cleaning water bottles

[her.corner]

does anyone know why it's recommended that the water in water bottles be changed daily?
i ask because i use bottled water and it always feels like such a waste to throw out so much water on a daily basis.
(using water from my tap is simply not an option; the tap water quality,which comes from a well, is quite poor.)

 

[Petunia]

I think the reason is because germs from the rat's mouth can enter the water bottle (sort of like a back splash/back wash, I'm guessing)
I use filtered water and I don't change the water every day, I change the bottles when they are half empty, which is pretty much every other day


I think if you wash the bottles really well each time you add fresh water, unless the bottles are huge, changing the water when the bottle is nearly empty might be fine.

I use 16 oz bottles, there's 3 of these available at all times.
my five rats seem to drink about 8-10 oz per day, so every day I am taking out one bottle to change and wash it

don't know if that helps any. I know bottled water can get expensive. Even filtered water can be expensive, I need to buy new filters more often the more water they go thru

 

[SQ]

I use several 8 oz bottles so that water is used up within a day or two and bottles are washed frequently.
Using larger bottles just wasted a lot of water.
I also have at least one water dish per cage

 

[neelia]

Honestly, I don't do that. I rinse and refill when it's empty, every 2-3 days. Then once in a while I'll rinse it out with really hot water. That's how I've been doing it for years and I've never had any problems.

 

[her.corner]

hm... well it looks like if i change the water every couple days, then i end up throwing out just under half the bottle. maybe i'll stick with that for now