Rabbit finance PLEASE HELP!!

I'm relatively new to the forum and the time has finally come where
I feel we are in a position to move forward and adopt a bun

however

my partner is not a full time teacher but a supply teacher
he is also still in his early stage of teaching and not
completed his probabtion year

I have a secure job and we have recently bought a house
together.... Been here about 3 months

our mortgage and bills are very expensive

how Much a month does one bun cost roughly? I have bunny
proofed the house, toys, "cage" (until house trained) and
playpen (until house trained)

I need to know what kinds of things are involved

food
treats
hay
vet bills -standard things to expect for male bun. So far
I know I will need to pay for castration and VHd and
mixy jabs

anyhthing else I have missed??

I need to convince my partner we can afford one but
also need to know figures so we don't make a
huge mistake and end up not affording him anymore

any links etc really appreciated!

Many thanks xxxx

ps anyone know a vet savvy vet nr Solihull area
also hay supplier?

So excited and scared at the same time!!

Hiya If you adopted a bun from a rescue, you wouldnt need to payfor neutering and vaccinations, but the adoption fee is normally around £40.

I buy hay by the bale, which is £5 (you would need a large wheelie bin or something similar to store it in) and lasts ages.

Food, it depends what you buy. Excel is around £15 for 10kg and considering bunny only needs an egg cup full a day, it would last a long time. Treats arent really needed as such, i buy a bag of fenugreek crunchies once in a while and they last ages (i have 8 buns here). You would also need to take into consideration veg. I have 8 buns and spend around £10 a week on veg

Vets bills, you can get bunny insuredvia pet plan for around £10 a month, this would mean if bunny was poorly you wouldnt have to spend out lots of money but just the excess fee You would need to check what they actually cover though. Vaccinations, i pay £10.50 each vaccination. Myxi is twice a year, VHD once a year.

I would also advise on getting 2 bunnies. Its not really ideal to keep a single bunny, they like company of their own. Theres nothing better than seeing 2 buns cuddled up together

Have a look at the rabbits we have in at the moment:

http://www.rspca-walsall.org.uk/newpages/rabbits.htm

If you need anymore help feel free to PM me xXx

Hi, there :wave:

Ours breakdown as follows

Food: depends on pellets you buy they usually start at £5 per bag

Treats: Keep away from the sugary rabbit sticks etc, we give ours herbs and some veg to supplement the pellets.

Hay: I think pet shop hay is rubbish it's chopped down too small. You can buy good hay online or if you have a farm shop near you might be able to buy a large bale. Online hay usually £15 + depending on size. farm hay usually £5+ for large bale

Vet bills: Ours start at £9 per consult, £15 myxi jab twice a year, £15 VHD once per year, castration (male) £60+ spay (female) £80+

If bun gets ill then you may need emergency vets as they usually get sick when vet is shut :lol: (only joking) But if an emergency then £100+ out of hours plus treatment costs, £9 plus treatment costs otherwise. We have only had buns with a bit of "stasis" which have cost ~£40 for treatment. If bun has issues with teeth spurs, looking at £70+ . However, with a good diet of 90% hay and/or free range on grass this should'nt be a problem as it is poor diet which is the biggest cause (according to my vet).

Some people like to save for vet bills however we have insurance, £10 per bun

Hay and pellets usually last 6-8 wks

Expensive they are :lol:

Hiya :wave:
I am pretty new to buns and adopted Sophie in April. She is a single house rabbit but I am a stay at home mum so am around most of the time. So far. I have paid £20 each for myxi and vhd jabs, £60+ for a reaction to the vhd jab, £65 for her spay and another £40 as I thought she was poorly but was probably just sneezing :roll: All this in 3 months :shock: I do have insurance, I pay £6.85 a month with exotics direct.
Hay etc as above posts. I will have Sophie bonded with a buck at some point but having new kitchen fitted, decorating and hopefully looking for a larger property so may be some while but I am around a lot for company. I feel it is unfair if you know you and your partner are out at work all day and he will be alone. It is no life for him really, so you do need to consider 2 or none (my opinion only of course )

hi you seem pretty clued up.
Everyone has different opinions but here are a few to consider.
Def a spayed female for company when you guys are out etc and they are so fun to watch, we originally just ahd boy then end up getting girl. Our page is www.hoppybunnyrabbit.com has lots of tips etc
most rescues do vaccs neutering etc as the 1st post said they ask about £40 donation. vaccs vary £15-28 6-12 month. Our VHD one this year was £28 where as last year it was only £19:?
Wormers are about £15 you can do this a couple times a year although not everyone does we only started this year (1 vet said not to bother our rabbit vet said def do) rearguard for summer months to preventflystrike this is about £19. Rabbit checkups are about £16-20 although youll only really need this once a year.
Food we get P@H pellets biggist bag at £12ish lasts us erm.... had since jan if not longer they only get level desertspoonful morn/night. Hay varys depending on how much your rabbit eats but for decent bags there about £4.40 per bag this lasts about 2 weeks although we always have few flavours.
woodshavings for potty (clean potty out every morn or when needed throughout day) again p@h biggist bale is £12 lasts us good 3-4 months
Most exspensive thing I find now is greens. We used to get good fridge full for about £5 a week. The bags seem to be geeting less in so we now spend about £3 per day on curly kale,spinach etc etc.
Grass in garden free so good run when where in:lol:
I would def recommend insurance ours have both got problems now. When we got winnie the ins wanted £20+ a month as he has damaged feet. His med was only £18 every 2-3 months so we saved it ourselves. Then we got angel and just saved again but year later we found out she has mouth disease and needs regular dentals and eye treatment not so bad at mo but to find out this cost hundreds well thousands so in way wish we got ins...def worth looking at but check they cover dentals etc.
hope I helped a bit some more costs on our page to give you ideas

Vets bills etc are as above. Bale of hay here is £4.00 and pellets £11 for 20kg i get them from a local farm/pet food supplier. Fresh veg i grow in pots in the back yard but i also get some veg from the market as if you ask they will normally give you cabbage leaves,carrot tops and dropped apples for nothing.
Good luck with making your decision.

Becky86 said:

Hiya If you adopted a bun from a rescue, you wouldnt need to payfor neutering and vaccinations, but the adoption fee is normally around £40.

I buy hay by the bale, which is £5 (you would need a large wheelie bin or something similar to store it in) and lasts ages.

Food, it depends what you buy. Excel is around £15 for 10kg and considering bunny only needs an egg cup full a day, it would last a long time. Treats arent really needed as such, i buy a bag of fenugreek crunchies once in a while and they last ages (i have 8 buns here). You would also need to take into consideration veg. I have 8 buns and spend around £10 a week on veg

Vets bills, you can get bunny insuredvia pet plan for around £10 a month, this would mean if bunny was poorly you wouldnt have to spend out lots of money but just the excess fee You would need to check what they actually cover though. Vaccinations, i pay £10.50 each vaccination. Myxi is twice a year, VHD once a year.

I would also advise on getting 2 bunnies. Its not really ideal to keep a single bunny, they like company of their own. Theres nothing better than seeing 2 buns cuddled up together

Have a look at the rabbits we have in at the moment:

http://www.rspca-walsall.org.uk/newpages/rabbits.htm

If you need anymore help feel free to PM me xXx

Click to expand...

:wave:

Thank you for this! He will need to be castrated when he is older as he is still a baby and they won't let us adopt until he is old enough to leave his mother/litter mates. If it was an older bun then would already be castrated.

I used to have buns when I was young and they all lived together happily (4 buns)

I cant believe the vaccinations are so cheap!? I was expecting them to be a lot more. I remember when I used to have buns and they cost us a fortune.

The vet was awful back then he refused to spay our does because he said it was too complicated. She wasnt house trainable kept marking her territory by urinating absolutely everywhere! So they had the entire garden and 6 foot hutch to sleep in (my mum built the whole thing)!

I really want a house bun who I can house train and because I am a parttimer I will be able to spend a lot of time with him!

However I would like to just get one to begin with and then find him a wifey when he is older - a lovely rescue doe who is older and really needs spoiling!

Where do you buy your hay bail from??

xxx

joeyred said:

Hi, there :wave:

Ours breakdown as follows

Food: depends on pellets you buy they usually start at £5 per bag

Treats: Keep away from the sugary rabbit sticks etc, we give ours herbs and some veg to supplement the pellets.

Hay: I think pet shop hay is rubbish it's chopped down too small. You can buy good hay online or if you have a farm shop near you might be able to buy a large bale. Online hay usually £15 + depending on size. farm hay usually £5+ for large bale

Vet bills: Ours start at £9 per consult, £15 myxi jab twice a year, £15 VHD once per year, castration (male) £60+ spay (female) £80+

If bun gets ill then you may need emergency vets as they usually get sick when vet is shut :lol: (only joking) But if an emergency then £100+ out of hours plus treatment costs, £9 plus treatment costs otherwise. We have only had buns with a bit of "stasis" which have cost ~£40 for treatment. If bun has issues with teeth spurs, looking at £70+ . However, with a good diet of 90% hay and/or free range on grass this should'nt be a problem as it is poor diet which is the biggest cause (according to my vet).

Some people like to save for vet bills however we have insurance, £10 per bun

Hay and pellets usually last 6-8 wks

Expensive they are :lol:

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I never thought of getting insurance, I do have savings for 'incase', what insurance are you with for £10 and does this cover vaccs or emergency work/check ups only?

What pellets do you use? I have heard a lot of bad things on here about certain brands so I am confussled about which to use - I will be given a months worth of food that they use if I adopt bun I will have to find out what it is!

Saucepot said:

Hiya :wave:
I am pretty new to buns and adopted Sophie in April. She is a single house rabbit but I am a stay at home mum so am around most of the time. So far. I have paid £20 each for myxi and vhd jabs, £60+ for a reaction to the vhd jab, £65 for her spay and another £40 as I thought she was poorly but was probably just sneezing :roll: All this in 3 months :shock: I do have insurance, I pay £6.85 a month with exotics direct.
Hay etc as above posts. I will have Sophie bonded with a buck at some point but having new kitchen fitted, decorating and hopefully looking for a larger property so may be some while but I am around a lot for company. I feel it is unfair if you know you and your partner are out at work all day and he will be alone. It is no life for him really, so you do need to consider 2 or none (my opinion only of course )

Click to expand...

Each reply keeps going up £5 in vaccs price! :lol:

:shock:What happened with the reaction to the vhd what caused this!? I have never heard of this happening before I thought this was really routine stuff?

Can you get castration on pet insurance?

My price breakdown.

Hay = Free (I am extremely lucky though :lol
20kg of A&P pellets = £8.50
Vegetables = £2.50 roughly
Vaccinations = £20 (x9) (3 rabbits)

I have savings for vet bills,insurance should be circa £10 a month though.
I also do massive splash out on toys and treats every now and again at hayexperts :wave:

HoppingBinky said:

Vets bills etc are as above. Bale of hay here is £4.00 and pellets £11 for 20kg i get them from a local farm/pet food supplier. Fresh veg i grow in pots in the back yard but i also get some veg from the market as if you ask they will normally give you cabbage leaves,carrot tops and dropped apples for nothing.
Good luck with making your decision.

Click to expand...

I am also growing veg in pots outside! :lol:

Wow replying to each one is very tiring, how can I quote multiple posts and do one reply!?!?

Thats awesome about getting free fruit and veg! I think Asda staff would just look at me funny if I asked?? :?

How long does 20kg pellets usually last?

OKAY Im going to sum up what I have gathered so far and put it all in a reply, if anyone could let me know if I have missed anything please let me know!!! :wave: thank you all for your replies!!

Oh and when I say treats I mean hay buiscuits and willow balls stuffed with tastey things and banana etc

I have read somewhere (maybe on here?) that sugary treats from pet stores are bad, so ... why do they sell them??

Thanks again!
xxx

To answer your questions re: insurance, most people here use Petplan. They are quite good. Insurance with any company does not cover vaccinations, neutering or pre-existing conditions.

If you live in Solihull, you can adopt a bunny from Fat Fluffs: http://www.fatfluffs.com/. Good luck with your new bunny, whatever you decide to do.

20Kg for 3 bunnies last..... um.....
AAGGGGGEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!! :lol::lol:

I get my hay from Bradshaws in Burntwood Its just a farm, they sell horsey food etc. If your in Solihull, surely it would be quicker for you to go to the hungry horse in Sutton Coldfield? They sell bales of hay and Allen and Page rabbit pellets there, thats where i get my pellets from They also sell various types of hay, readigrass, toys, treats etc

Im sure when young buns are adopted from us, they get a voucher for neutering at our vets. Strange you have to neuter the bunny yourself.

I get the buns vaccinations done at Hillmans, they have several branches around Walsall/Cannock/Brownhills

To keep i would say relatively inexpensive once neutering is out of the way. I spend around £10 on hay, straw and sawdust (for litter tray) once a fortnight - the majority of this cost is on hay however as they eat a hell of a lot of it! I bought a 10kg of Wagg pellets for about £7 in October and still have around 1kg left (this fed one bunny for 6 months and then two for 3 months). Vaccinations pretty much standard as people have said, i think the max you are looking at for one bunny is £60 per annum.

However, if something was to go wrong with the bunny's health (which unfortunately is fairly common in rabbits ) it can cost an awful lot! Emergency vet fees, for example, are astoundingly high. I would suggest insurance or put some money aside each month for this. When Frankie hurt his leg (he cut it on one of his toys in the night) it cost me nearly £100 and all the vet did was clean him and give him a painkiller jab (which, had it been within surgery hours would have cost around £20)

Really don't want to put you off as they are VERY rewarding pets, why else would we all be here? But bear in mind unexpected vet costs can be pricey!!

Also, if you and your OH are both in full time work i would suggest a pair of buns as opposed to just the one, for company, as they are social animals. Maybe adopt a pair from a rescue? Fat Fluffs being the obvious choice for solihull, and as someone mentioned, they will already be neutered and up to date with their jabs.

Good luck, hope you get your bunny/ies

Oh and welcome :wave:

Where about in Brum are you? I, and other members too, will be able to point you in the right direction of a good rabbit savvy vet.

WOW so much info!

I do like fat fluffs and check their website, however I have fallen in love with a particular bun who was born from a litter of six!

I mis understood what they told me regarding vaccs. They vaccinate the buns before letting them adopted but they ask for a donation towards this which it totally understandable and brilliant because I dont have to worry until the next vaccs are needed!

I thought they were saying I needed to vaccinate the bun, but they meant they wont let a bun be adopted until it has been vaccinated first.

Okay so here is my summary

PLEASE EDIT THIS if you see an under estimate or anything missing. Also can someone help me fill in the gaps (??)


Pelleted food (a month) = £10 (argh I forgot what kg'age and I cant click back until I have posted this or I will lose it!)

Hay (per month) = £5-10 bail lasts up to 8 weeks

Nice expensive hay as treat (per month) – I know there are lots of varieties as I have been on a website... hayexperts maybe? = ??

Vegetables (per month) = I grow my own but they dont mature until sept!

Friut????? = is fuit part of a daily diet or just a treat? I grow strawberries!

Vaccs ( per year ) = £30-£80

Castration (one off fee) = £60-£90

Routine check ups (a year) =£20-30

Worming (a year) = £30

Thanks for all your replies!!! Brilliant one about hungry horse now I know where to get hay bails!

Bunnies!!

Victoria39 said:

Where about in Brum are you? I, and other members too, will be able to point you in the right direction of a good rabbit savvy vet.

Click to expand...

I am in Water Orton! I have looked on my account with the rabbit welfare and only one vet comes up in my search for my area post code B46

Name: Hollywood Vet Centre
Address: 72 Alcester Road
Hollywood
County: Birmingham
Postcode: B47 5NS
Tel: 0121 4745499

I've saved money on veg by growing my own so that only costs me the seed. Food varies in price but if you shop around you can usually get it cheaper. I find with my two a bag of Science Selective lasts over a month as they only get a small amount. Hay if you have a local horse feed supplier near you it can be cheaper.

My vets do a discount if you have myxi and VHD so it works out about £25.00 to £30.00 for the two jabs.

You don't necessarily need to give treats. Rabbits will like weeds i.e. plantain and dandelion and grass as a treat which are all free.

Megazorb is about £6.00 to £8.00 and it lasts me a couple of months with two rabbits.

hurricanhoney said:

I've saved money on veg by growing my own so that only costs me the seed. Food varies in price but if you shop around you can usually get it cheaper. I find with my two a bag of Science Selective lasts over a month as they only get a small amount. Hay if you have a local horse feed supplier near you it can be cheaper.

My vets do a discount if you have myxi and VHD so it works out about £25.00 to £30.00 for the two jabs.

You don't necessarily need to give treats. Rabbits will like weeds i.e. plantain and dandelion and grass as a treat which are all free.

Megazorb is about £6.00 to £8.00 and it lasts me a couple of months with two rabbits.

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Oh no! I totally forgot to add in litter in all my financing! £8 a month sounds reasonable so for two months its great!

How big (kg) is your rabbit feed science selective as I got given a free bag as a taster it is 1kg