How to transition to water bowl?

[Noodles]

Hello everybun. I’ve been trying to transition Cinnabun to using a water bowl for quite some time now, maybe a few weeks, but she’s just not getting it. Right now I’ve just been leaving a water bowl out and changing it daily – I’ve tried the apple juice trick by putting a couple of drops in there, and she seems really interested in the apple juice and goes bonkers for the smell!! But once I drop it into the water bowl she gets all confused like she doesn’t know how to drink water that way. (or doesn’t even know it’s water) she knocked it over once so far when I was out so I’m not really sure what happened.

She currently uses a bottle that hovers over her litter box, since she really only drinks while she’s eating hay. Since it’s over her litter box I can’t really put the bowl underneath the bottle, unless I move the bottle, but I’m afraid that might confuse her. (of course I would still keep the bottle once she transitions to the bowl) I’d mostly like to transition to the bowl since she drinks a LOT of water at night. I live in a dorm room and she is free roam here… but the bottle is SOOO loud at night!  It would be nice if she could drink from a bowl so she doesn’t wake me up lol, I also think she would benefit from it since she would be able to consume more water at a time. 

Any tips??? Thanks in advance 

[Mikey]

If she only drinks when shes eating, that sounds like where her confusion is coming from. Its not that she doesnt know how to use the bowl, its that she gets confused at how shes supposed to drink when the bowl is not in/above her hay. Is it possible to put her water bowl next to her hay, and to put the water bottle above the bowl? This should slowly transition her from bottle to bowl.

What kind of bowl is it? She shouldnt have a bowl she can knock over. A short but wide ceramic dog or cat bowl should help out

[joea64]

I provide a large and heavy ceramic water dish (originally designed for dogs) which holds up to 4 cups of water for my two buns. I put it right next to their litterbox so they always have something to wash their hay down with on the spot; of course, this means hay often gets into the water (and I even found a poop in it this morning when I went to change out the water!)

[Author]

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