New Rule Passed
At the 2025 National Fancy Rat Society Annual general meeting a proposal was voted through by members that meant during show days “Exhibits must be provided with a small water bottle.” Before this rats were always provided with moisture sources such as cucumber, apple and carrots in the show tanks but water bottles were only required during the larger Multi Fancy events and in warmer weather/environments. Now this will be required at every show starting in the new show year in January.
Although in the past small mouse bottles were placed on top of show tanks, all of us who show know how annoying these can be as they are constantly falling over and it’s a nightmare for the staff to transport with them and keep tabs on everyone’s bottles. Plus risking getting them mixed up can increase risk of spreading infection too which we all want to prevent. To make this easier, safer and less stressful on everyone it has been expressed that having water bottles on the inside of tanks is a great solution. Not only as it won’t disrupt the lid being opened and closed during judging but your bottle won’t get lost if it is inside the tank. I must stress that this is not a rule it’s purely a helpful suggestion and as long as a bottle is provided then you are following the rules.
The best solution for inner mountings of bottles is 3D printed bottle holders that attach with magnets but at the minute they are very expensive especially if you need to buy a larger amount and it seems companies like Amazon are stacking delivery charges on these per item rather than for the whole order making it even more expensive. There are people in the community with 3D printers that are looking at getting some made up and distributed soon so look out for them, In the mean time I have a much cheaper solution of easily crafted DIY bottle holders that can be made in around 1 minute and costs less than 50p per holder on average.
Make Your Own
Here is a quick guide on how to make your own show tank water bottle holders using metal wire
I bought 2mm x 20m of soft aluminium wire from Specialist Crafts for £11.74 including postage which took 2 days, this makes 40 cradles at slightly under 30p each, so if a wire snaps from excessive bending etc then they’re easily and cheaply replaced. They obviously have pros and cons but they’re at least good for a temporary solution for now. Stronger wires can be used too I’ve used the softer aluminium as an example as there are quite a few members of our community with grip strength and dexterity issues so the softer wires are easier to shape for those people. If using soft wires use newer bought ones as much older ones you may have lying around for years can contain lead which isn’t good for rats. Newer regulations prevent this being added to it nowadays.
1) Start by cutting a roughly 50cm length of wire.
2) Bend this in half leaving a wider loop at the folded end
3) This loop fits over the spout
4) Twist the wires over each other so they land on the same side they started and bend these over the edge of the bottle lid and around the bottle
5) Side view of what it should look like so far
6) The cross the wires over each other once at the front of the bottle, wrapping around to point towards the back again
7) Side View of what it looks like after last process
8 ) Hold the bottle just below the lip of the show tank, making sure it doesn’t sit above the line as this will interfere with the lid.
9) While holding in this position, fold the ends of the wire down and over the rank to form hooks
10) End Holder complete sat on edge of show tank
11) These fit nicely under the tank lids, this will depend on how tight the tank lid is, some may rub slightly but a minor adjustment will fix this
12) They also fit nicely in the corner of a show tank angled diagonally if preferred.
The wire is very malleable and easily adjustable, the cradle from the beginning can be twisted around so that the bottle can be mounted in the corner, they are then less imposing and could possibly be mounted at the front so the whole lid doesn’t need to pass over the mount to be closed/opened, the ends can be trimmed to be a bit shorter but they’re easily removed from the tank, the bottles are easily removed from the cradle or opened while in the cradle for filling.
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