Rabbit who doesn't seem to like water...

[napagirl]

Dimi has never been a big water drinker. We started her with a bowl, and added a bottle. She absolutely hates the bottle, so we are back to the bowl. We don't notice the level going down much. We give her pumpkin puree daily along with fresh herbs/veg that we try to keep nice and wet. She also gets unlimited timothy hay (it's the only hay she will eat). Since she is prone to stasis, especially during her big molting time in May, I want to make sure she is getting enough water! Any ideas or tips?

FWIW, she was a much better water drinker when she was very young. Seems to have slowed down on that after being spayed in Feb of 2013.

 

[pani]

Can you give her ice cubes? Maybe she'd enjoy licking at the condensation like Clementine does.

 

[lovelops]

Ice cubes is good. What about Pedialyte? You can try that in case you think she is not getting enough water. Mine don't like water because they were raised on kitten replacement milk and if they had their way would be drinking that noon and night, but some times when I think they are not drinking enough I go to Pedalyte and you can get flavored that is not colored so you can tell if there is a problem with their urine..

Vanessa

 

[napagirl]

Thanks for the suggestions... I will try ice cubes right away. With Pedialyte, do you use it straight or mix it at some percentage with water? I also read about adding a bit of apple juice to the water and was curious if anyone thought that would be ok....

 

[lovelops]

I've used Pedialyte straight. You can also add apple juice to the water as well! Let us know what works!

Vanessa

 

[PaGal]

Maybe try bottled water. I wonder if she may not like the taste of your water for some reason known only to her.

Maybe she would like colder water so try keeping a pitcher in the fridge.

If you don't maybe try giving her fresh water once or twice per day.

 

[Aushi]

Ice cubes, colder water, filtered (bottled) water, adding a bit of apple cider vinegar (it also makes their urine smell less funky ;3), if you opt for the vinegar its 2 tbsp per GALLON. So I would get an empty gallon bottle fill it up with water and add the tablespoons to that and just pour the water to their bowl from there so you don't risk adding too much per serving.

 

[napagirl]

Thanks for all the suggestions. The water I give her is the purest there is according to our guy who tests/changes filters on our reverse osmosis system. But it does come out of that at room temp. So maybe it could be the temperature. I'm going to try the bit of 100% apple juice as well...

 

[Azerane]

If she's getting a lot of fresh greens, it's quite likely that she's getting enough moisture intake from those alone so doesn't actually need to drink. I'm sure she knows the water is there and would drink it if she needed it. You can always gently pull up the skin behind the shoulders to see if it falls back into place quickly, if it doesn't it's a sign of dehydration.