If you have pet rabbits how much do they cost weekly?

[PumpernickleInaWarehouse]

My friend said she spends 25 pound a week on her two bunnies and that sounds like a lot more than I thought it would be.

That is all really.

I don't spend that every week, but I would some weeks - it depends if I need to buy them a new massive bag of dried food from the pet shop.

I think we spend around £20 a week but we have 3.
They need a lot of hay, a good variety of healthy veg/herbs everyday and pellets (although pellets are a choice). We use paper litter as it's better for them and tidier. I suppose they cost a fair bit because they need such a good diet.

We have two very spoilt rabbits and it’s costs no more than £10 for food, hay and treats. What is she feeding them?
Initially the hutch was expensive, neutering and vet bills can be pricey.

Maybe she is including pet insurance and the cost of vaccines and medicines (eg flystrike prevention) in that figure?
Feeding a wide range of veg and herbs, plus good quality hay and bedding/litter can add up, but I'd be surprised if it reached £25 a week alone.

I spend about £10 probably on my two in terms of food. I don’t include veg in that as I give them leftovers of whatever we have and mine don’t care about toys so I never bother buying them little bits and pieces. The initial cost is definitely a lot - mine live in a shed I converted for £200 in total and neutering is about £80-£100 each depending on where in the country you live. Vaccinations are about £25 each and they need two each per year. Pet insurance is also expensive if you have this as rabbits are exotic pets and get ill very easily (my bun got GI stasis and went into shock and my veg bill was £600 once) so if you factor all that in I would say they are quite expensive pets in the long term. Wouldn’t change it though, they’re part of my family, even when they climb on my shoulder to poo on me

Not much! I have one and he costs about £11.60 per month. £2 for a massive block if sawdust, £3 hay, £3.50 nuggets although they last around two months. And £2.60 for litter. More if we buy new toys etc although his nanny buys him toys all the time 🙂. We are trying to introduce vegetables but so far he doesn’t seem interested in them! In a few minutes it will cost us to get him neutered . He is an indoor rabbit.

In a few Months!!! Bloody autocorrect! His initial outlay was not much, a very large and in good condition cage £10, accessories £20 including litter pan. We do buy him treats such as seed bars etc.

The first month of our buns life set us back £400. An abscess up behind her pallet/under her eye took 2 months and 5 vet trips to heal.

Since then we've had one fly strike incident - last summer in the really hot bit. That was £100 and something to sort out.

Under normal circs. though the costs are small. She has a good food from pets at home, £5 per week? deep sawdust in her indoor cage £10 per month, and gets moved all around the lawn in her massive pen for 2 thirds of the year so doesn't need much supplement there at all. New water bottle every few months £5. Bit of hay for her nest (which she chucks about and hates).

She's nearly 8 years old and going strong.

Oh initial outlay - biggest indoor cage we could find was about £70 from an online pet shop. Bowls ect. And we bought her one of those big fully closed in cat litter trays as an outdoor house because we can pick her up using it. It's full of hay and doubles as her nest. She jumps in when it's time to go back in the house and we grab the handle and away we go. She hates being picked up by hand. That was about 30 quid.

I have guinea pigs so not quite the same but as pets they are definitely more expensive than I expected.
Nuggets are £10 a bag which lasts a month, they go through 5-6 bags of hay a month at £6.50 a pop, the wood shavings are £10 for a months supply, £10 for a bag of paper pellets to absorb wee etc, fresh veg daily and weekly treats. So probably about 50-60 a month, I’d imagine rabbits are similar. It’s a reasonable financial commitment. I also had to put them in a small pets holiday home for 10 days, that was £100. I remember thinking --I’d have been cheaper wringing their necks and buying some new ones when we got back!!!— that was very expensive.

Aw score through fail!!

Oh you know what Mari we used to have piggie (15 of them at one point - we turned into the unofficial village rescue center for pigs ) and i think piggies do cost more than rabbits for basics.

IME vets seem to know a little more about pigs than rabbits as well. A vet told me that many aspects of the rabbit's physiology is unique and not many vets study it thoroughly as they have so many species to master.

You guys seem to spend an awful lot!

Probably works out at about £5 per week if not less for 4 bunnies.

Rabbits diets should be 90% decent quality hay if you have a shed with a bit of storage a bale of hay from a farm shop will set you back between £5 and £9 and will last around 6 weeks. Rabbits do not need hard feed at all, if you feed hard feed it should be pellets and not musli and no more than an egg cups worth per rabbit per day. Again if you have storage space you can buy 20kg sacks from a farm shop for less than £10 and at that dosage will last months. Fresh greens should only make up 10% of the diet, grass and dandilions are free.

I use hay (which I buy in bales) for filling the bedding area which I thouroughly clean out every other day. I have 3 small hay racks dotted about that I buy bags of dandilion and marigold hay for its about £5 a bag but lasts a good 3 weeks if I only fill them once a day. I occassionally give some spring greens or a bit of kale, a bag of these is about 70p each in aldi. One bag a week is plenty.

I thought rabbits should eat veg every day? I have 6 rabbits and they have veg every day as well as fresh hay (that I get in bales from my Dad’s farm for free) as well as pellets. I also use the hay for bedding. I probably spend between £7-£10 per week on them but I do quite often buy their veg from the supermarket in the evening when it has been dramatically reduced and I also grow my own veg and herbs to supplement it.

£25 a week seems like a lot unless it includes insurance etc OP.

Thankyou everyone.
We are planning on 2 bunnies.
There is no initial outlay as my dad is kindly building a hutch and run for the dc, and my daughter has birthday money to pay for the rabbits. I already have bowls bottles etc

So I was thinking of a budget of 5 pound per week.which after reading this seems very doable.

I will get a big bale of hay from.loca farm.shop (thankyou for that advice)
Wilkos do a big bag rabbit pellets and we always have loads of veg anyway from my patch.

Very excited now for our bunnies thankyou

Rabbits are such underrated animals. We've had lop eared that we kept as hiuee bunnies, they're amazing and use kitty litters without being taught, they just do it naturally, but please don't keep them locked up in their hunch all day, when the novelty wears off I'm not saying you would but that's no way for an animal to live, you need to be committed because they need lots of excersise and attention just like any other pet/member of the family. Also be vigilant if you let them out, making sure they can't squeeze through any gaps, because they can squeeze through the tiniest of spaces, also, if you have any birds of prey that are near by Kestrels, Sparrow Hawks and the likes will swoop in and take them, it's not scaremongering it's the truth, any vet will tell you. But enjoy the new members of the family and remember to get them insured, our last vets bill for filing down our bunnies teeth was £450.

Oops hat should be House bunnies.

Please be aware that bunnies do need vaccinations every year to stop them from getting myxamitosis and VHD/VHD2. There are 2 different injections required and mine cost £70 per rabbit per year though prices vary around the country. Also, be aware that some rabbits need more grooming than others and that may cost you either a lot of time or money to stop them getting matted and causing health problems. There are also minimum space guidelines. Have a look on the RWAF website for further info. There are also lots of FB groups on rabbit care that will help loads. Also, I would highly recommend that you adopt your buns from a rescue centre (and don’t buy from a pet shop or breeder) as they will be neutered already. Non-neutered buns cannot really live together as they will fight and/or possibly breed depending upon their genders. Good luck!!

How old is your daughter? Rabbits aren't usually great children's pets, for primary school age children I highly recommend guinea pigs instead - much easier to hold, and more docile. Plus, no vaccines required, and less prone to flystrike.
(I used to work in a vets and a lot of rabbits can be be quite difficult to handle, kids want to pick them up which the rabbits often dislike, leading to scratching or biting).

We spend about £12/15 on bedding and hay (change every couple days) plus maybe £2 a week on dry food plus maybe £10 a week on fresh food (although that's shared with hamsters). Shopping at Wilkos.

AwkwardPaws27 yes I agree, they don't like being handled, stroked yes but not picked up, they don't like the sense of being high off the ground, and shouldn't be handled like that. The sad thing is, as our elderly lop eared "Lucky" that we rescued when someone brought him in to our local vets on the pretence they found him, they didn't they obviously thought, as many do that looking after a rabbit was a doddle, when indeed it's not, so we took him home and gave him a loving life, but when he was coming to the end of his time, we took him the vets for jabs, she was examining him and he jumped in to my arms from the vets table. We were distraught when we lost him a few months ago, he was a well loved member of our family, they need lots of care.

Four rabbits until 2016. £20 a week including insurance.

Would you consider a shed instead of a hutch? Ours like having the full use of a shed and can go out into their run from there.

Even the best hutches often are not big enough.

Rabbits are great pets, so full of character. But, they can be hard work!

And expensive.

And it takes a lot of time and effort to understand their behaviours and ways of communicating. Lots of patience needed.

IMHO they are better for older children (eg teenage and beyond) as they are not the cuddly animals they seem!

Sorry didn't answer your question! We buy hay in bulk, also the bedding and pellets, so not sure how it works out on a weekly basis.

Just use bits of greenery from the garden.

They probably cost us a few hundred per year including vaccinations, the occasional vet bill, and boarding costs when we go away.

This thread is a bit depressing

There’s no indoor cage on the market that meets the need of a rabbit. They are all far too small and should never be used as permanent accommodation. Rabbits should have permanent access to a large exercise space I.e. not be reliant on being carried out into the garden for a few hours.

Their daily diet should include daily greens, mostly good quality hay and 5% pellets. A poor diet will results in dental issues (££££). Allen & page natural pellets have a good high fibre content.

They need to be spayed/ neutered and vaccinated each year for both VHD1 & 2, and myxomatosis. While their maintenance costs may seem affordable, Vet bills can quickly run into the many hundreds and beyond. They are an exotic pet and should be seen by a Vet who specialises in such.

For further info please google ‘A hutch is not enough’