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Bunnies on a budget

Rhianna

Wise Old Thumper
I'm sure this has probably been done before but I can't find the thread.

Without going into long and boring details I am really struggling financially at the moment due to a combination of factors, none of which I could have foreseen.

I have nine cats and eight (sadly:() bunnies and need to try and find a way to reduce my outgoings on them without compromising their care (if that is possible).

At the moment they have Science Selective pellets (which I have bought in bulk from The Range at £3.49 a bag), spring greens daily and carrot, apple, pear etc a couple of times a week. Sue also has wholemeal bread, oats and more or less anything high calorie, low calcium, to try and keep her weight up.

I have six outdoor buns who have litter trays but only Sue uses hers properly. Their hutch is lined with newspaper (Sue has carpet) and then I put shredded paper on top of that and then hay on top of that. Their litter trays have newspaper in and lots and lots of hay.

The indoor buns have wooden cat litter (which I also use for the cats' trays) and lots of hay.

Unless I could find a way of storing hay outside (with no shed) I have to buy it in bags which is expensive. I am also finding the cat litter very epensive as I get through so much of it.

I wondered what megazorb is and if that would be cheaper for the buns? Because five of the outdoor buns mess in their hutch as well as in their trays I have to clean them out a lot and some of the hay doesn't seem to be dirty at all.

There probably isn't any way I can reduce their outgoings, but I thought I would check.
 
for the cats you could try clumping litter. the initial cost might be a bit more but once the pan is filled you only need to scoop the balls of pee and the poop out daily. With nine cats I would imagine you'd need 2 large buckets a month (i'll ask my mom later how many lbs, but I'm thinking two 15 lb buckets :? ). I can't imagine using regular litter now (been using it about 6 years now) and i don't think anyone should use regular-for health and hygiene reasons for the cats. Except kittens/cats that try to eat the litter. you'd need to make sure the buns can't get to their pans.

other than that the only thing i can think of is getting bales of hay.
 
Megazorb is much cheaper and I actually prefer it, I tried using the wood pellet cat litter for a week more recently and Artie had wet sawdust on his botty, so the Megazorb is actually better, in my opinion. I store mine outside in a dustbin sized food storage container that I got from an equine supplier.

I remember LottieLouise doing a similar thread a year or two ago and there were some really good ideas on it.
 
I use newspaper and shredded paper (free from work) for the playhouses with just newspaper and hay in the litter boxes. I don't buy litter/megazorb at all. I also use a garden waste wheely bin to store my hay in... you could try finding a cheap plastic storage box that would be large enough for a bale to save costs.

Also my cats have the Catsan Clumping litter and agree it is good as you only scoop out the balls of wee and poop so the rest is left so lasts longer.
 
You could get some wooden crate slab thingys (forgotten their proper name!) to keep the hay off the ground and then cover it with tarpaulin?
 
Hm, actually I think it'd be about 35-40 lbs a month for 9 cats. So... around $15, I think, for my area. It would be more at first, assuming you'd have to fill a few pans halfway, but after that you'd really see the cost difference!
 
Like fluffiebunnie I don't use litter at all. Spenser just has newspaper (quite a few layers) and hay/straw in his litter basin. It seems to suit him fine. :wave:
 
I have found that scouring the spuermarkets at reduction time means you can get a variety of different things for really cheap. Their diet would likely vary more with fresh, but it would cut down the cost a lot. We got some great parsley plants for 10p and all they needed was some water and they were good to go. Stuff like that.
 
I have found that scouring the spuermarkets at reduction time means you can get a variety of different things for really cheap. Their diet would likely vary more with fresh, but it would cut down the cost a lot. We got some great parsley plants for 10p and all they needed was some water and they were good to go. Stuff like that.

Definately this. I get all the bunnies herbs like this from our local asda store. We pick up big bunches of coriander/parsley and the occasional plant, the 'packets' we can get vary between 5 and 25p and the plants ~20-50p :wave:

Hope all of this is helping Rhianna
 
You could get a bale of hay from a farm shop and bag it up yourself for storage.

Lay a tarp down in your garden (on a non rainy day!) and put the hay on top (this way you won't get it all over your house) and put it into bin bags to be stored inside. This is so much cheaper than buying it in bags!

As others said I never used litter in their trays, just lots of hay.

If even one bale of hay is too much at a time to store, maybe there is someone near by who'd be keen to split a bale with you?

Have you got a market you can buy veg at? The bunns won't mind if they have apples that are a bit bruised or wilting greens- it will still taste good.
 
I've just found out about a pet 'cash and carry' in my area, which are supposed to be very cheap for cat/dog food and supplies. Find out if you have something similar in your area.
 
Grow your own herbs, go scouring the woods and your garden for lovely crunchy treats to dry in the oven for your own version of forage.....

Someone else mentioned hay in bags from a bale.......invest in a black bin perhaps too to keep the opened bags dry.
 
Some good ideas here. Thank you all lots.

I definitely think I need to start buying hay by the bale as I get through so much of it. I don't buy herbs very often as the ones I see are so expensive but I haven't tried supermarkets at reduction time. Most of my local ones are open 24 hours so I am not sure when they would be doing their reductions?

I know it would be cheaper if I bought larger bags of cat litter but I have arthritis in my neck and shoulders and can't carry anything too heavy so end up buying a number of small bags Last time I got a big bag I dropped it and it split and went everywhere so it didn't work out very economical at all:(. Buying on-line would help but I don't know if they would actually carry the heavy stuff into the kitchen for me or just hand it over on the doorstep?

Last summer I did go foraging and the buns loved it but I can't find anything they can eat at this time of year. Even the grass is all yucky.

I need to see what the local fruit and veg shops can do to help. They must throw lots of stuff away that doesn't look good, but that would taste fine. Friends are starting to give me their unused veg:) which they were just throwing away before. If I would eat it, then I give it to the buns:)

I do intend to start growing some stuff for the buns this year. Last year I tried strawberries and tomatoes but it wasn't very successful, although the buns loved the strawberry leaves.

Keep the ideas coming :) I am sure I'm not the only one struggling at the moment with the recession.
 
Keep the small bags, or get boxes, then transfer the large bags of litter into the small ones/ boxes.
 
I'm sure this has probably been done before but I can't find the thread.

Without going into long and boring details I am really struggling financially at the moment due to a combination of factors, none of which I could have foreseen.

I have nine cats and eight (sadly:() bunnies and need to try and find a way to reduce my outgoings on them without compromising their care (if that is possible).

At the moment they have Science Selective pellets (which I have bought in bulk from The Range at £3.49 a bag), spring greens daily and carrot, apple, pear etc a couple of times a week. Sue also has wholemeal bread, oats and more or less anything high calorie, low calcium, to try and keep her weight up.

I have six outdoor buns who have litter trays but only Sue uses hers properly. Their hutch is lined with newspaper (Sue has carpet) and then I put shredded paper on top of that and then hay on top of that. Their litter trays have newspaper in and lots and lots of hay.

The indoor buns have wooden cat litter (which I also use for the cats' trays) and lots of hay.

Unless I could find a way of storing hay outside (with no shed) I have to buy it in bags which is expensive. I am also finding the cat litter very epensive as I get through so much of it.

I wondered what megazorb is and if that would be cheaper for the buns? Because five of the outdoor buns mess in their hutch as well as in their trays I have to clean them out a lot and some of the hay doesn't seem to be dirty at all.

There probably isn't any way I can reduce their outgoings, but I thought I would check.

We store our birdseed in a black plastic dustbin. It has a really tight lid and so far we haven't had any problem with mice getting in or the seed getting wet. Could you do this with hay? It would mean you could buy it in bulk rather than in small bags. That would save money. I get my hay from an equine supplier and pay £6 for a block which is 2' x 3' x 2' . So much more than P@H hay and much nicer.
 
Reuse herb plants by keeping them on a windowsill and watering them. They will regrow. :thumb:
 
make friends with your local green groccers-Im friends with two and they both save the outer leaves of green veggies/wilted veggies for me to use with Fudge. One is an organic shop and they very much believe they would sooner "bun it then bin it!" Fudge has had some really lovely tastie things from this! And I am not too proud to admitt that sometimes he gets given veggies that he can't eat but I've turned them into something lovely...double bonus!Also scour the supermarkets even the 24hour ones reduce things that need to be sold before their sell by dates!
I've even had neighbours de-weed their yards and give me bags of dandilion leaves that I've washed and fed bunny!

Link up with neighbours who may have spare newspapers going/shredded paper and if you can switch to that rather than litter-Fudge normally has wood based chat litter and have bought in bulk huge bags on 2 for £10 or such like thankfully I have a dad who is helpful but ring and speak to their delivery team I bet they would help.Again look for offers on the website for similar with clumping cat litter-is there anyone you could borrow once a month to help top up bins?

Save your boxes/tubes as cheap toys for the buns to play in.

Have a rummage around on freecycle/freegle as there are bound to be people with storage containers/herbs for good homes.....

hope that helps x
 
wow those bins are great..thanks for the link!:wave:

karen hun this is the only farm i can think of cos its where touie got a sack of allen and page pellets from for me sometime back a year or so.

i dont know about hay..like i said....i have to get dust free one for bertie with his sensitive..nose..and mine!!

heres hazelton farm details

http://www.hazletonhorsefeeds.co.uk/

this any use?

http://www.hoofandhound.co.uk/hoof_and_hound_pet_supplies/cat_151857-Rabbit-Bedding.html

i hurt my back in xmas 2005 and it goes whenever i try and pick up anything heavy....and i struggle with wood cat littler pellets..im lucky i have bio catolet due to the dust prob with bertie and its better at absorbing wee from the cats.....

but for you hun..id recommend the megazorb for the kittys and
the buns....and mix some straw and megazorb for the buns who odnt use litter trays!

this easier than carpet tiles....always nose aorund poundland etc in case!

http://www.wilkinsonplus.com/Vinyl-...D5ckTwx4gGk9NGxRQ2HoBcTxJmxJa8Ar IS49VztZhg==
 
I think if you can work out somewhere to store a bale of hay, that would definitely be your biggest saving. I pay £5 for a bale which lasts around a month for 2 buns (and I'm usually over-generous with it).

As for getting things delivered, most of the couriers I've had dropping stuff off have always been more than willing to put things in another room for me if I've asked very nicely. :)
 
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