# Water Bottle Drips



## emily0862

So as we all know, the water bottles drip. I even got a no drip one with a spring loaded ball and it still drips! Go figure. Well it makes the cage dirty on that side because it drips and she puts stuff in the water and such. I did read another post where someone uses a croc that attached to the cage which I might try because my bun drank from a bowl when I got her, but until I decide to do that......does anyone have any ideas for how to minimalize the water dripping/cage getting disgusting on that side issue?


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## Inle_Rabbitry

Some times if you hold the water bottle upside down and squeeze it then tap the ball a couple of times, it will creat a suction and prevent the water from dripping. 

This doesn't always work as all water bottles are different, but you can certainly try it and see if that works for ya


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## Inle_Rabbitry

Some times if you hold the water bottle upside down and squeeze it then tap the ball a couple of times, it will creat a suction and prevent the water from dripping. 

This doesn't always work as all water bottles are different, but you can certainly try it and see if that works for ya


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## Korr_and_Sophie

Try putting a bowl under the bottle. It will at least stop the water from getting everywhere when it does leak. 

One thing I do is turn the bottle upside down (like you would to attach it to the cage) and hold your finger to the ball and gently shake it to get all the air up. This does help, but they will still be a few drops.


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## funnybunnymummy

Yup, tapping the ball allows the air to release and the bottle won't drip as much (if at all). If that doesn't work, put a bowl underneath to catch the drippage.

Hope that helps!

Rue


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## PeppyTheHare

usually mine only drips for a few minutes then it builds up enough pressure to hold the water in. I thought it was broken but turns out I was just impatient haha


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## Flash Gordon

i have every water bottle ever made for a small animal.....they all drip...theyll tease u at first and ull get all warm and toasty thinking uve finally found the perfect water dispenser.....then......drip....drip....next thing u know the bunnies are wearing freakin golashes...

i dispise water bottles....so i hafta use crocks...i dispise crocks too...i want a waterbottle that works cuz i know the water in it is clean..crocks and bowls get full of all kinds of crazy stuff so im constantly cleaning them...and i dont know how it happens but their pellets get in their water..ick.....it turns into a swamp.

ive been going rounds with watering divises for awhile now and nothing seems to work...an automatic watering system would be awesome...


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## maxysmummy

DRIPPING WATER BOTTLES ARE THE BANE OF MY EXISTANCE.

i've noticed the first run through any bottle, 50% of the water will end up on the floor. after the first time it seems to get a bit better?


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## AngelnSnuffy

They made me batty, I use crocks only.


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## Dulmit

I have noticed the glass water bottles work much better. It seems to do with the side being able to hold a better vacuum, they are stiffer so they don't bow inward under negative pressure. 

Tip: If you get the water bottle with screw on soda bottle top style, you can replace the plastic bottle with some types of glass alcohol bottles.
My bunnies liked their triple-sec bottle (just be sure to wash well before use)


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## Flash Gordon

*Dulmit wrote: *


> My bunnies liked their triple-sec bottle (just be sure to wash well before use)


HAHAHAHA....**hic** ..pashh the *Courvoisier






so the nozzles can fit on other containers?..hm..i do have a couple glass water bottles that have worked wayy longer then the plastic ones...but i find that the o-ring washer gets caught in the threads when u screw it back on the bottle and then it shreds and leaks..ive gone to NUMEROUS places to buy replacement washers but NONE of them fit right ..the ones that fit the diameter end up being too thick to screw all the way back on the bottle...AND u gotta be careful what kind u replace them with cuz obviously some can be toxic .
*


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## itsazoo

check the rubber ring in the cap, it often pulls out of place and the bottle will not stop dripping unless is tightly fitted inside the cap..also sometimes the bottle is defective and there is no rubber ring...without that ring it will never work lol 

I have loads of water bottles of all differnt kinds and very few of them drip, when they do drain its usually because the gerbils stuffed there bedding inside the tap lol my rabbits each have a bottle and neither bottle drips, both are different kinds and both are betwen 7-10 years old.


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## farmerchick

leaking water bottles are useless, i don't know why no one has figured out a better design.

we've tried all different types of water bottles and settled on the simpliest and cheapest set up, that is really hard to find around here, and even then they leak...

i find tapping the ball at the end helps, but i find sometimes they just become leaky (weather from dropping or falling off the cage, or overuse) and theres no return when it gets like this... i also find sometimes the thread on the cap breaks and the seal is gone...

don't know what else to suggest, i have the same problem! wish someone would design them better!


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## emily0862




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## emily0862

*Flash Gordon wrote: *


> i have every water bottle ever made for a small animal.....they all drip...theyll tease u at first and ull get all warm and toasty thinking uve finally found the perfect water dispenser.....then......drip....drip....next thing u know the bunnies are wearing freakin golashes...
> 
> i dispise water bottles....so i hafta use crocks...i dispise crocks too...i want a waterbottle that works cuz i know the water in it is clean..crocks and bowls get full of all kinds of crazy stuff so im constantly cleaning them...and i dont know how it happens but their pellets get in their water..ick.....it turns into a swamp.
> 
> ive been going rounds with watering divises for awhile now and nothing seems to work...an automatic watering system would be awesome...


i think you should invent something awesome to fix this!


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## emily0862

*itsazoo wrote: *


> check the rubber ring in the cap, it often pulls out of place and the bottle will not stop dripping unless is tightly fitted inside the cap..also sometimes the bottle is defective and there is no rubber ring...without that ring it will never work lol
> 
> I have loads of water bottles of all differnt kinds and very few of them drip, when they do drain its usually because the gerbils stuffed there bedding inside the tap lol my rabbits each have a bottle and neither bottle drips, both are different kinds and both are betwen 7-10 years old.


i check those rings every time i fill them, i'm a little OCD about it lol.....i think you got lucky with your bottles, what kind you got?


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## emily0862

well guys, at least i know i'm not alone! i do most of the things suggested, one of us will be rich when we invent the perfect water bottle!


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## itsazoo

> i check those rings every time i fill them, i'm a little OCD about it lol.....i think you got lucky with your bottles, what kind you got?




lucky? lol I have 107 gerbils, 2 steppe lemmings and 2 rabbits...all of them have water bottles and none of the drip. I have no idea what brands they are, the glass ones for a major bottle chewers are Lixit or Superpet, the rest are just $5 plastic bottles from wherever.


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## Nancy McClelland

If they start dripping at a great rate, they get checked for damage and/or replaced. Usually change out the bedding under that area every couple of days too."You can't depend on anything in this world except thee and me, and sometimes I wonder about thee!"


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## maxysmummy

itsazoo wrote:


> i check those rings every time i fill them, i'm a little OCD about it lol.....i think you got lucky with your bottles, what kind you got?
> 
> 
> 
> Â
> 
> lucky? lol I have 107 gerbils, 2 steppe lemmings and 2 rabbits...all of them have water bottles and none of the drip.Â  I have no idea what brands they are, the glass ones for a major bottle chewers are Lixit or Superpet, the rest are just $5 plastic bottles from wherever.
Click to expand...


was that a typo or do you actually have over a hundred gerbils?


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## itsazoo

lol I am a breeder(Prairie Clan),I have 107 gerbils not including the current litters(3 young litters ATM)


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## maxysmummy

itsazoo wrote:


> lol I am a breeder(Prairie Clan),I have 107 gerbils not including the current litters.


o.m.g that is insaaane!

do you breed all of the 107 or are they for sale? holy hell thats a crazy number of gerbils! lol


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## itsazoo

oddly enough when people contact us to ask about puchasing we have a hard time comming up with any for them lol we do sell of coarse, but only privatly, and we dont breed TOO sell, we breed for ourselves. the number is high right now, but it will start dropping soon as quite a few are 3-4 years old. and many are just pets, some of the stock we imported last year has started producing some defects(like Pirate who was born with 1 eye, and Tipsy who has only 1 ear) so we are keeping a lot of pups right now for use in correcting the problem.


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## Dragonrain

The water bottles I've had the best luck with have been "Water Buddy" bottles...they don't have the little balls at the end, instead they have a little lever that the rabbits push down with their tongues to get the water to start flowing.

I have 3 of those bottles, one of them is pretty old, and none of them leak. I also like they you refill them from the top, so you don't have to worry about breaking the seal every time you need to refill them and they are easy to refill without removing them from the side of the cage.

However, the company that makes them stopped making them awhile back so they are kind of hard to find now. Amazon still has the smaller size bottle and I was told that you can sometimes find the larger size on Ebay, but that's kind of hit or miss.

I switched to using automatic bowls recently because I hate cleaning out the inside of water bottles. The automatic bowls, for me, combine the things I like best about bottles and bowls. They are easy to clean thoroughly, but hold a lot of water so I don't have to refill them a million times a day. They are heavy so the rabbits can't tip them and spill the water, and because they hold so much water I can go out for a day without ever having to worry that the rabbits will run out.


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## Flash Gordon

are the automatic bowls only for a rabbitry/shed/barn setup??.is this something that can logically be done in a home for house bunnies?..i really dont want to have a bunch of PVC pipes running thru my house
Chelle is ur system for a rabbitry or house pets? and ive also done my research on this water bottle subject before and all the great reviews were for the "water buddy" i then tried to hunt some down and ur right they are no longer in business....grrr..i just wanna know how a company who has the BEST water bottle design can go out of business??......maybe because once u buy one u never have to buy another one...huh...yea i think the manufacturers of the drippy bottles are a little smarter then we realize......:grumpy:


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## Nela

Lol I posted about this a while back because I was at my wit's end as well so I sympathize...

I tested out this kind of bottle:

http://www.savingtag.com/product/14/783/Small-Pet-Water-Bottle-Sippy.html

I've had absolutely no problem with it unless someone pushes a toy or something up against it, keeping the valve pushed in... Lol. I really love this bottle actually. Plus, I find it very handy that you can just pop off the cover and pour in fresh water for general maintenance. (Important to wash the bottle regularly) Anywhoooo, I shall be changing all my bottles to these in the spring :biggrin2:


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## AmberNBuns

I worry so much about Theodore having fresh water that he has a bottle AND an auto-waterer.

Like this one:






I put the water bottle just above the edge of the dish on the auto-waterer so if it drips it just drips into it.

Theodore prefers drinking from the bowl over drinking from the bottle, but I know if something happens and I get stranded away from home, he has 2 quarts of water in his auto-waterer and a large water bottle as a backup in case the bowl gets dirty.

As far as drips go, I have conceded that I just need to keep something beneath to catch the dripping.


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