HELP! Water bottle too big?

[lumpy]

Hi! I'm new to this forum and I was wondering if a hamster used for guinea pigs and rabbits is too big for hamsters? will the spout be too big for a dwarf hamster? My hamsters bottle is leaking like crazy and I don't want him to dehydrate.

[Nibbler]

I don't have any dwarf hams and I've never tried my 300ml rabbit bottles with my Syrian, so I'm not sure but yeah I'd be inclined to think it may be too big. I can't really think how big the water droplets are that come from the big ones. However for 1 night it should be better than nothing. Put quarter or half a slice of cucumber in the cage and that will keep your ham hydrated too.

What type of hamster water bottle have you got? If it's one of the twin ball ones by Classic then the best way I found to prevent leaking is to fill it fully, screw the spout on, then flip it over and give it 2 shakes over the sink so 2 spurts of water come out. This should prevent it leaking too much.

In the future it might be worth getting a 2nd bottle in the cage in case 1 stops working.

[bbbarker]

For over night you could try using a dish like her food bowl and putting water in that

[cypher]

It could be a little difficult for him to use although I think he would probably manage it, just to be safe give him a very small dish with some water where it can't get tipped over & if you have any some cucumber until you can get a new bottle, I'd get a spare too, I always keep a few just in case.

[racinghamster]

Rather than rely on the larger bottle, use a low sided ceramic dish and place that in the cage until you can buy a new Classic bottle from a pet shop? Small plant drip trays or ashtrays work well. Anything that can`t be tipped over. The rabbit sized bottle spouts may be fine for a Syrian hamster but smaller dwarf hamsters might find the ball-baring a bit large. x

[lumpy]

Thank you for your help! I ended up finding another bottle that didn't leak and ditching the idea of the rabbit water bottle.