Additive to keep water from freezing so fast

HI,
I use water bottles to water the rabbits. Is there anything I can safely add to the water to keep it from freezing so fast?
I was thinking of maybe adding a teaspoon of salt, but I'm not sure if that would be too high of a concentration.

your thoughts?

GG

My daughter did 2 science projects about how to melt ice without salt (one project was a continuation of the other). She found that beet juice worked by lowering the water's freezing temperature. So, maybe a little splash of beet juice might keep the bottles unfrozen?

Vodka

I don't think I would add salt. Especially if you are feeding pellets. I, personally, have never liked water bottles for a couple of reasons. Many of them leak, and will rust out the cage wire prematurely. Most all options have their disadvantages in cold winter areas. I like crocks, for several reasons, but regular crocks can freeze solid and crack overnight if it gets really cold. Plastic crocks get chewed and the abrasions harbor places for germs to reside, plus, in an emergency, one cant heat them on a stove or with a torch to thaw them. I finally went to aluminum water crocks. I tried a few at first, thinking the water in them would freeze much more quickly than in the stoneware ones. I was please to find that the water only freezes a little bit faster.

No mater what one uses, unless it is a "piped" system, the best solution is to have double containers. I finally bit the bullet and bought double aluminum crocks. It worked best for me. They will never break, and I can put the frozen ones on top of my wood furnace in the basement and they will be thawed for the next morning (or night). Of course I have been raising rabbits for a while, and figure I will be doing it for another 20 years.

Maggie, uses the inexpensive plastic refrigerator containers. She can change them easily, and if one gets chewed, etc. it is not much of a cost. I thinks she ties one in a corner and places a similar one inside which she alternates as they freeze. I may not have it quite right, but I know she has her method posted somewhere on the forum. If I was just staring in rabbits, or wasn't certain I would be keeping the for more than a few years, I would probably go with her method. It think it would be the easiest and most cost effective solution.

If you really like the water bottles, or if your cage is too small for a crock, you might simply double up on your bottles. IF you have several rabbits, as I do, a 5 gallon bucket makes it easier to carry the thawed/frozen waterers back and forth to the house.

I start out with warm water instead of cold water. It may sound simplistic, but the rabbits have traditionally appreciated getting a warm drink in cold weather. It only figures, though. I know a cup of hot chocolate or coffee always hits the spot with me on a cold day.

I should specify:
Three times a day, I will go out to fetch the bottles, bring them in, thaw them and refill them with warm water. The entire process takes about 10-15 minutes. This generally occurs at 5am, 4pm and 9pm (before work, after work, and before bed). I've noticed that even at 9pm, the water is frozen.
The temps haven't dropped to their coldest yet (it's only hit minus-ten Celcius or so for overnight lows). I'm planning for when "real" winter hits and it drops to minus-thirty Celcius at night.

I'll look into crocks, but I really like the bottles so far.

I couldn't find my previous post about using the freezer boxes, but I'll explain it again. Nice thing about it is that it is very cheap. Dollarama carries square freezer boxes that hold about 16 fluid ounces. They come three to a package. You need two for each cage. The outer one is the holder. Melt or punch two holes to wire it to the cage. Add a couple of drainage holes in the bottom too. This part stays permanently in place. The second box nests inside and this is the part that holds the water. It pulls out easily for refills. I use a bucket of warm water to unmould the ice and refill the box. Takes only seconds for the ice to pop out. I think this system would make your job a lot easier. Nothing but the bucket to carry back to the house. If you get a rabbit that likes to fling things around, use a chip bag clip to fasten the inner box to the outer one for a few days. They soon lose interest.

You could try apple cider vinegar in the water. I heard someplace that it slows freezing but I don't know if this is correct. Two tablespoons per gallon should be about right.

your bottles are freezing already?

Mine are still working quite nicely. Now...in my isolation tent where I have six rabbit cages...they are crocks...but crocks aren't freezing yet. Are you further north than I am?

but crocks for the winter...the way to go as far as I'm concerned. the nipples of the water bottles freeze too quickly. NOW.. you can buy bottles that don't freeze.

What I do with crocks is have three more than what I need. Warm-hot water to melt the ice, and then as three are melted, I dump in three new ones. Fill with warm water and top them off in the evening. Rabbits can and will lick ice. Often times the crocks won't freeze during the day.

Works well for me.. gets like and assembly line going. NOW... in the isolation tent I have twice as many crocks as I need and each rabbit gets its own crock back.

I'm south of you and everything is freezing - bottles, crocks, fingers. . .

Well, I have Queen Bitchy Bitch ijn the shed alone, and her crocks (metal dog food dishes) are just starting to freeze. I don't worry about frozen water dishes.. I have plenty to change out... I don't look forward to the frozen cage cleaning days... THAT I KNOW is awful.

oh, okay...i just find that fascinating how people have frozen everything already so I mentioned it to Jim. he said "remember hun...your whole tent is covered with snow. you have maybe a foot that isn't covered with snow it's all piled up around it making it really well insulated". The piggies water doesn't freeze because I have lights on them. So...insulation...that's the key! (has it's downfalls... in lots of noise keeping the snow off the tarp roof!)

I also have 2 sets of crocks for my buns. I keep the extras in a plastic crate in the house, and I take it out with me each time I feed. I collect the frozen crocks in the crate and bring them in and set them in the sink. Within an hour they're good to go.

I guess that I should have mentioned that we both work full time, so we can only feed and water about 7 in the morning and 6 in the evening. Those that are home can sometimes make more trips to the shed.

I, too, use warm water probably in the neighbor hood of 120F. In testing, I have found that it doesn't stay unfrozen much longer than tap (70F ?) water, but I think it does gives the rabbits a window of having nice warm water to drink. While rabbits can lick the ice, if one is feeding pellets, they really need fresh water. I always make sure that the lactating does have liquid water twice a day. If I am really in a bind for time in the morning(trying to get the car dug out of the snow etc.) I will let the bucks rely on licking ice, as I always provide good water for all in the evening, and my bucks hardly drink any water during the day anyway.

In Barrie they spray some sort of beet-juice mixture on the roads instead of salt in some places to melt the snow and ice. Rabbits love beet tops so maybe beet juice in the water would be a nice treat!

I really don't think that there is any safe additive you could put in the water; salt, sugar, (including vodka :roll: ) that you would be able to safely use in enough quantity to change its freezing point much. Something like apple juice might freeze 5 or more degrees lower than water, but it would be because of the sugar, and that would be to much sugar to feed on a constant basis.

I would have to sit done to figure each chemical out, but full strength vinegar (5% acetic acid) does not have that much lower freezing point than water (28F). There are chemicals, (propylene glycol I think might be one) that might work, but would be too expensive or toxic in the amount needed (ethylene glycol, a cousin used in antifreeze, is VERY toxic).

I have heard that glycerin works. Only a drop or two in the water bottle. You can find it , I think, in the baking or canning aisle at the grocery store. It is used in frosting, so it's safe for human consumption. I have not tried this myself, however.

You can find small bottles of glycerine in any pharmacy. It's great for chapped lips. I might try it in my water bottles (they're already freezing). We always used it in high school chemistry class for lubricating rubber test-tube stoppers because it will not cause rubber to deteriorate like oil will. That would matter since the seals in my water bottles are rubber.

It already hit -5F like a week ago in Iowa. We've had the heated water plugged in for over 2 weeks now. We had a bit of heat wave today with temps above freezing but it's snowing and a worse storm is on it's way this weekend. Back to the single digits by Sunday. So glad I spent the worry, effort, and money on heated water. We do take a regular water bottle out once a day to the colony in case the younger ones can't reach the poultry waterer on the heater base.