Rabbit waterer?

[poupoule]

hi there,

two of 12 chicks hatched today under mama hen and I am soooo excited!! They are my first chicks with a hen. I bought day old chicks last year which almost all got vanished by a or many fox in one night, so those are really important!! I lost a chick last year drowing in his water. So I am thinking using my rabbit waterer. has anybody done that before? Would the hen and chicks know how to drink out of it? Thanks

 

[jbowen9]

yes they will drink out of it just becareful and watch them to make sure they are drinking from it. I have a few that drink from rabbit waterers it is just tough in the winter because they freeze

 

[poupoule]

thanks! I'll have no problem with freezing as I live in Australia

. I'll try the rabbit waterer

 

[jbowen9]

no i would say you wouldnt but just watch make sure they are drinking good and good luck

 

[Akane]

They pick up drinking out of water bottles even faster than they do a dish, bucket, or standard waterer. Something about the shiny ball being too tempting to peck I guess. I provided some newly hatched japanese bantams with both a chick waterer and a hamster water bottle and they never did drink out of the chick waterer. They started on the hamster bottle before I even showed them water like I usually do and that's what they drank from until they went to the coop.

2 things to watch for though. First make sure the bottle is actually small enough for the chicks. With standard chicks that's probably not an issue but if you have very small chicks and a very big bottle, particularly the kind with the spring loaded ball to limit dripping, they may not be able to push the ball far enough to get much water. Second tap the balls daily. They occasionally get jammed and if you are only looking at the level of water level to tell if they are drinking you won't realize a ball is stuck for awhile. In hot weather or if the bottle normally goes down slowly so you don't notice anything for a few days it could result in a very bad situation.

 

[poupoule]

Thanks for all the advice. I'll keep a closed eye on them!

 

[Renee']

My first batch of chicks never figured out the rabbit waterer. Generally, I think chickens prefer to have their water at ground level. I always put marbles in my baby chick waterers and I've never had a chick drown (knock on wood). Good luck to ya!

 

[HEChicken]

In my experience they have to be taught how to use it. My patient dd taught our first batch of chicks how to do it in just a few minutes each. She would hold the chick in one hand, the waterer in the other, and then press their beak against the ball. After doing this 3-6 times apiece, they started voluntarily pressing against the ball to get the water. After that I hung a water bottle where they could reach it, in addition to a regular water bowl and several of seemed to prefer it. Below is a pic of two of them drinking from it.

 

[SunnyChic]

I was just going to post about my 3 week old chicks going bonkers over a rabbit waterer, when I saw your thread. I made my chick brooder bigger by attaching a used rabbit cage I was given (someone's bunny died & I got the cage, waterer, feed, etc.) to the original brooder. A BYC member told me I should use the rabbit waterer for the chicks. I hooked it to the side of the cage, and when one of the chicks found it and announced her treasure to the world, EVERYBODY wanted to try it out! These chicks are just too funny.

 

[Akane]

I've never had to teach any of mine how to drink out of it. The first time I stuck a rabbit bottle in a cage with 8week olds I walked out to get the camera and by the time I got back they were all fighting over who got to peck it. I've thrown bottles on pens with chicks to adults. The adults immediately go peck it and while they may get it wrong the first few times if you leave them for a few minutes they'll get it and by the end of the day they have no problems. The chicks may take a little longer especially if you put the bottle in when they first hatch and both aren't moving around great yet and don't really need much water yet. Like I said though when I put a chick waterer and a water bottle in from day 1 and just left them alone the chicks drank out of the water bottle first and never did start drinking out of a standard waterer until they went to the coop.