Water bottle leakage

by AnonONIagent Sat 30 Jul 2016, 1:45 pm

So my girls keep pushing their bedding over to one side of their cage, and unfortunately it's the side that has their food and water there. They are covering the nozzle of their water bottle with their bedding, causing the water to leak into their bedding. This is causing a multitude of issues, as so much water is leaking into the bedding that the entire floor of the cage is damp. It's nasty, smelly, and I worry about the bedding becoming moldy. I'm also refilling their bottle a ridiculous amount of times a day because it empties so quickly, like three or four times a day at least.

So fae I've tried digging out a hollow spot for the nozzle to sit, propping up the nozzle against their toys, moving the bottle up as far as I can, and moving the bottle to the opposite side of the cage. But nothing works; they just keep piling the bedding back up around the nozzle, and I'm beginning to get frustrated.

So, any ideas as to what else I could try?

by Ealexander Sat 30 Jul 2016, 2:04 pm

I like to position the bottle up a little higher and build a popsicle stick platform for my mouse to clamber up on to drink. For an older mouse you want a ramp for them to get there easily. They don't seem to like to pile bedding up on top of platforms so it should solve the problem!

by AnonONIagent Sat 30 Jul 2016, 2:26 pm

My mice don't seem to care; they have a little wooden spiral stairway with wood platforms and they pile bedding all over that. The bottle is also already up as high as I can get it, and they're still burying the nozzle anyways. I guess it's worth a try, though.

by peas Sat 30 Jul 2016, 2:43 pm

You could try using toilet paper bedding on half or 1/3 of the tank.

I once did a half toilet paper, half wood chip split because i wanted to see if my mice missed their old wood shavings. The answer was no, they did not.

If you keep the water bottle on the side with only toilet paper, and maybe put a little divider that they can easily step over but can't just bulldoze large amounts of bedding, that should work.

A toilet paper, platform combo should confound them.

by Peachy Sat 30 Jul 2016, 3:13 pm

How deep is their bedding? Maybe it'd help to give them less for a while.

For the girls, I've just started using these:
http://m.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/small-animal/small-animal-feeding-supplies/petco-universal-small-animal-water-bottle

They're short enough to just hang from the lid with floral wire or something and put a tallish MES under. Like this:
Water bottle leakage 27328733106_47ec9767ee

Water bottle leakage 27328733106_47ec9767ee

Though they're kind of a pain to refill when they're stuck to the lid. lol

by AnonONIagent Sat 30 Jul 2016, 5:03 pm

abeona wrote:How deep is their bedding? Maybe it'd help to give them less for a while.

For the girls, I've just started using these:
http://m.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/small-animal/small-animal-feeding-supplies/petco-universal-small-animal-water-bottle

They're short enough to just hang from the lid with floral wire or something and put a tallish MES under. Like this:

Though they're kind of a pain to refill when they're stuck to the lid. lol

I use that kind of bottle for my hamster, Lola. Unfortunately, my tank is sort of a nonstandard size (it's a 10 gal long or something, so the floor space is larger than a normal 10 gal but it's shorter height-wise). So I have very little space to fit a bottle, which is part of my problem. I'm planning on moving them to a standard 10 gal or even a 15 gal soon, though.

by MouseLover Sat 30 Jul 2016, 7:01 pm

Is it possible they're moving the bedding to try and hide their food? So maybe if the food and water were on opposite ends they might stop piling the bedding near the bottle? Just a thought.

by AnonONIagent Sat 30 Jul 2016, 7:04 pm

MouseLover wrote:Is it possible they're moving the bedding to try and hide their food? So maybe if the food and water were on opposite ends they might stop piling the bedding near the bottle? Just a thought.

Possibly. I'll give it a try tonight.

by MousePirate Tue 02 Aug 2016, 4:34 pm

I give you trick. Many time same I have problem and found resolve. Build pop sticks for ladder and shelf can reach high the water bottle. My mice did not push bedding to water Smile