Keeps drinking from water bottle

[thespiffingbrit]

I always hear ham drinking from his bottle. Is this normal or is something wrong?

 

[Steve]

Hello, can you give a little more information as to what you are hearing?

If it's just the bottle making a rattling type noise as ham pushes the ball-bearing while he is drinking that's absolutely fine and normal. All the bottles make that noise (at least every bottle I have ever seen).

We used to hear our little hammy have a drink ever time, it was often the only way we knew our sneaky little friend had come out!

If it's something else please let us know, if he is biting the bottle spout for example it's possible the bottle is not working properly and he is struggling with it a bit.

 

[Maz]

Do you mean he is drinking a lot - all the time? How old is he?

 

[thespiffingbrit]

Yeah he's drink alot. I've had him for 8 months

 

[Maz]

He could be older than 8 months though? It's quite common for older hamsters to start drinking a lot more, as their kidneys start to fail. Although it doesn't seem to affect them and they can go on like that for a long time without anything noticeable apart from drinking and peeing a lot more.

But that's usually after 18 months old or around the two year old mark. I would just keep an eye on it for now. Sometimes they're not actually drinking a lot but just having a fight with the water bottle to get water out quicker They can actually drain a water bottle doing that - but then you'd see where the water had come out underneath.

I'd also check the bottle is letting water out properly - they can be a real pain - if they're not dripping and leaking, they sometimes go the other way and water doesn't come out easily. I tap the spout every night to ensure there is water coming out on my finger.

Maybe you could try him with a small bowl as well? Something like these Ikea tealight holders (I use these). It wants to be quite small so he can't fall in it and get wet.

Ikea Glasig - click here

Which bottle is it?

 

[RescuedOne]

He could be older than 8 months though? It's quite common for older hamsters to start drinking a lot more, as their kidneys start to fail. Although it doesn't seem to affect them and they can go on like that for a long time without anything noticeable apart from drinking and peeing a lot more.

But that's usually after 18 months old or around the two year old mark. I would just keep an eye on it for now. Sometimes they're not actually drinking a lot but just having a fight with the water bottle to get water out quicker They can actually drain a water bottle doing that - but then you'd see where the water had come out underneath.

I'd also check the bottle is letting water out properly - they can be a real pain - if they're not dripping and leaking, they sometimes go the other way and water doesn't come out easily. I tap the spout every night to ensure there is water coming out on my finger.

Maybe you could try him with a small bowl as well? Something like these Ikea tealight holders (I use these). It wants to be quite small so he can't fall in it and get wet.

Ikea Glasig - click here

Which bottle is it?

I use an egg cup to water Luna - it's tall so you can dig it into the substrate a bit but still keep the cup lip above floor level to prevent litter from falling in.