Water dish instead of water bottle

[Serious]

Is this okay? My rabbit only seems to drink out of water bottles if he's dying of thirst. I noticed he'd rather wait until he got out of his cage to drink from my cat's dish than actually drink from a bottle (I'm using the one from his cage at the rescue he was at). I got him his own water dish, and he seems very happy with it. I also do not miss leaky, noisy water bottles. Any problems I should watch for with this? I wipe it out every day before refilling (whether it's dirty or not).

 

[Bunnymom,K]

As long as you check it frequently, some bunnies will play with a water dish and dump it. There is nothing wrong with using a water dish instead of a bottle unless your bunny has long hair around the face or has very long ears like the english lop.

 

[Serious]

Great- my boy's a new zealand, so no problems there.

 

[elrohwen]

As long as he's not dumping it out in the cage, no problem! I prefer water dishes because I feel that water bottles are never totally clean. I use them with my gerbils because they would tip a water bowl, but my bun never dumps his water out so he gets a dish.

 

[Brandy456]

Bunnymom,K wrote:

As long as you check it frequently, some bunnies will play with a water dish and dump it. There is nothing wrong with using a water dish instead of a bottle unless your bunny has long hair around the face or has very long ears like the english lop.

Even if a bun has long hair around their face (as Babii does -lionhead/minilop-) they can still drink from a bottle, it's their preference.I hardly EVER find hairs in her bowl (if thats what you were leaning to).. she seems to save that for my clothes and furniture .

I find bottles alot less, sanitary then bowls. Mostly because it's so darn hard to clean them thouroughly, and the fact it's made of plastic and many uses can let out the toxins in plastic. And if you use a baby bottle cleaner, then it may scratch where it leads to bacteria in the 'dents'.

Anyways, it's your choice, and your buns, if he likes it more as a bowl, and you're willing to scoop out the flung shavings and occasional poop then go ahead

* ETA : try and get a ceramic bowl, it's not easily thrown therefor it makes less messes.
This is the bowl Babii has,

 

[Bunnymom,K]

Brandy456 wrote:

Bunnymom,K wrote:

As long as you check it frequently, some bunnies will play with a water dish and dump it. There is nothing wrong with using a water dish instead of a bottle unless your bunny has long hair around the face or has very long ears like the english lop.

Even if a bun has long hair around their face (as Babii does -lionhead/minilop-) they can still drink from a bottle, it's their preference.I hardly EVER find hairs in her bowl (if thats what you were leaning to).. she seems to save that for my clothes and furniture .

I was actually referring to the moisture causing mats and bacteria in the facial hair of rabbits with very long hair (such as angoras) and I have known quite a few people who have had english lops and say that their ears can get irritated when they get moist on a regular basis from a water dish.

 

[Brandy456]

Bunnymom,K wrote:

Brandy456 wrote:

Bunnymom,K wrote:

As long as you check it frequently, some bunnies will play with a water dish and dump it. There is nothing wrong with using a water dish instead of a bottle unless your bunny has long hair around the face or has very long ears like the english lop.

Even if a bun has long hair around their face (as Babii does -lionhead/minilop-) they can still drink from a bottle, it's their preference.I hardly EVER find hairs in her bowl (if thats what you were leaning to).. she seems to save that for my clothes and furniture .

I was actually referring to the moisture causing mats and bacteria in the facial hair of rabbits with very long hair (such as angoras) and I have known quite a few people who have had english lops and say that their ears can get irritated when they get moist on a regular basis from a water dish.

Ohh!.

Ok then , sorry =)

 

[Flash]

Water dishes definitely! Those bottles OY cleaning them and drip drip drip. My bunny used to drink out of my cats water dispenser too.

 

[Jerry in So IL]

I only use water bowl, heavy bottom "crocks". I like them because the animal can get more water. This keeps the pee smell down as well!

Like others have said, it might take a little moving around to get the right spot.

Jerry

 

[Flashy]

Yup, I too only use crocks for mine. I personally find them far better Make sure you do get a heavy ceramic bowl for her and that should be fine.

 

[jamesedwardwaller]

my rabbits have the option of either,,bottle or dish/crock,.the natural way for a rabbit to drink is downward,,the bottle has its flaws,,we once had a teddy bear hamster that dehydrated/died due to a faulty bottle,..i believe they need both,,but people are inherently-lazy and will do what ever suits them,,.sincerely james waller

 

[Flashy]

Why is it you believe they need both?

 

[Gordon]

My two guys spent the first four years of their lives accustomed to water bottles, but when I adopted them, I experimented with a simple ol' cereal bowl, particularly because I wanted them to have free run of the house, and have various places to get a drink. Worked fine, from day one. Heck, if I was a rabbit, I'd rather have a nice bowl to drink out of, too. Those water bottles always seemed like torture devices to me.

 

[Brandy456]

Gordon wrote:

My two guys spent the first four years of their lives accustomed to water bottles, but when I adopted them, I experimented with a simple ol' cereal bowl, particularly because I wanted them to have free run of the house, and have various places to get a drink. Worked fine, from day one. Heck, if I was a rabbit, I'd rather have a nice bowl to drink out of, too. Those water bottles always seemed like torture devices to me.

Exactlyy, and on nice hot days you have a personal bath depending on your buns size of course lol.

But with the water bottles, babii would chew out the bottom part(plastic) because she'd get fustrated and 1)it's not good for her to injest and, 2) it flooded babii's cage.

 

[Gordon]

Brandy456 wrote:

But with the water bottles,  babii would chew out the bottom part (plastic) because she'd get fustrated  and 1)it's not good for her to injest  and, 2) it flooded babii's cage. 

I never thought about that. Mine like to chew, so I have all electrical cords very well protected, but plastic is something to think about. I can a see a frustrated bunny chewing a hole in a water bottle! :shock:

 

[littlemisslacie]

We just recently purchased an automatic water filler which seems to work great!
Our two buns drink lots of water and we experimented with plastic bowls but they were too light so they would tip them. Then we went to heavy ceramic bowls and we found they would get dirty so quickly.
So far the automatic water filler has seemed great, it stays fairly clean and says it has a system that get rid of bacteria lol. It's heavy so they cant flip it and its very easy to clean! And its also very easy to monitor how much they drink because on the water jug at the top there are lines so you can see how much the water has gone down

 

[Brandy456]

Gordon wrote:

Brandy456 wrote:

But with the water bottles, babii would chew out the bottom part (plastic) because she'd get fustrated and 1)it's not good for her to injest and, 2) it flooded babii's cage.

I never thought about that. Mine like to chew, so I have all electrical cords very well protected, but plastic is something to think about. I can a see a frustrated bunny chewing a hole in a water bottle! :shock:

Yeah, thats what she does when it doesn't go fast enough for her liking. Then it surely goes fast enough when theres a whole in the bottle :twitch:

 

[Saudade]

I've never had a problem with this. Lucy does get frustrated and pull on the water bottle but I straight away fill it up and it goes a lot faster, sometimes on hot days or in the mornings I will sit down next to her cage and squeeze it till she's had enough.

 

[YukonDaisy]

Mine definitely prefer crocks for their water, they just can't get enough water fast enough. Newt would get *so* mad at his bottle and he'd yank on it, chew it, etc. So I gave in a switched them back to crocks, he's much happier now. And Ookpik's bottle started to leak, eventhough it's never supposed to.

 

[LuvMyRabbits]

I have water dishes( im not sure what to actually call them )in each of their cages for at night time as well as a big community waterer out in my room for them when they are out. I tried the water bottles but ended up wasting so much bedding from them leaking out all night long so I had to look for other alternatives. I bought a water bowl for them but they just kept spilling it..what I ended up doing was getting something that was actually for bird seed that hooks onto the side of their cages it was only like $1.49 but it serves the purpose quite well...occasionally Shadow will go under it and battleram it with his head and spill it everywhere but other than those occasions it works great! and has just enough room to give them enough water for the night since that's the only time they are in their cages..