Won't use water bottle

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Sugarpuffs

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Hello, we seem to have two guinea pigs now who never use the water bottle. We have two girls housed together - 2.5 year old and baby ( not related). The 2.5 year old was bereaved of her usual female friend a few weeks ago. We suspected that 2.5 year old rarely/ never drank from the bottle and once we had her on her own for a few weeks after her friend died we could see this was the case as the level in the bottle did not move.

We bought a baby a week ago and she doesn't seem to drink from the bottle either.

They are both weeing and pooing - we give them grass and vegetables rinsed and not dried and this seems to be ok right now. But a bit worried when in hotter weather or if we don't give so much wet food on some days that they will not get enough water into their system. Before we put them together today we gave the older one a bowl of water and we did see her drink from that on occasion and also other times see that her fur under her mouth was wet. Now with two in the cage a water bowl seems impractical as it will get knocked too often.

Is there any wayt o encourage them to drink from the bottle or anything we might be doing wrong? How many grid squares up in C and C cage do you hang your bottles?

Thank you.
 
Guinea pigs will drink as much as they need. If she is seeing then she’s getting enough. You could try putting water in a bowl for her. Just be aware it may need cleaning out more often. I also wouldn’t give them wet/damp grass.
 
The grass is rinsed but not dried. I hope this cannot do any harm to them? We could serve it unrinsed - it will still have water content unlike hay but less if not rinsed.
 
Some guinea pigs just do not drink much at all. I have some that drink like thirsty racehorses and others that seem to subsist on the moisture from a slice of cucumber all day.

A sufficiently heavy ceramic dish should withstand them knocking around in there if you want to try offering water that way. You'll just have to be vigilant about keeping it clean.

The water bottle spout should be at piggy eye level or so. Right on the edge of the coroplast is usually about right.

Keep an eye out for sudden changes in drinking behavior or urination, but if this is what your pig has always done it is probably normal for her. It is worrying when they're like that because as humans we're always told to drink more water for our health. But apparently some guinea pigs can run fine on seemingly minimal moisture. 🤷🏼‍♀️
 
I also have two piggies who never drank from their bottles. It was a worry for me. Then I had to stop their veggies for a couple of days because their poops were too soft and they started to drink. A lot. I was so relieved. So hopefully that should reassure you that they will drink if they need to. They also stopped using the bottles once the veggies were started again. Now the weather is warmer they use the bottles a little bit. As long as they are weeing they are fine.
 
Siikibam said:
Guinea pigs will drink as much as they need. If she is seeing then she’s getting enough. You could try putting water in a bowl for her. Just be aware it may need cleaning out more often. I also wouldn’t give them wet/damp grass.
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I always rinse my grass lots because I have a dog. I give it to them very wet. Is it bad for them to eat wet grass or do you mean not to put them on damp/wet grass? 😃
 
You dont need to worry. They will get their water needs from veg and grass also but they will not dehydrate themselves. If they know where the bottle is, they will use it if they want to.
In hotter weather, they will just drink more if they need it.
Only one of mine seems to drink regularly, I've only seen the other at the water bottle about twice in three years!
You just shouldn't put them on wet grass. Its fine to rinse it though. If I pick grass for mine, I do tend to lay it on some kitchen towel to take most of the moisture off of it though but only because mine are on disposable bedding and if I feed damp veg (its bad even with cucumber) then all the bedding sticks to it.

This guide explains more about drinking and also added the hot weather guide
All About Drinking And Bottles
Hot Weather Management, Heat Strokes and Fly Strike
 
Yes that's the thing - I don't know 100 percent whether they were like this in their previous lives or not. The 2.5 year old shared a cage, hardly ever saw her drink but she could have drunk when we weren't in the room. The level went down but it coulc all have been the now dead piggie. The baby piggie - she came from a pet shop - they're not going to accurate know whether she drank or not either. is there a different bottle type on the market? Willing to give something novel a try to see if that changes their behaviour.
 
Please dont worry, they are getting enough fluid to meet their needs. If they weren’t you would never have wet patches in the cage and they would be exceedingly poorly by now.
You can try different bottles etc if you would like to, but it won’t change their behaviour - they will still only drink the amount they need.
 
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Thank you everyone - that guide is great. Hadn't found it before. Will try a sippy bottle if we can get hold of one and rub the nozzle in cucumber to see if that adds interest. It's possible the baby has never seen another pig drink from a bottle and as the older one doesn't appear ever to do so, no learning by example is going to be provided at home at the moment!
 
Try not to worry. They are fine. We thought it would be the other way round for us when we adopted a baby. We thought it would teach our older pig to use the bottle as it was used to drinking from a bottle. But when the baby got to us it never touched the bottles either. Because I was giving lots of yummy veggies.
 
Not often. But the water level went down last week as it was a bit warmer. So I know they can do it. When I clean them out the newspaper is always very wet so I don’t worry. 😃
 
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