Has anyone made insulating sleeves for their water bottles?

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TerriG

TerriG

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I have been tossing this idea around in my head and am still trying to work some of the logistics out.

We use 2 liter bottles and 32 oz bottles (some are the square ones, some are the round ones) mounted on the outside of the cages.

I have been thinking about wool socks or something like that that would slide over the outside of the bottle. I would have to make new holders for some of them, but that isn't a big deal. I think I would have to put something between the wool and the hardware cloth to keep the rabbits from chewing on the socks. I guess I could use cardboard as a temporary solution.

I'm also trying to think about filling the bottles. It would be a pain to take the socks off every time, but I also don't want them to get wet and freeze.

What do you guys think? Help me think through the logistics.
 
I've been thinking about this too. Since the water doesn't move, I'm not sure if anything would work. I'm also having issues on how to keep the nozzle from freezing.
 
If you're using a bottle with a tube insulating the bottle is pointless. It's the tube that is the problem. The metal conducts heat easily and the amount of water is small so it loses temp fast and freezes before the rest of the bottle. If you get some of these http://www.firststatevetsupply.com/stor ... erers.html freezing will take a little longer and you can just buy a few extras and swap ends out if the bottle itself isn't freezing. Only good for moderately low temps though. We see subzero and at that level it's pointless.

I prefer my heated lixit bottles and having electricity nearby. We had to run extension cords all over the barn and then split them off in to smaller extension cords that went to each bottle or a power strip that plugged in several close together bottles but it was worth it. We also would combine all the rabbits we could in to one colony and use a poultry waterer on a heater base rather than a bottle for everyone. I just pulled the bucks and does that weren't compatible for breeding all together over the winter and put those in cages with heated bottles while the majority remained in colony. It brought us down to about a dozen bottles and 2 poultry waterers for around 60 rabbits at any given time.
 
akane":13icolck said:
If you're using a bottle with a tube insulating the bottle is pointless. It's the tube that is the problem. The metal conducts heat easily and the amount of water is small so it loses temp fast and freezes before the rest of the bottle. If you get some of these http://www.firststatevetsupply.com/stor ... erers.html freezing will take a little longer and you can just buy a few extras and swap ends out if the bottle itself isn't freezing. Only good for moderately low temps though. We see subzero and at that level it's pointless.

I prefer my heated lixit bottles and having electricity nearby. We had to run extension cords all over the barn and then split them off in to smaller extension cords that went to each bottle or a power strip that plugged in several close together bottles but it was worth it. We also would combine all the rabbits we could in to one colony and use a poultry waterer on a heater base rather than a bottle for everyone. I just pulled the bucks and does that weren't compatible for breeding all together over the winter and put those in cages with heated bottles while the majority remained in colony. It brought us down to about a dozen bottles and 2 poultry waterers for around 60 rabbits at any given time.
Click to expand...

Well, considering today's high was 17 ... :/ I've looked at the heated bottles, but we are already running off of extension cord out there. I don't want to run too much on it.

Our actual bottles are freezing, sometimes solid.
 
'm thinking of getting several sets of bottles and just switching frozen ones with warm ones.
 
I hate having to use crocks in the winter. [ Amandainohio]
So do I! But there is really no alternative,
unless you have a heated Rabbitry/barn!
Winter comes and goes every year, and somehow
the Rabbit muddle through and are none the worse
for it! I think it's harder on ME! Having to be
out there feeding and watering day after day!
What the heck is wrong with me! Putting up
with the stress just to house and keep my Rabbits safe and well fed?
Ottersatin. :eek:ldtimer:
 
I feel the same way. Unless I plan to heat the barn, that' pretty much all I can do. Especially on an extension cord, I'm pushing it with having lights on a timer.

The only sad part is when some impatient bunny empties the crock or pulls it off the wire and flings it to the back. And one adult SF, insists on peeing in her crock.
 
a7736100":3ebrpexf said:
'm thinking of getting several sets of bottles and just switching frozen ones with warm ones.
Click to expand...

This is what I do. When I'm at work they have to deal with it until I get home but when I"m home I swap out the bottles fairly regularly. To be fair I only have one bottle for my outdoor colony but it worked fine all last winter. Morgan had a few litters throughout the winter and they all did well. I have a bit of paranoia about fire in the chicken coops and rabbit colony and I'm not comfortable running extension cords out through the backyard to where the animals are. They'll adapt. The rabbits will also eat any snow that blows into the colony, I think it's like ice cream to them...lol!
 
When I had a large number of rabbits outside, I did put a bunch in a large pen together, and twice a day, took out a bowl of warm water- They drank their fill of WARM water twice a day, and fared well. All cages had crocks, I'd fill with warm water, pass out the food, and then top off the water again. It worked well.
 
I use a gravity flow automated system. I put an aquarium heater in the 5 gallon buckets, that put the water in there at 78 +/- degrees, then I have one heat lamp per 5 cages in the barn. No more frozen nibblers as cold as 19. I do keep bottles in case the system freezes, I can fill those and swap them as needed. Only once did I have to go to crocks - ice storm and no power for 2 weeks so no way to prevent freezing.
 
Frosted Rabbits":32oc6yu2 said:
When I had a large number of rabbits outside, I did put a bunch in a large pen together, and twice a day, took out a bowl of warm water- They drank their fill of WARM water twice a day, and fared well. All cages had crocks, I'd fill with warm water, pass out the food, and then top off the water again. It worked well.
Click to expand...

This is what I do.

I also give them a separate dish of snow When the water freezes overnight the rabbits can still nibble at the snow.
 
I use bottles in warm weather and crocks when freezing. It's not all that much bother to change water twice a day since I generally feed twice a day anyhow. My rabbit hutch is a former horse shed with one light bulb in the middle, no other electrical outlets. When I had chickens I used a heated pan on the floor but I have my rabbits in 5 separate cages and like others I'm wary of running a bunch of extension cords off that one outlet and especially if there is any chance a rabbit might chew a cord.
I think for my use the best system would be stainless steel bowls. I'd carry in a bucket of hot water, drop the frozen bowls in and being steel they would not be cracked or damaged by the sudden temp change. In thirty seconds the ice would pop free of the steel, then just dip the bowl full of water and toss out the ice blocks. I will have such bowls before next winter but for now I get by with crockery and glass bowls from the thrift store.
 

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