Edstrom Water Buddy water bottle (valve-type), 8 oz., 16 oz.

[alosha]

I bought the Water Buddy valve-type water bottles because I've had problems in the past with water bottles dripping into the cage. They are well made, and didn't drip when sitting there or when shaken (as promised), but in the end I chose to switch to regular water bottles because my rats (although they could drink from them) much preferred regular water bottles. My rats are older though, so if you started using this type of water bottle with younger rats they might take to it better.

If you attach the bottle to the outside of the cage, and if your rat needs to hold the valve with their hand (like mine do), water will probably drip on the floor while they are drinking. If the bottle was inside the cage, it would drip inside the cage a little (but just while they were drinking). Also I spilled water several times by forgetting that the top lid is only flip-top and not really sealed (when removing from the cage and carrying across the room for cleaning or what have you).

One nice thing about it though is that it doesn't make any noise at all while they are drinking. So if the click click click of the ball annoys you, this might be worth a try.

Water Buddy 8 oz ($16.50 CDN)
Water Buddy 8 oz chew-proof plate ($6.95 CDN)
Water Buddy 16 oz ($18.99 CDN)
Water Buddy 16 oz chew-proof plate ($6.95 CDN)

My official product review

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Apollo drinking from it

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[jorats]

Great review!
Apollo seems to get the hang of it in the video but since you find that it was a bit of trial to get the hang of it, I'll probably not be buying any.

 

[alosha]

Yes they drink out of it successfully, but sometimes they have to fuss with it with their hands before they start to get water out. And then it drips on the floor because of all the fussing.

And when I put a regular bottle next to it they stopped using the water buddy ones completely, so I went with the rats' preference.

 

[lilangel]

This is a wonderful review :thumbup:

I wish we can nominate videos for RPOM It is so cute to see Apollo using his fingers to get thee water out.

 

[Scythe]

My rats seem to prefer this water bottle. It always runs out faster then their 'clickclickclick' water bottle. Plus, I find that it's great for taking the rats to the vet(as long as I dont fill it so much that it's full -- the cap does leak). I can clip it to the door of the cat carrier and it doesn't leak, so no one is swimming by the time we get to the vet, or by the time we get home.

 

[alosha]

Cool. Do you use both types in their cage? Did they start using it when they were young or did you add it in later in life?

 

[Scythe]

The youngest is a year old when I put it in the cage. They do have both, but they all prefer and use the edstrom more often.

 

[Godmother]

Some of mine like them, some don't. I have both kinds in the cage, along with a dish of water (although that tends to get gross within a few minutes :sick2: )

 

[alosha]

I think I will keep mine around then and use them if I ever get more rats.

 

[Rissa]

My rats love their water buddies although some of them are so confused by it they still "click click click" the little lever. There is also another problem that I think is isolated to my special rats. I heard a "drip drip drip" turns out the rat had backed into the lever and laid down with it pressed open and the entire bottle had drained out all over the cage.