Homemade Automatic Pet Waterer

Water flushes toxins from your pet's body and protects cells from disease.

It's important for pets to have access to fresh, clean water, but you can't always be home to give it to them. An automatic waterer with a filtering system makes it easy to keep your pet watered. The models sold commercially can be expensive and take up a lot of room, but making one takes only a few minutes and few materials. You'll be surprised just how easy it is to make sure your pets always have the fresh, clean water they need.

Things You'll Need

• 2-liter plastic bottle
• Large flat-bottomed dish
• Thin plastic strips
• Scissors
• Small aquarium circulating filter

Instructions

1. Cut a 1-by-1-inch square hole into the bottom of your plastic bottle. Use the kind of bottle with space between its bottom and the surface it's sitting on and cut the hole in the center.

2. Place the bottle into a large flat-bottomed dish. There should be enough room for your pet to get at the water, so use a large dish.

3. Assemble the aquarium filter using the manufacturer's instructions. Don't worry about the activated charcoal, it's used widely in water filters for humans as well and it won't hurt your pet.

4. Hang the aquarium filter on the edge of the water bowl and use the plastic strips to make sure it's as even as you can get it.

5. Fill the bottle with water. It should flow out of the hole at the bottom and fill up the dish around it. And then it should fill up the bottle itself. The water level in the dish should be up to the bottom of the filter's tube.

Tips & Warnings

• Add a little water to the filter to make sure it's primed before you turn it on.

• If the water doesn't flow well out of the bottle and into the bowl, poke a small hole in the bottle cap with a thumbtack. The hole will let air get in to keep the water moving.

References

• The Daily Puppy: DIY Automatic Pet Feeder Plans
• Instrutables: Filtered Pet Watering Bowl
• Your Great Pet: The Importance of Water