Just ordered ...Working out my animal care costs..

I was wondering how much i do actually spend after a thread on this recently. Also if anyone can help me in reducing costs- any ideas would be appreciated.

Todays order is..
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ECOBED CARDBOARD BEDDING (20 KG) ( lasts a month in my imagination , but in actuality about 2 weeks)
Quantity: 1
Price (inc VAT): £6.20

PRO PLAN CAT ADULT HOUSE CAT 3KG ( lasts about a month)
Quantity: 1
Price (inc VAT): £15.29

10kg SMARTBEDZ UNIVERSAL BEDDING AND LITTER (8MM) ( trying this - i do get wood cat litter, but this was on offer.
Quantity: 2
Price (inc VAT): £11.98

ALLEN & PAGE NATURAL RABBIT PELLETS 20KG ( Just trying this this month to add to ss to see what it's like)
Quantity: 1
Price (inc VAT): £8.25

Shipping: Standard UK delivery £21.00

Grand Total £74.70
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Products ordered
SKUProductTax Item PriceQuantityTotal
p13887Supreme Science Selective Rabbit 3kg £4.68 5£23.40
Subtotal:£23.40
Shipping cost:£3.99

Total:£27.39 trying to make this last a month
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Also bought £48.68 worth of puppy food from pets at home- lasts about a month

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Hay costs me £6 a bale inc delivery and i get through about 2 bales a week -£48.00 month
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Megazorb- about 3 bags a week ( 12 total for the month) - around £7.00 -£84.00 total- get this from the local equestrian shop so no delivery)

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Veggies-
76p for savoy cabbages( approx weight 500grams) each =£22-£45.60 month
£1.50 for 300grams coriander - I buy this 1or 2 x weekly (£12.00 month)
£1.50 for 200 grams parsley- I buy this 1 or 2 x weekly ( £12.00 a month)
80p for cucumber each - I buy two a week, not much at all( £6.40 month)
76p for 2kg carrots - I buy around 3 bags weekly (£9.12 month)
97p for 335g broccoli I buy only 1 per week (£3.88 month)
I do use cauliflower leaves out of my own shopping and also i did get them at the market, but don't bother any more as i don't drive and town is alot further where i am now.
I don't give the buns much veggies anymore- i used to feed loads, but now the majority diet is hay. A couple of handfuls of science selective and i chop up a cabbage which is 500grams, sometimes two, then i add corriander and parsley and a few carrots, abit of brocoli (not much at all) and then toss it together with the science selective pellets and serve. I used to measure on scales the veg, but now i just make sure they get a good portion each daily.

I spend about £89.00 a month on veg- not much as i thought. I occasionally buy extra things though if i run out- so can come up to about £100.00 - I go easy on the veggies as i feed a reasonable amount of pellets also.

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65p per paper -Daily express- newspaper for indoor buns- don't use this outside anymore just megazorb instead. Newspaper is for cage bases - although I'm finding it abit useless absorbency wise compared to other beddings. (£18.20 a month) I use one or sometimes two newspapers for the indoor bases daily.

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Any thoughts on what i can do to reduce my current bill which is around £387.97 Min for basics .
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Then vet bills on top which are recently - an 8 day time frame bill of £197.06. Another two day period of £147.41 - another bill of £86.78 for a time period of 6 days. Two days £63.80 bill- 2 days- £118.65 bill- 3 days- £185.00 bill- ( Total of £798.70- unless i've missed some invoices out as these appear to be lacking. It's about £300.00 (ish)a month or there abouts for routine treatments i need for dentals etc.

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Total monthly costs- £687.97 month min

Good grief- i've never taken the time to add up how much the animals are costing. I could buy myself a horse and be a lady of leisure or a foreign holiday every month with that. Oh well, back to bunny cleaning duties

Gosh - that's a lot of outgoings!

I save by looking for veg on discount at the supermarkets/veg shops - i do note that veg shop veggies dont last as long. And if i buy reduced priced, i make sure it's fresh enough - if i'd eat it then it's good enough for my buns. Other than that, icheck what's on offer.

I dont buy megazorb - i've never used it - i never knew about it tbh and decided that what we use works well for us so there's no need to change. We use newspapers and hay and it's fine. They get changed daily. Sometimes i can leave it overnight but now the warmer weather is coming, i wont be able to do that. I get friends and family to save newspapers and i never ever buy them.

I will be switching to baled hay and i buy food in bulk.

Costs that cant be clamped down on are vaccinations and vet checks. :lol:

With the bedding materials we only managed to get decent reductions because we take large deliveries e.g 20 bales hay/ 20 Eazibed/10 A&P etc, and I spoke to three or four suppliers to negotiate the best prices.

With the veggies I get a bulk order on a friday via my local grocer, and he picks up either Grade 2 veg for me, or gets me whats on offer e.g. box of savoy (approx 7) £3, sack horse carrots £2, sack parsnips £4, box celery (17-20 heads) £4, box apples £6, cucumbers 39p - its a constant negotiation process though.

If you are planning to take in other species you'll find your bills will get an awful lo more! Why don't you buy 4 ft round bales of hay, they are £20 a bale up here and that is horse quality, as long as you get a good supplier and by horse quality it is fine for rabbits and guinea pigs.

What do you use the Ecobed for?

If you've put lino in the hutches and they have litter trays, i wouldn't bother with Ecobed, unless you have a specific reason for using it.

There we go, that's £6.20 off your bill -that'll make all the difference :lol:

Lino hutches and only use litter in the litter trays or for rexs.

Go with a cheaper pellet, the most important part of their diet is hay so no real need to worry about the fibre content in pellets. Also buy in bigger bags as it usually works out cheaper per kg.


With everything, buy in bulk. Ask if you can have a better price on hay if you buy more bales at a time, etc.

Whatever you're buying, make it known you're a rescue and ask if you can qualify for any discounts if you recommend them to people adopting your rabbits, hand out their cards, etc.


Where do you get your veggies? If you don't already get them at your local grocer I suggest you ask what price they could give you on large orders and if they could save you carrot tops, loose cabbage leaves etc.
Also approach people with allotments, ask if they could leave you the bits they don't need (again; carrot tops, leaves, weeds, etc) and offer them poop for their compost.


for newspapers, contact local papers directly and ask what they do with the unsold papers that are returned to them. You could also contact local hotels and b&bs and ask if you could have the guest's newspapers once they are done.

Contact your local RSPCA to ask if you could use their vet or if they know a vet which may do discounts. Phone round all the vets to ask if they will give you a discount as a rescue and if you recommend them to everyone who adopts from you.

Even small savings will mount up over the course of the year.

I haven't read through the entire first post, but that seems reasonable to me. Our vet bills alone can be over £1000 each month, plus there is the basics on top of that.

How many rabbits is that for?

Grow your own herbs. If you haven't got much room, these can be easily grown in pot or in window boxes.
Or just go foraging and give dandelion leaves, blackberry leaves etc etc

halfpenny said:

If you are planning to take in other species you'll find your bills will get an awful lo more! Why don't you buy 4 ft round bales of hay, they are £20 a bale up here and that is horse quality, as long as you get a good supplier and by horse quality it is fine for rabbits and guinea pigs.

Click to expand...

Wow that's a bargain! We pay £40 a bale now and its costing us a fortune as my TB has to have one in the field 24/7 to keep his weight up. Hay prices have nearly doubled since the start of the winter. :shock:

you need to shop around to find cheaper suppliers
Try VetUK for feed/syringes etc..if you order over £39 incl Food stuffs del is free and you can opt in to their points scheme so you get money off now and then.
Try looking at Wagg optimum pellets..good quality at good price..the A & P natural pellets are also good but you may want to add to them for older/health compromised buns as some do lose weight on them..the A & P breeder Grower pellets can be used to add to the content and they are a good price too

What were the vets bills for?..;again ask your vet for discount

once you are up and running you will find people are happy to help giving you newspapers/their shredded paper which help with cleaning out

Re. bedding and food: Try to find a local feed store and go yourself...shipping on bulky items bought over the internet can be astronomical.

Veg: Buy only cheap veg...that means no expensive herbs and expensive veg like broccoli. I buy only cabbage/spring greens (approx. 80p each), lettuce (approx. 60p each), celery (approx. 80p each), carrots (approx. 50p for 1.5kg) and apples (approx. 90p for 1kg). Seei9ng as you live in the countryside, you could save yourself a lot of money by picking weeds instead of buying veg.

Vets: I'm afraid I don't have an answer to this! My vets are pretty competitively priced, but I still manage to spend £300-400 per month at least on vets bills....For instance the current vet bill for our newest arrival, Herman, is £150 (GA and sample of a growth sent off for lab tests), with the prospect of another £70 next week for x-rays, plus £17 per week for antibiotics.

How many rabbits have you taken in since you've been officially a rescue BTW? :wave:

Weren't you thinking about buying a horse. Personally, I would shelve that idea for a while if you're trying to reduce cost of keeping animals. Up to you, of course, but doesn't seem logical to add to your upkeep/vet costs when you are trying to reduce them.

And for how many buns is this? :shock::shock::shock:

I spend about €60,- (£52,-) on my three every month.. That does not include vetbills though.

I'd advise you to order your food from the UK cause that saved me a lot but I guess you already do! :lol: (For example Science Selective, I paid €6,- (£5,2) a kg.. That's £2,26 in the UK, if I order for a whole year it's still 50% cheaper.... :roll

ETA: Ohhh wait it's for all your animals.. Still an awful lot :shock:

Ooh blimey..... I'm now feeling the need to work out the general monthly costs of my animals...

Dog
Food = £12.75 for Autarky 15kg (Buy it by the sack from Costco )
Biscuits = £2.99 a bag from P@H - he has a few every night at bedtime :roll:

Cats
Food = £33.78 for Royal Canin Sensible 33 10kg (Buy it at breeder price through the cats breeder) - Sack normally lasts 2 months though so £16.89 per month
Litter = £25.00 per 40litre sack of Oko Plus from Zooplus

Bunnies
I calculated it the other day on a previous thread so I will have to locate it....:roll:
It includes a bag od Megazorb, a bale of hay, a 1.5kg bag of SS pellets & copious quantities of veg & herbs though.

Daughters Pony
I'm not even going there otherwise I will have a coronary.. BUT it includes livery, weekly lessons, shoeing, insurance, feed, hay, bedding, rugs etc,etc,etc....

To bring this back into context, it's safe to say that horses really should just receive my wages in full. The rest of the animals live off my overdraft & us humans just have the dregs :roll:

BUT I wouldn't be without any of them

Well I wouldn't pay for newspapers for a start! We only have a Sunday paper so I have our lovely neighbours and a friend, whose husbands a newspaper editor so they have at least 2 a day, save theirs for me.

I would avoid paying any delivery charges - surely theirs somewhere you can collect your own hay, I know it's messy but you can wrap it in plastic sheet or use an old duvet cover.

Forage for some wild stuff rather than buy so much veg and grow your own herbs.

For newspaper you could try asking a local care home etc if they would save newspapers for you- it reduces their costs as they pay quite a lot to get rid of waste. If you have a good local pet food supplier it might be worth asking if they can order in what you use and get it all from one place, any excess cost is likely to be absorbed by what you save off delivery, OR try and source everything from one website to reduce delivery costs.
If you have room to store it, buy in bulk. to reduce the initial outlay you could try upsizing the food bags one at a time for each order, a 20kg bag of cat food and puppy food. You can probably find good quality cheaper food.

Ambience said:

Todays order is..
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

ECOBED CARDBOARD BEDDING (20 KG) ( lasts a month in my imagination , but in actuality about 2 weeks)
Quantity: 1
Price (inc VAT): £6.20

PRO PLAN CAT ADULT HOUSE CAT 3KG ( lasts about a month)
Quantity: 1
Price (inc VAT): £15.29

10kg SMARTBEDZ UNIVERSAL BEDDING AND LITTER (8MM) ( trying this - i do get wood cat litter, but this was on offer.
Quantity: 2
Price (inc VAT): £11.98

ALLEN & PAGE NATURAL RABBIT PELLETS 20KG ( Just trying this this month to add to ss to see what it's like)
Quantity: 1
Price (inc VAT): £8.25

Shipping: Standard UK delivery £21.00

Grand Total £74.70
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Products ordered
SKUProductTax Item PriceQuantityTotal
p13887Supreme Science Selective Rabbit 3kg £4.68 5£23.40
Subtotal:£23.40
Shipping cost:£3.99

Total:£27.39 trying to make this last a month
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Megazorb- about 3 bags a week ( 12 total for the month) - around £7.00 -£84.00 total- get this from the local equestrian shop so no delivery)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Veggies-
76p for savoy cabbages( approx weight 500grams) each =£22-£45.60 month
£1.50 for 300grams coriander - I buy this 1or 2 x weekly (£12.00 month)
£1.50 for 200 grams parsley- I buy this 1 or 2 x weekly ( £12.00 a month)
80p for cucumber each - I buy two a week, not much at all( £6.40 month)
76p for 2kg carrots - I buy around 3 bags weekly (£9.12 month)
97p for 335g broccoli I buy only 1 per week (£3.88 month)
I do use cauliflower leaves out of my own shopping and also i did get them at the market, but don't bother any more as i don't drive and town is alot further where i am now.
I don't give the buns much veggies anymore- i used to feed loads, but now the majority diet is hay. A couple of handfuls of science selective and i chop up a cabbage which is 500grams, sometimes two, then i add corriander and parsley and a few carrots, abit of brocoli (not much at all) and then toss it together with the science selective pellets and serve. I used to measure on scales the veg, but now i just make sure they get a good portion each daily.

I spend about £89.00 a month on veg- not much as i thought. I occasionally buy extra things though if i run out- so can come up to about £100.00 - I go easy on the veggies as i feed a reasonable amount of pellets also.

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65p per paper -Daily express- newspaper for indoor buns- don't use this outside anymore just megazorb instead. Newspaper is for cage bases - although I'm finding it abit useless absorbency wise compared to other beddings. (£18.20 a month) I use one or sometimes two newspapers for the indoor bases daily.

Click to expand...

For a start, I'd drop one of the litters use you, personally I'd not use the Ecopet. Some places I've seen do a pallet load of megazorb which would work out better. You'd also be better off buying a 10kg sack of science selective instead of the little 3kg bags

Neighbours and friends/family maybe even ask of freecycle for newspapers, don't buy them

The local market is often good for veg and stuff, you can grow your herbs which will also save you money

Try getting things for free. Befriend your LOCAL shops. I rarely shop in supermarkets as they are so impersonal not to mention all the other things wrong with them. Getting to know your local greengrocer and newsagent and in our case brewery and cafe has given us an amazing resource of free food that would go to waste.

We also get pet foods from wholesalers admittedly this is because we are a registered charity. We also buy things in bulk which saves a lot.

The delivery of £21 for feed stuff is obscene. We get stuff delivered for free (minimum of 7 bags of feed or bedding). Is there a local equestrian place that could order stuff in for pick up or delivery? We order A&P for all our animals and our local supplier just delivers it. Think what £21 could bloomin pay for! (couple of myxi vaccs).

Don't chuck tomorrows Daily Express as we are in it!:lol::lol: (re. 'micro pigs').

Brinsley Bunnies said:

Try getting things for free. Befriend your LOCAL shops. I rarely shop in supermarkets as they are so impersonal not to mention all the other things wrong with them. Getting to know your local greengrocer and newsagent and in our case brewery and cafe has given us an amazing resource of free food that would go to waste.

We also get pet foods from wholesalers admittedly this is because we are a registered charity. We also buy things in bulk which saves a lot.

The delivery of £21 for feed stuff is obscene. We get stuff delivered for free (minimum of 7 bags of feed or bedding). Is there a local equestrian place that could order stuff in for pick up or delivery? We order A&P for all our animals and our local supplier just delivers it. Think what £21 could bloomin pay for! (couple of myxi vaccs).

Don't chuck tomorrows Daily Express as we are in it!:lol::lol: (re. 'micro pigs').

Click to expand...

Oh, I'll get it tomorrow then.
Are you having lots of problems with mirco pigs needing homes, I see someone is breeding them up here now!:roll:

halfpenny said:

Oh, I'll get it tomorrow then.
Are you having lots of problems with mirco pigs needing homes, I see someone is breeding them up here now!:roll:

Click to expand...

Ha ha ha. Going off thread now but yes!!! Got shouted at last week by an owner who HAD to give up his MICRO PIGS because they had trashed his garden. Felt really rotten but shouted back. The piece the paper are doing is a bit of an expose as for the original breeder it has all gone very wrong. Sadly people will still buy them and sadly people will realise the reality far too late.:evil::evil: