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Not drinking from water bottle

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PiggyLove

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My two girlies hardly ever drink from the water bottle

I change water every day

The bottles are clean

Its easy to get to and ive tested them they are working ok

My male guinea pig Piggy RIP was always drinking water from his bottle

Do girls not need as much water than males?

Thanks for any help in advance :(?/
 
I don't use a water bottle. I just use a bowl. Try and bring your piggies up to the bottle and show them that it is water. If it does not work, use a bowl. They have to drink one way or another.
 
I had a a female guinea pig Montana (r.i.p.) and females need just as much water as males (at least in my experience). They may not know how to use the water bottle, so you should bring them up to it and either show them how it works, or just have a bowl of water in the cage. Another factor is it may seem weird, but I've had this happen before. If the actual water bottle is a bright red or blue or some unfamiliar color, try changing the water bottle to a white water bottle or a clear one because I had a guinea pig where as soon as I changes it from a bright red bottle to a clear one, that she drank out of it but refused to drink out of the red one.

Hope this :laluot_03:
 
I wouldn't be overly concerned. My guinea pigs drink very little and get most of their fluid from their veg. I think this is because I stagger their veg throughout the day and also don't shake off much of the excess water after it's rinsed. They all know how to use the bottle/ bowl and I refill them every day anyway.

I also foster guinea pigs for the rescue and pigs that drink a lot in rescue (up to a bottle a day) then only drink a small amount here. In the rescue they only get veg once a day which is why I think it's down to the different way of feeding.

However, even at the rescue, some piggies drink noticeably more than others. Some have health problems and others seem to just like to drink/ taste of water.

As long as they have fresh water available all the time, then I wouldn't worry as they will drink when they want to. In particularly hot weather you may notice that they start to drink more. :)
 
Some drink loads and some drink very little ( if any ). If they previously drank a lot and now don't then I'd maybe try them with a new bottle. If they're still wee-ing plenty then you know they're getting hydrated through their veggies.
x
 
As Flips said it does varies from Pig to Pig - when monitoring Water consumption what you are looking for is a change in there behaviour (ie drinking very little - to a full bottle).
 
You could show them it again, dribble some water out so that they know it is there? A piece of advice I got from here before was to put some warm juice in it so they would use it. Mine just won't/can't use it and so I have a bowl for them which clips onto the side. However I have rarely seen them drink. They have veggies 3 x a day and I always include watery stuff so I think they are getting enough from that.

Hope this might help! By the way your girls are gorgeous! x
 
For now you could try a bowl of water under their water bottle, and try giving them cucumber so they're still getting some water intake daily. I've never had a problem with piggies not drinking water as they've always know what their bottle is for :)) Hope the girls start drinking soon! :)
 
Mine hardly drink, if they do. Matty only drank some water when she was in the beginning of her pregnancies. I have tried changing bottle, changing type of water, water bowls... nothing! They are not interested, which really amazes me as it is very hot and humid here. They do eat lots of fresh veg, and they must get their water from there, otherwise they would all be dehydrated by now. I think some of them go sip for about half a second about once a week!
 
:)

When I had Biccie (RIP) and honey (still alive) neither of them drank any water but i wasn't worried because they get all their fluids out of fresh food like cucumber, parsly, celery etc.
 
Try putting a bowl of water in with them. Just make sure they can't tip it over.

Is the water bottle spring loaded? How to check of it's spring loaded: tip the bottle spout where guinea drink from upside down. Spout: Before\ After/ if the ball stays in place then it spring loaded. My guineas refuse to drink out of spring loaded bottle.
 
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All of my 12 piggies use their bottles except for one boar - he has just had his first birthday so has managed this long :{ As othes have said, many get their fluids from certain veggies so I always make sure he has little tomatoes, cucumber, slither of melon etc. regularly as these have high water content.
I really wouldn't worry too much :)
 
the thing is they were both in the cage with piggy for 1 month and piggy was always drinking out the bottle...........i also saw the girlies drinking out the bottle tooo

since piggy has passed away ive not seen girlies drinking :{

maybe they drink when I'm not there rolleyes
 
AudioHeart said:
For now you could try a bowl of water under their water bottle, and try giving them cucumber so they're still getting some water intake daily. I've never had a problem with piggies not drinking water as they've always know what their bottle is for :)) Hope the girls start drinking soon! :)
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maybe they get enough water from tomatoe cucumber and little gem lettuce and other veggies ........................................... I will try the bowl of water under the water bottle.......... thank you xxxxxxxxxx

I'm WONDERING IF ITS THE TAP WATER THEY DONT LIKE? Shall I try bottled water?
 
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Maybe they're just not social drinkers!? ;)
I didn't think Rocket drank from the bottle at all until the other day, he'd put his mouth on it a couple of times but not drunk anything. Then the other day he whizzed up to it, gave it one zap and then shot off round the cage - talk about a speedy drinker! Since then he's taken it at a more relaxed pace and started guzzling fairly frequently. Mr M never drank much, it was always Wallace glugging away.
 
I had this same problem with my rabbit. I took non-sweetened all natural applesauce (no cin.) and put a little on the nozzle of the waterbottle. She went to lick it off, pushed the ball and when she noticed she got water out she was ecstatic xP so- sometimes bribing works.
 
EbonyRaven said:
I had this same problem with my rabbit. I took non-sweetened all natural applesauce (no cin.) and put a little on the nozzle of the waterbottle. She went to lick it off, pushed the ball and when she noticed she got water out she was ecstatic xP so- sometimes bribing works.
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wonderful idea!! I could rub the nozzle with a grape or something LOL
 
When I first got my sows I thought the same thing but often, they do tend to drink most when you are not there and drink a bit at a time. For now, I would not worry to much as since both are not drinkingloads, it is unlikely that there is anything wrong with them.
 
Cookie and Treacle drink quite a bit but Putt hardly ever touches her water bottle.

We just make sure she has cucumber everyday and that her vegs are really wet after washing them. This seems to be fine and there is certainly plenty of wee in her cage.

If your pigs are weeing then I wouldn't worry.

If its really hot we sometimes syringe Putt a couple of mls of water - she won't take any more than 2 ml and its obvious as we do it whether to bother or not.
 
Still not drinking...........tried water bowl underneath bottle

tried rubbing grapes (which they love) on the nozzle

?/:(
 
None of mine really drank much, then I got them a glass water bottle http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/small_pets/accessories/feeder_water_bottles/water_bottles/219338
the amount of water they drink has improved loads. A few people have said that these bottles leak but I've never had a problem - just make sure it's filled right to the brim.

I started using them after reading this
GLASS WATER BOTTLES
We have spoken to our vet and guinea pigs that drink more have a significantly lower risk of bladder stones (an affliction that kills so many guinea pigs). Piggy’s that have glass water bottles seem to drink significantly more than those with plastic bottles and the health benefits of using glass over plastic are well documented. It’s our dream to have all glass bottles here at the rescue. They are however expensive compared to the plastic equivalent and for the number of cages we have for now out of reach. If you want to help us and can afford LESS than £10 then please order us a glass water bottle.
Click to expand...

http://www.cardiffguineapigrescue.co.uk/?page_id=222
 
thank you I will be investing in buying a glass bottle when i get paid next :)) I think glass is better than plastic :))
 
Glad to see many of the comments here.

We've had Bill & Eric for about 5 weeks now, and I don't know as I've ever seen Bill drink. Eric will quite happily run to the the water bottle, but I've been suspecting that Bill is just shy about drinking when we're around and perhaps only drinking at night.

Perhaps he's simply getting his fluids from his veg which we feed twice per day.
 
yes i think they are getting all their water from their veggies drool
 
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