Not drinking from water bottle!

[HatterBunny]

Ever since we have had Hatter (a year in March) he has drank water from a water bottle. The past couple of days I noticed his poo was small and harder than it should be. Also, he was constantly trying to steal water out of my cup if I left it on the floor. I thought this funny but then started to realize I had not heard that wonderful CLICKING of his water bottle lately. I put some water in his dish and he drank it right up.

Has anybody else had their rabbit suddenly snub the bottle? It doesn’t matter to me either way (bottle or bowl) just as long as he is drinking! Observing him, he is drinking water out of a bowl just fine. Again, just curious about the sudden snub!

[Deleted User]

There must be something wrong then with the bottle. Did you examine it?

[MimzMum]

The only time I’ve seen my buns snub the bottle is, A) once when I think I didn’t get all the vinegar/soap/whatever rinse I’d used on it out of it, or B) when I got new bottles and the little rubber washer was on so tight nothing was coming out anyway so they decided it wasn’t worth the trouble and gave up drinking until I put bowls down. 0_o
Is this a new bottle? When was it last cleaned? Or does Hatter have a tooth problem coming up? I’d check his mouth to be sure there isn’t something hurting him in there. You know how nasty it is to suck on a straw when you’ve got a toothache….
And you can give him washed greens without drying them to give him some more fluid in his system.
My buns will use a crock for awhile, but they really like to go back to the bottle. I think they like to annoy me with the clacking. >.<

[Dee]

I’m with Petzy and Mimz- sounds like there’s something wrong with the bottle. I supply my buns with both a crock and a bottle, just in case anything goes wrong with either one. You could try that… then once you fix or replace the bottle, he has his choice .

[Karla]

Something wrong with the bottle…or his teeth. Jack couldn’t drink from a bottle either when I got him as his incissors were so long and twisted. After his trim, he could drink from the bottle.

[Lintini]

I’ll never forget when I bought a water bottle and a day later I wondered why it was still full…..it didn’t work. *rage* I felt so terrible for my guinea pig I wanted to punch myself over and over for not checking it. I really like water bowls even if I have to change them everyday…I won’t have to worry about a spring in the water bottle breaking or something.

[Beka27]

We’ve all been preferring the water bowls in my house. I love not having to worry about if the bottle is totally clean, totally rinsed out, etc…

[mocha200]

My buns refuse to drink out of one. sometimes if thats all they have( like the water bowel got empty.), they won’t drink out of it.

[EveryPossibleWorld]

I have never tried a water bottle w/ Ringo but he does just fine with a bowl. I got him small bowls made of smoothed stone from the dollar store. I keep one in his upstairs “cage” (not really a cage, more like a bunny mansion) and one downstairs because he spends most of his time with his down there. I think its easier for buns to get more to drink when they have bowls and plus it is much easier to change out every day and clean. I read somewhere that rabbits drink the same amount of water as a small dog… and I believe it!

[MimzMum]

How is Hatter doing now? Any updates?

I think what I dislike about the bottles, besides what Beka already pointed out, are those stupid washers. They go bad within a relatively short amount of time and I have no idea where to get replacements. You have to buy a whole other bottle! It’s a pain!
Plus it’s not really natural for a bunny to drink from a sippy bottle, even the ones that are supposed to be so easy for them (with the brass fitting that doesn’t have the ball bearing) are too much for my bunnies to manage. I was worried they’d pierce their little bunny tongues!
Still, you can’t take a bowl of water in a carrier on car trips. I’ve actually been planning on getting the bunnies the smallest water bottles made for trips to the vet, and then bringing extra bottled water to refill them, because otherwise I waste the water that naturally drips from the bottle because of the car’s vibration and their bedding/hay in there gets all wet. What a mess to clean up afterwards!

[Ali925]

I’m repeating what’s already been said but here’s my experience: There probably is something wrong with the bottle…that was part of the reason I switched to crocks for both of mine. Oh wait, I forgot, the main reason I had to switch was because they refused to have it any other way..haha

Oreo was never good at the water bottle, but lasted for a while, I offered both crock and bottle after her spay to make it easy for her to drink…once she went to the crock, she never looked back. When I got Blu I gave him both, but being 2 months old he liked knocking his bowl over or jumping through it…so the bottle for him.. He was an excellent bottle drinker, quite amusing to listen to, he was insanely fast and drank so much more than I remembered Oreo drinking. After his neuter I did the same as with Oreo and now he only will drink from the crock. I think they may have given him a crock at the vet so he got a taste of the easier way to drink and decided he liked it better.

As long as he’s drinking, that’s the most important…

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