Water bottle issues

xFluffyHamsterx · 02-02-2017, 10:38 AM

Hi. I've had my hamster for a year now and so far have had no problems with the water bottle. However, tonight I had caught my hamster drinking but his tooth got caught in the bottle. This really worried me because he could've ripped his tooth out, and so I'm debating whether to give him a bowl of water instead?

Is this a good/bad idea?

Thank you

amyyxj · 02-02-2017, 11:11 AM

I think a bowl would be a great idea. If you keep it on a shelf or some sort of platform they won't get any bedding inside of it. It's also more natural for hamsters to drink that way. It depends on each individual. Why not test it out for a while?

AmityvilleHams · 02-02-2017, 11:19 AM

As long as the bowl is shallow enough to be climbed out of just in case of accidents and kept on a platform where it can't be filled with substrate,a bowl is completely safe.Something like a reptile bowl would be perfect if you can find a good sized but shallow one,and they have the bonus of a very nice look

Drago · 02-02-2017, 12:26 PM

I would agree with the bowl as well, at least for the time being. What type of water bottle do you have? What brand and from what store? Keeping a bowl will mean changing the water several times a day due to bedding being kicked into it, but it's certainly able to be done! I hope nothing like this happens to other hams, and I'm sorry you had to go through the shock of that!

cypher · 02-02-2017, 11:55 PM

A small shallow bowl is fine, it can be tricky to find somewhere to put it where it won't get substrate in it or get knocked over but if you can find the right spot I would try it, three of mine have bowls as they prefer it to the bottle.

POLAR WHITES · 02-03-2017, 05:54 AM

I would use a bowl also if he has done it once it could happen again, rather be safe then sorry

racinghamster · 02-03-2017, 09:49 AM

What bottle do you use FluffyHamster? I always used the red topped `Classic water bottles and never had any issues. But I agree with the others that a shallow, ceramic dish could be an alternative. Was he okay after his incident? Is he eating okay and not rubbing his mouth or having any problems? Maybe check his front teeth just to be sure he didn`t snap of loosen any teeth. x

spacebyte · 02-03-2017, 01:32 PM

I use a bowl- I've had multiple small pets which have chewed the spouts of water bottles and left them leaky or got themselves all wet. Luna has the little one of these: Ceramic food bowl for small pets: pet accessories at zooplus and she hasn't managed to knock it over. She never has tried to get into it or fallen into it that I've seen. She will sit in the food bowl, but knows not to go in the water!

It's on top of her little house box and doesn't get any substrate in the water. I try to change the water both morning and night but on the weekend I sometimes stay over a night at my boyfriends and skip a night change- never had an issue with substrate in the bowl the next morning.

RubyDG · 02-04-2017, 06:12 AM

My hamster Spike, who has passed away now, really hated bottles. I used to watch him get so frustrated with them. He'd chew angrily on the bottle and the spout and even try to pouch it. I realised that even though I was checking the bottle and water was coming out there just wasn't enough water coming out at once and that was why he was getting so frustrated. I tried various types of bottles after that but he was never happy. I then switched to using a bowl instead and it made such a difference. He was definitely much happier using a bowl.

I know many hamsters happily use bottles with no issues and there are definitely advantages but I do personally find I prefer bowls. There are of course pros and cons. They are more work than a bottle because they can get stuff in the bowl and make it dirty quickly - so you have to be on top of checking it regularly and most definitely changing the water everyday. Putting it on a flat surface to keep it off the substrate helps with this. You need to also have a secure set up of the bowl where there is no way the hamster is going to tip it over. You do not want a wet hamster, wet cage or a hamster being without water for any length of time.

The route I eventually went with was to get a bowl (actually an egg cup from ikea

) and superglue it to a flat rock. That meant I had to take the whole thing out everyday to clean and refill the bowl - so a lot more work.

There are other ways though, there are places you can buy bowls that slot into a stand for example. However most people just ensure that the bowl itself is too heavy to tip over. You also want to make sure that it is not big enough to fall into.

I think it's definitely worthwhile trying out a bowl instead and see if you and your hamster like it

Scarlett Empress · 02-04-2017, 11:48 AM

My little monkey kept having a fight with her water bottle so I tried her with a bird's water fountain - kind of like this -
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Caged-Fount...water+fountain

It's raised a little above her shelf so it's not easy to kick substrate in. When I first gave it to her, I left her bottle in too for a while, but she went straight to the fountain and enjoyed a nice long drink!

I wash and refill it daily but it does seem to keep clean and there's not enough water exposed for accidents to happen.