Thirsty?

Lixit Water Bottle

I have not had the best luck with water bottles for my rats, not at all. When I first brought Potato and Goma home, back when I had only the tiniest idea of what I was getting into, I had a glass water bottle for them. It was almost identical to the water bottles we had for our hamsters and guinea pig when I was growing up, save for a different size, so I was under the impression that it was one of the few things that I could understand. Too bad it didn’t work. I set up the cage, got everything in place and let the boys in, comfortable with the knowledge that they had cozy bedding and a fresh supply of food and water. The next morning, the water level hadn’t moved at all. So, okay, I filled it wrong or put it together funny, nothing some quick adjustments wouldn’t fix. Nope. Nothing worked. I could release the water by pressing on the stopper ball with my finger, but it didn’t budge for the rats, despite their best efforts. I tried exchanging it for another one, which also failed, before I decided it’d just be safer to use a dish.

Now, open dishes, even ones that attach to the side of a cage, aren’t recommended for rats for a variety of reasons. In short, they’ll probably climb all over it; poop will wind up in it more than once, as will fur and bodily fluids; it will spill, guaranteed; they might decide to drop their food in it, so that it will slowly fill with an unpleasant rat kibble-based paste. It is not all that fun, but at least I know they can definitely reach their water.

However, I recently read a great review of the Lixit Bird Deluxe Glass Water Bottle on the Rat Whisperer blog and I am intrigued. It sounds like a really excellent, trust-worthy product and she does tend to know her stuff. While I’m not going to run out and buy one right this second, I am seriously considering trying it out since it would be a much more mess-free alternative to my current set-up. I’m sure the boys would be happy to see a throw-back to their child-hoods, too.