Water Bottles: Water bottle or messy drinker?

[asterling]

I have two water bottles. One is an older cheap one and it leaks a little, but not much. I also have a newer spring loaded bottle. This one doesn't leak, but the pigs seem to not know how to drink out of it without letting more of it out onto the cage than into their mouths.

However, I've also noticed that Yona (my baby) seems to drink out of the new bottle more. Tala (the adult) is in charge and they definitely have "separate sides" of the kitchen. I've read that some pigs are just messy drinkers. So, onto the question finally... Does anyone else have problems with the spring loaded bottles just spilling water onto the ground? Do you think its the bottle or that Yona is just messy? And, if she struggles with this one, will the Water Buddy brand work any better?

PS, I have some paver bricks that I put under the water bottles. They absorb lots of water so that it doesn't end up getting the bedding all wet. Works great! (I "washed" them thoroughly before putting them in the cage just in case.) Yona really likes to perch on top of it when she's getting a snack or drink. See below. (The brick is miraculously dry in this picture. Its almost always soaking wet.)

[NicholsS10]

My pigs actually have a very hard time with spring-loaded bottles, they just couldn't seem to get the hang of them. With spring loaded bottles, my pigs will almost just shake them violently and hope that water comes out. So I use the gravity-ball water bottles and they can work those just fine.