Water Bottles

[warminwisco]

They eventually drip from the ball bearing. Just normal wear from jiggling, hard water buildup? Think I am gonna go bottled water from now on? Costco pretty reasonable.

 

[Aki]

I abandonned those a decade ago and never looked back. For me, and most vets today, a bowl is still the best solution. It doesn't drip, it can't get stuck, there is no mold developping in places really hard to reach when you clean and the position the rabbit takes to drink is a lot better physiologically speaking. When you think about it, the idea of pushing a ball with your tongue to get water drop by drop, while arching your neck backward kinda sounds like some sort of convoluted torture scheme ^^

 

[RavenousDragon]

I think the dripping is often just normal wear. I also use bowls but Whiskey (my male rabbit) actually prefers his bottle so he gets both! He's a boredom drinker and likes the noise the water bottle makes I believe- but most rabbits I've had have indeed preferred the bowl. The only risk is spilling (we use heavy ceramic ones). I do like the idea of having mine know that water comes form a bottle too though- in cases of travel or moving or whatever, a bottle is definitely easier in those cases.

 

[Blue eyes]

I also switched to bowls after seeing one of my rabbits clearly agitated at the water bottle spout. He much preferred the bowl. Since then, all of my rabbits have had bowls and do tend to drink more from the bowl. It is a more natural way to drink. How many spouts of water does one find in the wild? onder:

If you are concerned about bowl flipping or spilling, try one of these. They twist on to a clamp that is attached to the cage side.

 

[majorv]

There are water bottles that have a spring loaded stem. The rabbit just pushes it with his top teeth to release the water, and they don't drip. That's what we used when we first started with rabbits. That being said, we switched to bowls because it was easier.

 

[Preitler]

I used normal 2 liter glas bottles upside down in tins and small crocks, pros are normal drinking from crocks and automatic refilling, downside is cleaning and freezing.

I'm back to crocks, about 1liter, in winter I put electric heating pads under them. 3-5W are good for -10°C, if needed I can increase the power.

Since my rabbits drink close to nothing most of the year (90% green food) I change water about weekly.

Well, I can't say that's ok for all rabbits, or even most, since mine seem to be quite sturdy local farm meat mutts that don't care the least about things like coccidosis and stuff.