Reviving takes a few seconds, feeding it is instant (you don't have to wait, you just use feed pet and then select the food). Mana isn't that much of an issue, you have aspect of the viper to get mana back quick (you can put on aspect of the viper, mount up, and run to the other side of the map, you'll regain a big chunk of mana by the time you get there). On top of that, you can get the talents
http://wotlk.openwow.com/spell=53232 and
http://wotlk.openwow.com/spell=35099 , which interact with eachother so that you get mana back each time you use rapid fire, and each time you get a kill. On top of that, you can get a spider pet if you'd like, and take this talent
http://wotlk.openwow.com/spell=53517 .
You can buy common arrows from the vendor in Dalaran (
http://wotlk.openwow.com/item=41586), they cost 30 silver per 1000 if I'm not mistaken, so it's really cheap. You don't really need the epic arrows, yea they're better, but you won't really notice the difference.
Being a hunter isn't as annoying as you'd think it be. You can buy both food and arrows in bulk in Dalaran (you can legit buy 50 000 arrows and 500 pieces of meat for your pet) for a really cheap price, and you'll only have to go back to buy every 2-4 weeks depending on how much you buy.
Hope I helped :)