Bunny not drinking

[haylmrgn]

My bunny hasn't taken a drink for days, I've kept an eye on the water level and it's not moved. I change his water daily and have checked that the bottle is still working ok.

Apart from not drinking he is his normal self, eating fine (lots of hay and fresh veg) and getting lots of exercise.

Oh and he's still pooping and peeing fine

Any help/ideas?

 

[Ellie]

Does he normally drink out of a bottle?
Maybe try putting a bowl in as well... maybe he's just gotten too lazy to use it or something. When I first got mine he wouldn't touch a water bottle.

Do you make sure you rinse his veggies in lots of water (and don't shake it off)? I rinse mine and leave them very wet, so my bun gets lots of water that way. I've noticed he'll go some days barely drinking any water, and others drinking half of his bowl in no time!
I wonder if it has to do with the amount of water that the greens hold, and amount of exercise they get?

I'd say if he keeps it up take him to a vet - but I've noticed odd days where he drinks barely any water as well.

 

[Bunnylova4eva]

One thought is that bunnies get alot of water from fresh veggies. Still, a bunny should drink more than that, but that might be part of why he's not drinking much.

You can try adding a bit of apple juice temporarily to his water to entice him to drink. In the long run if he doesn't drink much, it would be easy to end up with GI stasis due to fecal material drying up in him-so that is one reason why it's important to try and get him to drink more.

Another thought is, have you tried giving him a water dish? Some bunnies just don't drink much from a water bottle and I've found some have a huge marked increase in how much they drink just by having a dish.

 

[haylmrgn]

Thanks both, I did put a water dish in last night to see if he would drink out of that, he's taken a bit but not much.

I will try the trick with apple juice although he doesn't seem to like fresh apples!

I do rinse his veg but normally leave them to dry off, I'll leave them wet from now on!

 

[JimD]

As already mentioned, try a bowl for water.
Little ones can have a hard time working out how to use the bottles. Pushing the font (the little ball in the tube) is something they have to figure out.
My suggestion would be to offer him both until he figures out which he likes best.

If you add juice to his water, make sure you also offer plain water in case he doesn't like the juice.

If you're using regular tap water, you may want to try offering some bottled water.
Some of my buns have avoided tap water due to the chemicals they sometimes add (ie: chlorine, floride, etc.)

 

[Nancy McClelland]

:yeahthat:

 

[LakeCondo]

How old is he & how long have you had him?

Do his poops look ok?

 

[JimD]

LakeCondo wrote:

How old is he & how long have you had him?

Their first post about Chewy was on April 7, and he was 8 weeks old at that time.

So he must be almost 6 months old now. A 6 month old mini lop should have figured out his water bottle by now.
I guess I should retract my post about "young ones", eh? :rollseyes

 

[haylmrgn]

Yes he is around 6 months now, his poops are fine, it's only been the last week really he hasn't been drinking.

The weather has got a lot hotter here the past week, can this have something to do with it?

 

[LakeCondo]

Maybe his water bottle is at the wrong height, if you haven't moved it up since he was smaller.

 

[haylmrgn]

I never thought of that! I'll try moving it up a little bit!