Cleanliness of water and water bottles?

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Eryn

Member
Joined
Aug 15, 2012
Messages
9
Location
Minnesota
I'm wondering how often people clean their chinchilla's water bottle? I've read that you should do it daily, others say weekly, and I would like some input from all of you. I worry that cleaning it daily will up the chances of getting soap in his drinking water, is that stupid? I've just been using Dawn dish soap and a bottle brush, rinsing well, etc. Is there anything else other people have found to work better? Also, I have recently moved and am now on city water. The water tastes terrible, stains the sinks, and for some reason, the ice melts twice as fast. So, I've been using a Brita water-filter pitcher that you keep in the fridge and I have started using this filtered water in Gordy's water bottle. I have two questions: 1. Do I need to worry about how cold the water is when he drinks it? 2. Is worrying about the purity of his water just flat-out ridiculous? I'm a new chinchilla mom, just want to make sure I'm doing everything right.

Can't wait to hear your feedback!
 
I use a dishwasher on sterilize once a week. They get washed, sterilized, and hot rinsed twice, then steam dried. Every two days they get dumped and fresh put in.

If you are using soap, just use a drip and a bit of white vinegar in it, then scrub it and rinse it several times. If you use a lot of soap, you will have residue.

If you do a search on here, you will find many, many threads about water - what kind to use, why to use it, etc. As far as coldness, my chins love it when it's nice and cold. I can't blame them. I hate water anyway, but if I have to drink it, it better be cold!
 
My chins get Wal-Mart "drinking water." It's reverse osmosis purified and only costs $.88 a gallon.

I wash my bottles once a week with Dawn and the hottest water my sink makes.
 
unless you are using the newest Brita filter that states it filters out giardia (a parasite), then your Brita filter is not effective enough to make water safe for chins.

you need a 3 stage filter that filters out microbiotic cysts (like giardia). the Pur 3 filter is highly recommended.

i wash water bottles once a week in the sink with water as hot as i can stand, with just a bit of regular dish soap. rinse a gazillion times to ensure there is no soap residue. as for refilling water bottles, that is about every second day, regardless if they are nearing empty or not. i don't like drinking water that is tepid/room temperature and has been sitting around, and i'm sure my chins don't like it either.
 
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Dishwasher! Of course, I can't believe I never thought of that! I think I'll get an extra water bottle and just start sterilizing them that way. I should have just searched the forums first, after I posted I read a lot of threads about drinking water and had a lot of my questions answered. I'll try and go through that route first from now on. I just got the Brita filter about two weeks ago, I still have the box, I'll see if it filters out Giardia. I appreciate the tip on the Pur 3 in case it doesn't though.

Great responses, this is such an awesome resource to have! Thanks so much everyone!!
 
My chins get Wal-Mart "drinking water." It's reverse osmosis purified and only costs $.88 a gallon.

Actually even water you buy from a store out of their reverse osmosis system can be unclean. Stores most often have someone come in and change their filters every couple of weeks/months...its not based on how often it is used. We used to buy ours from Walmart as well, one fall we went to a show and comment after comment about our animals was that it didnt look like they were drinking enough (due to unclean water). Long story short, as soon as we came home we purchased a reverse osmosis system of our own and added silver to the water we had until our system came in. Now, I know that it is not economical for everyone to purchase a reverse osmosis system, but I would instead purchase water in the gallon bottles (not the distilled).

You can read more on this topic in both the ECBC Magazine (next month) and the MCBA Magazine (I think this one that is coming out now).
 
Actually even water you buy from a store out of their reverse osmosis system can be unclean. Stores most often have someone come in and change their filters every couple of weeks/months...its not based on how often it is used. We used to buy ours from Walmart as well, one fall we went to a show and comment after comment about our animals was that it didnt look like they were drinking enough (due to unclean water). Long story short, as soon as we came home we purchased a reverse osmosis system of our own and added silver to the water we had until our system came in. Now, I know that it is not economical for everyone to purchase a reverse osmosis system, but I would instead purchase water in the gallon bottles (not the distilled).

You can read more on this topic in both the ECBC Magazine (next month) and the MCBA Magazine (I think this one that is coming out now).

I buy the ones in the gallon bottles. Off the shelf.
 
I use the Walmart nursery water in the gallon jug. I scrub the bottles once a week with dish soap, hot water and a baby bottle brush, sanitize in the dishwasher. I have twice as many bottles as I need to so I can just replace them when it's time to fill them up.
 
I wash the bottles once a week. I put bleach in them - about 1/8 of the bottle. Then fill with water and soak for 5 min. After that I use a bottle brush and clean. Then I rinse and re- rinse and re-rinse before filling them with filtered water from a Purr filter.
 
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