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For those that use water bowls?

megansmummy

Mama Doe
:wave: Having tried two different bottles poppy and Daisy much prefer to drink water out of a bowl (or puddle in the run floor if im not quick enough with the bowl! :roll::lol: ). So I have a water bottle upstairs which I have an insulated cover ready for when it gets freezing cold. Im going to put a water bowl (a heavy ceramic one) downstairs for them But how do you stop a bowl of water freezing? Can i use warm (obv warm and not hot!) water and just keep changing it if it frezes? how do you manage it?

Thanks!
 
im sure i read somewhere on here that warm water freezes quicker :? but i might have totally imagined it :lol: i usually just change the water regulary and maybe have a few spare so you dont have to de freeze each one to re fill it same with my water bowls really :)
 
im sure i read somewhere on here that warm water freezes quicker :? but i might have totally imagined it :lol: i usually just change the water regulary and maybe have a few spare so you dont have to de freeze each one to re fill it same with my water bowls really :)

I read that too. I prefer bowls over bottles but give the bunnies the choice of both however when the weather is freezing I change the water every hour to stop it freezing over.
 
I read that too. I prefer bowls over bottles but give the bunnies the choice of both however when the weather is freezing I change the water every hour to stop it freezing over.

Ooh im glad youve seen it too thought i might have imagined it :lol: mine have 2 bottles and a bowl so they can choose but think il stock up on a few spares for winter so i dont have to spend ages defrosting bottles and bowls every few hours especially when im at work, im really dreading snow :shock:
 
When Poppy was outside she had 2 water bottles on rotation and her bowl, all of which froze quickly. The bowl was a lot easier to change though. Donny and Lola have 5 water bottles between them to rotate, I tried bowls with them but they end up running into them and get soaked :roll:

Stick a heat pad under the bowl to stop it freezing if you have one :)
 
I usually put a snugglesafe under the water bowl to stop it freezing. I like to give them warm water during the day because it must be nicer than drinking cold water on a freezing cold day. But at night, it's cool water because warm water freezes faster.
 
mine never froze over totally, it got a little icey but I just changed it in the mornings. Keep more than one bowl so that if it does freeze over you can change it :wave:

Last year I'd give my two a cup of tea every day :oops: (herbal teas that were totally bunny safe, or just mint infused hot water)
 
Now before I write this please remember I am blonde and not all of my ideas are good ones!

would putting a pingpong ball in the bowl bob around and keep the water moving hopefully stopping it freezing??

My old buns liked a bottle but my new girl likes a bowl.

Remember I did say I was blonde, but its just a thought.
 
Ohh thats interesting about warm water freezing faster than cold water...that makes no logical sense to me whatso ever so im glad you pointed that out!! :oops::lol:

Today is the first day of using a water bowl and they are drinking loads more than from the bottle! :D I have left a bottle upstairs but put a water bowl in the run and in the downstairs :thumb: Im home pretty much all day (apart from school runs etc) so changing water more often when its snowy wont be a problem :)
 
I was also going to suggest a ping pong ball. It should help prevent the water freezing, and if there is a thing layer of ice it will break it when the bunnies nudge it.

I'm trying to find a smaller alternative to a ping pong ball to go in my bottle bowl thing. I find normal bottles reasonably useless in winter because the spouts freeze so quickly and I don't always notice because the water in the bottle is still liquid.
 
I use warm water (mixing boiled water with cold water- not using warm water from the hot tap) and use a snugglesafe underneath the water bowl. Worked a treat :)

If it does freeze though it's not ideal but the rabbits can still get moisture from it, unlike with a bottle, which is something.
 
I use warm water (mixing boiled water with cold water- not using warm water from the hot tap) and use a snugglesafe underneath the water bowl. Worked a treat :)

If it does freeze though it's not ideal but the rabbits can still get moisture from it, unlike with a bottle, which is something.

This :thumb:
 
This year- we replaced all the bottles with bowls. When the weather freezes we will have a replacement bowl on hand to swap over. We use the large brown heavy weight dog bowls from pets at home.
 
Ohh thats interesting about warm water freezing faster than cold water...that makes no logical sense to me whatso ever so im glad you pointed that out!! :oops::lol:

It's true! It's because the water molecules in warm water move in a different currents to molecules in cool water - so that the first thing that freezes in warm water is the top, whereas the first thing that freezes in cold water is the sides...and once the top has started to freeze, then it doesn't matter whether the majority of the water is still liquid, because the bun can't get to it!

Of course if you can *keep* the water from getting too cold (e.g. by putting a snugglesafe under it) then that would work fine. My bowl buns are in their shed this year so I'm hoping that the water won't freeze quite as quickly or easily as it did when it was outside in their hutch :) I also just tend to have lots of spares, so that I don't have to spend a lot of time chipping away at ice and can just swap it straight over :)
 
It's true! It's because the water molecules in warm water move in a different currents to molecules in cool water - so that the first thing that freezes in warm water is the top, whereas the first thing that freezes in cold water is the sides...and once the top has started to freeze, then it doesn't matter whether the majority of the water is still liquid, because the bun can't get to it!

Of course if you can *keep* the water from getting too cold (e.g. by putting a snugglesafe under it) then that would work fine. My bowl buns are in their shed this year so I'm hoping that the water won't freeze quite as quickly or easily as it did when it was outside in their hutch :) I also just tend to have lots of spares, so that I don't have to spend a lot of time chipping away at ice and can just swap it straight over :)

Very interesting :) thanks for explaining :thumb:
 
Now before I write this please remember I am blonde and not all of my ideas are good ones!

would putting a pingpong ball in the bowl bob around and keep the water moving hopefully stopping it freezing??

My old buns liked a bottle but my new girl likes a bowl.

Remember I did say I was blonde, but its just a thought.

I have always done this with no problems. We used to put plastic bottles on the fish pond for the same effect which was what gave me the idea. I find that this combined with regular water changes ensures that they always have access to the water and bowls are much easier to defrost than bottles. Last winter even a water change when I got home from work froze by the time I went to bed later that night!
 
Change the water last thing at night and first thing in the morning. You can't stop it ever freezing over but just minimise it.
 
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