Many owners of suburban and suburban areas are happy to breed rabbits. This fluffy pet is able to provide the owners not only with valuable fur, but also with high-calorie nutritious meat. The efficiency of raising rabbits depends entirely on the proper maintenance, feeding and care of animals.
It will be useful for a beginner rabbit breeder to know how to make do-it-yourself rabbit feeders. After all, high-quality and regular feeding has a positive effect on the he alth of animals.
Feeder Requirements
Before you start making do-it-yourself rabbit feeders, you need to familiarize yourself with the basic requirements for these designs. Following these helpful tips will increase the efficiency of using homemade feeders and improve the quality of life of furry pets.
Rabbit feeders should be:
- Spacious so that there is no need to add food during feeding.
- Easy to peel offfeed residues during operation.
- To avoid injury to the animal, the design should not contain sharp corners and protrusions.
- A rabbit feeder should provide easy access to food.
- The design should prevent the animal from climbing into the feeder with their feet, which leads to food contamination.
- It is necessary to calculate the dimensions correctly to ensure that all rabbits have access to food at the same time.
- The mount must be secure, the feeder must not turn over.
- And, of course, the cost of a self-made rabbit feeder should be less than similar industrial designs.
Types of fixtures
The importance of making a quality feeder is confirmed by the fact that rabbits approach food 26-30 times a day. Therefore, this device should significantly improve the hygienic conditions in the cage and maintain a rational diet for the animal.
There are the following types of rabbit feeders:
- Bunker devices are used for granular and bulk feed. The design solution of such a device completely eliminates the spreading of feed and allows you to load the amount of feed that will be enough for several meals.
- Gutters are designed to feed animals with concentrated feed or root crops. A pipe rabbit feeder is the simplest design in this regard. Grooves allow you to feed a large number of animals at the same time.
- Hay and grass are loaded into a special feeder, the so-called nursery. Such devices are very practical to use, but require constant replenishment of feed supplies.
- Cup-shaped rabbit feeders are common when serving both bulk and granular feed, as well as concentrated food. Metal containers can be used as these devices. These feeders are often used for drinking.
- Ceramic material bowls are more modern designs, most often manufactured industrially. They look very pretty, but they flip over easily.
Before making do-it-yourself rabbit feeders, professionals advise beginners to print out a drawing of the device. You can learn about the device scheme from the reference literature. There you can also see photos of rabbit feeders, of which there is a great variety.
Benefits of silo feeders
Feeders of the bunker type are considered the most convenient and practical to use, therefore they have a number of advantages over other types of devices.
Key Benefits:
- economy;
- capacity;
- ease of use;
- reliable feed protection from contamination;
- easy care and maintenance;
- cleanliness around the feeder;
- It's easy to make your own rabbit feeder.
Grain and granular food, when eaten by pets by gravity, evenly fills the tray and settles downat a certain level, does not get enough sleep beyond it. This feature allows you to maintain cleanliness in the cage, which has a positive effect on the he alth of pets. Bunker feeders for rabbits are widely used in farms far from where the owners live.
Types of bunker feeders
There are several types of bunker attachment, the choice of which, when self-made, is carried out depending on the preferences of the owner. The most popular designs are:
- round feeder;
- a device with a transverse partition that allows you to load different types of feed;
- combination fixture.
Materials used
Before you make a rabbit feeder, you need to decide on the material that will be used to make the structure, because rabbits are rodents. Experienced rabbit breeders often use feeders made of a metal profile or thin tin.
Also very popular are bunker-type fixtures made of wood (plywood, boards). The protruding places of the wooden feeder must be protected with metal plates. There are many designs made of plastic pipes, plexiglass, slate. Glass, metal rods and wire can also be used as support material.
Production of a galvanized bunker feeder
It is more practical to make a metal feeder. Great forthis work sheet of galvanized steel with a thickness of 0.5 ml. It is better to cut such material with metal scissors, since cutting with a grinder will lead to burning the zinc layer, and the cut will begin to rust. For the construction device, you will need a drawing that is easy to draw yourself.
The size of the rabbit feeders should match the dimensions of the cage. On an example, you can consider the manufacture of a feeder with optimal dimensions.
The manufacturing procedure is as follows:
- A conventional bunker feeder consists of a back and front walls, as well as a tray. A limiter is also made so that the feed is not raked out by the rabbits from the feeder. Work begins with the manufacture of the tray. The cut out fragment from the sheet is folded along the fold lines, taking into account the allowance at the joints of about one centimeter, which will be necessary to connect all the parts.
- The back and side walls are made from a single sheet of zinc to reduce the number of surfaces to be joined. Divided into three parts, this part is bent in width.
- The front wall is also bent into three parts in width.
- Further, all the details are folded into one design. Holes are drilled at the joints where allowances were made. Connect with bolts or rivets.
- To prevent debris, make the top cover.
Metal Profile Attachment
It turns out a very neat feeder from a profilemetal section 100 × 40 mm.
The order of making the feeder is as follows:
- Make cuts with scissors for metal after marking the profile. Extra sections at the fold are removed.
- To remove small debris from the tray, the lower part of the profile is perforated with a drill.
- Then give the workpiece the shape of the finished fixture. Holes for rivets are made at the joints.
- To fix the feeder on the cage, attach two hooks from profile pieces.
Such a simple device is used to feed one pet. If you need to distribute food to several rabbits, you will have to hang several of these feeders on the cage.
Bunker feeders made from utility material
For a novice rabbit breeder, several designs made from a material that can be found in any household will be of interest. It can be a piece of polyethylene pipe, any tin can and a simple plastic container.
We take two plastic bottles with a wide neck. We make an L-shaped frame from a board or plywood. We attach one bottle, with a pre-cut side part, with screws to the bottom of the frame. And we fix the second container to the vertical strip of the frame with clamps, directing its neck into the window of the lower bottle. We cut off the bottom of the vertical container not completely to make a lid, fill in the food, and the feeder is ready.
A similar, combined design can be made from a piece of polyethylene pipe and a galvanized metal profile. The feed tray is made from a profile and is attached to the bottom shelfL-shaped base. A piece of pipe is attached to a vertical frame, having previously cut a recess at one end for spilling food.
You can make a feeder out of a tin can. At a distance of 5 cm from the bottom of the can, a slot is cut to the middle of the container. The front wall is cut and fixed with rivets. Everything, the fixture is ready!
Chute type device
This design is almost the simplest of all types. This is confirmed by the photo of the rabbit feeder. It is not difficult to make it with your own hands, the main thing is to understand what its peculiarity is. There are many varieties of groove devices, it all depends on the location and method of mounting the device.
As the name suggests, this is a conventional gutter made of various materials (metal, wood, plastic). These feeders are used to supply concentrated feed or root crops.
The simplest device is a device made from a plastic pipe. It is simply cut, and the ends are closed with plugs. A groove feeder is attached inside the cage to one of its walls. Devices of this type allow you to feed several animals at the same time.
Rabbit nursery feeders
Such devices are more in demand in small farms. They are designed to serve pets their favorite delicacy - grass, hay. Since such devices are most often located outside the cell, this allows you to keep it clean. Mounteda manger on the bright side of the rabbits' dwelling. In appearance, they resemble a nursery for pets, hence the name of the device.
The order of making a manger
The simplest design is the V-shaped model. Having collected all the simple materials for the manufacture of the device (plywood, tin, wire or mesh), we get to work.
Operation order:
- In accordance with the size of the door on the cage, cut out two side walls.
- We cut grooves on the sidewalls to attach the entire structure to the cage.
- Use a wooden block to fasten the side parts of the feeder.
- The front can be cut out of plywood, but tin is better, it is stronger and not affected by moisture. We attach this part to the sidewalls.
- But the back wall, through which the rabbits will get food, can be made of mesh. If the door in the cage is slatted, then the back wall can be omitted, pets will get food through it.
Cup feeders
You shouldn't stop at cup devices. All novice rabbit breeders know them. After all, any bowl can become a cup feeder.
The positive side is its versatility, you can serve any food. But the main problem is that the bowl often turns over and the food gets dirty quickly.
Modern industry offers many options for different ceramic feeders,which are in demand among beginner rabbit breeders.
When making your own feeding device, you must remember an important rule - any feeder should be comfortable not only for the pet, but also for the person who serves the animal. A rabbit feeder must comply with hygienic requirements, which is the main factor in maintaining the he alth of a fluffy pet.
