How much a month?

[animalpro24]

How much does it cost you to keep 2 rabbits (or more) a month. Money wise. And where did you get your hutches or pens?

 

[chicken farmer 1997]

it dont even cost me $20.00 to feed my rabbits for a month. i have 6. i bought my hutches from the breeder that i got my rabbits from. i will have a litter born in 10 days and will be weaned december 3rd.

 

[animalpro24]

Any body else?

 

[mom2jedi]

Well, I don't have breeding meat stock yet, just two pets. I get a 50# bag at the feed store for $15 or so and it lasts a good two months easily. I also supplement their pellets with timothy hay which I buy a flake at a time for $5 (if I had somewhere to store a bale I'd do that since it's so much cheaper) and that lasts a month or so. So between $10 & $15 a month for two rabbits. Mine are both rescued off craigslist and came with pitifully small cages which they had to make do with for a bit while DH built an outdoor hutch for them. Hutch was probably around $75 to make and most of the cost was for the hardware cloth.

You can certainly purchase cages or hutches at pet or feed stores but they are usually overpriced and too small. Craigslist is a good place to find cages if you don't mind them being used. If you're handy, building your own hutch is way less expensive. If they are going to be indoor buns, C&C cages work well with a little adaptation (they started out for Guinea Pigs). I can give you a link for the cages if you'd like.

 

[EmAbTo48]

We have 3 rabbits, the cost of keep up monthly:

Rabbit feed 50lb bag: $15

Hay: $2.50 a bale I usually buy like 10 at a time they last me forever!

I give carrots, grass, annd other stuff I have on hand for treats!

Cage: We built ours for 50 bucks! I saw one I liked for 150, at farm and fleet..if you can build your own I would!

You will need water bottle, if outside they have heated ones for winter, and feeder bowl.

Really it cost nothing after the inital cost of cage/water/food bowls.

They just need love and attention

!

 

[punk-a-doodle]

What breeds? Size will factor in quite a bit. A dwarf rabbit, even an English angora (about 6 pounds) really don't eat much. Once you start getting into ten pounds and over (ie. flemish giants weighing in at over 22 pounds), theeen it starts getting a bit pricier. But, there are ways to save. Also depends if you plan of free feeding pellets (I don't recommend it, a lot of pet rabbits I see are overweight, and I recently lost a sweet mini-lop who was freakishly obese when adopted to a stroke...fat bunnies=bad news), limited pellets with free access to timothy hay, higher or lower quality of hay, hay and assorted veggies, etc.

Cage wise, depends if it is inside or outside, and again on the size of the rabbit (and therefore the size of the hutch). Inside cages can be made especially on the cheap, as you do not need to worry about weather/predator protection (and you can litter box train rabbits...though males tend to still poop some outside their box). If using sand or dirt in litter boxes, you are fine on cost. If using something like condensed pine pellets (lack the harmful oils wood shavings have due to processing), or newspaper pellets....a large rabbit goes through a LOT of litter. A smaller one not nearly as much.

With most things, you can get the rabbit, cage, and sometimes food for free, or they can be more pricey especially with hidden costs (vet care especially).

We feed Oxbough hay and cheap compacted huge farm store bales for our timothy hay and orchard grass. We have to mix cheap hay in, because Oxbough hay is what drug dealers would sell rabbits. They will gourge themselves on it...and never...stop...eating. It smells like fresh tea leaves.

If you bought cheaper hay in bags from pet stores, two ten pound rabbits eat through a 12 dollar bag once a week. If you buy online, you can get 50 pounds of the good stuff for 50 dollars...and I imagine it'll last a while. It just arrived today. I think our mail delivery people probably hate us very much. The box is huge.


As one more side note, I would recommend a buck for a pet, as they tend to be tamer. Even very friendly does can be quite testy, even when spayed. Many spay/neuter clinics (where they only spay and neuter, no other vet care offered) tend to be a much cheaper way to get a rabbit spayed or neutered if desired. Only some are experienced with rabbits. Some ways to tell is if they offer rabbit-friendly pain medication after surgeries. If they don't, I wouldn't go. Then, you typically pay 30-60 dollars totaly, meds included, without the typical 60 dollar 'exam fee' at a regular vet clinic. Adopting from a shelter is usually an even cheaper way (in our area, usually it is 30 bucks for a rabbit).

 

[debilorrah]

I raise french angoras and we spend $15 on a 50 lbs bag of pellets and about $20 on timothy hay cubes every 6 weeks or so. I have 8, and they weight between 7-10 lbs.

 

[animalpro24]

Thanks guys!! I'm just wanting to know cause I would love a rabbit or two someday. I most likely won't be getting one soon though....

 

[shelleyd2008]

I have 5 'big' rabbits (all are at minimum 7 pounds). I feed about 50 pounds in 2-3 weeks and it's less than $11 for 50# of feed.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
Why don't you just get a bale of timothy hay? I'm sure that would be much cheaper. Heck, even the timothy hay they sell at the pet stores (not the cubes) would be cheaper than those.