Bunny Not Drinking?

[Bad Habit]

Hi there, I’m new to the forums, and new to bunny ownership.  I was sucked in by the awww cute! factor at a social function where someone was giving away baby bunnies.  Initially I was told they were 12 weeks old, but when I emailed the girl later to find out her actual birthday, they admitted that she was only 8 weeks.  I was told she’s a lionhead x dwarf.

Since I’ve gotten her, Lily has had free choice alfalfa hay, free choice pellets, a water bottle that I clean and refill daily, as well as daily veggies.  She eats well, plays hard, pees and poops what seems to be normal…  But I’ve never once seen her take a drink from her water bottle.  I’ve checked more than a few times, and the bottle works fine(I bought it brand new), the water isn’t stale, I don’t add anything to it…  I’ve even tried using filtered water.  Most recently I’ve added a water dish, and I’ve never seen her drink from that, either.

Now, I don’t feel this is an emergency, because she shows no signs of dehydration, she’s alert and thoroughly enjoys exploring and racing about.  I’ve pinched her skin and it goes right back down to normal, no tenting…  But I don’t want it to become one either.  I’ve only had her for about a week, but I’m very attached to her already, and she’s just a baby.  In my most recent research online, I’ve found that I shouldn’t have started feeding her veggies when I got her, because she was too young, and I’m wondering if she’s getting enough water from her food?  She may have started drinking from her bowl during the night, but I’ve been watching her carefully to see if she’s drinking while I’m awake, and I’ve never seen her do it.

Any and all advice(pertaining to her age, what she should be eating, her drinking thing, really anything at all!) is MORE than appreciated.  I pride myself in giving the best possible care to any pet I own, and I can only do that by learning… so please, share your wisdom!

[bunnyfriend]

First off, welcome!

Most rabbits have trouble drinking out of a water bottle. A heavy ceramic water crock works best. Same thing happened to me, I noticed Wilbur wasn’t drinking all that much so I have her a bowl and she immediately started drinking a lot and now everyday she drinks way more than she did with the bottle. A lot of members here have gone through the same thing. I would definitely give it a try

EDIT: Whoops! I missed the part about you adding the water bowl already! Sorry!! I would continue with the bowl, she is a baby so she might just not need to drink all that much right now. 

Oh also, since she is only 9 weeks old right now she’s not quite ready yet to eat veggies. I would hold off until 12 weeks.

[Sam and Lady's Human]

She’s probably getting water from the veggies I wouldn’t worry too much, some buns drink a ton but I *think* most tend to get what they need from the moisture in the veggies. If you weren’t feeding her veggies I might worry a little though, if the water didn’t go down at all.

[mocha200]

When you go to refill the bowel or water bottle is their a little less then when you put water in? She may just be drinking at night. That is when my bunnies tend to drink. Also she could be getting a lot of her water from the veggies you have been feeding her. If she is peeing she must be getting some water.

[Bad Habit]

And that was another thing I was wondering… Should I stop giving her veggies all together? They don’t seem to be affecting her any way… It would have shown up in her poops pretty soon after, I would think? She does really enjoy them anyway, and she still eats pellets and hay besides.

I’ve had her since Nov. 25th, and in checking my email, I realize that she said the babies were born the beginning of October. She’s just about doubled in size, growing so fast, and seems like she might be getting some kind of a mane. She’s occasionally done this thing where she just sort of throws herself down onto her side in her bed. She’s out for several hours a day, either in a larger confined area, or free range. She’s friendly and sociable, comes to the front of the cage when I open it, doesn’t mind being handled.

There doesn’t seem to be any leaving. I always fill it to the same spot(to the bottom of the holder) and it’s always right around that level. I left the water dish under the bottle for a day to make sure the bottle wasn’t leaking before filling it with water. She could be drinking but not enough for me to really notice. When I was younger, I had a guinea pig, and you could always see the water drop in her bottle. I’ll put a piece of tape on it to see if the water drops at all today.

[bunnyfriend]

It probably is okay, but normally is recommended to wait until 12 weeks. If you do just go slow with her and only in small amounts. What types of veggies have you been feeding her?

Hhaha that’s called flopping! I know, it completely scared me at first because my bunnies throw themselves on their backs and look dead. But it just means that they are happy and relaxed

How big is her cage?

[Bad Habit]

Her cage is about 4ft square, and I know she’s going to need a bigger one, lol! It’s just the only one I had when I was given her, and she’s grown much quicker than I expected. I am actually looking into different options as we speak, and trying to plan out one of those storage cube houses.

For veggies, she’s probably had more than she should have… Romaine lettuce, kale, green peppers, cucumbers, alfalfa sprouts, tomato, a grape or two, some baby carrots, a slice of apple and a piece of cantelope. She gets about a quarter a cup of hard veggies, a quarter cup of leaf greens and whatever size piece of sprouts that comes out of the container a day, and she usually eats most of it. Plus probably an 8th of a cup of kibbles, and a handful or two of hay(estimating because I don’t measure).  And I hope I didn’t harm her with it, because it was all on the approved veggie list I found, and they told me she was 12 weeks old, so I thought it was fine… But wouldn’t a baby bunny eat their mum’s veggies anyway?

[Sam and Lady's Human]

xpens make great homes for bunnies!!! and they are fairly cheap, about 40 bucks on amazon

Young bunnies should have unlimited hay and pellets until about 7 months where you start to limit the pellets, but always give tons of hay. Not all bunnies mums eat veggies on a constant basis, which is why it can be an issue with most babies. If the one yours came from did it would explain why she had little trouble adjusting. Veggies should amount to approx 2 times the size of the bun’s head

[kinggoblin]

My bunny is older ( around 7 months ) and he doesn’t seem to drink that much water either, the only time I’ve seen him drink a lot is after a 3 hr car ride but I think that is just because he doesn’t want to eat/drink anything during it. He only drinks maybe 1/4-1/3 of his average sized bowl.

I also like x-pens as a habitat, its easy to fold up and take with us on trips and doesn’t take up as much room as his cage, which is HUGE and we have to fold down all the seats to get it in my fiances hatchback, at home the x-pen is connected to his cage so he has more room.

I would also make sure she has unlimited hay, they need it to grind down their teeth/keep their digestive system moving!

[Bad Habit]

She’s got free choice hay and kibbles; the consumption levels indicated are simply estimates on how much I have to feed daily – I top up each night when I clean/fill her water bottle, and once a week compost everything that hasn’t been eaten… Though her uneaten veggies go into the composter daily!

I’m not so worried about the portability of her cage, I was actually thinking about adding onto the current cage she has, giving her a home with a yard, as it were… I have an older house, and the rooms are oddly shaped, and I think the cage could be used to fill out one of those odd corners. I’d love to just have her free range, but at this point, that’s just not possible. Doggy isn’t at all trustworthy with her yet, not that he’s aggressive with her, but her racing about does quite excite him, and they share a space in the house… That was another question, can the dog give the bunny anything, or vice versa? And if I put her cage on the floor, would the dog stress her out? He doesn’t seem to now, but she’s up higher than him . I would have to give the cage a roof, for safety, as there are also a number of cats in my home. (No, I’m not an animal hoarder. I have a dog that’s mine, and am currently staying with my dad, and the three cats are his.)

Anyway, at this point there doesn’t seem to be any drop in water level. I still have the packaging here, so I might return this one and get a smaller one – I assumed bigger was better and bought a nice big one, which makes it harder to tell if she’s drank. It’s a Super Pet Top Fill water bottle, the biggest they had. I think it holds like 500ml.

I’m really enjoying having a pocket pet again. I had to have my ferret put to sleep in May, and had decided at that point that I would stick with my dog. But, as always, Karma put temptation in my face in the form of a girl giving away adorable teeny balls of fluff. I find it so hard to say no, especially knowing that there was a very good chance she wouldn’t get a good home, but have someone take her home on a whim who knew nothing at all of small animals, and just left her in her cage all day and night… Or worse.

ETA – she hasn’t been seen by my vet at this point, should I take her in?  I have yet to decide if I will have her spayed – it seems like a bad idea because she is so tiny, but we almost lost a dog to pyometra, and I don’t know how common that is in rabbits.  Have absolutely no desire to breed her(though as her mum, must say she’d make adorable babies… I still say that about my dog and he’s neutered!).  Animals born naked freak me out, lol.

[Elrohwen]

If the veggies aren’t effecting her, I wouldn’t remove them. Just make sure you introduce any new ones very slowly.

As for drinking, I rarely see either of mine drink, so it’s not necessarily a problem (they get a lot of water from veggies). It could be that she doesn’t know how to use a bottle, so a bowl might help since that’s a much more natural way to drink.

Adding a pen to the front of her cage is a great idea! That’s what my set up is like.

There are no diseases that dogs can give buns or the other way around, except for things like fleas that any animal can get.

Definitely take her to the vet as well – new buns should always go in for a check up. Also, absolutely spay her! A rabbit savvy vet will have no problem with it and an unspayed female has an 85% chance of reproductive cancer. Getting her spayed could extend her life by 10 years and it will make her much happier and easier to live with (unspayed females can be nasty and territorial)

[Stickerbunny]

It would be a good idea to get her a checkup, since she’s new, always a good idea to get them accustomed to the vet anyway (and when they don’t seem to be hurt/sick is when it’s best to grill your vet to make sure they’re good). Spaying you won’t be able to do until 4-6 months of age, but your vet will be able to tell you if she’s healthy otherwise. As for water measurement, when Powder got neutered he wouldn’t drink water _at all_ for 3 days, so I marked his bowl (you can use tape, or a sharpee on the outside) and used a water bowl with a pattern on it and filled it up to the unique pattern spot and if it didn’t drop below that, no water was missing.

At the least, I would call and ask your vet (find a rabbit savvy one!) about the lack of water consumption. My vet said it was reason to bring Powder in by the fourth day.

[Monkeybun]

My little bunny girl Monkey came though her spay just fine, at all of 1.5 lbs. Your girl should be fine if you get a good rabbit savvy vet And spaying is definitely in her interest due to extremely high risks of cancer for her.

[Bad Habit]

Well, I’m having some issues finding an exotics vet in the area, but I did speak with my regular vet, and she suggested that I cut back on Lily’s veggies until I see her drink, to verify that she’s getting her water from the veggies, and that I take out the water dish, since it’s easier to tell if she’s drank from a bottle. Low and behold, she drank from her bottle last night. Now I have the fun of calling around to find an exotics vet. Oh joy, oh bliss.

[FrankieFlash]

Since I just found a vet myself, I would look from rabbit rescues in your state and both of them where I live have a list of recommendation of rabbit-savy vets. Also, I just wanna throw this out there but your she might be a he. I thought mine was until about 3-4 months old his manhood dropped if you get what I am saying so prepare yourself for that too. I also fed my Bun veggies too early but since he maintained healthy habbits of pooping, peeing, and eating hay and pellets he was fine. OH and last thing to throw out there is my vet plus websites recommend you only give kale in limited amounts. It’s something to do with oxidates or another.
Here’s some veggie references:
https://binkybunny.com/BUNNYINFO/Diet/VeggieList/tabid/144/Default.aspx
http://www.rabbit.org/care/veggies.html

Haha I almost forgot- Hi, and welcome!

[Bad Habit]

The problem is, I live in a small town. I don’t think we have any bunny rescues around here that I could even check with, but I’m sure that if I call around enough, I should find an exotics. One of our local vets used to have an exotics vet, but they moved on. When I had my ferret, I actually had a vet coming in from a larger town about a half hour away, because he had a genetic disease that she was researching. I have faith in my vet for normal check ups and basic care, she is very competent, but I definitely want to get Lily into a proper bunny vet if I spay her.

I’ve checked twice, and used the internet, and I think she’s a she… but if not, I’ll just change the name from Lily to Stew.

[FrankieFlash]

Ok I like that you have a backup plan. I did the same thing comparing what I saw down there to internet pictures to figure out his sex. Luckily I only called him Buns until I found out he was a boy. lol And I understand the trusting current vet thing, if it helps look for nearby towns that are more rural. Like when I’m at my parents and they live in a small town so my emergency vet when I’m staying with them is in a city next to my parents (about 15 min drive) and the city is like mostly farmland which means more rabbit vets I guess. Basically I would suggest finding a rabbit savy vet anyway and keep the number nearby for emergencies and surgeries.

[Bad Habit]

Oh, I totally intend to do that, and once I find one that I like, then I’ll be putting over their name and number to my regular vet. I didn’t call all the vets around here last week, just the three that I’ve had dealings with, as I was a little busy last week. The next plan is to call further out, then further still after that. I do intend to find one, but unless they’re relatively local, my current vet will be doing the general checkups and administering the vaccinations. She’s the vet my entire family uses, and I know/trust that she has my animals’ best interest at heart. Plus I know she’s good for follow-up with specialists, and not afraid to admit when she needs to double check information.

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