Question About Vanilla in Water

[cirrustwi]

I've been putting imitation vanilla extract inthe water for the buns, but now I have a question about it. Iusually fill a gallon jug with water and add 1 tsp vanilla and thenfill all my water bottles from there. It just occurred to methat I fill my rats' and ferrets' water bottles at the sametime,and I'm not sure if vanilla is ok for them.Anyway, I posted about it on a rat and a ferret forum I belongto. I got a response on the rat forum saying that she wouldbe concerned about the alcohol in the vanilla. I honestlyhadn't even thought of that. Now I'm wondering aboutit. Is it safe?

Jen

 

[dootsmom]

the alcohol evaporates!

 

[imported_Austin]

The amount of vanilla that you are putting intothe drinking water is not very much at all. I use 1 TBS pergal of water in the water for my rabbits - including babies.If you are using imitation vanilla, I'm not sure there is even verymuch alcohol in it. Real vanilla may have alcohol in it butby the time you diluted it into a gal of water, I wouldn't worry aboutsuch a smallamount. If you see any odd behavior orillness in your other animals, then I would consider that maybe thevanilla could be a problem to them. Otherwise, I wouldn'tworry about it.

 

[cirrustwi]

I honestly hadn't thought about the alcoholuntil this woman responded about it. My rabbits are fine withit and so are my rats and ferrets. They don't act strangelyor anything, except Orion absolutely hates it! I just had toask.

Jen

 

[dajeti2]

I was concerned as well. I read mybottle and there wasn't any alcohol in mine. I by the cheapestimitation brand there is so maybe that has something to do with it. Ithink the alcohol is only a problem if you add alot of it atonce.

I've used it for over a year and have never had a problem. Iknow of two breeders that also use it for their rabbits including kitsand haven't had any problems.

Hope that helps.

Tina

 

[JimD]

Imagine!!!! A bunch of drunken bunnies :shock:

:groupparty:

 

[Jenniblu]

I've been giving my rat a little imitationvanilla in her water lately to encourage her to drink with the recenthot weather. No ill side effects, but her water consumptionis better.

 

Jenniblu wrote:

I've been giving my rat a little imitation vanilla in herwater lately to encourage her to drink with the recent hotweather. No ill side effects, but her water consumption isbetter.

Yep I agree with Jenni, I have been using it on allmy animals rats mice gerbilsand rabbits lol i even put itin the Cats water disheslol you aught to see them faceslol . there isnt enough alcohol inthe vanilla to worry about , andas Austin mentioned itevaporates quickly enough notto bother them .

 

[cirrustwi]

Thanks! I'm going to continue to giveit to them. They seem to like it. I wish they wouldteach Orion about liking it. He literally didn't drink for 24hours because I was trying to get him to drink the vanilla water.

Jen

 

[Cheetos mom]

How funny.... Had one of the Canadian members read this, they would have known the answer....

The imitation vanilla contains NO ALCOHOL.

Last I resided in the good ol' cold country, the Canadian governmentdid not allow the real stuff to be sold because of the alcohol content.Its kinda like the US government monitoring the amount of cold remediesan individual can buy, because of the illegal possibilities....

Don't worry about your critters.