A hard lesson...Please read if you use automatic watering

Alas, I've also had this happen before.. now, every time I feed/clean I check each valve just like Adam said. I also check the bucket valve when I refill it (once every 10-14 days usually)

Jake.. it's really not much hassle. You just have to close the valve on the bucket, and take off the valve that is clogged, and either get it working again, or replace it (I've had two that just wouldn't unclog). If the bucket valve is clogged, it can be unscrewed and cleaned.. just takes a few minutes. Usually you don't have to do it every time you refill the bucket though.

and it would take less time than filling bottles every day.

we've changed to larger water bottles... it's really made it much better for my daughter. she was getting overwhelmed with her ratties needing their bottles refilled two or three times a day.

so every cage has either a huge water bottle or two medium water bottles on them. my daughter just touches each one to make sure a drop of water comes out when she feeds. muuuuch easier on her.

sorry to hear about your loss jamie :hug:

Sorry to hear that Jamie, it feels terrible when any animal in your care meets an untimely and unnecessary demise (as opposed to their timely and necessary demise when they get eaten) . Are you using the flexible tubing for your watering system? I use PVC tubing for my auto watering system and I've never had a clog (see examples here... http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=38830 ) I check it regularily but the flow has always been great. It's harder to do then the flexible tubing, but I think well worth the extra time...

Mark

I, too, still use water bottles, but I'm appreciative of this post. Thank you for sharing this with us, even though you had to lose a rat. :( That's terrible, but at least it was only one. I'm glad to hear you fixed the problem.

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Originally Posted by MarkS

Sorry to hear that Jamie, it feels terrible when any animal in your care meets an untimely and unnecessary demise (as opposed to their timely and necessary demise when they get eaten) . Are you using the flexible tubing for your watering system? I use PVC tubing for my auto watering system and I've never had a clog (see examples here... http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=38830 ) I check it regularily but the flow has always been great. It's harder to do then the flexible tubing, but I think well worth the extra time...

Mark

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I use the flexible black tubing. However, neither of the problems occurred in the tubing. One was in the variflow valve and the other in the bucket valve.

I put about a 1/2 a capful of bleach in the 5 gal. bucket and this seems to help quite a bit with keeping the lines and sippers clean. I have only had my breeding rack going for about 2 years but all the valves are still always pretty clean when I check on them. I am actually kind of surprised because I use well water and it is very hard water. I was really expecting a lot of problems with calcium build up but so far I have been lucky.

Ah; I am really sorry about what happened to ya. I had one female who died from dehydration; her water bottle was similarly clogged, and it was a few days before I noticed it.. I feel your sorrow.

I just got caught out there with 2 clogged water sippers. One of my breeder males-DEAD. One tub with 2 nursing females and about 20 pups...Extremely dehydrated.

Luckily I found it before the females died. I gave them 2 water bottles through the top of the yub and they literally drank till both were empty.

I took apart the vari-flow sipper and found that the blue diaphram was clogged. there are 3 tiny holes in the diaphragm that let water through when the rat pushes the bar...those were clogged. Once I cleared them out, the sipper worked fine again...I found that this was the only water resovior that had vanilla extract in it...mayb this has something to do with the clogs?? Any way, I've learned my lesson...and won't use vanilla anymore either....

Sorry to hear man. Automatic watering makes things so much easier but we aren't checking it constantly like with water bottles. Glad you saved the others!

With the auto food and auto water it is easy to get complacent and forget daily service....Not any more, now I know