Open up a bottle of soda, leave it open on the counter for a few hours and it goes flat. Few people will drink that soda once it has lost its carbonation. I love to dunk a good biscotti in a hot cup of tea or coffee, but when it comes to finishing that cup, there is no way I’m swallowing the mush that winds up in the bottom of the cup. How would you feel if someone offered you a glass of murky water, or a glass of water that smells?
Your rabbit is no different than us. They want clean water without any contaminants. They don’t want to drink water with floating debris, mushy pellets or a strange odor. Kids often like to drink out of their favorite cup, and maybe your rabbits are used to drinking out of a water bottle and instead you put a crock in their cage and they just don’t know how to drink out of it. On the flip side, your rabbit may not know how to drink out of a water bottle. You can show him or her how by pushing on the little ball inside the stem with your finger.
Crocks seem to attract stuff, but water bottles can too. Algae, slimy debris accumulates on the sides, so you need to clean them often and properly. Water bottles are an easy way to administer water-soluble medications.
Before you bring your new rabbit home, find out what he/she likes to drink out of. Ask the former owner to give you a gallon of the same water they are used to. You can mix it in with the water you will be giving him just like you would do with new rabbit food. When I brought home my first rabbits, they refused to drink.
A quick call to the breeder gave me all the insight I needed. She told me they were used to water bottles instead of crocks and she suggested I put eight drops of Chlorox in a gallon of water, and use that to fill the water bottles. Sure enough, they latched onto the water bottles, the girls pushing one another out of the way until they drank their fill.
If all this fails, you can give your rabbit some grass or greens until he starts drinking. In the wild, rabbits get the bulk of their hydration from what they eat, and in Europe some breeders follow that same philosophy.
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