Not drinking

[BaileyBun]

Bailey and Logan usually go through at least 8 ounces every 12 hours.  I’ve been at work for 10 hours, and they’ve only had 1.5 ounces.  I’ve been giving wet veggies, putting water in a syringe and trying to force them (especially Bailey) to drink… I’m not sure what’s going on.  Eating is normal, poops look normal, but water intake is definitely worrying me.  It’s very hot here, but they’re in an air conditioned room.  I’m pretty sure they need more than .75 ounces each during the day.  Any advice would be appreciated!

[Dee]

I found that when I gave lots of wet greens, my bunnies didn’t drink water at all. In fact, I saw Nelli drink for the 1st time when I had to stop giving greens due to Bun’s poopy butt- we’ve had them since summer of ’08! I’m not an expert, but I would think that as long as they have water available and don’t seem dehydrated, they’re fine. Even during his UTI, I was always scared to force feed water to BunBun- they can aspirate it and get pnuemonia.
I always provide both a bottle and a crock of water, and change the crock at least 2x daily- I fill it with ice water too. That’s what I prefer so I assume the bunnies do too .

[Sarita]

Did you double check to make sure the water bottle is working? My rabbits are indoors in a/c and don’t drink much water at all. The majority are on pellet free diets or low pellet diets.

[BaileyBun]

Thanks, Dee. They’re getting a lot of wet greens, but I only started soaking them once I realize they weren’t drinking as much as usual. I’m not sure what to look for to check if they’re dehydrated. Capillary refill?? Logan seems totally normal, but Bailey is lazier than usual, minus the occasional crazy binky spree.

Sarita- Yep, I did check to make sure their bottles are working. They have 4 to choose from (yep, picky buns!). They don’t get a ton of pellets- Bailey gets about a tablespoon, and Logan gets about 1/4 cup.

I also forgot to mention in my post that Bailey has been spending more time than usual laying down- either flopped out on the tile I have in their pen, or hunched up in front of the fan. I thought this meant that she was too hot, so I moved her to a cooler room, but she’s still doing the same thing.

[RabbitPam]

If she’s got something wrong with a tooth, the water bottle might be hurting her to touch it. It sounds like she’s a bit off, so you might want to take her to the vet for a check up. I would also try a small, low-sided but heavy crock of water to see if she drinks from it. That won’t mean that she’s OK, but it might make it easier for her to drink if it’s tooth related or a position that hurts her to drink from with the bottles.

And if you have 4, and they drink from all 4, they may not make a visible difference since it’s a little bit from each one.

[BaileyBun]

I didn’t think about teeth problems! The good news is that she/they went back to drinking the same amount as usual the next day. She’s also back to her normal self- getting into trouble, begging for food, trying to escape from her pen, etc. I’m really wondering if it was the heat. It’s been a lot cooler since then. I’ve also been spending more time with them, so they’re gotten a lot more play time.

What’s something to keep watching out for if she does have a tooth problem? Hay eating would decrease, maybe??

[Sarita]

It could be the increase in sunlight – we are light from 6:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. where I live.

Dental problems – sometimes you might not notice anything at all. Sometimes it may be in increase in water consumption, a change in eating habits, some do weird things with their mouths – some do nothing at all.

[Author]

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