what do you guys clean your water bottles with? (especially the nozzle)

[webjetter]

Just wondering how others keep the piggie water bottles clean. Do you use antibacterial soap? How do you clean the drinking nozzle ... with a Q-Tip, or do you soak it in something? Someone suggested to me to soak that top part of the bottle where the nozzle is in a mild bleach & water solution for like 1/2 hour. I'm a little concerned about bleach, though. Would white vinegar be safer to soak in, or is bleach okay? What about running the bottle through the dishwasher? (I don't think my family would like the idea of that, however.)

[Chin Lover]

Hrm... I usually just use baby bottle brushes to clean my bottles (I actually saw bottle brushes at Petsmart the other day though, which might be something to consider). And I use a water/vinegar mix, sometimes lemon as a cleaner. Q-tips are very helpful for the spout.

I've heard that some people clean with 4:1 water and bleach mixture, let it soak for 15 mins, brush on them, let it run through the dish washer with no soap just the hot water, and then the heated dry cycle to get them as close to sterile as possible. I would probably suggest a less concentrated bleach mixture. (might want to be careful with this, I don't know whether their bottles are glass or plastic)

Some people just throw them into the dishwater and use the sanitize cycle.

The best idea that I've heard is probably using a baby bottle sterilizer!! This would be a great idea if you have lots of water bottles to wash, or if you have one of these already!!

[Aertyn]

I use rice to clean the bottle, you add a couple tablespoons or rice a teensy amount of water and shake it, it will pick anything up on the inside. Rinse until you have no rice left in the bottle.

For the nozzle I use use hot water and a Q-tip, I don't like using vinegar, bleach etc when you are going to be putting their drinking water in it...trace amounts will get into the piggies...

[Toadies]

I fill the bottle half full with the hottest water out of the tap, put in a clean paper towel, cover the opening and shake as hard as I can. The paper towel causes friction to remove anything on the inside. Then I rinse, rinse, rinse. I use the cheapy cotton swabs on the nozzle because they have plastic stems and hold up better than the paper stem ones. I suppose that you could use salt as a cleaner. It has antibacterial properties and rinses easily. I hesitate to use chemicals but lemon juice sounds like a good idea. I also make sure that I remove the gasket and clean it and the lid area under it.

[gooberific]

Lemon juice, salt, and a couple ice cubes using the shake it, shake it, shake it method is really good on glass.

For the dripper, I actually do use a couple drops of regular dish soap in water, and a baby bottle nipple brush and scrub the heck out of it. Then I hold it upside down under the hottest tap water my hand can stand for about five minutes. Sure, it uses up some electricity from the hot water heater, but our dishwasher doesn't have a sanitize option (it's from about late 60s, early 70s... still good for dishes you've basically cleaned with rinsing..).

Of course, this doesn't mean what I'm doing is "right", either, but it's just about exactly what I did with my son's baby bottles and nipples.

[Ly&Pigs]

I use rice to clean the bottle, you add a couple tablespoons of rice, a teensy amount of water and shake it, it will pick anything up on the inside. Rinse until you have no rice left in the bottle.

I do this method. I really cleans the bottle well because the rice acts like an abrasive.

[auburnmare5]

I use really hot water, and let it sit and scrub it with a bottle brush. As for the nozzle, I rinse it off a few times a week with my fingers and once a week or so, I scrub it with a sponge, scrubbies, etc...

[PiggieMamaKelly]

The rice idea is great!

I use a 10% bleach solution on the water bottles. Bleach is a harsh chemical, but when diulted with 90% water, it's only about as strong as chlorinated pool water so it's not a big deal (although certainly not necessary for cleaning). Obviously I rinse like crazy.

[webjetter]

Thanks you guys! Good ideas. I didn't know they made tiny little brushes -- couldn't find a small enough baby bottle nipple brush, but I did finally find a good tool ... it's a percolator brush made by Fuller Brush Company. I just tried it today and it works great on the nozzle. I appreciate everyone's input!

[TroyT]

This topic is a bit old, but I've ran in to the problem of water bottle cleaning before. I used to fill the bottle with hot water and use a tooth brush to clean the inside (a clean toothbrush, not the one I use everyday) this worked extremely well and then I would just put my finger over the opening of the bottle and shake it. Then I would empty it while shaking it.

Then for the nozzle I would pull the rubber ring out and run that under water between my fingers to get it clean. Then using a Q-Tip I would clean the inside of the tube. I don't really like this method as pieces of the Q-Tip head can come off, but I haven't found anything else to use yet.

I also like to keep a second bottle on hand, then if I have to soak the bottle for a day or so to clean it, it has plenty of time to soak and dry and my pigs can still enjoy water.

[ittybitty98577]

When I got one of my new piggies they gave me the water bottle to. Well it had algy growing on the bottom. So gross but I cleaned it out with this white long bendy thing that is used to clean human water bottles it worked really well. My grandma gave it to us so any one can pick it up where grandmas shop, T.V., trader jo's, top foods, safeway,fred meyers...You name it.

[Maisiepaisie]

I put the tops of the bottles in the dishwasher but some types of bottle melt so I use a stainless steel chain to clean this. I put the chain inside the bottle (making sure to hold one end outside with my finger) with some hot water (no detergent necessary) and I just shake. The chain cleans the bottle inside.

[k9yorkie]

I have not tried most of these ideas, but I really like the rice idea. I'm just wondering.... have you ever had problems with a stray piece of rice getting left in the water bottle after cleaning and then plugging the bottle?

I have three water bottles for my five piggies for two reasons. They drink a lot of water and I'm always afraid of a water bottle not working because it gets plugged or somehow stuck.