What do you all do for water?

[CalicoPrairie]

I've read that chins' water should be changed and their bottle washed daily to ward off bacteria and algea growth. I've also read that we should be using some type of reverse osmosis/bottled water for the chins. With 5, that would be a lot of waste of water to dump and fill 5 16 oz water bottles daily. It's not that the expense is so bad, but not having a built in reverse osmosis system it becomes a little more tricky to make sure their water bottles are cleaned and refilled daily. I have been washing weekly and filling with bottled water (walmart's brand).

Can you all share what you do as far as (1) how often you wash water bottles, and (2) what kind of water you use?

Thanks!

 

[CalicoPrairie]

I thinking about this, I wonder if it would work to daily shake the bottle around to loosen any funky stuff, dump the bottles, then refill the bottles halfway (mine don't drink anywhere near to half their water in a day) with reverse osmosis water? Then weekly, I can wash all the bottles. It seems like a good happy medium. Does anyone else do something like this? What do y'all do, especially those of you with 5 or more chins?

 

[ticklechin]

I used to give R/O water, I ran out once and gave them the bottled water from the dispenser, they LOVED it and drank a 1/3 more than normal, IMO the benefits from increased hydration out weighed the possibility of parasites. I give them Alhambra. I dump the water daily and run the bottles through the dishwasher on cage cleaning day.

 

[Snickers]

I use the Pur Water filters. I try to wash bottles (by hand every other week). I have 28 to 30 bottles to wash.

 

[CalicoPrairie]

Hey Ticklechin, thanks. I'm not sure what Alhambra water is--is that just city water? I have been thinking of boiling and cooling our city water to see how they like that, plus it would be so much easier to come by (and dump out every day). It would be a bonus if they actually liked it better than the bottled or r/o water that I have been giving them. Still, there's the question of minerals in it, so I'm not convinced to try it yet.

We don't have a dishwasher. Besides boiling, is there another way to disinfect the bottles? I was thinking of using a drop of essential oil in the water I use to wash them (one drop for each bottle) and letting it sit for 10 minutes, but I'm concerned about the volatility of eo's with small animals. They are not always safe to use and I don't know how quickly they dissipate, or if any residue would be left in the water.

 

[wolfy2449]

I use vinegar to clean my bottle. From what I've read it's a good disinfectant. I just empty the water, pour in a little vinegar, swish it around, and rinse it really well. It's a lot safer than doing the same with bleach too. I only have one bottle to clean so this may or may not be a good option depending on your situation. I try to do this every other day or so which I'm sure is more often than i need to. As for water I just use the jugs of Great Value purified water from walmart and my chin seems to like it.

 

[CalicoPrairie]

I use the Pur Water filters. I try to wash bottles (by hand every other week). I have 28 to 30 bottles to wash.

Thanks Snickers, that's what I would be doing (hand washing). Pur water filters sounds like a doable idea. That would give me the option of using our tap water. Good idea, thank you.

 

[seachin]

three stage under counter filter. Really depends on how clean you want the water and how bad your water is to start.

 

[cindyv3737]

I typically wash my bottles by hand once a week. I do not dump water daily. My girls all drink either Fiji or Arrowhead bottled water. If I were to dump water daily, I'd go broke. Tap water is terrible where I live and not an option. If I won't drink it, my chins are not going to drink it.

 

[Chinmama]

If you don't have a dishwasher, you can find little brushes for cleaning their bottles. You can wash in hot soapy water or in a white vinegar/water mix.

We used to use R/O water from Walmart, but now just use the PUR filter on the tap. We are fortunate to have excellent tap water where we are, but I still like to filter it.

 

[LGarl]

Hey Ticklechin, thanks. I'm not sure what Alhambra water is--is that just city water? I have been thinking of boiling and cooling our city water to see how they like that, plus it would be so much easier to come by (and dump out every day). ......

Hi CalicoPrairie, Interesting thread. I would caution on boiling tap water for chins. It would most likely kill any harmful bacteria or other live organism but would concentrate any chemicals in the water, especially if your city uses an open source for its water. If the pipes in the delivery system for your city are old there is always a chance of lead in your water.

 

[LGarl]

I use Poland Spring water. The water analysis seemed good and it uses filtration and ultraviolet light to disinfect. TDS are very low. My chin loves it and drinks more water now.

I change his water every two days and just wash his bottle couple times a week.

 

[CalicoPrairie]

If you don't have a dishwasher, you can find little brushes for cleaning their bottles. You can wash in hot soapy water or in a white vinegar/water mix.

We used to use R/O water from Walmart, but now just use the PUR filter on the tap. We are fortunate to have excellent tap water where we are, but I still like to filter it.

I have a set of brushes that I bought for cleaning out my brewing bottles, so I can steal one of those unused ones for the chins--thanks for the idea. Is there a list that I can compare our water to? How do people even know whether they have excellent water? I would love to know that.

Hi CalicoPrairie, Interesting thread. I would caution on boiling tap water for chins. It would most likely kill any harmful bacteria or other live organism but would concentrate any chemicals in the water, especially if your city uses an open source for its water. If the pipes in the delivery system for your city are old there is always a chance of lead in your water.

Thanks. Do you know how how I can find out how safe (or unsafe) our city water is? In our city, 74% of our water is well water and the other 24% is from the local municipal water district.

I use Poland Spring water. The water analysis seemed good and it uses filtration and ultraviolet light to disinfect. TDS are very low. My chin loves it and drinks more water now.

I change his water every two days and just wash his bottle couple times a week.

What is TDS? Thanks for sharing what you do. I'd love to find what my chins love so they drink more--I would think that is a good goal to work toward along with safety.

 

[LGarl]

........Thanks. Do you know how how I can find out how safe (or unsafe) our city water is? In our city, 74% of our water is well water and the other 24% is from the local municipal water district........

.....What is TDS? Thanks for sharing what you do. I'd love to find what my chins love so they drink more--I would think that is a good goal to work toward along with safety.

If your city doesn't have a website where you can look up the yearly analysis you can call them and request that information. They might charge you a few bucks for a printout.

and TDS is Total Dissolved Solids and is measured in parts per million. The US government has regulations about how much of this is allowed in drinking water. (I'm sure other governments do too, but I'm from US) Here's a nice site with some interesting info.

http://www.water-research.net/index.php/water-treatment/tools/total-dissolved-solids

Hope this helps.

 

[Chinmama]

You should be able to pull up a website for your water source and find the reports there. Ours has water quality reports listed as far back as 1999: http://www.greenvillewater.com/our-water/water-quality/.

 

[CalicoPrairie]

You should be able to pull up a website for your water source and find the reports there. Ours has water quality reports listed as far back as 1999: http://www.greenvillewater.com/our-water/water-quality/.

Thanks Ann! Is there a list somewhere of what is poisonous to chins, though? Even if I did read the report for our water quality, I don't know that I would have any idea of what matters to chins or not.

 

[Chinmama]

You want to filter out things like heavy metals, giardia and cryptosporidium, which really aren't shown on reports. Do a forum search for giardia and/or cryptosporidium and you'll find a lot of threads on drinking water, recommendations and filters.

 

[CalicoPrairie]

Thanks Chinmama!

 

[chingo66]

I soak them in vinegar for about an hour or so at least once a week (minimum). This works wonders!

 

[gsbuickman]

Hhhhmmmm, interesting. I wash Rain's water bottle out by hand when it gets low, and fill it with boiled tap water that's cooled