Prairie dog proof water bottles

[Kenny]

Hi, I have three PDs and they are extremely destructive. They have destroyed every cage I have put them in and are currently in a ferret nation single level cage with no shelf until I can finish building their homemade cage. The homemade cage will be four levels each with a footprint of 36"x18" and each level will be connected by drainage pipe so there will be no ledges.

The problem I am having is finding a water bottle that they can not destroy or knock off the cage. The glass bottles they cannot chew but they knock them off the cage and break them. I have used metal wire and they chew that right off the cage. I am using the flat bac water bottles but they can chew through the bottle, and they leak.

Any suggestions? The youngest one I got as a pup from someone who is allergic to hay. The older two I got as rescues from my vet so they don't do well with handling and out of cage time. They like to be scratched, but only while inside the cage. The younger one gets out of the cage daily to run around my room. I have exercise wheels, pipe for them to run through, and lots of stuff for them to chew on, and I work daily with the two older PDs on handling. I am hoping once in the bigger cage they will be less destructive....

[Nibbler]

what about giving them a heavy pet bowl inside the cage instead ? not sure if that would work.

[Ravnos]

I've used the 5oz plastic Lixit bottles with my prairie dogs for years. They like to play with them, but haven't managed to chew one up or break one yet. I've also used their glass ones, but had the same problem of them constantly being knocked off.

[Wendolina]

I never try. Always use typical roedents recipients.

[Kenny]

Yesterday I used steel hangar strap (for pipes) bolted to the cage to mount the glass water bottle on the cage. When I got home from work the water bottle was on the floor and the nuts and bolts were inside the cage !!! Maybe if I use the same idea, but make sure to wrap the steel strap around the bottle so the bolts are in the back it would work....

[Cranky1]

Prairie dogs are not adept at taking nuts and bolts loose. We have 3 cages and use the flat back glass bottles that are held on with spring retainers. The bottles have a groove in them that keeps the spring from slipping off the bottle. And what kind of hay are you using? Timothy hay is the only stuff you should be using....

[Kenny]

Those water bottles do not work for my guys. Not only can they lift the water bottle out of the spring so it falls to the floor, but they can chew the spring right off the cage, the metal the spring is made of is not strong enough.

For hay, they get free choice timothy hay. I get hay by the bale from the same place I get my horse's hay. Much cheaper and I know the exact field it came from, I actually bed my prairie dogs with hay and change it out completely every few days.

As for prairie dogs not being adept at loosening nuts and bolts, I don't know how they did it, but they played with it enough to loosen them, and I tightened them with a ratchet....

[Cranky1]

Are the bottles high where they have to actually stand up on their hind legs to reach them? That's the way ours are. They can reach them easily but not good enough to mess with them.