Lop ears and water bowl

I’ve noticed that when my boy is drinking from his bowl he is sometimes dipping one ear in and the tip is getting wet. I’ve been drying it after he drinks at the moment. I guess this happens with lops and I just didn’t consider it!

Do people just use really shallow water bowls with lops?

Treacle (lop ears) has a bottle and a bowl, so she has a choice. The metal bowl is in a holder that is attached to the mesh of her indoor setup, so it's not on the floor but raised up a bit. Can't say I've noticed wet ears, but then she does prefer the bottle anyway :roll:

if anything, in warmer weather I'd imagine you'd be better off leaving it rabbits have a lot of veins close to the surface of their ears, its suggested in hotter weather to dampen their ears as it helps cool them down. tbh I can't really imagine there being much of an issue of the ears being wet anyway and needing to dry them.. I'd probably leave it. they'd probably dry it themselves via grooming. as long as water isn't getting into the ear cannel, it should be alright. my friend just uses normal bowls and has never bothered drying them.

My first bun Smudge was a lop. She didn’t get her ears wet drinking. Just wondering if the size (diameter) of the bowl makes a difference? It may just be that he’s not used to a bowl and he’ll get the hang of not dunking an ear in a bit.

Mine sometimes get wet ears when they drink, but I'm sure they do it on purpose to cool themselves down!

I think I’m gonna try a different bowl.

I know it’s probably not a big deal in summer, I’m putting brushing cool water onto the length of his ears anyways as the past couple of days we’ve had a heatwave, and he has frozen ceramic tiles out to cool down on. I would just rather deal with it now so I don’t have to worry about it later. In the middle of winter when it’s -20 outside dripping wet ears will be a problem :lol:

I've never found Boo or Mouse with wet ears so can't help. I'm sure he'll work it out or you'll find a bowl that suits. Spaniels have special water bowls - or can do

Having three and a half lops (Honey has one floppy ear so we refer to her as 'half' :lol mine do get their ears wet, though I've noticed Cody and Mishka aren't too bad generally. Pinot on the other hand is always getting his ears wet. In warm weather he flops against the bowl and I'm sure dips his ears in on purpose.
Unless it was bitterly cold I wouldn't worry, and certainly not in this weather. If anything it helps keep them cool In fact in hot weather I often go around all the buns and get their ears damp on purpose. It's a good way to help them cool off. They always look like they appreciate it, though that could just be because I'm making a fuss of them :lol:

Snowflake, whilst not being a lop (generally - she has her moments, the weird little thing! :lol also dips her paws in her bowl. They go right over the edge and into it. I don't know how she does it! We've seen her do that a lot the past few days.

I know there are special cat bowls to accomodate their whiskers, you might be able to find something similar that would suit your rabbit

Lopsy's always getting his ears wet in the bowls. But he also always gets his backside wet because he sits with his back end over the rim. He also gets dusty, cobwebby, bedraggled ears (and nose), and you can tell when the ground's wet because his ear tips are sodden! He's never worried by it Both bunnies sometimes get so excited that a human has come to see them (and therefore must be about to give them food) they plunge their paws into one or other bowl. Mostly I just think it's because Lopsy's really stupid :lol: He does clean them off if it worries him though, he's never wet for long in cold weather

Mimzy would get his ears wet in his bowl from time to time. TBH, in summer I'd use a misting bottle to give all the bunnies a spritz on their ears to help them cool down when it got hot and miserable. They loved it!

I'd just watch for any fur loss or if he's chewing them unusually more as that could be a sign of a skin issue. And as has been mentioned, as long as it's not freezing where he is, he should be okay.