heated water bottles

[BoxerMom]

I may be thinking about this too soon, but I'm looking for people who have used heated water bottles for their rabbits. Here in Montana it gets cold earlier than a lot of other states, and I don't want to have to thaw out the buns water bottles every day. And for now, they seem to be more active overnight and that of course is going to be the time when water bottles will freeze.

I ran across heated water bottles online, and I even found them here (very rare to find some things here in the middle of nowhere). Has anyone used these? Was it worth the cost or not? Are there any problems with them I should consider before dropping $30 on one? I don't havea problem with the cost - but I don't want to spend that money on a product that's not going to work.

 

[fuzzy9]

We bought heated water bottles for everyone, and used them the last couple months of winter. I had one who doesn't drink from a bottle, she prefers a dish, and it was a pain to deal with her frozen water every day. She didn't drink as much as those with heated water bottles either. For us, they worked great, we didn't have to many problems with them, but ours are used in the barn, and not out in the snow. From the ones we bought, there was one that had a short somewhere within the elements, and it would tingle at the water spout. That's one of the complaints that we read about. Just sent it back, and had it replaced.

We bought ours from Jeffers though, they were $19 each.

 

[akane]

We used them last winter. No problems. It's easier for the rabbits to drink out of them than the ball water bottles and leaking is less common but we did have one form some icicles. I think it was the rabbit dribbling while drinking. Just have to setup a system to keep the cords out of rabbit reach because some will try to pull them through the cage bars. You need at least a couple inch buffer if they run along part of the cage.

 

[avdpas77]

I thought about it, but even though I have electricity available, I might not always have. Plus, I tend to have a couple of cords running to nestbox heaters already if it if below about 10F. I went with aluminum crocks instead (got twice as many as cages and swap them out morning and night). I have always heard good things about the bottles.

I must admit... I always lean towards things that are rather indestructible. I HATE replacing things or having them fail. :evil:

 

[BoxerMom]

Thanks for everyone's input! I started out with alum. Crocks and the does would tip it over multiple times a day, so when I went to buy bottles I thought I should think about what I will need to do in the future. Right now the rabbits are in the garage. Their hutches face the door so during the day I keep it open, and close it at night. But even during winter it's going to be cold in the garage.