Do you have random watering nipples floating around your home or rabbitry with missing or broken bottles? I have found a number of mateless nipples (ignore the seeming dirty puns in this article. Gutter head?) from the first bunch of rabbits my mom had way before I decided to start. The bottles were long gone, and the random nipples were found, caked with dirt but still usable. What to do with random nipples, you may ask? Throw them out? Make a cool centerpiece? Science project? Some brands of bottles have nipples that work with pop bottles. Meaning, you can just screw on that nipple to a well rinsed out Cherry Coke bottle and use it as a water bottle! I have found Propel bottles work great on Sirius, and that the dark A&W bottles don't allow algae to grow inside because of the plastic's properties. Don't forget that you still need to change out old bottles after awhile because of the decaying plastic, but it's definitely cheaper to pull a bottle out of your trash than to replace it with a new water bottle from a feed store--and then you still have that extra nipple. Just beware of a couple things; not all brands of nipples work with all brands of pop bottles. Some bottles have narrow necks or wide mouths, and their nipples are formed to fit on them rather than a discarded bottle. Also, these bottles aren't always a perfect seal even when they still produce water; they will leak a little around the seal if you squeeze too hard. They also drip some, but that's most bottles for you. However, it's worth a shot to see, especially if your nipple fits on a 40 ounce pop bottle or if a local farmer getting out of rabbits hands you a bunch of loose nipples. Nobody liked loose nipples before now, after all.
0 Comments
This sounds self explanatory to most seasoned breeders, especially if you're in a hot climate. But this post is mostly focusing on different kinds of bottles rather than the easily destroyed cheap generic water bottles.
I've tried lots of different brands of drink bottles to find the perfect bottle for my big meat rabbits. They chew, they sling, and they dig and put them in holes, often all at once. The water bottles are empty and unusable again from the holes gnawed into the caps and bottoms. So I had to go looking for a certain type of bottle that did work. Finding out what works best in your own herd is all about knowing your major chewers and who doesn't even really use them. Obviously, those who don't chew or don't even seem to care about the added chill don't need a heavy duty Gatorade bottle, while the German Shepherd- and Doberman-jawed rabbits practically need stainless steel thermoses! So I decided to conduct an experiment (that is never ending so I'll update this when I can) with bottles of different brands and kinds of drinks. The bottles I tried were:
|
Follow for tips and tricks!
This is one out of three of the site's blogs. Here you can find a few things that have worked for us, and that maybe you could try, too! ArchivesCategories |