Just like you value clean and nutritious water, your pet needs the same to maintain a healthy bodily function. Clean water for pets is essential to help our four-legged friends stay healthy and active.
You may already know that clean water is important for them, but It is common among pet owners to be careless with their pet’s drinking bowls.
In simple words, clean water is just as important as feeding them the right food for good health.
Let’s take a look:
Importance of clean water for pets
A dirty drinking bowl of your pet poses many health risks to your pet. Even a bowl that appears to be clean but has not been cleaned properly for a long time can be just as harmful to your beloved pet.
Dirty drinking bowls can have bacteria and mould that can upset your pet’s gut health.
Saliva and food scraps of your pet can accumulate over time, and if bowls are left outside, they can become polluted with dirt and sometimes even with pee or feces of other animals.
To make sure your pet is drinking clean and healthy water daily, make sure their bowls are clean. Let’s learn how to do that at home.
How to keep the water clean
Keeping your pet’s drinking water clean is no rocket science. It is simple, and you just need to get used to some simple practices.
Here is how to provide clean water for pets daily: make sure you don’t leave their drinking bowls outside overnight, do not leave them outside in the sun, and do not leave them near the bird feeder.
The choice of material used to make the drinking bowls is important as well. When it comes to providing your pet with clean water, It has been found that bowls made of porous materials such as plastic can collect dirt and bacteria very easily. On top of that, they are harder to clean thoroughly.
The safest choice researchers have found for a pet’s drinking bowl is stainless steel because of its durability and ease of disinfecting.
Glass bowls can be a good choice as well, but they can be easy to break and also heat up when left outside in the sun.
When you’ve decided which bowl is the right fit for your pet’s drinking needs. It is time to decide how often you should clean the bowl so their drinking water stays clean whenever your pet gets thirsty.
How often to clean the bowl
If you need to know how often you should clean your pet’s bowl, the answer is every day. Think of this: Would you keep drinking from the glass for days or weeks on end?
Of course not.
Hopefully, that’s what you answered as well.
So, to make sure your pet has access to clean and healthy drinking water at all times, clean the bowl with soap and hot water daily to make sure it doesn’t get infested with bacteria or germs. You can use regular dishwashing soap for it.
The bowls can appear clean from a distance to the naked eye. However, a thin layer of germs that may not be visible to the naked eye can be very harmful to animals. So, even if the drinking water looks clean and harmless to you with the naked eye, it can be harmful to your pets.
Aside from keeping their drinking water clean, it is also very important to make sure your pet is hydrated well enough.
And here’s how to make sure they are perfectly hydrated with clean water at all times.
Watch to ensure they are getting needed hydration
When it comes to looking for signs of healthy hydration, there are some common signs of dehydration in pets that you must learn to spot. Pets who are older or have short faces (brachycephalic) are more likely to get dehydrated.
So, look out for:
Slower movement than normal.
Easily getting tired.
Not eating a normal amount of food.
Sunken eyes.
Dryness in nose and gums.
If pets don’t drink enough water, their skin can lose its elasticity. You can check for this yourself at home by gently pitching the skin over your pet’s shoulder blades. If the skin bounces back quickly, no need to worry; they’re hydrated well.
If it takes a few seconds or doesn’t go back to its original form, they are dehydrated.
More Pet Health tips
6 Essential and Simple Tips for Grooming at home
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