Product Review: Oasis All-Weather Water Bottle for Rabbits

I heard that! 153?!?! Is that a typo?! Nope, no typo, just a 4-Her gone out of control.

What do rabbits need? A comfy cage, a clean nesting box, food, and lots of water. For my breed of choice I selected New Zealand Whites; I also had a smattering of others including Californians, Satins, Rexes, and a Flemish Giant. This is what happens when people go out of business and offer their stock to you for cheap or free. All of these breeds have one thing in common: they're big. Big for rabbits, that is. They're about the size of an average house cat - only fatter - with the exception of the Flemish Giant, which is just a little smaller than the average medium-sized dog. This translates into many gallons of water a day.

My beginner's solution: go out and blow a few hundred dollars to buy All-Weather Water Bottles for each and every rabbit.

These water bottles really are great in that they are built sturdy, the plastic won't crack after being out in the weather for extended periods of time, and they keep the water clean and available for the rabbits. The cap of the bottle has a curved metal tube with two metal balls in it so the rabbit can drink by licking the ball. It doesn't leak, and there's no way for bedding or other junk to get into the water. The bottle hangs easily from the outside of the cage by a piece of wire, allowing the tube to poke through the bars for easy access. It is possible to hang the bottle inside the cage but I don't recommend it as a bored rabbit will chew on it, besides it's not as easy to remove for re-filling.

Even with my large rabbits a 32oz. bottle full would last them about two days in the spring, and even in the hottest weather there would still be a few ounces left in at the evening feeding. The only problem: they're not all-weather.

I'm really not sure what the "all-weather" claim is supposed to mean, but if it's supposed to mean it can be used year-round that is not the case. Whenever the overnight temperatures drop below freezing, however slightly below freezing, the metal tube freezes solid. This is Wyoming, there are precious few weeks in which the overnight temperatures do not dip down that low.

The solution? I went out and bought a bunch of metal dishes that hang inside the cage, but with a small protrusion that sticks outside just big enough for the mouth of a wide-mouth pop bottle to fit in. I quickly discovered the wider opening of the bottle kept the ice from getting thick enough to prevent water coming out until overnight temperatures dipped down to 20 or 25 degrees Fahrenheit. Additionally, the rabbits learned that by nudging the mouth of the bottle with their noses they could also break the ice.

The little dishes did expose a small amount of water at a time to whatever contaminants it may encounter in the cage, so I still kept switching between the two types of water bottle for another year...before finally deciding it really wasn't worth it. I ended up phasing out the all-weather water bottle altogether, selling them to my customers at their "gently used" price.

That said, the sturdy construction and ball-and-tube design of the bottle make it great for indoor pets or rabbits in a well-heated rabbit house. It also works well if you only have a small number of rabbits and so it would only take a couple minutes running the tubes under hot water to melt the ice in them. This type of water bottle is also readily available at just about any pet store or discount store that carries pet items so you can get what you need without having to make a side trip to a farm supply store.

All-in-all, this bottle works great in warm weather and is just about ideal for pets, heated rabbit houses, and very small operations.