# Emptying the water bottle



## irulan (Oct 3, 2015)

I have 2 mice. We caught them as babies in the kitchen and have kept them as pet (separate as I do know what they are). They've always been very active and inquisitive and enjoy the variation in food and play things I give them.

The oldest one ( I can't seem to find when we caught her but I think she must be over 3 now) is suddenly emptying her whole waterbottle at least twice a day. She sits there and fiddles with the ball until it's empty. You can imagine what kind of mess that makes inside the cage. I keep refilling it and she keeps emptying it. She eats like normal, still behaves normally too (aside from this). I gave her a second bowl of water in case she had trouble drinking and that's why she did it, but it doesn't stop her.

She has never wanted to become handtame so we try to avoid giving her too much stress. Cleaning out her cage almost daily is stressing her out, but I don't want her to sit in a soaked cage either.

What can I do?


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## SarahC (Oct 3, 2008)

either put a waterproof container under the bottle or use a water bowl instead.Water bowls get filled with shavings but as long as it's re filled once every 24 hrs they will be fine.Filling water bowls more than that also leads to wet cages.Alternatively you can just feed wet food and offer no water.Obviously wet food needs removing regularly for hygiene reasons.


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## irulan (Oct 3, 2015)

Yea I will have to do that.

Wondering why she is doing it though. Her situation has not changed, no sudden food or environment changes either. Could it just be old age?


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