Our tap water is completely fine but I use filtered water for my bun. I just have a Pur water pitcher on the counter and it’s great.  We all drink water from that.  I am sure it does not matter at all but I just personally do not trust tap water.

Edited:  My vet recommended purified water!  And my wonderful bunny sitter only uses purified water.  She has the very expensive kind that hooks up to the water supply! I want that one some day.

personally, if water is good enough for you, that’s what i would use for your bunnies. i think the more important thing is to not change it up from what they’re used to. so tap one day, bottled the next, filtered the day after. be consistent. i’ve also heard of people taking the familiar water when going on a trip or moving to another place and then slowly introducing the new water.

Good point Beka ^^ I never even thought about water and travelling, just bought a giant jug of water for the trip!!

We drink from the tap, so the bunnies do too! If I lived somewhere that I’d drink filtered water, they would too for sure though!!

I used tap water because it’s good here, and doesn’t get too cold very fast. I had read (and my vets confirmed) that refrigerated water is a bit too cold for them daily. In really hot weather that’s another story, but room temp is gentle on their systems.

For all those using tap-water. Ask your local health or water department WHAT EXACTLY they’re putting in for sanitation.

Many districts switched to Chloramine instead of Chlorine for this purpose and Chloramine CAN NOT BE FILTERED OR BOILED OUT! Chloramine has the advantage (for the water district) that it stays in the water and doesn’t gas out. So they need less to make long supply lines safe.

But Chloramine is pretty much tasteless and has little to no smell. The worst part is that chloramine can kill small animals. We used to live south of San Francisco and when they switched to Chloramine we got a flyer to not use the water in fish tanks, for small animals or baby food … but it’s save to drink for adults (yeah, right – it harms your baby but it’s save for you?)

There are several lawsuits agains water departments going on about this, because some people died from respiratory failure in the shower (some reaction when inhaling water vapor for people with astma and similar respiratory problems).

When it comes to bottled water, at least in California the label must show where it’s from. “Spring Water” can only come out of a well or spring, where “purified water” like Aquafina is basically filtered tab water or worse.

We’re using a tripple sediment and active coal filtration system which is installed under the sink, despite the excellent water quality in our area. We do have a couple gallons of spring water at hand for emergencies or when the buns go someplace for a couple of days. 

Brita Filters are good, but not as good as an installed multi-stage filtration system. Brita filters also – like any other filtration system – can not remove chloramine. The only way to remove chloramine is an ascorbic acid system. Expensive, but you can buy them online. They basically bind the chloramine to Vitamin C which makes it inert – but still, the resulting chemical stays in the water and nobody has any idea what it does to a living being in long term.

So for us: if we can’t insure decent water quality we go to bottled spring water.

I drink tap water…and my ferrets, rats and dogs have been drinking it for the last four years…so guess it’s safe. :0)

Wow, Aina- I am SO glad you mentioned about the chloramine. I had no idea about that.

I just checked our water dept and ithe most recent water survery does not have chloramine. At my house I think our water tastes funny so I don’t drink it. I drink bottled water instead. My rabbits drink from the tap without issue. I did buy them bottled water for awhile and they didn’t drink it like they drink the tap water so I just went back to tap water.

Dang!  I just called our water department and they use Chloramine in our water. The Pur water filtering system does not remove this so now what???? Should I use bottled spring water then?  Edson drinks so much water I don’t know if I could keep up! Thanks for making my day!!

I use tapwater and my buns and cats have been drinking it for 4 years so my water must be fine.

I have well water, which is probably pretty good, but it goes through pipes that I don’t find acceptable, so we all drink bottled water here. Although there’s been some national controversy as to whether bottled isn’t only tap water in disguise.

So instead of trying to refit all the plumbing in the house, we just use bottled for anything that is going into the body.

Also, in Alaska, the river water is dangerous, it carries a parasite called giardia, so we have to boil anything that comes from the river.
We often have our water tested by the lab in town. They tell us there’s nothing untoward in it, but I just don’t trust it.

Tap water here … Not dead yet.

does a water softener hurt bunnies?