what does every one use for a water bowl?

[Tom]

Over the years I've used all sorts of stuff. Never really fell in love with any of it. About a year ago, I discovered the terra cotta plant saucers. They are PERFECT! They are cheap. They come in many sizes. They are shallow, so your tort won't drown if they flip over in them. The sides are very low, so they are very easy for them to get in and out of. I also bury mine so they are flush with the substrate. Best of all, they have a rough surface so the torts can get good traction. I find that my torts use these far more than any other type that I have used in the past. I think its because their feet aren't just sliding around underneath them.

I always thought the terra cotta plant saucers would just soak up all the water and let it leak out the bottom? are you using the glazed ones?

I just buy the regular old ones from Lowes. They range from 4-16" and from around $2-8. I'm using around 10 of them right now and only one of the 4" ones seems to seep at all.

 

[DesertGrandma]

I tried the terra cotta ones but they seem to dry out really fast here in this dry climate, inside and outside. I am now using a ceramiic plant saucer, buried into the substrate and half full of small (not small enough to eat) smooth river rocks to eliminate the possibility of drowning.

 

[GeoTerraTestudo]

Each of my torties has a store-bought, lovely-but-overpriced RepCal water dish to drink and bathe in (both are rare events), and a terracotta dish for food.

 

[bikerchicspain]

I use the clay dishes for plant pots, they are cheap, come in different sizes, easy to clean, cheap and they help with the torts nails.

 

[ssydney]

I use a rough surfaced little thing. It has one of the sides without a little wall thing but it gradually gets deeper as Dewey (my tort) gets farther in the bowl. She can soak in it (But she hates soaking) and drink or just lay half in it and half out which is more common for her these days lol. It's pretty cheap, because I found that she had a really hard time to get out of the old one i had which had high sides, even when I buried it in the bedding.

 

[GeoTerraTestudo]

I used to use a terracotta water dish for my boxies, but it just seemed like the water disappeared too quickly. Perhaps this was due not only to the turtles' drinking and bathing in it, and the high evaporation rate here, but also the porous material gradually letting the water out. Now I prefer to use plastic because I think it might hold water better than terracotta, but I'm not sure.

 

[tortoisenerd]

When my tort was tiny we used the Groovy Jacuzzi...he couldn't safely use a ramp bowl or saucer, but even the XL size won't work past 3 or 4 inches. Now we use part of a plastic pond waterfall (black plastic from Lowes which we used safe rough spray paint on to give it traction and some color because the black was too reflective). Its about 1 ft by 1 ft so its plenty of space for him to turn around. It has a ramp to get in, and high sides all around. Just recently he figured out how to get out the side so he has been enjoying that! For about a week he spent all day doing laps around, dragging substrate into it, and climbing up the sides to get out (ignoring the ramp he used to get in the thing). We haven't tested a saucer on him now that he's bigger, but the waterfall is just so cool, and he uses it daily. The baby is spoiled because we have a CHE over just the water so its always warm.