Bottle vs. Bowl: Which is Better?

When it comes to watering your rabbit, there are two basic options: bowl or bottle.  Both will work, however there are some things you should consider.

First, a bowl is easily knocked over by an active rabbit (intentionally or unintentionally).  This will result in you filling up the bowl several times a day, especially if you have a rabbit that likes to play with his bowl.  If your rabbit lives inside the house, you will also need to clean all of the spilled water off the floor.

Second, no matter how clean you keep your rabbit and its cage there is always going to be hair and other dirt flying around (especially if you keep your bunny outside).  This leads to potential contamination of your rabbit’s water supply, which opens up the possibility of health issues.  A bottle provides protection to the water supply.  The volume of water that can be held in a bottle is greater than what you will be able to put in a bowl, which is good especially on hot summer days.  A typical bottle holds about 32 oz of water, where a bowl will hold about 12 oz.

Dante posing next to his water bottle.

A positive note on bowls.  Bowls aren’t all bad, especially during the winter (if your rabbit lives outside).  If you live in an area where freezing temperatures are normal, you’ll quickly find that the water will freeze quicker than you’ll be able to keep up with it.  Thawing out a water bottle can be extremely time consuming, especially if you only have one and can't alternate between two.  Thawing a bowl takes mere minutes.  Also, a bottle is more likely to break when the water freezes and expands.  When the weather gets cold, I tend to swap the bottle for the bowl, to make things easier on myself and to ensure my rabbit will have as much access to water as possible.

The cleanest and easiest way to water your rabbit is to use a water bottle.  I would recommend having two (a backup for when your primary one freezes in the middle of January).  A bowl can work, but you need to make sure you keep up with maintaining fresh water for your rabbit.