Diet is getting expensive!

[TaylorB]

Hello everyone!

This is my first post here.

I have three bunnies, all young.

5 month old flemish boy

8 month old dutch boy

5 month old big girl (we don’t know her breed)

Anyway, feeding them greens is getting expensive! It’s about $30-40 a week for the produce.

They get a good amount of:

Romaine

Green lettuce

Red Lettuce

Bok Choy & Baby bok choy

Cilantro 

Parsley (except for the flemish)

The occasional carrot top.

Is anyone else spending this much on greens?

They eat their Oat and Timothy hay as well as an unlimited supply of high quality timothy pellets.

None of them are overweight, and I don’t think I’m overfeeding, I just wanted to see if there were some less expensive alternatives.

Thanks!  

[SeaTurtleSwims]

I don’t have big buns, but I pick one vegetable and one herb/sweet food item per week and mix it up week by week. That might help you save. His usual is kale and cilantro, but one week it might be collard greens and rosemary or chard and carrots. So a whole head of kale will last my bun about a week because he only gets 1-2 big ole kale leaves a day, with some cilantro. If you cut back to one main leafy green per week, but mix up the leafy varieties week by week, that could help you save. I spend about $2/week on bunny greens this way, but maybe triple or more that for three large buns haha. That might be why a lot of people on here grow their own bunny greens. If you can’t plant a garden because you’re in an apartment, try potted window herbs. I recently potted a mint plant that my cats and bunny enjoy and also me for mint juleps haha!

Where do you get your hay? You can save a bundle if you find a local farmer (ask around at Tractor Supply or search craigslist) that sells hay. You can get a whole square bale of rabbit quality timothy/alfalfa/clover mix for around $7 and have it last you the whole year.

[Sparkles]

How much vegetables are you giving per day per rabbit? I give my rabbit 4 cups/day, and only spend $6-8 a week on her. I always have kale and red or green leaf lettuce, and then rotate between bok choy and parsley or chard and cilantro.

Maybe try looking at other stores for prices? Even feeding three rabbits four cups a day, I’d still be spending less than $30 a week with the prices I’m paying.

[Azerane]

$30-$40 a week on greens is huge. They must be expensive. Even when I was buying one cos lettuce, bok choy, endive and fennel for a week it was only about $8. I would simply cut down on the amount of greens you’re feeding, a couple of leaves every day is plenty if you’re struggling with the cost. And as suggested you could just get two types for the week, not all, and then just rotate the varieties week to week.

[Gina.Jenny]

I am currently spending around £8 a week on 6 smallish buns and two guinea pigs, who actually need more veg than the bunnies

I go to a local market 3 times a week and buy whole heads of local grown kale, complete sprout ‘trees’ etc. Buns can eat the stalk of these sprout trees, they love to chew away for ages, like a dog with a bone! I always ask for any spare ‘outside leaves’ that get trimmed off for customers from the cauliflowers, cabbages etc, and they kindly fill my bags up with these. I sometimes get lucky with some carrot tops too. I do grow some in the back garden, in grow bags, but I can’t grown enough for 8 hungry mouths!

Come the spring, everybun goes outside in safe runs and eat grass, dandelions and clover, which brings my veg costs right down. I also forage for dandelions on the local field. Excess dandelions get dried out and will be fed over the Christmas holiday season, when the market will be overwhelmed with Christmas food shoppers!

[sarahthegemini]

That does sound very expensive! My buns have only just started eating vegetables (they’ve tried romaine lettuce so far) but when I went round the supermarket I calculated how much everything would cost based on them having several different veggies per week and I think it came to around £10 per week at the most.

[LittlePuffyTail]

I can relate, not so much on the veg but the hay is costing me a fortune. My buns will only eat Oxbow and I spend about $40 every two weeks.

Veggies I would say never run me more than $20 a week. In the winter, it’s usually more expensive. I’ve never actually calculated my veg costs. I probably don’t really wanna know

I have a 5lb boy and a 10lb boy

[RabbitPam]

Hi,
It may be that you are giving them a bit too much.
First, give Unlimited Hay, not their pellets. The healthiest order of food is hay, then greens, then pellets. Naturally bunnies have sweet tooths, so they like to eat all that in reverse order, but when they finish pellets and greens they only have hay left and that’s better for them. I like the mini bales f hay from the bb store for hay that lasts months for my one bunny, and hay types can be mixed from different bags if one of them gets fussy.
Pellets, only one quarter cup a day per bunny. Pellets make them fat.
A small handful of greens per bunny, the 4 oz. is a good measurement. I give that once in am and pm. I use a staple green, romaine, kale, or green leaf, then add the others like mint as a garnish. Dandelion greens and carrot tops are good staples too. Itwill cost less if you can get big heads of the staples and onle add smaller sprigs of the herbs for variety and flavor. Try not to let one bunny gobble up the others’ tasty portions.
Bunnies graze, so they are fed throughout the day, even if it’s just the hay left. That is good for their digestion health. Don’t forget to always have plenty of clean, fresh water!
Hope this helps.

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