Won't drink from water bottles

Hi all,

I am new to rabbits and at this time i have 12 rabbits. I have 4 at this time that wont or can't figure out how to drink from their water bottle. So i have to keep putting in a dish.

I read online a couple of tips so here is what i have tried.

1. Bring them over and hold them there as you push on the stem releasing water so it drips on their nose and they see that water comes out.

2. Took strawberry jelly and spread it on the tip of the bottle. So the way it's supposed to work they smell the sweet jelly go to lick and out comes some water.

I have done both of these and they are not seeming to catch on.

I am looking for other tips and tricks you have had success with.

Thanks all

Sully

I know it doesn't sound nice, but when I was using bottles I would squeeze the bottle and squirt the rabbits with it. They were smart enough to figure out that 'Hey! This things has water in it!' and would drink. I do have one doe who will barely drink from a bottle though. She just never liked them. She has to be on the edge of dehydration to touch it. Luckily, bowls work better for my situation, so I don't have to worry about it.

I hate bottles... Why don't you leave them with a dish that you are doing now... this way you know how much they are drinking ..there is so many mistakes are made with bottles .

Dish get spilled, evaporate, dirty quickly, and can even drown babies. Prefer bottles to crocks any day because of that. I've lost rabbits because of tipped crocks and babies getting in buut not out. Bottles are the only way I've found to measure water in take the closest. Do you use spring or ball type? Ball is easier for them to use, spring is harder. Try leaving bottle all day over bowl, leaky one if can. No water in crack tho, if had to would go back through at end of day and put water in crocks then.

I use heavy crocks.. so no tipping and I use smaller ones for the babies don't drown and can get out.. I have been doing this for years.. and I also use acv so they don't get dirty and I tip them once in the morning and refill... you have to clean bottles to.. and cant use acv in them.

I've used ACV in my bottles. Why would I not be able to?

But yes you do have to wash the bottles, well and regularly. I usually do a bleach soak once a month too of all parts of the water bottle.

As to the OP, if your rabbits refuse to drink from a bottle and that is what you want you might have to replace your stock that is not currently meeting your needs.

I do the squeeze and squirt too sometimes. If the bottle gets funkey they don't want to drink ,I guess they can't tell I've cleaned them.The water here is well water so it's hard and slimes up pretty quickly.We clean the bottles with a handful of pebbles and dish soap.Works very well,mix your ACV in a gallon jug and fill from there.
You may try hanging the bottle at eye level so they can see the drips.I had to do that when changing my new bunns from bowels.

acv gets all gonky at the ball in the tub... and stops it from coming down right...this happens over time and not cleaned out right.

Mary Ann's Rabbitry":33lhdk0q said:

acv gets all gonky at the ball in the tub... and stops it from coming down right...this happens over time and not cleaned out right.

Click to expand...

Ah okay, we have "monday bottle day" so all bottles get scrubbed, soaked, etc once a week.

If you keep providing dishes they will never drink out of a bottle. They have no reason to convert. You'll have to let them get thirsty while making sure they don't get too dehydrated. They are at risk of heat stroke and will not eat well if they don't get enough water. A leaky bottle over the crock works great for most animals. I've heard of putting peanut butter on the tube but never had to do it. I did lose one to malfunctioning bottles. Every time we filled the bottle and tapped the end it would work, the rabbit would drink awhile, and we thought everything was fine. Turned it was only getting a little water around when we were loosing the ball up. In between the ball was sticking and it eventually suffered dehydration and gi stasis.

I use a nipple brush( on a baby bottle brush )to clean out the tubes, no stuck balls yet.... didn't realize that ACV caused sticking.... thanks for the heads up!

katiebear":1n4jonlb said:

didn't realize that ACV caused sticking

Click to expand...

It is only the "live" ACV containing the "mother" (a gelatinous mass of goo) that causes clogging.

We went to all lever valves as we could afford the top fill lixit bottles. We did have 2 leak that might have been from acv or it was just dust in the valve. It's rather hard to fix those. You can't bleach soak the heated ones either. I had the heating pad come off the backs because it's just held on with silicone. Some duct tape fixed that for the winter.

Well this is weird.. I bought 2, 1 yr old sisters that were raised in the same cage, I had to separate them as one started fighting the other when I added some mostly clean bedding from another rabbits cage. Now they will only drink out of their original water bottle... (they are in. 2 separate cages), and I have a water bottle from another rabbit that (even after washing it in the dishwasher) they both refuse to drink from it... they will however go back to drinking out of their original water bottle when I place it back in either of their cages :shock:

Has anyone else ever heard of such a thing?

I dislike using Water bowls,
I feel that they are an excellent source for illness!
Rabbit tend to urinate and defecate in them, sam as they do with hay tossed on the cage floor.
I prefer water bottles as they remain cleaner and rabbits would have a quite difficult time trying to soil them. If you want to train your Rabbit to the water bottle, try placing a piece of match stick
or any other wood in the nozzle creating a slight drip. This will show them where the water is coming from and in a short time they WILL figure it out.
Ottersatin. ldtimer:

MamaSheepdog":1foxjf20 said:

katiebear":1foxjf20 said:

didn't realize that ACV caused sticking

Click to expand...

It is only the "live" ACV containing the "mother" (a gelatinous mass of goo) that causes clogging.

Click to expand...

Yes,, thanks MSD..

I seriously hate using crocks at home base. I have tried using even the wall mounted crocks and really, I feel they are very unhealthy. The only time I use the crocks (wall mounted of course) is when I take my rabbits to shows. I have small water bowls in their carry cages so that they can get more water than out of a travel bottle. Anyways, I feel water bottles are better and more sanitary. Babies cannot drown in them, rabbits can't get their paws all wet in them, and they can't soil the water dish. Granted, you have to clean out the water bottles frequently, especially in the summer months, but I have found that soaking the bottles in white vinegar for about 5 or 10 minutes with one or two rinses of scalding hot water really cleans them out well.
As of teaching them how to use the water bottle, completely take away the crocks. Don't give them a reason to drink from those anymore. Rabbits aren't that dumb that they won't learn to drink from a bottle. You need to let them get super thirsty, without getting dehydrated, and then introduce them to the bottle. I know this may sound cruel, but I did this with a rabbit once who was stubborn enough not to drink from a bottle. I let him go without water for a full 24 hours, and I offered the bottle to him. I squeezed the bottle so it squirted him in the nose, and i showed him how to work the nosel, but he still didn't want to drink. The poor, dumb thing went without water for a total of 72 hours, but he finally figured it out. And when he figured it out, he drank and drank and drank. So that's another way to do it too.
Also, rabbits never get enough water with a crock and they are constantly dumping it. The bigger rabbits especially like to dump their water bowls.

Hope this helps!!

~SDR