Will these water bowls work or should i get bigger?

[Duck Survivalist]

Hello,

I bought 12 1pint galvanized steal water bowls. I have 6 cages and plan is to swap them out daily in morning with fresh water in the winter.

Will these work for my rabbits or should I swap these out for the 1 quart bowls?

 

[Alaska Satin]

Hello,

I bought 12 1pint galvanized steal water bowls. I have 6 cages and plan is to swap them out daily in morning with fresh water in the winter.

Will these work for my rabbits or should I swap these out for the 1 quart bowls?

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I like those bowls and if you have 2x the number you need, that should work really well. The pint ones would not be enough for many of my rabbits if I only filled it once a day, but twice a day would be plenty for most of them. If you find that one of your rabbits drinks more than a pint in half a day, you could always give it two bowls or get a quart sized one for that rabbit.

There are a few considerations, none of which are unique to these bowls in particular.

First is that some rabbits will play with the bowls, pulling them off the wire backing (the little tabs are hard to make really secure) and dumping them. For those rabbits, I switch to a very heavy crock they can't throw around.

Second is that those bowls are big enough that young kits can get into them by mistake (the quart ones are even riskier in this regard). I've had several heartbreaking discoveries of kits in bowls - once they're in the cold water they can't always figure out how to get out. So I would suggest hanging the bowl up a bit, so a wandering kit can't get into it, at least until the kits are big enough to come out to drink themselves. Then they still might get into it and get wet, but at least they can get back out.

Third is that they are metal, so beware that your rabbit doesn't have some weird habit that will cause it to get frostbit. I've never had a problem with these bowls, but I did have some metal feeders that the rabbits had to stick their heads into to eat, and two rabbits ended up with frost-nipped ears from rubbing on the cold metal.

One thing that I've found to really keep rabbits well-hydrated in the winter is to give them, in addition to their bowls of warm water, a frozen ice block to chew on. Chewing on it is good for their teeth and it gives them something to play with (other than their water bowl!). I use empty yogurt or cottage cheese containers, and freeze water with some carrot shavings or apple cores in the middle. The rabbits love them, and they are also a source of water for those times the rabbit either drinks or dumps all of its liquid water.

 

[Duck Survivalist]

I like those bowls and if you have 2x the number you need, that should work really well. The pint ones would not be enough for many of my rabbits if I only filled it once a day, but twice a day would be plenty for most of them. If you find that one of your rabbits drinks more than a pint in half a day, you could always give it two bowls or get a quart sized one for that rabbit.

There are a few considerations, none of which are unique to these bowls in particular.

First is that some rabbits will play with the bowls, pulling them off the wire backing (the little tabs are hard to make really secure) and dumping them. For those rabbits, I switch to a very heavy crock they can't throw around.

Second is that those bowls are big enough that young kits can get into them by mistake (the quart ones are even riskier in this regard). I've had several heartbreaking discoveries of kits in bowls - once they're in the cold water they can't always figure out how to get out. So I would suggest hanging the bowl up a bit, so a wandering kit can't get into it, at least until the kits are big enough to come out to drink themselves. Then they still might get into it and get wet, but at least they can get back out.

Third is that they are metal, so beware that your rabbit doesn't have some weird habit that will cause it to get frostbit. I've never had a problem with these bowls, but I did have some metal feeders that the rabbits had to stick their heads into to eat, and two rabbits ended up with frost-nipped ears from rubbing on the cold metal.

One thing that I've found to really keep rabbits well-hydrated in the winter is to give them, in addition to their bowls of warm water, a frozen ice block to chew on. Chewing on it is good for their teeth and it gives them something to play with (other than their water bowl!). I use empty yogurt or cottage cheese containers, and freeze water with some carrot shavings or apple cores in the middle. The rabbits love them, and they are also a source of water for those times the rabbit either drinks or dumps all of its liquid water.

Wow, thanks for all the info.

I out them all out yesterday and 3 of 6 of them tossed them, but I'm hopping it's just because it's a new item.
Because another one other than the 3 tossed them, but after I hung up she left alone and it's still up.

But if need be ill get a crock like you mentioned. I guess when a rabbit has kits I'll get a heavy crock or find a way to hang it to protect them.

The photo I posted above; the grey bunny birthed 2 days ago so I have fresh kits I have to watch out for.

So with ice blocks, should I even give them in the cold times like right now? Not cold enough to freeze yet but cold.

 

[Alaska Satin]

Wow, thanks for all the info.

I out them all out yesterday and 3 of 6 of them tossed them, but I'm hopping it's just because it's a new item.
Because another one other than the 3 tossed them, but after I hung up she left alone and it's still up.

But if need be ill get a crock like you mentioned. I guess when a rabbit has kits I'll get a heavy crock or find a way to hang it to protect them.

The photo I posted above; the grey bunny birthed 2 days ago so I have fresh kits I have to watch out for.

So with ice blocks, should I even give them in the cold times like right now? Not cold enough to freeze yet but cold.

Yeah, hanging the bowls up higher can sometimes help with the bowl throwers. You might also give them a wood chunk, or wadded up aluminum foil ball, to toss around instead - lots of rabbits seem to like to play with things.

If it's warm enough that water won't freeze, I much prefer water bottles to bowls, since the water stays clean and the rabbits can't dump them. The other thing is that some of the rabbits - especially babies - like to sit in the bowls/crocks, which of course becomes pretty nasty. They'll sometimes dump the water out of the bowls so they can sit in them, but I've found them sitting right in the water as well. They do have sitting boards, but for some reason some of them like the bowls better. That's one of the advantages of the pint size over the quart size - big rabbits don't/can't sit in them.

If you don't have freezing temperatures (funny, up here we don't consider it cold if it's not below freezing! ), it would probably be hard to keep the ice blocks in the cages, but if it's close to 32F they might last a little while and give the rabbits something else to play with. I mostly use them when it's far enough below freezing that it's hard to keep liquid water in the cages. Rabbits will lick the ice that freezes in the crocks, but it's a lot more work to get water that way than chewing on a block.

 

[eco2pia]

If you don't have freezing temperatures (funny, up here we don't consider it cold if it's not below freezing! ), it would probably be hard to keep the ice blocks in the cages, but if it's close to 32F they might last a little while and give the rabbits something else to play with. I mostly use them when it's far enough below freezing that it's hard to keep liquid water in the cages. Rabbits will lick the ice that freezes in the crocks, but it's a lot more work to get water that way than chewing on a block.

Yeah down here the conventional wisdom is that rabbits will get cold outside in the winter, so you would want to give them heated water, not ice! Even I, who am usually pretty pragmatic, originally paused when I saw the idea to use an ice block as a winter water source. I give frozen jugs to my rabbits to keep them cool in the summer!

I guess those hollow hair shafts really work, huh?

 

[Alaska Satin]

Yeah down here the conventional wisdom is that rabbits will get cold outside in the winter, so you would want to give them heated water, not ice! Even I, who am usually pretty pragmatic, originally paused when I saw the idea to use an ice block as a winter water source. I give frozen jugs to my rabbits to keep them cool in the summer!

I guess those hollow hair shafts really work, huh?

Yeah, rabbits are totally cold-adapted! In fact, our rabbits (Satins, Champagnes, Mini Rex, Polish, Holland Lops) have suffered far more from heat than they ever do from cold. Here in Southcentral Alaska, a few breeds (English Lops, Britannia Petites) have to be in heated buildings, but pretty much everything else does fine in unheated barns.

In addition to the native snowshoe hares, we have lots of feral rabbits - they're overpopulated, usually - and there is definitely no liquid water source available when it's in the single digits or low teens (Fahrenheit) for weeks on end, and they don't seem to have any difficulty. We do give our rabbits warm water twice a day, but I like the ice blocks because they ensure there's a source of water in case the liquid isn't available for one reason or another (e.g. dumped, drunk, fouled or frozen almost immediately when it's really cold). Actually, the rabbits' favorite is snow - they love that, and strangely, will eat snow before they even drink warm water - but it doesn't last like an ice block.