Water: reverse osmosis vs well water

rita0williams · Sep 13, 2024

My mom just moved in with her rabbit. We are on well water and I don't know what's in it. We use a water softener which is basically salt. I worry about too much calcium, salt or iron in the water for the bunny. I have a reverse osmosis (RO) filter we can use but I don't know if this has too little minerals in it. Some people have concerns about RO water, I don't worry about that for me or the dogs, but I know nothing about animals like rabbits. My dogs and cat seem okay with RO water only. Has anyone given their rabbit RO for years? Are they fine with it?

JBun · Sep 14, 2024

If your rabbit is getting a good quality pellet, it has added vitamins/minerals. Usually that's enough. Hard water with higher calcium levels, can actually be the one that can be problematic for some rabbits that are prone to bladder sludge. So that's the one to watch out for.

Maybe offer a dish of each, then your bun will have a choice. If your rabbit consistently drinks from only one dish and it isn't causing any problems, that's probably the one to stick with.

overhear · Sep 14, 2024

rita0williams said:
My mom just moved in with her rabbit. We are on well water and I don't know what's in it. We use a water softener which is basically salt. I worry about too much calcium, salt or iron in the water for the bunny. I have a reverse osmosis (RO) filter we can use but I don't know if this has too little minerals in it. Some people have concerns about RO water, I don't worry about that for me or the dogs, but I know nothing about animals like rabbits. My dogs and cat seem okay with RO water only. Has anyone given their rabbit RO for years? Are they fine with it?

Our county offers low-cost water testing to residents, which I've used when moving into a new place. Might be worth checking into.

rita0williams · Sep 14, 2024

JBun said:
If your rabbit is getting a good quality pellet, it has added vitamins/minerals. Usually that's enough. Hard water with higher calcium levels, can actually be the one that can be problematic for some rabbits that are prone to bladder sludge. So that's the one to watch out for.

Maybe offer a dish of each, then your bun will have a choice. If your rabbit consistently drinks from only one dish and it isn't causing any problems, that's probably the one to stick with.

Yes he gets a variety of food plus pellets so he's not going to be lacking minerals I think. I think it's probably safer than the well water which leaves rust stains all over the sink and toilets.

rita0williams · Sep 14, 2024

overhear said:
Our county offers low-cost water testing to residents, which I've used when moving into a new place. Might be worth checking into.

I've suggested this, I'll have to look more into it.

Blue eyes · Sep 16, 2024

I would second the idea of getting your well water tested-- not just for your rabbit's sake, but for the people too. Never know what might be in the ground water.
We are also on well water and got it tested. Ours happens to have high levels of arsenic!! An RO system will do nothing to filter out arsenic. It requires an arsenic-specific filter to get that out. Different filter types will only filter certain things. So getting your well water tested is always a good idea to find out which filter type best suits your needs.
[As a side note, I happen to like Water Filters of America simply because they have never pressured us into getting unnecessary filters-- unlike your typical water filter company.]