We make feeders for rabbits with our own hands
Rabbit feeders are an integral part of creating favorable and comfortable conditions for raising and keeping animals at home. Cages equipped with properly designed feeders help to simplify maintenance.
On large fur farms, specialized equipment is installed. But if this is a home farm, you can significantly save on arranging cages if you know how to make a do-it-yourself rabbits feeder.
Rabbit Feeders
Varieties of homemade feeders
Self-made feeders can significantly save time while providing adequate nutrition for animals, create the necessary sanitary and hygienic conditions in the cages, and also reduce feed costs.
Average house hares go to the feeders 30 times daily.
Ready-made manual and self-made automated feeders intended for feeding eared pets are divided into several main types:
- You can take a regular bowl as a basis as a dish for rabbit food. This cellular inventory looks quite aesthetically pleasing, but it is not practical. Rabbits often turn them over along with the available feed, so either they remain hungry, or they need to replenish them again and again, using more feed than usual.
- Manger feeders are used for grass and hay. Reviews of rabbit breeders speak of their practicality, these are the most convenient types of equipment, but such devices often have to be monitored and replenished in a timely manner.
- The groove structures serve as containers for concentrated feed and root crops. Among the advantages they have, farmers point to the ease of access of animals to feed, and with a large concentration of rabbits.
- Bunker auto-feeders made of tin are more suitable for free-flowing mixtures and granular feed. These types of feeders prevent animals from scattering food and trampling them with their paws. Bunker feeders for rabbits (banks) are replenished once every several days, depending on the size, therefore they are suitable for those breeders who are not ready to devote a lot of time to feeding the animals.
- Cup metal, clay and concrete feeding devices are applicable for free-flowing or granular mixtures and can also be used as drinkers. It is these types of tin equipment that are most often used on large farms.
It is important to remember that feeders and automatic drinkers for rabbits should be comfortable for the animals and, most importantly, as safe as possible. For example, a galvanized or tin feeder for rabbits does not oxidize and the water in it remains clean for a long time.
If the farmer plans to breed fluffies with a constant increase in the number of animals, it is best if the cages for rabbits and feeders are made in large sizes initially.For the convenience of the eared, drinkers and bottle feeders can be installed in large cages. The installation scheme for such equipment is as simple as possible: bottle drinkers are suspended from one side of the cage. To strengthen such products, you can use metal hooks or fishing line. If using fishing line, you can use a little hay as a seal.
Requirements and materials for self-made feeders
When making a decision to make a feeding trough for rabbits on their own, it is necessary to take into account that the future design should:
- be roomy to avoid frequent replenishment of feed,
- easily installed during operation and removed from the cage during cleaning,
- be safe when used by animals, without sharp corners and protrusions on which rabbits could be injured,
- be available to animals and ensure order when they use feed,
- prevent rabbits from entering their body parts, such as paws,
- be mounted out of direct sunlight.
A self-made rabbit feeder can be of different types of material. Suitable for this:
- thin tin and metal profiles,
- galvanized iron,
- wood, including plywood, bars and boards,
- plastic or plexiglass, including household items from them, for example, a plastic bottle and cups,
- slate.
Among the auxiliary materials that you will need to make do-it-yourself rabbit feeders are wire, glass and rods, which are designed for sheathing the places where the feeders are installed. As tools, prepare scissors for cutting metal, a drill with drills, pliers, a hammer with nails, a ruler with a pencil.
Step instructions
The technology of each type of rabbit feeder has similarities with each other and does not cause difficulties in implementation to do it yourself.
Cup designs
Decorative pan feeders do not require much effort, because all that is needed in this case are containers with smooth edges. To prevent rabbits from tipping these containers along with food, all that needs to be done with such a feeder is to properly secure it to the cage. To do this, the feeding cups are crushed with wire behind the holes made in the edges, either for the protruding parts or for the bottom. In addition, they can act as a drinker. Among the disadvantages of pan feeders is the inconvenience of cleaning when fastened to the cage. Placing bowls and cups in a recess (pit) will result in overflowing with debris.
Bunker structures
When making different types of bunker feeders for rabbits on your own, wooden sheets are required, which are subsequently upholstered with tin. The instructions for making bunker feeding devices include:
- measurements on sheets of iron and plywood in accordance with the dimensions according to the drawing,
- cutting along the marked contours of parts, which include the bottom, two side walls, the front and rear of the structure and the supporting crossbar,
- bending manually cut parts along the lines outlined in accordance with the drawing,
- fastening sheet metal to plywood,
- collection of all parts into a single bunker structure.
A simplified version of the manufacture of a bunker feeder for rabbits can be viewed in the photo and video:
- on the basis of a paper layout, cutting of components from galvanized sheet with a thickness of 0.4-0.7 centimeters is made according to the size of the drawing,
- the cut-out parts are bent, holes are drilled into them for fasteners,
- components are assembled into a single structure and fastened with rivets.
As an original idea, some farmers propose to build a bunker structure for feeding rabbits and rabbits from an ordinary plastic sewer pipe or canister.
Feeders - grooves
Rabbit troughs are designed for grains, root crops and hay and are made either from wood or metal. The standard dimensions for such automatic devices are 50 centimeters - one meter. Do-it-yourself assembly technology of a wooden structure involves:
- 6 boards for longitudinal (two) and end (four) walls,
- connection at an angle of two identical parts for the end sides until an equilateral rectangle is formed, as shown in the photo,
- fastening long sides at an angle.
You can also make a trough feeder from tin or galvanized.
Feeders according to the advice of practitioners
In the manufacture of a structure for feeding animals, you can take on board the advice of some rabbit breeders on how to make a rabbit feeder yourself.
Instructions from Maslyakov
Farmer E. Maslyakov has his own drawing of a bunker feeder for rabbits, which is based on a sheet of galvanized iron. According to his technology:
- according to the drawing dimensions, two side walls, a lintel, an inner wall and a bearing for support by rabbits are drawn on galvanized or tin plate,
- the components are cut and folded as shown in the photo,
- holes are drilled at the joints of the parts of the structure, a number of holes are made in the bottom so that small debris falls out of the feeder through them,
- the components are riveted together.
Many users noted the convenience of such a home-made design: Maslyakov's bunker feeder for rabbits provides an opportunity to fill up different feeds at the same time.
Instruction from Zolotukhin
Do-it-yourself feeders for rabbits made on the advice of N. Zolotukhin are also made of galvanized iron with two wooden sides. For them:
- the sides are cut out of wood according to the scheme, as shown in the photo by Zolotukhin,
- on a galvanized metal sheet or sheet, outlines are made and it is bent along them in accordance with the drawing,
- with the help of self-tapping screws and nails at the feeder, wooden sides with metal blanks are assembled, as shown in the photo by Zolotukhin,
- the device is attached to the door, a mesh is inserted into its frame, as demonstrated in the video by Zolotukhin.
Among the advantages of using a feeder according to the Zolotukhin method is the best saving of cage space.