My mini rex is drinking alot

[tonyandlaurie]

Im pretty new to the wonderful world of rabbits so not sure what to think....i have 2 rex buns one is a big male named buddy and the other is a female mini rex, im starting to notice my female drinks so much more then my male i actually traded the water bottles because my male had a bigger one. She will sit and drink for about 15 minutes at a time. Her pooping is normal her eating is good she just drinks about 14-16 oz bottle of water a day. Just need some suggestions

 

[Imbrium]

some rabbits drink more than others (and to a degree, it depends on their veggie intake as to how much water they think they need). combined, my two drink at least a liter a day... my holland drinks a lot more of it than my lionhead. she used to sit at the water bottle for 10-15 mins at a stretch just drinking and drinking. I even got a urinalysis done just to make sure there wasn't something wrong causing her to drink so much... nope, totally fine.

you might try giving her a bowl if she's a heavy drinker - I tried a bowl for my bunns at one point and they loved it so much I made a permanent switch to a cheap cat waterer from walmart

 

[tonyandlaurie]

I normally feed both of them a small amout of pellat and two romaine lettce leaves (cause they refuse everything else) , and during the day they get a small amount of timothy hay....but like you said imbrium all buns are different...thank you so much

 

[earsnted]

tonyandlaurie, you should make sure that they have unlimited hay all day/night long, should be like 75-80% of their diet. and depending on their age and weights, you should figure out exactly how much pellets they're supposed to have per day. and they can have around 2 cups of freshly chopped veggies per day. not to many treats or fruits, but some are fine. and unlimited water all day/night long as well.



but its perfectly normal for them to drink large amounts, they drink as much as they feel they need, and until they're satisfied

 

[Imbrium]

diet info (with feeding amounts) and veggie lists, if you're interested:
http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/diet.html#babies
http://www.3bunnies.org/feeding.htm

 

[ldoerr]

That is actually a fairly normal about for a mini rex to drink. When I had my rabbitry I used 32oz water bottles for all my rabbits. The mini rex on average drank 1/2-3/4 of the bottle each day. When it was hot out they would often drink 1-2 full bottles a day. My californians on average drank a full bottle at least 1x per day and often times more than 1 a day. Lots of my cages had 2 bottles on them. Now with my 2 girls I use 20oz bowls (there are 2 in the cage). Some days they will drain both bowls and other days they barely drink anything at all. I think that the difference is that before my rabbits were kept in a wooden shed with lots of ventalation and fans outside and my 2 girls now are kept inside and have been spayed, get veggies daily and are older.