# Need a good, silent water bottle.



## WinonaGun42 (Feb 2, 2013)

I need two good, silent water bottles for my rats at night. They are very active in the wee hours of the morning and they drink a lot. I've done a lot to minimize their noise at night and everything else is generally quiet enough so it won't wake me. 
Right now I have the bottles with metal tubes and the little balls at the end. While they are decent water bottles, the noise they make can wake me up. I have sleeping disorders so if I wake up, there are many times that I can't get back to sleep right away. This leads me to not getting enough sleep at night and being really tired the next day. 
Unfortunately I can't put them in another room of the house, so I'm looking for something more quiet.

Any ideas for something that is not a bowl and that won't make that "tick-tick-tick" noise when they drink? Needs to be able to fit through the bars of a CN.

Thanks!


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## Flora (Aug 30, 2012)

Why dont you want to use a bowl? There are some nice heavy duty ones that are hard to tip over. I also think its a good idea for rats to know how to rink out of a bowl (some dont know how to!) incase your bottle fails one day or something else happens.


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## cagedbirdsinging (May 28, 2012)

There really is no such thing as a noise-less water bottle. The tinking noise is imperative to the bottle's operation. There's no way around that.

Now, you have a few other options. One is a water dish/bowl. This can be great and some rats even prefer them over bottles. They also like to bathe and even "relieve" themselves there, so it must be changed at least once daily. You said no water dish, though, so your options are even further limited.

One more option, one that I use personally in addition to bottles, is a bird silo-style watering tube. Most of the water is kept in the silo compartment so that it stays clean, but as the tiny dish at the bottom is emptied, gravity feeds more fresh water to the dish. The downside is that not all rats enjoy them.

Bottom line, though, the tink-tink-tink is just something that you have to live with.


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## bsash (Apr 17, 2013)

*Silent Water Bottle*

That is very untrue, there are plenty of silent water bottles. I dislike bowls very much, rats typically fill them with wood chips, or tip them over. And if they don't do that, if they get hot they might start bathing in it, making it dirty still. Water bottles are much more sanitary if they are cleaned properly and the water is changed daily.

Here are a few links to some silent water bottles:
http://www.tractorsupply.com/en/store/lixit-top-fill-water-bottle-with-valve-32-oz
[URL="http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11180183&f=PAD%2FpsNotAvailInUS%2FNo"]http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11180183&f=PAD%2FpsNotAvailInUS%2FNo
[URL="http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2752723&f=PAD%2FpsNotAvailInUS%2FNo"]http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2752723&f=PAD%2FpsNotAvailInUS%2FNo
[URL="http://www.petco.com/product/122220/Monsters-University-Flip-N-Fill-Small-Animal-Water-Bottle.aspx?CoreCat=FamilyCrossSell"]http://www.petco.com/product/122220/Monsters-University-Flip-N-Fill-Small-Animal-Water-Bottle.aspx?CoreCat=FamilyCrossSell
[URL="http://www.petco.com/product/117381/Petco-Flip-Top-Water-Bottle-for-Small-Animals.aspx?CoreCat=MM_SmallAnimalSupplies_DishesFeedersWaterers"]http://www.petco.com/product/117381/Petco-Flip-Top-Water-Bottle-for-Small-Animals.aspx?CoreCat=MM_SmallAnimalSupplies_DishesFeedersWaterers
[URL="http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=6067+10382+19825&pcatid=19825"]http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=6067+10382+19825&pcatid=19825
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=6067+10382+22183&pcatid=22183
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=6067+10382+18379&pcatid=18379

[/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL][/URL]Just a few to start with... I'm sure there are a hundred others.


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## Phantom (Apr 4, 2012)

I have both a water bottle and a water bowl in my cage, and my rats have never used the water bottle. They only use it on rare occasions when they think their water is not clean enough. (They get fresh water in the bowl everyday.) This is the water bowl I use.

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2754306&f=PAD%2FpsNotAvailInUS%2FNo

I don't do it anymore because I don't need it, but I used to actually clip something to the top of the bowl or clip the bowl between the wires so they couldn't push it out. (Their old cage had a metal bar where I could do this.) I honestly hardly ever hear them drink when I sleep. When they do use the water bottle it does wake me up at night too.


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## poodlecrazy1 (Apr 14, 2013)

I agree that all water bottles are noisy,I have tried all of them and they all seem to make noise,the nipple style Lixit one is a lot less noisy but still makes a bit of noise. The bird water bottle is a great idea (as long as you don't have chewers) I might try that. The dish is also a great idea. I don't care much for dishes because my rats like to store stuff in them and it ends up with a big mess for me to clean. Personally my rats will do everything that is possible to make noise at night. I finally invested in a good pair of earplugs, 25 mg capsules of Diphenhydramine (Benadryl or Niquil ZZZ) and a nice glass of wine (if age allows). The Benadryl lasts 4-6 hours so I feel nice and refreshed when I wake up in the morning. And the wine just makes the Benadryl act faster.


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## littleames (Apr 29, 2013)

I like the way you think poodlecrayz1 
My rats water bottle doesn't bother me. I bought a more expensive one and it leaked completely out the first night and didn't give any water the next. So now I have one of those cheap ones from Petsmart and it works perfectly. It is loud, but doesn't bother me. Now my gerbils scratching on cardboard...that is annoying! Those bottles with the valves just look uncomfortable to me and they are outrageously priced.


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## WinonaGun42 (Feb 2, 2013)

Thanks for the replies. I have a few of the bird dishes that lock on to the sides, so I'm going to try that first. Will look in to the links you provided bsash. Thanks!
My problem is that I work three, twelve hour days in a row. I NEED to get a good nights sleep on those nights. The play-fighting the chasing and all the other rat noises don't really bother me as much as that "tick-tick-tick" of the water bottle. Sleeping meds are right out because I have a tendancy to oversleep on them. If I'm not sick, NyQuil has been known to put me out for a good 12 hours and I won't wake up. 

After coming home, taking care of the rats and having a play time, I'm beat. With my sleeping disorder, if I get woken up and can't get back to sleep, I will have a horrid day at work. Then I'm too tired to do more than the minimum cage clean and a little play at night. My boyfriend will play with them and check them during the day, but he is partial to only one of them. Kaylee is the one that usually garners the attention from him. I feel bad for leaving them alone like that, but this job does mean 4 days off with the rats every week and a lot of money to spend on them.


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