I DON'T MIND LEARNING THE HARD WAY, AS LONG AS I'M LEARNING
Simplifying the process only works if you actually do it correctly.
A while ago I had a good idea: let's hook up a watering system for the rabbits so that we no longer have to fill the individual bottles. The idea was great and I even hooked up the system pretty well, but there was one error that I made.
MY MISTAKE
The mistake that I made, which should have been an obvious error in hindsight, was that I ran the plastic tubing directly next to the cages. The plastic tubing hooks a five gallon bucket of water up to six different watering spouts. This is supposed to allow rabbits in each pen to be able to drink as much as they want until the water supply is depleted.
Unfortunately, the tubing is not bite-proof and the rabbits can stick the front of their faces out of the cages. This allowed them to chew right through the tubing and ruin the whole system. Obviously, once a hole is in the system, it doesn't work anymore. Honestly, I should have thought about this ahead of time and realized that the rabbits, who like to gnaw, would reach the tubing and chew through it.
A CHEAP REPAIR AND A LESSON LEARNED
The tubing wasn't that expensive to replace, but I wasn't thrilled to have to invest more time in redoing something that I already did. Again, as long I learn my lesson I don't mind, but it still can be irritating. Thankfully, my caging allowed for a relatively easy fix, which also means that it would have been easy to just do properly in the first place.
Here you can see how I now put the tubing far away from the reach of the rabbits. I just wove it under the caging and brought it up to connect it to the drinking spout. This way, the only part that the rabbits can reach is the drinking spout.
I think that I have sufficiently learned from my mistakes, and hopefully by sharing this here you can all avoid making the same foolish mistakes that I did.... well for those of you who plan on hooking up watering systems for your rabbits anyway! Hope it helps.
As always, I'm @papa-pepper and here's the proof:
proof-of-fixing-my-mistake
Until next time…
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Are those rabbits for pets or food?
Trial and error is one of the best teachers. Those rabbits got sharp teeth. Reminds me of the true story of a guy who was dropping off an item at a friends house and had his Macaw in the front seat of his car. When he returned to the car, the Macaw had bitten clean through the steering wheel...
Wow! Now that is a story!
Yup, rabbits will chew on just about anything, including fingers ;-)
This is a good lesson for the other farm animals, especially pigs. Pigs will eat anything.
True story - in the UK I worked on a pig farm. One day a concrete block fell off a wall and into a pig pen. I saw it in the morning and went back in the afternoon to pull it out and put it back on the wall.
The pigs had eaten it! And they were eyeing up the next block that looked like it might come down.
Makes you wonder how they stayed in the pen huh? And these were super pigs. If they all got out and started rampaging through the countryside, no house withing about 10 miles would have been safe from being nibbled on.
I heard that a bowling ball is about the only toy that lasts with pigs, mostly because it is smooth and round enough for them to not be able to get a grip.
Great," that is why they is a say that experience is the best teacher" you have gain the experience. Kudos to you.
Hmm, one may not know the actual or correct way of doing a particular thing until you try one out. And experience is the best teacher
Good point!
I have learned more through "experience" (failure) then through success. The key is to not give up after the failure.
Wonderful idea..
and great work.
And yout pets are so cute i love this.
specially....
Thanks for sharing your thought. sir
@papa-pepper
Excelent idea! In this way your rabbits stays hidrateted all the time, and the most important thing is that you can go outside relaxed thinking that they have all they need. WATER and Food till you come back and verify them. Good ideea. Congratulation!
Thank you. I'm glad that you like it!
Seems like a genius idea in the first place. And you fixed the problem so easily. I would have been thinking copper pipe or something involving a lot more work. You may have noticed I'm homesteading vicariously through you and a few others. I live in downtown in a small town in Texas and the things you are doing fascinate me. Something I might have done when I was younger.
Cool! I'm glad that you find what we are to interesting. My wife was born in Texas and we enjoy heading there when we get the opportunity.
I have always learned the hard way. Every time it was irritating to repeat the the same thing that i had previously done. It requires a lot of patience.
Yeah, hopefully that irritation is encouragement to do it right the second time.
I would have such a system already, but as I ponder the snow on the ground I still wonder how you keep the system from icing upwhen their trays freeze solid?
Their strong chewing instinct that makes them such a great source of fertilizer can make them equally destructive if great care is not taken to keep vulnerable objects away from them.
Now that is a great fix!
It worked... so far!