Rabbit drinkers

In order to raise rabbits, it is important that they have access to clean drinking water. To do this, you need to use a rabbit drinker. This article will talk about what kind of drinkers for rabbits exist, and what are their features.

Drinker requirements

At first glance, it may seem that rabbits will have enough of the liquid that they receive by feeding on greens and roots from their feeders. However, this is actually the wrong idea. To provide them with water, you need to install drinkers for the fluffy.

Rabbit drinkers

First of all, the thought arises to use plastic or metal containers. However, rabbits can chew on plastic, and knock over domestic metal bowls.

Therefore, when choosing a drinker for your rabbits, you must take into account the following conditions:

1. It is necessary to strive for the fact that the water for drinking the animals should remain clean and fresh as long as possible.
2. After installation, make sure that the structure is installed securely and cannot tip over.

We must remember! Rabbits are very mobile creatures, and an unsecured bowl will certainly be overturned by them.

3. Fuzzies need fresh, clean water, but it will get dirty over time and stain the bowl. Therefore, a caring owner should regularly clean and wash it. When choosing, it is important to consider how easy it is to rinse the drinker.
4. The animals should not be able to gnaw the parts of the device. If there are plastic elements available to them here, it will not last long.
5. The safety of this device for animals must be ensured. There should be no sharp parts to hurt yourself.
6. It is necessary to pay attention to the volume of the tank. Sooner or later, the domestic rabbit drinks the liquid intended for him, then the supply will need to be replenished. It is necessary that the volume be such that the replenishment is carried out no more than once a day.

What are the drinkers

There are several types of such devices. These are discussed in more detail below.

Cup devices

This option can be considered the simplest and most natural solution to the question of how to water rabbits. Here we are talking about placing a container in a cage. This can be a mug, tin can, or something similar. Sometimes such devices are made from plastic sewer pipes. The rabbits will drink from it.

While this option looks simple enough, it has more disadvantages than advantages.

The only advantage of a drinking bowl is that it is easy to make such a container on the farm from scrap material.

Here are the negative aspects of this decision:

1. It should be borne in mind that animal movements are often unpredictable. It is very likely that they could accidentally knock over the mug placed on them.
2. When rabbits are drunk, foreign objects get into the bowl. This can be their wool, dirt, food debris, animal waste products and other things.
3. If the cup is turned upside down, the liquid will spill onto the bedding, moistening it.Rabbits will not only be left without drinking, but can also get sick from it.

If no other options are available, a drinking cup can be used. But, if possible, it is better to put a better one.

Nipple

The principle of operation of such a device is as follows. There is a container with water. At the bottom, a tube comes out of it. Liquid does not flow out of the tube because the drain is covered with a ball. The rabbit comes to drink and touches the ball with his tongue, which moves back and allows the liquid to flow out.

Usually such a container is attached to the outside of the cage.

The cons are as follows:

1. In winter, the nipple drip will freeze and cannot be used.
2. You will have to spend a certain amount of money to purchase an original device.
3. Usually it can use a limited volume of liquid. Therefore, even if one device is used only for two fluffs, then you will often have to add water to the tank.
4. When restocking, you will need to unscrew the cap. With a nipple drinker, this process is quite tedious.
5. Over time, the lid may start to leak.

However, these disadvantages are more than offset by the following advantages:

Nipple

1. Rabbits, when drinking from such a drinking bowl, cannot contaminate it in any way.
2. You can easily control how much liquid is left. If necessary, it is not difficult to replenish its stock.
3. Sometimes it becomes necessary to make the pussies take certain medications. This is easy to do if you throw them into a tank to dissolve. In the same way, you can feed the animals with vitamins.
4. When animals drink liquid, they have no way to spray it. This makes it possible to spend it more economically.
5. Such a device is not difficult to manufacture with the help of independent efforts.

Vacuum

The principle of operation of this device can be described as follows. The water bottle is turned over and placed in a metal or plastic container. At the same time, a little liquid oozes from the neck, which is pressed against the surface. Stocks need to be replenished as needed. In this case, the bottle is attached, as indicated in the drawing, from the outside of the cage. The container is a rectangular box, part of which is inside the cage.

Vacuum

There are disadvantages here:

1. Various garbage can easily get here.
2. If the bottle tilts or overturns, then all liquid will flow out of it.

The advantages of using a vacuum drinker are as follows:

1. You can make this device yourself.
2. The liquid that is gradually added from the bottle remains fresh and clean.

Using the drinker

Unlike the previously discussed designs, this one is designed to serve many animals at the same time. Usually such automatic drinkers are used in large farms.

The auto-drinker for rabbits is arranged as follows. Each cage contains metal or plastic trays. They are supplied with water through a tube. For each row of cells, a horizontal part of the tube is installed, from which a branch goes into each cell. All horizontal pipe sections are connected to each other and to the reservoir from which the water comes.

Cons of such devices:

1. This system is a rather complex design. To make it, you need to have the appropriate work skills.
2. The process of self-creation of a drinking bowl requires significant labor and financial resources.

The advantages are expressed in the following:

1. Installing an autodrinker will provide access to water for a large number of rabbits at once.
2. With this method of organization, the animals receive clean and fresh water.

Winter drinkers

An important disadvantage of nipple devices is that the water in them freezes in winter. As a result, rabbits cannot get water for drinking if it is not heated. Winter drinking bowls provide a solution to this problem. It is expressed in the fact that a special electronic device is used for winter heating, which runs on batteries and carries out heating.

These devices are relatively expensive, but allow rabbits to survive during the winter.

DIY drinking bowls

There are several different types of drinkers that you can make yourself.

Diy drinkers

Bottle use

In this case, the manufacture of a home-made drinker for a bottle for rabbits is based on a large plastic water bottle. It will need to be used in a horizontal position.

In the middle of the bottle, you need to cut a round hole, the dimensions of which approximately correspond to the head of the rabbit. They should be such that the animal can easily stick its head inside and drink the water that will be inside the bottle.

Wire the drinker to the cage wall. For this purpose, a one and a half liter bottle is most often used.

The advantages of the option under consideration are as follows:

1. Made from available material at hand.
2. Easy to clean.
3. The manufacturing process for such a structure is not difficult.

Vacuum drinker

Materials required for manufacturing:

1. Plastic bottle. For this purpose, a volume of 1.5 or 2 liters is suitable.
2. It will take some wire to secure the bottle.
3. You need a container, which is necessary for the rabbits to drink from it. A bowl made of metal is best suited for this purpose.

The manufacturing process is as follows:

1. The bottle prepared in advance must be filled with water and closed with a lid.
2. It is necessary to put a metal container where water for drinking the animal will flow.
3. The bottle must be attached upside down with a wire to the cage wall. In this case, the lid should fall into the metal container in such a way that it is almost close to the bottom.
4. Now you need to unscrew the bottle cap a little.

The principle of operation is as follows. When there is little water in the bowl, the lid begins to lag behind and water spills into the container. Once there is enough water, it will stop flowing out until the rabbit drinks the water.

The disadvantage of this design is that dirt and debris can get into the drinking bowl, which can harm the health of the rabbits.

The advantage is that there is no need to constantly add water. In addition, the manufacture of this structure does not require a significant investment of time and money.

Improved version of the vacuum drinker

As you know, if there are plastic parts in the structure, then the rabbits are likely to gnaw them. Therefore, in a vacuum drinker, the bottle and cap may be damaged. To prevent this from happening, you will need to do the following:

1. You need to make a rectangular box that will protect the bottle. For this, you can use sheets of stainless steel or galvanized iron.
2. Sharp corners must be grinded away so that the fluffs do not get hurt.

Another drinker option

To create you need to prepare the following materials:

1. A plastic bottle that will serve as a water reservoir. For this purpose, you can use one with a volume of 1.5 or 2 liters.
2. You will need an old ballpoint pen body.
3. A small diameter screw is required. You need to choose its size so that it fits into the hole of the ballpoint pen without a gap.
4. Wire for attaching the bottle to the cage wall.
5. Bowl for water drain.

Making a do-it-yourself drinker for rabbits is as follows:

1. A hole is made in the bottle cap so that a ballpoint pen with a screw inserted into it passes through it.
2. The handle is installed and the joint is securely glued.
3. The plug is tightened.
4. The position of the bottle is fixed with a wire.
5. A hole is cut in the upper part through which the water supply will be replenished.

The principle of operation is that when the rabbit touches the screw, the screw moves inward and makes room for water.

Care and cleaning of the drinker

Drinking cup maintenance is very important. This is primarily due to the fact that drinking dirty water can lead to diseases among rabbits.

Drinking cup maintenance is very important

Care is carried out as follows:

1. Water pollution must be carefully monitored. If this happens, you need to clean the container from which the animals drink.
2. The bowl should be washed daily. In this case, it is advisable to use a cleaning solution.
3. You also need to pay attention to bottle cleaning. In fact, the water with which it is filled is not perfectly clean, it contains certain impurities. They will gradually build up on the walls of the bottle. Therefore, it is recommended to clean it several times a week.

To clean the bottle, remove it and pour out the water. Then you need to take a hard sponge and use some kind of detergent to rinse this container from the inside.

The drinking bowl allows the rabbits to have access to clean and fresh water at all times. However, for this it is necessary to purchase in the store or make the most suitable design option yourself and ensure the cleanliness of the drinker.