Degus don't drink from water bottle if its in the cage

[zhirole]

Hello!



Today I noticed that my Degus, when i let them out from the cage, are trying to drink from my glass with water. Immediately I checked the water bottle I bought recently and they haven't emptied it even a bit!



When I just got the new water bottle, everything was fine and they seemed to get used to it instantly. I haven't changed the position, height of it at all. At first I thought, maybe there's something stuck in the bottle and it doesn't work, but that's not the case. I took out the bottle out of the cage and they immediately started fighting for it. I am really not sure what to make of this.



(yesterday morning they drank from it just fine, only today they displayed this behaviour- they definitely haven't been dehydrated for a long time)



For now I put the new bottle back in the cage, together with the old one, just in case, to see what are they going to do. Maybe you had a situation similar to this? Why could this be?

[teemu]

Hello and welcome!

What you're describing sounds rather weird! If the degus have already drank from the bottle just fine and are keen about drinking water, it sounds very strange that they'd suddenly start avoiding a bottle they normally drink from. However, it should be noted that degus drink relatively little water compared to many animals (they are adapted to a dry living environment with limited water, so they have to go without sometimes), so it's not unusual for degus to not be drinking constantly, as such.

It's possible that if they're young, curious and energetic, they would simply be more intrested in drinking water that seems more intresting, like in your glass, or if you offer it to them by hand. I assume you've squeezed the bottle and/or tapped the nozzle with a finger to make sure that water is flowing (you mention that it's not stuck, but just in case)? If they've been drinking recently and you also offered them some water right now, it's possible they're just not very intrested in drinking any more for the moment.

I would recommend observing them over a day or so. They've drank water recently so they're not in a real danger of dehydration for the moment, and an animal that's drinking just fine and desires water would not suffer dehydration next to a bottle normally. If your bottle doesn't have markings for water levels, draw a small line where the water level is right now, and observe whether or not it depletes over a day or so. If it starts to look like they're consistently avoiding the bottle and the water just doesn't move at all, then there is obviously a problem there. But for now, try to see how things go.

I'll say that being stressed about degus drinking too much/not drinking enough is a very common problem for degu owners, in my experience. It's so hard to be sure that they're eating and drinking normally! But from what you're describing, it does not sound worrisome as such yet.

[savvy]

Welcome to the forum.

From what you describe it could be the angle of the bottle that's the problem. If it's been dispensing water too quickly, it's possible that it's either dropped a spot of water on their nose, or they've had to gulp an unexpected mouthful. Both of which would be very off putting for degus.

One of my degus will only drink from a syringe so I do understand the issues involved.

Try testing the flow rate with your finger to see how fast it's working.

[teemu]

One thing that came to mind is that if the bottle is literally inside the cage, it could cause some sort of issues due to not being stable or having a weird angle, like Savvy says. I generally use wires to attach the bottles outside the cage, so only the straw goes through the bars. This is also a good idea because degus sometimes love gnawing on plastic, and eating through a water bottle would be bad.

[moletteuk]

We tend to mount water bottles lower than is comfortable for a degu to drink. But you would normally only get an overnight problem with an injury that suddenly stops the degu from doing the contorting to drink from a low bottle, so it seems odd that both have an issue overnight.

I would check again it is flowing OK and raise it up a bit and see what happens. There are some dodgy bottles out there that don't flow too well intermittently.

[deguconvert]

I find that even within the same brand name, there can be great inequality of "quality" from water bottle to the next. As has been suggested, check the height. My degus always preferred to have the bottle higher up, so that they had to lift their head a bit, or even sit up on their haunches a bit. I also made a habit of keeping one bottle per degu available. As Teemu recommends, I always attached my bottles from the outside and inserted the nozzle between the cage wires. In my wooden cages, I found away to hang from the outside as well. I preferred glass drinking bottles. Easier to clean and sterilize.

[bouncy]

Are these glass bottles? I have the exact same thing.

It's very easy to create an air lock with these bottles, especially it you overfill them. Once you've filled and rehung the bottle, give it a few taps on the bottom (now the top) until you see water spitting out the spout and some air bubbles rising. You should then be able to see occasional bubbles if they're drinking successfully. If they're still struggling, give it a few more taps. I usually fill bottles at night so, if there's been no change in the morning, you still have a lock and it needs a few more taps!

[zhirole]

Hello again and then you very much for the very detailed answers!

What I forgot to mention in the original post is that, in fact, the new water bottle is a glass bottle and the previous one is a plastic bottle.

It appears that, as bouncy said, the issue was the water not flowing properly due to air lock! That's why when I tapped on it, it worked all fine. For a day they drank from both bottles that i had put in the cage, but now that the water flow was alright, they preferred the glass bottle. Which is great, because I spent quite some time trying to find the perfect glass bottle

Such a relief! Since I haven't had any problems with my boys since I got them (they will be 1 year old after 2 weeks ) this small issue got me a bit stressed. Thank you all for the help, I appreciate it so much!

[teemu]

Ah, good. Sometimes these issues have simple and easy answers.

I totally understand what you mean about getting stresed out over something like this. Degus do seem to really have an ability to make people worry about them.

[savvy]

Degus have a plan for world domination, keeping us stressed about them is part of that plan, lol.

Glad you managed to figure it out and it's sorted now.

Looking forward to hearing more about them.

[bouncy]

Yeah, it's the biggest downside to the glass bottles. I've had mine running over to lick the condensation off my can of red bull. Now I'm wise to the airlock, it's easy to take precautions.