has helped so many of us I include the link to their page for a free 2 pound trial, for the benefit of any bunnies who need nutritional support and want to avoid GMO Soy and Wheat or GMO oils.
https://www.naturalrabbitfood.com/31.html
 
You know those stupid local COUPON PAPERS that everyone gets in the mail? I use one sheet from that to line the bottom of my bunny's littler box, and rip a small stack of some more into long shreds. I do this every morning and it is free, a form of recycling, and takes me less than 5 minutes. If you have a paper shredder, that would be even faster. That's 1 way to eliminate paying for something for your bunnies to pee on!

DO NOT BUY LITTER for the bottom of the cage either. I have about 3 or 4 old TOWELS which I rotate so that the little guy has something soft to sit on. When they get dirty - peed on, collect too much poo & leftover grass, etc. - just shake them outside and wash them with the rest of your laundry!

From my kitchen, I end up having LEFTOVERS of leafy greens, cilantro, carrot tops, stems, etc. which I pass on to my little guy to supplement the hay.

Therefore, my ONLY expense for my bunny is Timothy hay. I buy it in the LARGEST BAG from Target/WalMart - best option for me because I do not have room to store a big bale from a feed store.
 
Hi all,

I don't post much since I'm now bunless, but I like to keep a hand in. I saw this topic and thought I would share this money saving idea.

I was always SO happy to see summer arrive as it meant no more store bought veggies for Cocoa, who much preferred the many healthy weeds and grasses I picked for him instead. Of course this only works if you have access to clean, spray free wild areas.

Cocoa loved long, thick-bladed grasses, dandelion leaves and flowers, wild carrot leaves, creeping bell flower stalks with the flowers on, plantain leaves and the young seed shoots, small amounts of clover, leaves of vetch, raspberry cane leaves, rose leaves, and some other ones that I never knew the name of...lol. Grass is really the best for keeping teeth and guts healthy!

As with anything, test your bunny with a very small amount first if they aren't used to these foods.

Hope that helps! :coolness:
God Bless, Arlette (cocoa3c)
 
I see a number of recommendations to use pine or cedar as litter. Many sources advise against using these aromatics because they claim they can cause respiratory problems. Aspen chips are safe if one wishes to go the wood-chip route. I use shredded paper. It cost me about $100 for a good shredder. Most shredders stated that you shouldn't use them for newspaper. Newspaper has a grain to it and if I put it in one way the shredder jams often. If I load it turned 90 degrees it shreds fine. So I have to fold it a certain way before feeding newspaper to the shredder. Experiment to find which way is the "right" way. The negative is that newspaper had no odor absorbing capability so the litter has to be changed frequently. It smells of ammonia quite quickly which is also possibly a health hazard. I get 2, maybe 3 days at most before I have to change the litter.

Getting newspaper: I used to live in an apartment building and my neighbors saved papers. I now work in a Holiday Inn and they give newspapers to the guests. I get the papers left in the rooms and ones that are not used. With a bit of imagination and asking around there are many sources for newsprint that can be had free.

Unfortunately I've spoiled my bunnies so they prefer fresh veggies over hay. I appreciate the advice on how to save money with veggies. Two of my bunnies got into a plant called Yellow Jessamine, also known as Yellow Jasmine or False Jasmine. It is deadly poison and killed one of my bunnies. The other was deathly sick but she survived. So I am a lot more cautious about using wild greens. There is a huge list of plants that are toxic to domestic rabbits and I can vouch for the fact that unfortunately domestic bunnies will eat poison plants. I am familiar with and can identify clover (sweet, red and white), dandelion so I feel comfortable with them. I would love to know if there are more that I can easily identify and feed them. I have also fed various grasses and they seem safe.

Hay: My bunnies don't care for hay that much so it doesn't matter what I pay for it. Many places, including Walmart, only sell alfalfa hay and alfalfa pellets. Since my elder bunny seems to be having trouble keeping her weight up I may switch to or add the alfalfa hay. Perhaps she'll like it better too.

Pellets: I give 2 tablespoons per day to each bunny so I don't use a lot. Hence cost is not terribly important. I've always used only timothy pellets, Oxbow or Kaytee.

Toys: I have bought quite a few baby toys from thrift shops but truthfully like many children my bunnies prefer to play with --eat-- cardboard boxes, phonebooks, toilet paper rolls, though Thumper enjoys tossing a plastic key set.
 
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Wood stove pellets work wonders! They're really inexpensive, and you don't have to use a lot, and don't need to change it as frequently as other litters. Purchasing hay at a local farm is also an option. If you have the room to store a bail of hay, purchasing in bulk helps.
 
For those who are concerned with pine and cedar because of the aromatic oils, it may help to know that the research indicating those litters cause health problems were done on lab animals who live in almost fully enclosed lab drawers, not in cages with open air circulation. For this reason, if we have a hamster or other creature who lives in an aquarium, I use care fresh bedding. For rabbits in large spaces with plenty of air circulation, the use of pine or cedar bedding or litter can't be compared to using it in lab rat conditions.
 
Please do NOT use softwood shavings with your small animals. These are done different then pine pellets being mentioned for litter in this topic. Not to mention we are discussing using the pellets strictly for the litter pan. If you choose to still use a wood shaving please use a hard wood like aspen.

If you choose to discuss the matter further please create a new topic.
Im starting to see some semi-dangerous recomendations in this thread guys. We want economic but still safe!
 
There's a lot of mixed reviews on pine. Cedar is a def no no. Some have been using pine for years with no problems. I had guinea pigs before and they did ok with it but they're cage was very open. I use aspen for my chinchilla. Aspen is hard to find in large quantities like pine or cedar.
 
Watermelons said:
Please do NOT use softwood shavings with your small animals. These are done different then pine pellets being mentioned for litter in this topic. Not to mention we are discussing using the pellets strictly for the litter pan. If you choose to still use a wood shaving please use a hard wood like aspen.

If you choose to discuss the matter further please create a new topic.
Im starting to see some semi-dangerous recomendations in this thread guys. We want economic but still safe!
Click to expand...

Oops sorry if I should've made a new topic.
 
Here are the some things that save me a bunch of money:

Litter - I use horse bedding pellets. They are compressed pine pellets, kind of like the pellets used in wood stoves. Go to a tack and feed store and see what brands they carry. I use the store brand where I get them, and I pay around $6 for a 50 pound bag. One bag lasts me a couple months usually. These pellets are great because they turn to sawdust when they get wet. When the bunny pees, the pee goes to the bottom and you end up with a layer of poops on top, pellets in the middle and sawdust on the bottom. You can scoop the majority of marbles from the top, then sift out the used sawdust and keep the pellets. I rotate the old pellets to their main pee spot and put new pellets down in the other parts of their cage. I might do a full empty and refill once a month. The pine really controls odor as long as you get the sawdust cleaned out before it becomes saturated. (It will be dry sawdust unless you leave it there for them to pee on too long)

Just make sure you check with the manufacturer that the ones you buy are kiln-dried. This removes the bad oils. Most horse bedding will be kiln dried I think.

Some go even cheaper and buy wood stove pellets, but there are no guarantees that they don't contain glues or volatile oils, since they are made just to burn.

Compare a $6 40-50lb bag of pine pellets to a $30 25lb bag of paper litter...

Hay - even though my bunnies will never eat this much hay, I buy a full size bale of Timothy from the same feed store. I bought a 112lb bale for the same price as a large bag of oxbow Timothy. I can be very generous with their hay and put piles of it in all their favorite places, and it stays fresh for quite a while if you keep it in a cool dry place. I have enough to rotate often and my bunnies are healthier and busier because of it. Part of their cage has it as bedding too.

Food - I don't compromise on food. If you can find a pet store that sells oxbow in bulk, that helps. I do gather dandelion greens for them from my yard though. We have the ugliest lawn in the neighborhood - it looks like a cabbage patch. But I refuse to use fertilizer or weed killer out there because it is nice to have fresh greens for free. I do supplement with organic spring mix though. But I buy it at Sam's club and get twice as much as I would from the regular grocery store for the same price.

Toys - I rarely buy toys for them. They are happy bunnies if they have boxes or baskets to chew on. I did find wreaths made from grape vine at the dollar store though. I bought a few of those and they toss them around. Dollar store is good for baskets too. Just get the natural ones, not painted or varnished. You can put some hay in a paper bag. I also take plain paper and crumple it up and put it in one of their sitting boxes. They spend lots of time throwing those wads of paper around.

Treats - I used to buy peanuts for them, but one bun was getting bladder sludge so I stopped that. Now I just keep a little bowl around with some raw pumpkin seeds. They are completely happy with this. Between the pumpkin seeds and the occasional craisins, they are wrapped around my little finger. Pumpkin seeds are not too expensive, and they last a long time too.
 
Growing your own veggies and edible plants is a fun but lengthy project, it can be expensive to start off but then once you got the big expenses out of the way with planters and such they'll last for next seasons' plantings, and the next... only thing is rabbits will eat endlessly, so you may take a few months growing food for them and it'll all be eaten in a matter of hours. Herbs are good for growing as they grow pretty fast and can recovery fairly easily. If your rabbits like it you can grow nasturtiums for them, that grows very well and makes an excellent border plant and looks good in hanging baskets too.

Fresh veggies can be expensive. If you have a local grocer you may be able to get veggies there cheaper than a supermarket, and they may have some set aside too that are on offer that are still ok for giving to your bunnies (like if they're starting to wilt but you know your bunnies are gonna eat it all before the end of the day.)

Rabbit treats from pet shops are always hyper expensive. There are some online recipes for making rabbit cookies using veggies, oats and pellets which will be far cheaper than trying to by them all the time from the pet shop. It's good to have these around not only as a treat but to help with wearing down their teeth.
 
In terms of veggies, I try to buy whatever is on sale. Also, if you go to Chinese grocery stores, they tend to be a little cheaper. Chinese veggies are cheaper as well and they're still good for your rabbits. For bedding, I use Kaytee Soft and Cozy. It's expensive but one bag goes a very long way. I don't really line too much of my bunny cage with bedding since all he does it push it out of the cage so I just put it in the areas he likes to hang out it and monitor his feet.
 
This year I've been trying to grow my own veggies, but I already decided that it is sooo less problematic to buy veggies in stores. I planted herbs in containers from seeds, and I can't say they are doing really well. You have to "babysit" your plants - move them around, as it can be too hot, too sunny, too windy, too something else. I also have cabbage plants (not for rabbits) and those get eaten by cabbage worm really bad.
I would talk to stores about getting permission to pick up left overs. I asked in Kroger store and they said it is not allowed but I should talk to the headquaters store in another town (which I never did)

Newspapers for litter. Recently I got an idea: why not get free papers that a lot of stores have on ad rack (right after you came inside the store)? It is not really fair to the publishers though...
 
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