Water bottle

[cousteau]

Hi. I'm new to the site. I just got an 8month old Holland Lop two weeks ago. He has been drinking from a dish since December. When I got him home I tried to get him to use a water bottle but he won't. He rubs his chin on it all the time but doesn't actually drink from it. I don't even think he knows there is water in there. I tried to take his water bowl out of his cage for a little bit each day, and when I put it back in he runs to it and drinks for a while. I really would rather use a bottle because he gets his water dish so dirty and I'm constantly cleaning it. Does any one have any suggestions.

 

[Maureen Las]

Unfortunately we recommend that you let him drink from a bowl or crock. rabbits tend to drink more from a bowl than from a bottle. Keeping the water clean is part of being a good bunny owner
Once you have had him for awhile you will end up doing everything to please him anyway
Some rabbits have had eye injuries from the hitting thespouts of bottles...bowls are better

 

[Bo B Bunny]

I can't use a bowl for Clover cause she flips her litter and poos so badly when she moves around...... so she has a bottle.

Diesel (the kitten) is teething and apparently a nice plastic waterbottle with cool fresh water was just what his sore gums needed.... :X Clover got a nice GLASS water bottle yesterday. I have found she drinks more from it than when she has a bowl around sometimes..... like in their play area. She will actually go to the water bottle.

However, Bo likes his crock..... but will enjoy a sip from a bottle too......

SO..... we tend to use both.

 

[werecatrising]

All my buns drink from bowls. They drink so much more that way. I have just gotten used to changing them several times a day.

 

[Flashy]

It might be that your bowl is not in a place that works for this bun. What is it that makes the water dish so dirty? How often are you having to change it?

All 17 of mine use a bowl, but with some I hav had to get creative to avoid mess. Like some have their bowl up on bricks, some have it away from everything on a shelf, others have it in a plastic tray, very few just have it sitting wherever I want it to go.

 

[cousteau]

He tends to get a lot of bedding, hay and some poop in his water dish. I don't like to see it dirty for him so I change it every time I see stuff in the water which is several times a day. He also likes to play with paper towel tubes but they land in the water and get all wet and fall apart, so he then loses his toy until we empty another roll. He does have other toys but that seems to be his favorite. I also go away for week in the summer and have some one come twice a day to take care of my other animals but I'm afraid that won't be enough to keep his water clean.

I have an appointment to get him neutered in 3 weeks. He sprays alot, especially when I'm around. He gets really excited and starts to dig then he sprays. I hope that ends when he gets neutered. Hopefully once he stops spraying I'm going to change to newspaper for the bottom of the cage and only use bedding in the litter box, which he is really good about peeing in (pooping is a whole other story!). So hopefully that will limit the amount of debris in the water.

I have tried 3 different types of bottles. At one time I had two bottles and his water bowl. I keep his water bottle right next to his water dish.

 

[BlueCamasRabbitry]

All my buns know how to drink from both a water bottle and a crock. Though, right now all three of my mini rex have bowls, and Bruce has a water bottle too, he drinks out of the bowl.

My bunnies who drink out of waterbottles all the time, know how to drink out of dishes, and we kind of had to teach them how to. At fair they're required to have dishes (unless it's an EL or an Angora, they get bottles), so it was important that the bunnies knew how to drink out of a dish.

I wish that my mini rex would drink out of bottles though! Ray had to get switched to a dish because his bottle wouldn't stay on the cage properly, but he can drink from one. I don't know about Sage. We gave her both a dish and bottle when we first got her and I've only seen her use the dish. Lily can use both a bottle and a dish, and Bruce has always had a water dish as far as I know. He came with his water dish, so I'm assuming that's all he can drink from.

It is a pest emptying and cleaning their dishes, but it's just something that has to be done. Even if you use a bottle, you'd want to put fresh, clean water in at least every two days.

Emily

 

[FallingStar]

All of my rabbits are drinking out of water bottles at the moment. My rabbits seem fine drinking out of water bottles and crocks.
But during most of the winter months, they are using crocks because it freezes over here quite often and crocks are more handy during those months.
But when they are using crocks you have to clean them out more often because hay, poo, etc. gets in the water and all. And when my rabbits use crocks I clean them out everyday, and when they have water bottles (most of the time) I clean them out every 2 days. Like Emily (BlueSky) said.

-
Karlee

 

[tonyshuman]

I have both bowls and bottles because I work long hours so I can't guarantee that no poop gets in the bowl while I'm gone. Also, some of my guys seem to prefer the bottle. We also go on some long car trips occasionally so they need to drink from a bottle then. I figure as long as there's both, they'll choose one, and just keep the bowl as clean as you can. I have some nice glass bottles to keep them from chewing on them.

 

[jcottonl02]

Bo B Bunny wrote:

I can't use a bowl for Clover cause she flips her litter and poos so badly when she moves around...... so she has a bottle.

Diesel (the kitten) is teething and apparently a nice plastic waterbottle with cool fresh water was just what his sore gums needed.... :X Clover got a nice GLASS water bottle yesterday. I have found she drinks more from it than when she has a bowl around sometimes..... like in their play area. She will actually go to the water bottle.

However, Bo likes his crock..... but will enjoy a sip from a bottle too......

SO..... we tend to use both.

I can't use bowls either lol. Benji looovveess to throw things. He noses his ball around, picks things up and chucks them. He even tries to steal my knitting needles as I'm knitting! Consequently he tips his bowl over every single darn time.

I can't use a bowl for Pippin either because he drags it down his stairs and smashes it. He's smashed 3 bowls so far, and I've been so worried he'll hurt himself he has a bottle too.

I know bottles work for my buns- I change them every day or sometimes every two days at most, and after two days at least half the water is gone- and these are biiiiiggg bottles lol! I see them drinking all the time- so I know they are fine with them.

 

[naturestee]

My first bun, Mocha, couldn't drink from any bottle. She had a bowl at the pet store. She would try to lick the little ball in the spout and would get frustrated that hardly any water would come out. We tried a bunch of different brands and types before realizing that some rabbits just don't do well with water bottles.

All of my rabbits that have used water bottles prefer bowls and drink more from them.

Mocha used to love throwing toys into her water bowl when she was a baby and it made a huge mess. To stop it, I bought a floating dog ball that was the perfect size and put that in her water bowl. She could easily push it aside and put her nose in to drink but it prevented most of the toys she threw from falling into the water.

I clean my water bowls once a day, twice someone kicked hay or poop into it. That's not any more work than a water bottle as those should be cleaned every day too. They can get really gross with bacteria and algae.

Edit: oh, and I use ceramic small dog bowls that are too heavy for the rabbits to drag around and have thick edges that are hard for them to grab hold of. Loki's tried. He can flip a weighted litterbox over but he can't move the water bowls.

 

[jcottonl02]

Lol same!!!! I use ceramic dog bowls too but they manage to knock them over and nose them down the stairs to smash. Trust me I have tried eevvveeerryyy type of bowl i can find lol.

They are so resourseful- I swear they must whip out those little cranes and hammers when I turn away lol!!!

 

[cousteau]

Thanks for the hint about putting a ball in the dish. I'll try that. He still isn't using the bottle and I think I should just give up. I use a small ceramic cat food dish so it's heavy enough that he doesn't move it. He just gets a lot of stuff in it. Maybe the ball will save his paper towel rolls!