Yes it is true they can break teeth or get their tongue caught with a water bottle. I'm very much anti-water bottle and here is why.

When I first got hedgehogs, one of my very first broke a tooth on the nozzle of her water bottle. Around 2000ish, I had a good friend email me that she had a couple of females co-habitating, and during her morning check on them discovered a blood smeared cage caused by one of the girls severly lacerating her tongue on a water bottle. I also remember another telling me she had one of hers get their tongue caught in the nozzle, trapped by the ball (discovered the hedgehog still caught, screaming). Both of their experiences further confirmed my decision to stay away from bottles.

More recently there was a youtube video posted of a hedgehog who got its quills caught in the nozzle of a water bottle.

Water bottle dangers have been told on numerous occasions. Some dismiss that there is any real danger and consider it internet hearsay. Many also use the defense that "my breeder has been doing it for years and never had a problem." While this may true, my own experience is different and there certainly is a potential for a problem.

For me, after mine broke a tooth, the bottles went in the trash and I have never given them another thought.

Bowls have many benefits, including a more natural stance to drink. I actually found the water bowls to be much easier to clean than a bottle. Bottles have lots of little corners you really cannot get into to thoroughly clean.
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My breeder has been using bottle and my baby's mum never has problem with it BUT my baby is impatient and he only drinks when he's really thirsty. So with the bottle he often gets frustrated and started biting rather harshly sometimes for a minute straight. I can hear the sound of his teeth clanking on the metal and it's scary so I decided to not risk it.

Personally I too find bowls to be more hygienic than bottle cause I tend to neglect changing the water in the bottle when I'm lazy but I'll never do that with bowl.

 

Another +1 for bowls.

 

I am trying a bowl tonight with one of our hogs because I'm having issues with his water bottle.. Hoping it takes to it fine and gets plenty to drink! (He's quite a runner)

 

Personally I wouldn't use one with a hedgehog at all seems to be a huge no no.

I use bottles with the rats and the mouse but they are very different and it's actuallly recommened to use bottles with them.

 

Thanks everyone! I switched to a bowl a few nights ago, and i put him up to it, so he knows where it is, and took his bottle out of his cage. He seems to be drinking out of it now!

Thanks for all the help! =)

 

I'm a little late to this, but breeders often use water bottles because their working en mass and it's difficult to keep 20-50 water dishes clean. They also use bottles because dishes are unsafe for small babies and some hedgehogs don't understand switching from a bowl to a bottle very well and can end up dehydrated at a critical time. If you have loose bedding I would say that bottles are a better choice there because most hedgehogs will track bedding into the dish while you're not there to clean it immedietly and can end up ingesting it. However if you don't have loads of hogs, and you use fleece, bowls are a safer cleaner, all around better way to hydrate your hogs.