Dish vs bottle. say what you think about it - Page 3

madstitcher101 · 03-13-2012, 01:28 PM

Both Captain Barnacles and Sweetie used drinkers until recently when Sweetie had to be swapped over to a dish. She had started banging the drinker non stop and totally soaking the cage floor. Plus the noise was very annoying. Now she just gnaws at the hole where the drinker used to be. She's accepted the dish and so far had no trouble with anything going in it. Captain Barnacles uses his drinker no trouble whatsoever!

Cathii · 03-13-2012, 01:37 PM

Bottles are generally the better way to go. You don't want to risk Rhubarb deciding to tip it over and soak the cage and get himself wet and cold. If he urinates in it, he will not be drinking fresh water.

Hamsters are not big drinkers - it takes a long time until the water level takes a noticable dip. I was worried about the same problem when I first got my robos, as I never saw them drinking but I marked the bottle, and sure enough the water level was slowly going down. You can leave the bottle with water in for a few days to make sure he is drinking, but you can normally see if he is dying of thirst >_< Make sure it does get changed regularly though - I've read not changing it often can lead to Wet tail.

Cathii · 03-14-2012, 03:27 PM

Also, I've never had an issue with jammed spouts. I have used the Classic Bunny Bottle for my guinea pigs for 9 years and never had any leakage or jammed up problems, so I am using the 150ml Classic Hamster water bottle for my hammies.
I suppose it depends on the hamster - if yours seems to refrain from using the bowl as a toilet, and keeps out if it and does not spill it, then it should be perfectly fine

p_anda · 03-14-2012, 03:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Magnolia

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.

I read through that forum every now and then to get some ideas, etc. and I generally find people on there to be extremely mean to each other...Yeah, around half of them give constructive criticism, but the other half are downright nasty to anyone who doesn't agree with their opinions/ ideas about the care of hamsters. I wouldn't even post there, as it would be a waste of time and effort, just would get scorned for every minor detail in my cage that they're not happy with. Some individuals just don't seem to understand that hamsters are all different, just like people, and all have different likes and dislikes.