# broken water bottle...



## Shine (Feb 20, 2015)

Today when I got home from work, my rats' water bottle was empty, and the cage was flooded. I tested the bottle to see if it was my own mistake in screwing on the lid, and it turns out that it is actually broken.

Until I have time to go to the store and buy a new one, I've left a small dish of water next to their food dish. Will that be good enough?


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## WolfPuppy (Jan 11, 2015)

Yes, that will be fine, but you will want to keep checking it and get a new one as soon as possible; they could spill it and then they would have no water. Sorry you had to deal with the flooded cage. I've never had a bottle break, but I imagine that's not fun. I was really worried the bottle for my mice would break, as I had to hang it with a crazy contraption until getting an aquarium bottle hanger, but it didn't.


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## heckhund (Feb 16, 2015)

Yeah, I used a water bowl for a few months last year and it was fine, you just have to check frequently to make sure there is no bedding in it. That isn't much of a problem with fleece though.


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## Minky (Apr 4, 2013)

What kind of water bottle do you have? I occasionally have leakage with my Superpet glass water bottles, and this is very easy to fix. Screw off the metal nozzle and look inside for a clear gasket. The gasket should lie flush against the back of the nozzle. Sometimes it floats up, and this breaks the seal and causes leakage. Use a butterknife to push the gasket back down and you should be fine


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## liesel (Feb 13, 2013)

You should be fine as long as they don't try to bury their water or somehow get bedding in it. I would get a new bottle soon though cause even if they step on the side of the bowl wrong it could spill out and leave them thirsty


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## Shine (Feb 20, 2015)

It was just a cheap plastic water bottle that came with the cage. I don't see any cracks or dents in it, so it might just be a problem with the gasket seal, like Minky said. I will check that later. However, I do think it would be better to buy a glass bottle instead of the plastic one. Next time I have a chance to go to the pet store, I'll look for a better quality one.

Thanks, guys.


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## liesel (Feb 13, 2013)

It may just be me but I actually find good quality plastic bottles better than glass. my one glass one flooded my cage one morning quite like what you described happening here. And my other glass one leaks little drops quite often not enough to flood but there's always a little puddle underneath (mind u it is 2.5 years old) but so far my plastic are leak free.


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## WolfPuppy (Jan 11, 2015)

I hate the fact that my pets have to drink out of that toxic plastic, but like liesel said, they don't really make a good glass water bottle. Maybe because the glass is too heavy.  I actually like the walmart plastic bottles, but I've gotten three other types too and never had problems. You may want to end up getting two per cage like me in case one stops working. I'm a little paranoid!


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## tok (Jul 16, 2012)

Oh man.  I have had so many water bottle woes recently! 
I wanted to upgrade the bottles on my cage with some prettier ones, the ones I had were held up with twist ties and it was just kind of bleh looking. 

Well, I paid the price for being vain. 








I got two of these, they were pretty and attached really nicely. They worked, I tested them, so I went on my merry way thinking everything was okay! Sometime during the day they had stopped working - my rats went without water for about 8 hours. Poor things were so thirsty. :c So I stuck a bowl in the cage just incase, got the bottles dripping again. Overnight, one of them FLOODED the cage. The other stopped working completely. So I tried fixing the one that wasnt dripping, then all of a sudden it too, was now flooding my cage. Then it fell on the floor and the entire shell cracked and there was water everywhere. That was only about a 2 foot drop, if that. 

It was an adventure. So I went and returned the stupid things and bought some of these. 








I'm afraid of them because they are glass and I tend to break anything I touch, but so far they have turned out to work pretty well. And they're pretty, so I get to be vain after all!


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## Shine (Feb 20, 2015)

Wolf, I had the same thought about the plastic, wishing I could give my fluffbuddies something not made with stupid chemicals, but I guess it's hard to avoid that. I tried fixing the leak in their old water bottle by checking the rubber stopper thing in the lid, but I can't get it to fit correctly, so I'm going to try looking at WalMart today and see if I can find a better one. I'm not sure if my WalMart has rat supplies, though. I haven't really looked that hard in the pet section, but I think it's mostly just dog, cat, and fish stuff. Hopefully it will surprise me. 

Tok, that sucks. I'm sorry that happened to you. I know the desire for things to look pretty as well, but unfortunately I usually have to just settle for whatever works. Sometimes that's even just me fabricating something out of whatever things I happen to have on hand. lawl


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## erikablanchettexo (Nov 25, 2014)

I second on the Kaytee glass water bottles being good! I have 2 in my cage and I haven't had issues with them so far.


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## WolfPuppy (Jan 11, 2015)

Actually, I got one of those Kaytee bottles a few days ago and haven't tried it yet (it was just for an extra due to my paranoia). I forgot it was even glass - that makes me happy! 

My latest problem has been hooking up a water bottle to an aquarium with a lid for my mice. I got an aquarium one today, but it doesn't fit with my lid. Grr...


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## Jaguar (Nov 15, 2009)

My glass Super Pet bottle was a leaker. The most reliable/nonleaky bottle I ever had was actually from Walmart - this one here. Unfortunately, it was plastic, but I just got tired of constantly having flooded bedding.


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## Shine (Feb 20, 2015)

I bought a new water bottle from WalMart the other day, and it seems a lot more reliable than the one I had before. It also has a nifty little holder that came with it, whereas the other one was held on by an elastic springy thing and was somewhat difficult to attach/detach from the cage for cleaning and refilling. I think I like this new one a lot better, even though it is smaller.

Oh well. My rats never drank all of their water in one day anyway, so a smaller bottle will probably be less wasteful.


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## SaraLovesRats (Jan 11, 2015)

I have the same glass Kaytee on as someone else posted about its my first bottle and I have had it since I first got my rats and it works great


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