Water water everywhere

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mamarat2

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2007
Messages
1,385
Location
Gaithersburg, Maryland
I figured since we had a post about food I would start one about water, mainly because I'd like to hear how much everyone elses rats drink daily because water is important too!

Three of my cages of kids are "normal" water drinkers and maybe will really finish a whole bottle in a week in each of those cages I have the following numbers of rats: 1, 2, 5

Then there is the fourth cage.....my little (not little) boys in the other cage were adopted out of the rescue Lou, Larry, and Stan. They came to me from their former owner who fed them horse grain as their only food source, we took them out of this situation when they were about 9 months old. The person also had them living outside in their cage, in April, in Maryland, not warm outside yet then. Anyway these guys are insatiable. They are on a restricted diet foodwise and are not really obese rats, two are rather large but I think previous lack of food in their lives has caused them to always eat when the food is available.

Water wise, they go through one water bottle in 24 hours. THREE rats, one 16oz water bottle in 24 hours. Vet has never found any issues with them. As you can imagine with that much water consumption they get their rags changed often. I make it a point to fill their water bottle every night otherwise it will be empty in the morning with all three at it trying to get water.

My thought with this bunch is that with their past experience (former owner) they were not fed well to begin with and might not have had access to water so maybe now its become, it's there so we drink it?

How much do your rats drink?
 
20 boys drink 1 liter a day, but they are very different drinkers, some drink a lot and some drink very little (I know because sometimes they are on dates with ladies and then I notice the difference)
 
Hmmm...I was wondering if it was a more recent behaviour because it almost sounded like the beginnings of kidney failure (common sign of aging). First sign is a lot of water being drunk and a lot of urine output.
 
I have two groups of rats (4, 7) that don't drink too much water. My group of 4 two year old boys need their water bottles filled daily or every other day. They have two 8 oz bottles and a dish attached to the cage that is cleaned and filled daily. Asked the vet about it today ... guess I am to bring in urine samples :wink:
 
I have 4 boys who were "used" to teach how to give saline injections in a school. They drink a lot. Out of 30 rats they are the only ones who drink excessively. They will be a year old in August.
 
lilspaz68 said:
Hmmm...I was wondering if it was a more recent behaviour because it almost sounded like the beginnings of kidney failure (common sign of aging). First sign is a lot of water being drunk and a lot of urine output.

Nope they have done this ever since I brought them home, for the last year and three months.
 
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