# Water bottle Biting?



## Bobbilee (Oct 21, 2011)

I've had Petey for a few months now. I have a water bottle screwed into her cage and in the beginning she drank normally. However for the past 2 weeks or so while she was drinking she's started biting the bottle while she moves the ball to get water. Should I be concerned?


----------



## Pokey (Aug 21, 2011)

It is recommended that instead of using the water bottle, to instead used a tip-proof, low walled dish for your hedgehogs water. Some people feel that the position that they put their neck while they drink from a water bottle could be harmful to them. Some also believe that the metal ball inside could cut your hedgehogs tongue or the inside of their mouths because the shape of a hedgehog mouth is triangular and not naturally fit for the bottle. I myself use the bottle, but it is positioned very low to the inside of his home so that he is not having to raise his neck when he is thirsty. I still keep a very watchful eye to make sure that he is not biting the metal or doing something he shouldn't be. I noticed you have wood shavings as bedding for your hedgehog, which may cause a problem if you choose to exchange your water bottle for a water dish as most hedgehogs love to fill their water with bedding... which can pollute their water and make it unsafe to drink from. If you do choose to make the change (because it is not a very good thing if he is gnawing on the metal) I would recommend also changing his bedding to either fleece or flannel liners. This would ensure that he will not make a mess of his water, and that he wont have any teeth or mouth associated problems from the little quirk she picked up! If you don't want to switch your bedding, I would try to find a lower location for his water bottle, as I am sure the reason she is biting is because it may be too far out of her reach. But if that doesn't seem to drop her habit, definitely try and find an alternative. Hope this helps!... It was a little early in the morning and my brain may not have been functioning 1OO%! :lol: 

Cute Sig Pic btw! What an adorable little hedgie-bum!  

Drew & Pazu


----------



## Nancy (Aug 22, 2008)

Biting at the bottle can break their teeth and once broken, their teeth do not grow back the way rodents do. A broken tooth often has to be pulled as the root is exposed which causes pain.

They bite at the bottle trying to get the water out. Bottles are an unnatural way to drink and hedgehogs necks do not articulate the way a rodents does so drinking from a bottle is difficult for them. They bite at it trying to get the water out faster. 

Their long tongues can also get caught between the ball and the tube which is an emergency surgery situation.

For the majority of hedgehogs, once given a bowl, they will never go to a bottle again and they drink far more water from a bowl than a bottle. 

I know many people use bottle and never had a broken tooth or stuck tongue but the risk is there, especially if they are biting at the bottle. 

I personally have only used bottles a few times when a rescue/rehome came in that had been on a bottle. If the hedgehog was going to be adopted back out and seemed okay with the bottle then often I left him/her on it in case the new owner wanted to use a bottle. I found bottles a pain to use. It is far more time consuming to properly clean out a bottle than it is to wash a dish. I never was able to find a brush that worked well for cleaning out the spout.


----------



## Bobbilee (Oct 21, 2011)

Pokey said:


> It is recommended that instead of using the water bottle, to instead used a tip-proof, low walled dish for your hedgehogs water. Some people feel that the position that they put their neck while they drink from a water bottle could be harmful to them. Some also believe that the metal ball inside could cut your hedgehogs tongue or the inside of their mouths because the shape of a hedgehog mouth is triangular and not naturally fit for the bottle. I myself use the bottle, but it is positioned very low to the inside of his home so that he is not having to raise his neck when he is thirsty. I still keep a very watchful eye to make sure that he is not biting the metal or doing something he shouldn't be. I noticed you have wood shavings as bedding for your hedgehog, which may cause a problem if you choose to exchange your water bottle for a water dish as most hedgehogs love to fill their water with bedding... which can pollute their water and make it unsafe to drink from. If you do choose to make the change (because it is not a very good thing if he is gnawing on the metal) I would recommend also changing his bedding to either fleece or flannel liners. This would ensure that he will not make a mess of his water, and that he wont have any teeth or mouth associated problems from the little quirk she picked up! If you don't want to switch your bedding, I would try to find a lower location for his water bottle, as I am sure the reason she is biting is because it may be too far out of her reach. But if that doesn't seem to drop her habit, definitely try and find an alternative. Hope this helps!... It was a little early in the morning and my brain may not have been functioning 1OO%! :lol:
> 
> Cute Sig Pic btw! What an adorable little hedgie-bum!
> 
> Drew & Pazu


I changed the bottle out for a bowl with the shavings in, I have aspen shavings in instead of pine because I know that the scent is bad for their respiratory system, however I'm very unsure about switching out her lining because she doesn't really use a litterbox. when she was smaller i tried putting one in and moving her poop to it but she never really grasped the concept of it so she urinates when she drinks and usually poos around the place where she eats. I clean it out every day so it's cleanly and she's not stepping in her own filth. What should I do about that?

And thank you! She's so adorable when she sleeps


----------



## nikki (Aug 28, 2008)

Does she have a wheel? most hedgies poop and pee while running on their wheels so you can then put a litter box under the wheel. That usually helps keep the liners cleaner.


----------



## hanhan27 (May 12, 2011)

Also, clean-up is really easy with fabric liners. I literally just pick up the poo that's on the liners with a piece of paper towel and throw it away. If you get/make a liner with an absorbent middle layer, you don't even need to worry about urine.

Plus, it's less expensive! After the initial cost of the fleece or ordering one ($15-$25) and buying some non-scented laundry detergent ($4-$8), you're set for a while. I bought a 100 fl oz bottle of non-scented hypoallergenic laundry detergent in June and haven't even used half of it yet. I do at least 1 load of hedgie laundry a week.  So I've used maybe $3 worth of detergent in 6 months :lol:


----------



## lehaley (Jun 25, 2011)

Felix never really picked up on the litter box concept either, but I still decided to use liners. He's prone to doing his business either on his wheel or very close to it, so I just layer paper towels in that area. So far this method has contained the mess pretty well, and it has majorly cut down on how often I need to change his liners. If your hedgie has a place where she prefers to do poop and pee, you could try that or something similar and still make liners work.


----------



## Bobbilee (Oct 21, 2011)

She does have a wheel! She runs on it like crazy although she always pokes her nose out of the side, so every now and again she falls out of it. she uses the bathroom not only there, but where she eats and drinks as well. I think i'm going to line both her sleeping side and her eating/drinking/running side with fleece, but put down some paper towels. She's only 3 months and 14 days old.


----------



## KevinSpear (Feb 16, 2019)

*Rainyday fitness*

Can anyone recommend me the best product from the list mentioned in this site. https://rainydayfitness.com/best-water-bottles/


----------



## Shaymin_Lover (Jan 27, 2019)

First of all, this post is from 8 years ago. Secondly, those are human water bottles...


----------

