The maintenance of rabbits remains a popular area of livestock. They are valued for their tender meat and skins, and for their production requires constant care. The stores have a lot of accessories that make it easier, but some devices can be made on their own. Let's see how homemade drinkers for rabbits are made.
- Requirements for drinkers for rabbits
- What are drinking bowls for rabbits
- Making your own drinkers
- From the bottle
- Vacuum
- Nipple (nipple)
Requirements for drinkers for rabbits
These animals consume quite a lot of water (about 1 l per day) and are demanding of its purity - the mud floating in the liquid almost immediately responds to the loss of appetite in animals.
The rabbits themselves are very mobile, and it is not difficult to turn over the capacity for them, so you have to think about the shape of the drinker and its reliable attachment. Yes, and breeding in cells "swamp" is undesirable. 
Those who have been keeping krales for a long time noticed that for some reason animals use an open container with water as a toilet, so water has to be changed regularly, and there is not always time for this.
- Security. On the drinking bowls there should be no burrs, and even more acute angles. Cans are excluded.
- Protection against dust and debris.
- The volume should be enough for a day (that is, a liter with a small margin).
- Convenience for animals.
- Filling and washing containers should also be as easy as possible. Position it in such a way that it does not reach across the entire cage, risking pouring water.
- Reliability and simplicity. They try to make the system so that it is understandable for rabbits, and they could not chew it up (sometimes it happens).
What are drinking bowls for rabbits
The easiest way to take a bowl, but this simplicity turns into a constant change of water and its rapid pollution. Even for a small subsidiary farm is not the best option.
Much more suited cup, vacuum or nipple devices. Take a closer look at them.
Cup make of bottles and plastic cans. Plus they have only one - a large amount. They cause inconvenience much more: they have to be weighed down by hooking a weight on the back side or fixing the clamp. In addition, they are open, dirt gets there unhindered, it is necessary to wash the container several times a day. 
Vacuum (or semi-automatic) much more practical. The essence is simple - the water from the additional container is fed into the "main" drinking bowl by gravity until it reaches the desired level. Such a reservoir can be a plastic bottle, which is attached to the cell wall with hose clips (the lower fixture at the same time regulates the level of the liquid). 
"Vacuum" is simple and cheap to manufacture, and the water in such a system remains clean for a long time. There is also a minus: the liquid can easily flow out of the bowl, and in winter there is a risk of it freezing.
The most popular are nipple system. From a closed container, water goes into the tube, at the end of which there is a ball nipple. To get drunk, the rabbit will have to press on this ball with his tongue.
Among the disadvantages are some manufacturing complexity and higher cost. If there are frequent toppings, a lid may leak. In the cold season, it happens that the nipple works intermittently (the ball can just freeze).
Automatic adaptations fit large farms. From a large tank in terms of volume, water is fed through tubes into bowls installed in cages.Flow is controlled by a float valve, which is lowered with the water level in the tank. 
So dozens (or even hundreds) of animals at the same time receive clean water. True, such a system is laborious in assembly and quite expensive.
Having decided on the choice, it's time to learn how to make a drinker for rabbits.
Making your own drinkers
Anyone can make a drinker, all the more so because it requires available materials, which are in abundance at every household. Let's start with the most simple, "bottle" designs.
From the bottle
Everything is simple here - they take an ordinary plastic bottle and cut a hole in the middle with a heated knife. In size it should be such that a rabbit muzzle passes through.
Such basic drinkers for rabbits, made by hand from plastic bottles, are usually fixed on the cage with two pieces of soft wire.One grabs the bottleneck and the other holds the top.
There is one point associated with their use - crawls (especially young ones) can gnaw off such a container in a week - the second. Therefore, it makes sense to make a more reliable vacuum system.
Vacuum
The same plastic bottles are used, but the principle of delivery is different: part of the water, pouring out, covers the neck, and then - physics: the difference in pressure prevents all the water from flowing out at once.
The material here is at least as time consuming:
- Take the bottle and any container with rounded edges (bowl, container, tin).
- The bottom is cut, there will be poured water.
- Then unscrew the plug, thereby adjusting the flow of water. Some do it differently: the cork remains in place, but 2-3 large holes are made in it with an awl or knife.
- The bottle is fixed to the cage wall with wire or clamps at a height of 8-10 cm from the floor.
- Both containers are positioned so that the lid is located near the bottom of the plate, but not adjacent to it, thereby blocking the flow.
- Everything, it is possible to fill in water.
If the cage is large and densely populated with animals, then drinkers will need a few. The main thing - that they cover the need of rabbits in the liquid.
Nipple (nipple)
Handmade nipple drinkers for rabbits work on the same principle, but may differ in design. Those that simpler in the manufacture, suitable for a small number of livestock living in 1-2 cages. Let's start with them.
They are made like this:
- Take a bottle with a cap and a piece of soft rubber or transparent plastic tube. When you buy a nipple in the kit usually offer and suitable for the size of the handset - this is even better option.
- In the lid carefully cut out the hole diameter of the tube.
- A nipple is inserted into the tube (at one end), and the other end is inserted into the cap.
- A bottle is hooked onto the cell wall with collars (the smaller one is near the neck, the larger one is at the top). The rabbit should be comfortable using the nipple, so choose the desired height.
- Before filling the container with water, place a small plate under it - until the animals get used to this method, water may drip a little into half cells.
For a large number of rabbits have to do complicated the system. In addition to the nipples with square tubes, the store will have to buy a drip tray or a “microcup”, a hose, plugs and an adapter for the tubes. From the tool you need a drill, a drill - "nine" and a tapered tap, which cut the internal thread. Then everything looks like this:
- On the side of the pipe where the grooves of the pipes go, make marks and drill holes.
- Then they "pass" a tap.
- A nipple is inserted into these threads.
- At the joint end of the "trunk" pipe put a cap.
- In the prepared tank or bottle a hole is made with a thread for the hose.
- The other end connects the hose to the tube from the nipple. For tightness, the joints are wrapped with tape (Teflon fit).
- It remains to attach the drift eliminators.
Such work will take more time, but such a system will also have a large “resource”, and if you put a large tank, you will not often have to add water - this is also a saving.
