Of course, rabbits raised on a farm should be provided not only with high-quality feed. These animals without fail require good clean drinking water. If desired, you can make drinkers for rabbits and do it yourself. There are several types of water tanks for such animals. And they all have a relatively simple design.
Drinker Requirements
Installed in the cages or aviaries, water tanks for rabbits, of course, must meet all sanitary standards, as well as be convenient and safe. Drinkers for these animals should be made only from environmentally friendly, easy-to-care materials.
Also, a self-assembled container should not have sharp edges and corners. In rabbits, as you know, very "weak" noses. With a sharp jump, the animal can easily hit this part of the body on the sharp edge of the drinker and die.
Simple cup design
Water tanks of this type are not installed very often in cages and aviaries. Many rabbit farmers find their use not particularly convenient. But sometimes such constructions are still installed in the cells. For example, they are often used immediately after buying rabbits, at the very beginning of farming.
As a cup drinking bowl for rabbits, you can use any containers of a suitable volume, already unnecessary on the farm. It can be, for example, old plastic plates, metal cups, etc.
All that the farmer will need to do with his own hands in the manufacture of such drinkers is to fix them in cages so that the animals do not turn them over. For example, you can make holes in the cups at the top and fix them with wire to the structures of the cage or aviary. You can also simply glue heavy bases to the bottoms of containers.
How to make a do-it-yourself drinker for rabbits from a bottle
This type of water tank is called vacuum and is also easy to make. The advantage of drinkers from plastic bottles, compared to cups, is that when using them, farmers have to add water to the far less often. At the same time, you can make such a capacity, if desired, in just a few minutes.
Water is fed in such drinkers to the rabbits in portions, as they drink. The containers of this type are made as follows:
remove the cap from a half-liter plastic bottle;
pour water into it;
cover the neck with a bowl of not too large diameter;
without removing the bowls, turn the bottle upside down;
set the structure to the bottom of the cell.
For the manufacture of drinkers for rabbits with their own hands from plastic bottles, not smooth smooth, but curly bottles are best suited. Subsequently, such containers will be easy to fix on cage rods or supporting poles of the enclosure enclosure, simply by wrapping them with wire.
Drinking bowl with float valve
Tanks of this variety have already a somewhat more complex design and are usually installed on fairly large farms. Do-it-yourself float troughs for rabbits can be made, for example, as follows:
in the farm premises at a height a large tank is placed;
a distribution tank with a regulating float is installed;
both containers are connected by hoses;
pipes made of brass or plastic are connected to the distribution tank;
pipes are supplied to each cell;
near the cells, pipes are welded to the end of the supply lines;
glasses are attached to the nozzles by means of a nut under water.
Such drinkers work very simply. If a rabbit drinks all the water from a cage, the float system will work and water will be poured into the glass again.
Benefits of using nipple drinkers
Rabbits are animals, unfortunately, quite frail in terms of health. Therefore, farmers breeding such animals are forced to pay special attention to their cleanliness. This also applies to drinking water.
Unfortunately, animals can easily throw and trash all kinds of rubbish into the bottle-made drinkers for rabbits from bottles (or cup). Nipple designs lack such a flaw. With their help, the rabbit breeder can provide their wards with the cleanest water. That is why such designs have recently become increasingly popular among farmers.
Another advantage of nipple drinkers is the minimum water consumption. Rabbits cannot pour it in any way while drinking at all.
What materials will be needed
Making a nipple drinker for rabbits with your own hands will be relatively simple. The principle of operation of this design is that when the animal presses the ball located in the tube, water begins to pour from the tank.
The water supply tank itself, with the self-production of such a drinker, can be made from an ordinary plastic bottle. The nipple nose for such a design is best purchased, for example, in an online store already ready. Such products are actually very inexpensive - literally a penny.
In addition to a bottle of 1.5 l and a spout, for the manufacture of a nipple drinker you will need to prepare:
Where to begin?
What is the manufacture of a do-it-yourself nipple drinker for rabbits? In the photo above you can see that the design of such a container is relatively uncomplicated. Begin the production of drinkers of this type as follows:
tightly close the bottle cap;
the end of the skewer is heated by gas;
pierce the bottle cap with a skewer and rotate it several times in order to make a round hole;
a piece of about 12 cm long is cut from a thin hose;
insert the tube into the hole in the lid to a depth of 1-2 cm.
Of course, the hose should not fall out of the lid during operation of the drinker. Therefore, if in the hole it does not sit too tightly, it needs to be additionally fixed. To do this, simply remove the cap from the bottle and wrap a larger piece of tape on the piece of tube that exits from its back.
Final build phase
Continue to assemble the nipple drinker as follows:
Lubricate the junction of the tube and the cover with silicone sealant, so that subsequently there are no leaks;
the spout purchased in the store is also coated with sealant;
insert the spout into the tube from the outside of the bottle.
In the next step, you don’t need to completely cut off the bottom of the bottle with scissors to make a lid. If you wish, making the drinkers for rabbits with your own hands in this way, you can skip this operation. But in this case, subsequently, in order to pour water into the container, you will have to remove the lid from it.
Using a drinking bowl without a half cut off half, of course, will somewhat complicate the task of providing rabbits with water. However, without such an upper “cover”, the design will turn out, according to many farmers, still more hygienic. The fact is that through a partially cut bottom during operation, a subsequent, albeit in a small amount, but all kinds of garbage - straw, grass blades, sawdust can still get. This, in turn, can lead to clogging of the nipple.
Where to place the drinker
A rabbit watering container made in this way is best installed in a cage or aviary so that animals can only get directly to the nipple. For example, a water bottle can be hung on the wall of an aviary or cages on the outside higher, and just pass a tube with a nipple inside.
DIY drinkers for rabbits: original ideas
Cup and nipple containers, like vacuum ones made from bottles, are used by farmers most often for keeping rabbits. But if desired, in the cages of animals you can install some other, more original drinkers. It can be, for example:
containers made of plastic pipes with holes cut into them;
vacuum structures made of plastic glasses;
drinkers from mayonnaise buckets, etc.
Instead of a conclusion
Of course, it is best to equip a rabbit farm with convenient and aesthetic factory drinking bowls. But at first, home-made containers of this type may indeed be the most suitable option for providing animals with clean fresh water.
Perhaps such devices will not differ in special usability or any aesthetic appeal. However, the manufacture of feeders and drinkers for rabbits with their own hands will nevertheless allow a little money to save on organizing a farm for a novice fur farmer. Photos of home-made containers designed to provide animals with clean water, presented on the page, demonstrate the simplicity of their design quite clearly.