Changing water bottle!

[metalpandahead]

Hello I am not sure if I am in the right section for this but basically I have had my two boys for nearly 5 years now and have always used the bead system water bottles (can't think of another way to name them). However a few weeks ago I decided for this times new cage to buy something with three levels (they love it!) but since the cage did not come with a water bottle I bought one of those 'sippy' ones where they need to push this little 'button?' for the water to flow and it seems they can't figure out how it works, I tried to activate it with my finger while they were in front of me and after watching me they will nib on the bottle and lick water that fell on the cage floor but I feel they don't understand the system, is there a way to teach them? I bought those bottles for my chin and he got the hang of it in minutes even though he had only had beady ones before too... 🙄🙄

[moletteuk]

Hi and welcome to the forum

I can't think of anything beyond what you are already doing in showing them. I suppose if you wait a while they might figure it out but you'd have to provide a bowl of water in the meantime, which can get pretty tedious and which some degus don't take to either.

I used glass water bottles as a solution to the chewproof issue.

[deguconvert]

Is the button too hard for them to depress, I wonder . . . mind you if they don't get the idea, they won't be pressing on it anyway. Just thinking that the larger Chin might just have an advantage there.

I always used glass bottles as well.

[metalpandahead]

I tried the chins bottle and both buttons seem very light and easy to push I only need to slightly touch it to get water in my finger. I tried to put a bowl of water but they just knock it over (drying it so their cage doesnt turn into a swimming pool) I tried to use their old bead one but the new cage has very thin spaces between the bars so pretty much have no choice but to find a way to teach them to use this system!! 😣😣😣

[moletteuk]

Maybe if you show us some pics of your setup we could suggest a different place or way to attach a normal bottle?