There. Now she has two water bottles. The living world water bottle holder is a bit big (I have it in the cage since there are no bars on the side) and not that practical as far as changing the water goes, but basically both are working fine now. I plan on checking them twice a day from now on, while changing water in one at a time. She is so cute, if she's not outside of her house when I start changing water, she usually comes out to check what all the ruckus is about and then goes right back inside.
I'm sorry to hear that about your gerbil DrKMcK. It's awful to lose a pet and wonder "What if ...".
I admit I still get very nervous from time to time and keep thinking: Did I forget something? Or have I made a small mistake that could end in tragedy? I guess that comes from the lack of responsibility&no pets in the last decade. I hope my anxiety will lessen after a while.
One more question about the food. She has good appetite as far as fresh food bits go. I gave her tiny bits of broccoli, cauliflower and lettuce in the last couple of days (one type of vegi a day). She ate everything right away. Her poop seems to be ok as well. But I filled her bowl with bunny dwarf hamster mix on Sunday (about two tablespoons) and it's still not empty. She ate most of it. But she left some yellowish seeds and pellets. Should I wait until she eats those as well? Some people say that it's not a big deal if you throw away the pellets, since they don't provide that much of necessary nutrition. Others say that you will get a very picky hamster if you change their bowl before they ate all of it and that even pellets have a great nutritional value. So I'm not sure about what to do.
An hour ago she went in to the bowl, did a bit of a browsing and then went back to her house without eating anything.