The boys will be getting a new doe (girl rabbit) soon. As a result, we need another one of everything that we have for the rabbits. This runs into $$ fast!
I transformed our dog crate into a rabbit cage to use while we are building our hutch. We are in the process right now. This saved me at least $50. We will use the water and food cups from our transport cage instead of buying a bottle and feeder. I'm going to try to pick those up used somewhere and save a few $$. If purchased new, they would be at the very least $10. But, we still needed to figure the hay feeder.
The feeders that we are using for both Jabba and Jango are meant to hold large cakes of bird feed. They are around $12-15 at Walmart. I just so happened to find them during the off season for $2.00 each. No way would I pay the original price right now just for something to hold hay.
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| Jabba and Jango's Hay Feeder |
So, I decided to look at several other local stores. Tractor Supply sales an actual hay feeder for rabbits at around $7.00. Still, I thought I could do better than that. I gathered stuff I had here at home, and made this baby.
It was so easy. I can't believe I didn't think of it sooner.
All you need is heavy gauge wire with 1x1 holes, wire clips, j-clips, j-clip pliers, and a metal file. (Ignore the zip ties in the photo. Didn't use those)
Now comes the fun part. Cut out your pieces of wire. Don't try to just bend the wire to fit into a box shape. It just works better if you cut it and clip it back together.
You will need two 6x5 pieces, two 5x2 pieces, a 6x2 piece, and a 1x2 piece.
I tried to show you how I laid them out in this graphic. I hope it isn't too confusing.
Once you have all the pieces attached to each other, just fold it up and clip it together.
For the hanger I cut the 1x2 piece, clipped out the back of one of the squares, and folded the wires over to hang the basket from the side of the cage.
That's it. Super easy. And since I used supplies I already had, it didn't cost me a penny.
Just remember to take your metal file and file all the sharp edges down smooth.
I'm sharing this post at Homestead Revival's Barn Hop and The Morristribe.
1 comment:
Thanks so much for getting back to me with the link for this post.
Do you find that your rabbits use this hay feeder? I found a cylinder shaped bird feeder and stuffed it with hay for my rabbits and neither of them showed any interest. They decided it was better not to eat hay than make the effort to take it out of a feeder!! I remember seeing something similar in the shops when I was buying the cylinder hay feeder so if its successful I might pop back for it.
I tried again with a cardboard box with a hole cut out (secured to their cage) and it's been more successful but there's still a lot of waste...
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