Dish vs bottle. say what you think about it

[Kristin]

My Munchkin currently has a water bottle and my Nugget has a water bowl. Both girls appear to drink what they need and I'm always changing the water each evening for them. I am planning to get the water bottle sorted for Nugget but attaching it to the outside of the ZooZone 2 is a pain in the rear. My hubby had a brilliant way of attaching it for Munchkin so once I can get myself a bottle holder, some of those lick and stick rubber pads and some cable ties, I believe I'll be able to sort it out for her

[fluffymunchkins]

Definitley a personal preference
I use bowls for Treo as hes always suited using them more. I use a bowl for Merry and Archie too, but I have to have it on top of a stick bridge to stop them burying it x

[Liz'sHammies]

i personally perfer to use bottles, and my hamsters like them too. however, i would suggest trying both, and seeing which he/she likes most fair warning, my hamsters sit in anything...and it can be slightly dangerous for hammies to be in water

[Hamtastic]

I started with bottles but switched to water dishes for all of my hamsters. The reasons were noise (my hamsters are in my bedroom, and water bottles are clanky), sharing (two hamsters wanting to drink at the same time in the same cage from the same bottle can take a while to satisfy their thirst), possibility of a blocked spout (I've had that happen with a bottle, where a ball in its spout would get stuck and water would not come out periodically), and general ease of drinking.

It's much easier to drink from a dish than drop by drop from a bottle, so I think it's kinder to a hamster to let them drink from an unrestricted pool of water. I change water every day for all of my hamsters and keep it in spots where they can't throw bedding into it easily. If I need to go away for a few days, I put up water bottles, as I can't ask for whoever looks after my hamsters to change 6 little bowls of water every single day.

[Pompompoms]

I use bowls for all my hams after a horrible incident with a bottle when Jam was really sick and dehydrated which had me find him in the morning slumped exhausted underneath it having for goodness knows how long been trying to get a drink. It was fine when I checked it before going to bed, but something happened and it jammed.

Of course I do know that it was just one bottle one time, but I switched to bowls after that, and only use bottles when I'm breeding till the babies are big enough to climb out of bowls should they get in for any reason.

I happen to have hams that don't dig under their bowls, and don't fill them with anything either though making it no hassle. Apart from George, George used to put one piece of orange biscuit from his harry hamster mix in his water bowl every night without fail.

[gutterglitterxx]

For my hyper little Cheeto, I do a sort of hybrid combo of both. Mainly I do bottles. I have 2 separate 4oz bottles attached to the cage 24/7 which she uses very well. (I also had the same arrangement for Fluffy pre-bridge.)

At night, when Cheeto is in hyper mode, I also put a dish out. I usually take her in and out of the cage a few times for play time, run time, ball time, etc. And I provide her with the dish nearby at those times because it allows her to more quickly get big gulps should she want them. She's quite the little ball of energy so sometimes she goes flying by the bowl, then stops, comes back and realizes she wants a big ol' gulp. So I leave that around for her when I'm still up and about. But once I'm going to bed, I remove it from the cage.

[Magnolia]

Originally Posted by Angelhamster

That's extremely important - if they don't use one, you should go with the other.

This German forum sounds mean!

Yeah, it turned out not to be the nicest place. The thing is, while they were rude (and highly inconsistent, seeing as many other members also used bottles without getting attacked for it), I thought they still might be right, so I tried a water dish... that Kiwi ended up sitting in, but couldn't be seen drinking from. So no success there and it was back to the bottle - that she drank from as soon as I put it in. As thirsty as she was, she couldn't have been drinking from the dish properly, if at all.

Charlie (the recent addition, a Campbell) has never been seen to sit in his dish and the water stays remarkably clean, which it wouldn't if he sat in it.

The risk of jammed spouts is real though, so I check the bottle several times a day. This has me thinking about putting in a second one, just to be safe.

[Erin Loves Dwarf Hamsters]

The risk of jammed spouts is real though, so I check the bottle several times a day. This has me thinking about putting in a second one, just to be safe.

I'm like this too, only because when Pippy did have a bottle she seemed to spend minutes having a drink and I just assumed it was because of her diabetes but then one night I woke up and could here her drinking from it and she seemed to go on for a good 10-15 minutes which I knew couldn't be right so I got up and checked it only to discover water wasn't coming out! The ball wasn't stuck and stuff came out if you squeezed the bottle but she couldn't drink from it! I felt terrible that she had gone so long with very little water and switched her straight to a bowl

[kiania]

Originally Posted by Erin Loves Dwarf Hamsters

I'm like this too, only because when Pippy did have a bottle she seemed to spend minutes having a drink and I just assumed it was because of her diabetes but then one night I woke up and could here her drinking from it and she seemed to go on for a good 10-15 minutes which I knew couldn't be right so I got up and checked it only to discover water wasn't coming out! The ball wasn't stuck and stuff came out if you squeezed the bottle but she couldn't drink from it! I felt terrible that she had gone so long with very little water and switched her straight to a bowl

I had the exact same happen shortly after getting Nimh, except I was awake and at my computer (the cage was about 1m away to my left), and she was attacking the spout of the bottle constantly, and seemed incredibly frustrated. I fixed the bottle, and held it for her, and she then drank for over 7 minutes straight without seeming to come up for breath. I am definitely going over to bowls in my new cage - it is being planned with bowls in mind

[loula]

Santa didn't get on with any of the bottles I tried, but loves his heavy ceramic dish. I change it morning and evening for him. I actually find it much nicer to see him sipping from his bowl rather than chewing away on the water bottle spout - personal preference tho.