We have an on-tap water filter, and that's what my rats get,

Personally, if your normal tap water isn't to bad in quality, I'd stick with that. I mean, that's what I drink. If you don't know how good your water is, you can buy a etst kit or call the water people.

I don't know if chlorine causes cancer, but I DO know it is not healthy.

Chlorine in drinking water can combine with organic compounds and form THMs, which have been shown to be carcinogenic.  BUT, grilling meats and deep frying potatoes ALSO form carcinogenic compounds, yet I've not seen a wide spread movement for avoiding steak and french fries.  

I don't know if rats are more sensitive than humans with regards to THMs.  Maybe they are, maybe they aren't.  For all compounds in water, EVERY place is different.  Some places treat with UV light or ozone, and use a minimum of chlorine to provide a residual effect to protect against contamination as the water travels to your home.    

Chlorine is a chemical that breaks down quickly, so putting it in a pitcher and letting it sit is effective.  Not all municipalities fluoridate their water, and some places have naturally high levels of flouride and other minerals in their water, so even if you're on a well system, you may still be getting undesirable tastes or odors.  And, finally, if you insist on bottled water - check the label and see where it's bottled.  A lot of that water comes from the same place your water does - a water treatment plant.  It's more hype than health.  

I give my rats our tap water because I feel comfortable cooking with and drinking it myself. If I didn't, I'd probably give them filtered water as well.

I use a 5 stage RO filter for my rats' water which removes 99.7% of everything.. clorine, flouride, etc.

I had given my rats tap water for YEARS without any issues, and given that I have had a shockingly low incidence of tumors in my rats, I don't know that the chlorine risk itself is something to be exceedingly concerned with.

However, about 8 months ago I had a couple litters of babies who developed black marks on their teeth.  Some research led to this being a zinc deficiency (yes, while most people only think of zinc in reference to poisoning, they can actually have too little!) which was caused by flouride in the water restricting their dietary uptake of zinc, which in turn effected the development of the enamel on their teeth, and could have possible caused some bone problems (I think the timing was just right so this didn't happen though).  It could have been caused by other factors as well, but switching to bottled distilled water and then to the filter solved that problem nicely

It should also be noted that while tap/pitcher filters do remove a lot of stuff from the water, they do not remove flouride.  If flouride is a concern, then the only option is distilled or getting a filter which specifically states it does remove flouride.  Mine cost about $150ish, and took me about two hours to install all by myself... see.. if *I* can do it, without even the right tools (I used a pair of robogrips, a knife, and a drill) then anyone can



It has a 3 gallon tank, which is more than enough to water all my rats.  Normally I fill up a 1.5 gallon water jug/tap thingie and take it to the rat room, which lasts about two days.

On a side note, I used to not drink water unless it was bottled, because I simply thought tap water was "bad" tasting.  Now I really know just how bad it could be for you.  I drink much more water myself now that we have the filter, and I cook with that water as well.

i put in the supreme edition of the pur water filter. hmm, have to check for flouride removal.  but i always use it for the ratties' water.

in fact, and i have no idea if this has any benefit... before i got the super duper sink model, i had a pitcher and since i don't like to throw things away, i fill the pitcher with filtered tap water and let it filter again.

Lucky our water is pure, natural spring water straight from our OWN water supply! No chemicals WHAT SO EVER! They get all their minerals and vitamins in the water. (no everything but enough)
We recently had our water tested for salt etc...
And it's better then the spring water you get in bottles...

no filters...no having to worry theres something in it.
straight from the tap.

We have an under ground sea!

THM stands for trihalomethane.  And, I should have said "combine with natural organic compounds."

My rats no longer get tap water. Our local news station did a water test including regular tap water, Brita filtered water, and PUR filtered water. The test results were sickening and shocking. The test results for the regular tap water had bacteria from feces in it along with other 30 letter long bacteria names.

I didn't like the results, so...now my rats (and the cats) get bottled water from the store. They seem to like it even more, because it is ice cold when its refreshed.  

we get bottled water from a company in town - they deliver several five gallon.. er.. bottles of it to us every month. Dog, gerbils, and rats all get it. They've already got a small body mass and are prone to certain types of things.. so I don't thinking giving them filtered water is overkill.

I thought I'd post this, since it is rather important.  


I'm glad my rats don't get tap water!!!

WOW, Debbie making a mistake/telling bad information. I didn't think that was possible.    

I got it from here: http://www.ratfanclub.org/diet.html

*It's down towards the bottom of the page.