How much water is normal?

[vashira]

Does anyone here know what is a normal amount of water for a rabbit to drink? Pearl is my 5.5 lb mini rex, I’m questioning whether she’s drinking too much. I lost two buns to kidney disease and I’m a little nervous about the drinking.

Thanks.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Has the drinking recently increased? Also what type of litter do you use (some can casue kidney/liver probs)?

I know we figured out the amount when another member had a rabbit who was drinking alot-I *believe* it’s 2-4 ounces day, but I’ll have to find the thread and get back to you.

[Beka27]

yes, 2-4 oz on average. some will drink more or less depending on how many veggies they are getting, and how much hay they eat… do you know how much Pearl is drinking? did this just start after Munch and Amethyst bonded?

[vashira]

She drank 2/3rds of a cup of water in the last 24 hrs.
She does eat a lot of everything..pellets, veggies and hay.
I had noticed she was peeing a lot of times…3 times in about a minute when I was watching. I took her in for testing in case she has urinary tract infection.
No test results yet.
She does have quite a lot of sludge as well.
I’ll mention to my vet how much water she is drinking and it may help with the diagnosis.
Yikes, 2-4 oz is a lot less then what she is consuming.
Thanks for the replies.

[Scarlet_Rose]

Hi Vashira!  We had a great discussion on this very thing and I’m going to give you the link so you can peruse it (it also talks about how much on average a rabbit drinks):

Drinking Excessive Water:

https://binkybunny.com/Default.aspx?tabid=54&forumid=3&tpage=1&view=topic&postid=18413#20099

I realized that you would have to read through a lot to get to the amount of water so here is a direct link (5-10 ml per day for a 2-6 pound rabbit)

http://iacuc.med.miami.edu/x21.xml

Sometimes diet or a behavioral issue will cause this problem as well as diabetes or other medical issue.  Does Pearl have access to a salt or mineral lick?  These will cause a rabbit to drink more water because of the salt in them and are an unecessary part of their diet. Sometimes rabbits who have been in a less than desireable situation where they didn’t always have access to water will drink excessive amounts of water as a matter of habit because if they didn’t fill themselves up, it would all be gone later.

 

 

[vashira]

Posted By Beka27 on 11/01/2008 8:06 AM

yes, 2-4 oz on average. some will drink more or less depending on how many veggies they are getting, and how much hay they eat… do you know how much Pearl is drinking? did this just start after Munch and Amethyst bonded?

That is definitely much less then Pearl is drinking. 2/3rds of a cup per 24 hours for her.

I didn’t realiy notice it until now but she’s always spent a lot of time going to the bathroom in her box. I always thought she was pooping and that was why she was in there so much, until I watched her a week or so ago. She pee’d 3 times in about a minute. Small pees but definitely more then dribbles.

I was using carefresh but now just use newspaper and hay so I can see what comes out of her.

Now that she’s been to the vet, we’ll see what test results say and if she does not have urinary tract infection, I suspect sludge (saw a bunch on her towel, after I came back from the vet). I’ll then have to adjust her veggies to low calcium and maybe even start buying bottled water (calgary water is very hard with a lot of calcium in it)

[vashira]

Posted By Scarlet_Rose on 11/01/2008 7:18 PM

Hi Vashira!  We had a great discussion on this very thing and I’m going to give you the link so you can peruse it (it also talks about how much on average a rabbit drinks):

Drinking Excessive Water:

https://binkybunny.com/Default.aspx?tabid=54&forumid=3&tpage=1&view=topic&postid=18413#20099

I realized that you would have to read through a lot to get to the amount of water so here is a direct link (5-10 ml per day for a 2-6 pound rabbit)

http://iacuc.med.miami.edu/x21.xml

Sometimes diet or a behavioral issue will cause this problem as well as diabetes or other medical issue.  Does Pearl have access to a salt or mineral lick?  These will cause a rabbit to drink more water because of the salt in them and are an unecessary part of their diet. Sometimes rabbits who have been in a less than desireable situation where they didn’t always have access to water will drink excessive amounts of water as a matter of habit because if they didn’t fill themselves up, it would all be gone later.

 

Thank you so much Scarlet_Rose, that amount of water sure seems to be very little, compared to what Pearl is drinking.

No, she does not have access to any type of lick. Pearl was a stray. Someone threw her out on the side of a road with her cage. Maybe

she wasn’t taken well care of or have unlimited water. Hard to know what these buns go through before they end up with us.

She has a very good appetite, too good and is overweight (even though she’s free run in her bedroom). Could be diabetes too.

I think she’s bored by herself in there and eats to keep herself busy.

I need to either get her bonded with my other 2 or get her a friend of her own.

I’ll wait and see what her Doc says and we’ll take it from there. In the meantime I’ve cut out high calcium veggies.

Thanks for the ideas and the link.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Scarlet_Rose]

You’re welcome!

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