Most expensive household pet is a rabbit??

[Cammie]

I was looking through my USAA magazine today, and they had a sidebar article on the average cost to feed and maintain a household pet per year. The info was from the ASPCA.

Fish- $35
Small bird- $200
Small mammal- $300
Small dog- $355
Medium Dog- $470
Cat- $495
Guinea Pig- $635
Large Dog- $650
Rabbit- $730

What in the world is so expensive about rabbits and guinea pigs? :eek:

Can bedding and alfalfa cubes really cost that much? Yeesh. I know some rabbits can be quite large, but guinea pigs are small. That’s an insane amount of money!

[jadewolf]

LOL. $35 for a fish?

They must not have ever heard of the money sucking black hole that is reef aquariums. :lol: :lol: :lol:

Yeah, I’d say their numbers are skewed.

[S1969]

Feed and maintain? My bill for my dog’s annual shots & checkup is around $300. Doesn’t give me much leftover for food!

WTF about the rabbit? I think the writer is playing a joke! :lol:

[Couture_TB]

Hmmm I would guess for my rabbit it wouldn’t even be that high. And he lives in his bunny mansion in what other people would have used as a dining room, but we call the bunny room that is inbetween the living room and kitchen. And that is one spoiled bunny with treats, lots of food, etc! Though his hay does come from the stable, and the hay at the petstore is insane expensive, so maybe non horse bunny owners pay that much?

[chism]

That figure probably includes the furniture they’ve chewed up.
I had a pet rabbit when I was a kid, she was housebroken, trained to use the litter box we let her hop around the house, but then she chewed all my mothers nice wood furniture…it did not go over well.

[Roxyllsk]

Chewed up furniture and electric cords LOL.

My bunny eats a lot of fresh veggies, but I get them at the produce outlet and buy whatever greens are in season.

Maybe they are thinking of a ‘harmless little bunny’ Monty Python style, that has a taste for flesh ??? Maybe their bun ATE the fish, the bird, the dog …

[allikat819]

I’ve noticed that both the hay and shavings used for bedding cost an INSANE amount at the petmstores. I think Couture TB is right, they must be non-horse people rabbit owners!

[StGermain]

I’d guess that rabbits would be considered exotics and the vet would would be correspondingly expensive.

StG

[Milocalwinnings]

I don’t think the numbers are accurate.

With that being said, hay and bedding from places like Petsmart is insanely expensive. The amount of money I would spend for 2 small bags of hay was more expensive than what we paid for a bale of it. Rabbits/GP’s/Chinchillas should have free choice hay. They also need a lot of fresh veggies which do add up too. But I can’t imagine it costing more in upkeep for them than it does for my dogs!

[paulaedwina]

How about large bird? I’m going to say that’s an expense. Notwithstanding the cage there’s the expensive pellets, and the fresh fruit and vegetable that you make up every day so they can eat half and pitch the rest around.

Paula

[crosscreeksh]

And THIS, too…DD bought a Flemish Giant for DGD for Christmas. Rabbit = $80 - 5 hours away. Okay, but then rabbit needed to be altered = $190.00!!! I don’t spend THAT much to geld a 17 hand horse!! Told my “horse” vet she should look into it!!

[Whistler]

Could be true…just last night I got karate kicked in the face by my lovely bun which could have resulted in a nasty doctor bill had I not shut my eye in time!! Note to self: do not hold bunny like a newborn baby and tell them how cute they are…those back legs pack a punch!

[EKLay]

I’ve got two house rabbits (about 7-8lbs each) who cost a combined total of $200/year. This includes papaya tablets, other treats, fresh veggies, food pellets, the best hay my feed store carries, Yesterdays News for the litterbox & annual vet visit. Definitely not anywhere close to $730!

The vet visit is $50 more expensive (each) if they need to be sedated and have their teeth floated (forget the rabbit term) but I’ve only had to do their teeth once in the entire 4 years I’ve had them.

I did adopt them from the local House Rabbit Society, so they came fixed, but I know the place we got them from offers assistance with the cost of spay/neuter if you need it. Might be something to look into if the cost of spay/neuter is prohibitive in any particular area?

My dog is more expensive than the rabbits (she’s about $500/year with food, toys, treats and vet) and my 2 cats are currently my most expensive pets, mainly because wet food is expensive!

[ReSomething]

Well, the fancy bagged timothy they sell for rabbits is insanely high priced, I think you could buy one or two nice horse bales and keep it in the garage for that. They seem pretty cheap to keep to me as long as you don’t let them into the house to make giant mouseholes in your drywall.

[dangerbunny]

My friend lives in town and has a house bun, she buys a bale of hay and stores it in her shed, ditto on the large bags of shavings.

I really don’t see how you could spend that much on a bun even if you were buying the tiny overpriced bags of hay at the petstore.

[sublimequine]

[QUOTE=crosscreeksh;6195834]
And THIS, too…DD bought a Flemish Giant for DGD for Christmas. Rabbit = $80 - 5 hours away. Okay, but then rabbit needed to be altered = $190.00!!! I don’t spend THAT much to geld a 17 hand horse!! Told my “horse” vet she should look into it!![/QUOTE]

That’s actually pretty inexpensive for a rabbit neuter. I paid close to $400 to have my French Lop neutered.

I’m guessing it’s the vet bills making that number so high. Their daily maintenence costs aren’t THAT astronomical. But as others mentioned, small exotics vets are hard to come by… and they know it, so they charge accordingly.

[BLBGP]

Here’s “straight from the horse’s mouth”: http://www.aspca.org/adoption/pet-care-costs.aspx

Looks like “litter” is the big expense.

I have to admit, my pets are a hell of a lot more expensive than these estimates. But I love the little buggers.

[Roxyllsk]

I use woodypet as litter - it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than anything else, and it controls the pee smell really well.

[Aussie_Dog]

I know with Guinea Pigs (and I think the same applies for Rabbits), a sufficient amount of veggies in their diet (as in, primarily veggies, with pellets as supplementation) averages about $20 a week. For a year, that’s $960. I didn’t realize it was that high, but I’m not surprised. Most people don’t realize how much work and money goes into the “starter” pets like Rabbits and Guinea Pigs.