Designing and 3D printing feeders & accessories

[DonyaQuick]

So far the lower height chick waterer stand is doing exactly what I hoped it would: bite into the shavings to keep the waterer steady, and also keep it up just barely enough that it's much harder for shavings to get pushed up risk wicking water over the edge into the brooder. This stand is blue because I wanted PETG for use around a heat lamp and happened to have a blue reel of that ready to go. PETG was probably unecessary...I'm sure PLA would've been fine too but PETG's glass point is quite a lot higher and I just didn't want to take any chances. In retrospect clear PETG might have been even smarter for use around a heat lamp (no extra pigment to absorb heat) but the blue is doing just fine. In a day or two I will transition these chicks to a larger enclosure with a brooder plate for heat instead of the lamp, and then I will feel a lot more more comfortable using PLA for everything again - both because I'll be able to place it farther away from the heat source and because the heat source will be less potent.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Not feeder related, but early on in the thread someone had mentioned using 3D modeling/printing to make prosthetics for animals. I did something vaguely along those lines recently: boots that allow per-toe taping to fix curled toes for chicks (which also avoids having to use scissors anywhere near tiny feet). This was for a chick that spent about 6-8h in more traditional wedge-shaped card boots but was increasingly being able to twist its foot sideways within the tape, kind of defeating the point of the boot and letting it regress a bit back to a more curled state. This PETG-printed boot structure allowed per-toe tape to permit normal ankle motion while stopping rolling-type rotation and allowing a textured surface on the "heel" portion so the chick didn't slip as much. Took no more than 20min from opening CAD to taping finished boots onto feet. Stl file is attached as a zip. If anyone uses it, just bear in mind it may need to be scaled in the X/Y horizontal plane to best fit a chick other than the one I designed it for (but leave Z-axis at 100% to preserve thickness).

Boot design

Before any type of boot. Totally unable to stand/walk within a normal timeframe after hatch since both feet were like this.

Wearing the boots. Feet were about half corrected at this point. Chick walked much better with the 3D boots.

Immediately after boot removal when I decided they weren't doing much anymore.

And today, which is about 5 days later. One foot still looks a little less than perfectly straight but this chick can run, jump, and grasp perches just fine.