Water, especially the fresh variety is extremely important for rabbits to drink. If a rabbit doesn’t drink much water then they are quite likely to get problems in their health, particularly urinary issues and other diseases which may occur. Rabbits need drink approximately 50-100 ml across 24 hours and need access to it all of the time. This is why having a water bottle attached to their house is a vital part of making sure your rabbit is set up okay.
But what happens if they are not drinking water?
This can be a real issue for owners and one that is quite common.
Fortunately, there are some things you can do to help them along on this and make it more inviting for them to drink the water that you put out for them.
My rabbits are not drinking water
5 things to help them drink water
1. Give your rabbit a water dish.
Your rabbit might not like the water bottle, and find that a dish is much easier.
2. Make sure the water bottle is clean
Another thing is – scrub the bottle clean. They may be put off by the state of the water bottle. However, this is an unlikely scenario. But it is worth doing anyway.
3. Give them food that is wet
Give them food that had been washed under water and is still wet. They will glean the water from the food even though there is not much of it.
4. Make sure the water is the right temperature.
They may not like water that is too cold or even too hot.
5. Give them more hay.
How much hay does your rabbit eat?
Often rabbits who are eating a lot of hay begin to drink more water to compensate.
If your rabbit is not much of a hay eater he might not feel the need to drink much.