can a young rabbit have too much to drink?

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Iggysbabysitter

Iggysbabysitter

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Trenton Ont
I don't see my baby flemish drinking from the water bottles often, and I'm scared she'll go the same way Hilda did (dehydrated). So I've been offering her a diluted electrolite mix (water, sugar, salt, baking soda), and she's sucking it from the syringe like a piggy... maybe an oz every 30 min or so (when she comes looking for it). I offered her plain water in the syringe, and she totally walked away. Can catering to her this way hurt her? I've also been giving her rolled oats to help her fill out because I don't think she eats enough pellets.
 
I understand your concern after what happened with Hilda, but if you establish this as a regular thing you may end up with problems. Perhaps you can just offer it less frequently, just enough that you are not worried, until she has a chance to adjust to her new home. Children will drink a lot of soda pop but offer them water and they walk away too. They aren't thirsty... they just like the sweet taste.

BTW, a number of people have run into problems with new rabbits when using water bottles. Either the rabbit was accustomed to crocks or the bottle had a different type of opening (ball, lever etc.). Some rabbits get dehydrated in a new home because they don't understand the water bottle that is offered to them. I'd try giving her a crock of plain water and see if that helps. Most rabbits will drink more from a bowl or crock than from a bottle.
 
Iggysbabysitter,
if your rabbit is having trouble using the water bottle,
try placing a piece of matchstick in the nozzle to create a slight drip.
This will attract the rabbit to and teach it where the water is coming from.
Once the rabbit gets the idea, in a day or two, remove the stick that created the drip.
This should work. Of course you could always resort to the water-bowl.
You can also mix a little bit of Cream-Soda in the water bottle.
Dennis, C.V.R.
 
Bertha (the flemish) moved into the shed last night, no more flavored water for her! I'll be extra careful in checking on her until she gets as big as her cage mate (a large black NZ doe). A crock of water is beneath the dripping water bottle. MaggieJ, do you have town water, or well? I know I hate the amount of chlorine in the water here, maybe I'll try giving them filtered water.
 
We have a well, I am glad to say. Trenton town water used to taste awful when I was a kid, back in the 1950's.... Sulfur in it, I think. I hated drinking water when I was visiting my aunt. Chlorine should dissipate if left standing for 24 hours or you can filter it.

One other trick is to add apple cider vinegar to the rabbits' water. About 2 tablespoons per gallon (4 litres). It will acidify the water slightly and most rabbits seem to like the taste. If you get the natural stuff from a health food store or Bulk Barn, it is supposed to give the buns some trace minerals and may help with willingness to breed. The jury's still out on that, but it certainly won't hurt.

Some people use a couple of drops of cheap imitation vanilla extract in the rabbits' water to offset bad tasting water. Trouble with these things is that if you start them, it may be difficult to discontinue them. You'd have to do it gradually or they may stop drinking. Both the vinegar and the vanilla are supposed to help with urine odours.

Hope this is helpful. There are no "shoulds", just choices.
 
woohoo! Thanks, I'll try this. They don't smell at all right now, but I know they'll stink up that little shed soon enough :)
 
These days nearly everywhere uses chlorine bound to ammonia to make chloramine. Chloramine will not dissipate from the water. That would be the reason they started doing it. Also a reason why there are a lot more water conditioners for fish tanks. I always wondered if it would be effective to treat drinking water with prime like I do for my fish tanks... Never tried it cause we've always had well water aside from one apartment in college where we were 1 block from a grocery store so used bulk refillable water jugs.
 

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