Two and half years ago, one of my lifelong dreams was realized when my husband and I adopted our two pet bunnies, Chicken and Waffles (their instagram tag is #hausbunns if you want more rabbit content in your feed!). I have always loved bunnies, and had lobbied my parents hard when I was a kid to get a pet rabbit, but the answer was always no, they’re too much work, or no, we don’t need another pet (we had cats). Well, welcome to adulthood, where you can make your own decisions and decide on your own pets! As soon as I had the space, time, and travel schedule to accommodate rabbits, I was in. My husband built them a luxury hutch (it has two levels… and a mezzanine!) where they live 8-9 months out of the year. During the summer, their delicate constitutions can’t take the Southern California heat, so they live in our office those days, and our office activities are relegated to the living room.

Besides being delicate little creatures, there were a few other things that really surprised me about having pet rabbits. The very first of which (not included on this list) is that they are pretty social creatures and really like having a friend. Originally I had pitched adopting one rabbit to expand our family, but when I found that fact out, I immediately started looking for a bonded pair. (Bonded pairs = the rabbits have already been made friendly around each other; non-bonded rabbits will fight and things can get ugly quickly.) And thus began our relationship with Chicken (white with black spots) and Waffles (all black), the bunnies! Four more surprises I’ve learned about them since:

Rabbits Can Be An Inexpensive Pet!

I think there’s a misconception about rabbits as an expensive pet because they fall in the “exotics” category at the vet. In reality, they require very little, all of which can be sourced pretty cheaply. Beyond unlimited access to water (free! …or at the very least, a nominal addition to your water bill), these are the things we routinely give to our rabbits (and pay for):

• Hay: We buy our hay by the bale at our local animal feed store (usually meant for horses). It costs us $35 per bale and it lasts three to four months.
• Litter: I have a repeat delivery set up with Petco to send a bag of litter every three months for $11.01
• Annual Vet Visit: Because rabbits are technically exotics, their vet visits are a bit pricier than your average dog or cat. I feel good about spending on this, though, as it is a way to check anything abnormal out and catch any problems early. We pay $80 per rabbit, once a year.
• Treats: Laughably, we are still working on the same bag of treats we bought 2 years ago… they eat them slowly, and we also give them small bits of fruits (their favorite is banana!) as treats.
• Emergency Kit: We keep Critical Care (a sweet veggie and fruit mush you can force-feed if they have upset stomachs), syringes, and Colloidal silver spray (a natural antibiotic for their eyes and noses) on hand for minor emergencies. I refresh those supplies once a year or by their expiration dates. We have brought them to the vet for an emergency visit a few times, but (knock on wood!) not in the last ~15 months.
• Annual Total (average; excluding any emergency vet visits): $325.00

And these are the one-time purchases we’ve made, pretty much all of which happened 2.5 years ago:

• Adoption Fee: The shelters around us usually do “rabbit sales” once a month and reduce the adoption fee per rabbit to $5! …but I was too impatient to wait for that weekend sale, so we paid $25 each.
• Hutch and/or Cage: My husband is an amateur woodworker in his spare time and lovingly built us a luxury hutch for my birthday in 2017. Our cost for this was much higher than it needs to be as he used high-end wood, real roofing materials, and made it much fancier than is truly necessary. That being said, I never worry about their comfort or safety, so it feels like money well spent. I think materials were around $250, plus a few weekends worth of labor. If you have the space to house your rabbit(s) indoors, a simple cage like this or this would work for them to be in at night, and have free or limited reign during the day.
• Hay Feeder: Again, my very handy husband made ours, so we just paid for materials, approximately $5.
• Water Bowl: We got a very basic ceramic bowl ($11). It’s recommended to get a heavy bowl so they can’t knock it over and flood their home. We also have one of these self-filling bowls ($18) that we give them if we’re going away for a long weekend.
• Litter Box: Read on for the miracle of litter box-trained rabbits! We tried a few different box options before settling on a stainless steel catering pan ($27) as the best for us.
• Indoor Supplies: For the couple of months that Chicken and Waffles live indoors, we have two of these mats ($50) and two of this fence ($50) to keep them contained in the office. (mat, fence)
• Nail Trimmers ($9
• Brush ($9)
• Set Up Purchases Total: approximately $500

Things we don’t pay for include toys (cardboard boxes, paper towel tubes, egg cartons, and sticks we pick up around the yard mean we don’t need to buy any toys for the buns!), grocery store vegetables specifically for them (instead we give the rabbits leftovers from the kitchen or garden or, more often, weeds from around the yard that I want to get rid of anyway!), and grooming costs (we learned how to trim their nails and brush their fur correctly, so don’t need to pay for this monthly maintenance).

Rabbits Can Be Litter Box Trained!

I did not know this before getting rabbits, but they are very much like cats in that they like to have a regular place where their bathroom is. Unlike cats (and humans) that place is generally right next to the food so they can… do both at once. This makes them a great indoors pet, too, as you can train them to only make their mess in that box. Every now and then a few poops will escape the box, but because they are compact and solid, they are very easily vacuumed up!

Rabbits Can Learn Tricks!

So this is a thing about rabbits that we have not put to excellent use. We’ve trained ours to “hold hands” (they stand on their hind legs and put their two front paws in your hand) and… that’s about it. But I follow many a rabbit on instagram and they can be trained to come when you say their name, turn in a circle at your feet, jump over and into things, and complete obstacle courses! For sure if/when I have some free time this is on my list of things to accomplish with them!

Rabbits Have Personalities!

This is the best. When we adopted two bunnies, I seriously had no idea how different they would each be. Within a matter of hours we could see that Chicken was much more sociable and adventurous than Waffles, she would visit as soon as we were around, jump into our laps, and explored their hutch levels immediately. Waffles on the other hand took three days to figure out there was a downstairs! In time, Waffles has gotten more used to us and will socialize for treats, but she is definitely still the more skittish of the two. My husband and I often talk about their little personalities and how fun it is to picture them as humans. We think that if she was a person, Chicken would ride a motorcycle (with her ears flapping in the wind), love hobbies, and constantly be getting into things (ok, that one is true even as a bunny!). Waffles the homebody would love to stay at home and knit or do the crossword, would be excellent at playing along with Jeopardy, and would have an extensive correspondence habit.

Truly one of the most surprising things has been getting to know our two little long-eared friends and to see the myriad differences between them.

Does anyone else have pet rabbits? What are their names and do they have an Instagram account I can follow?? Let me know in the comments!

P.S – This post is part of our ‘30 Blog Posts We Want to Write in 2019‘ list. Be sure to check out the post for the rest!