Missing water mystery...

[ka0ttic]

I've had my baby chicks for just a few days and I keep coming home in the evening and finding most of the quart of water that was in their waterer has soaked all the pine shavings underneath the water. I have one of the plastic waterers that are very small that I planned on using for the first week or two before I moved to a larger waterer. I also am using a copper trivet underneath the waterer to provide a more stable base because it did not seem very stable just sitting on the bedding. Despite this, the water just seems to end up in the bedding. Any ideas at all why this is happening? It's almost like it is leaking yet I can't see any obvious reason why it would be doing so and they have not been knocking it over either.

 

[easterbun]

Any bedding that touches the water will wick the contents out and saturate what is underneath.. if it's empty and you can't see anything when you get home it's possible that they're picking out any bedding that might have been the culprit looking for water.

You can raise the fountain higher to avoid this - the copper trivet isn't doing much for you if it's just getting covered with bedding. Try an inverted plate or a small bowl.