Hello!

TL;DR: When should I be concerned about how little water he is drinking? And should we get a heated water bottle for his release cage?

Pan is about 15 weeks & we are overwintering him since he is a singleton. I've also been wondering if he was the runt & maybe that's why mom dumped him since I read they do that sometimes? I'm not sure, but he seems much smaller than even the juvenile the wilds around here.

Anyway, we moved him out to his release cage a couple weeks ago & I realized last week that we hadn't had to refill his water at all. I started watching the water level on the bottle & although he's very happy out there, he doesn't seem to be drinking as much water as much as he did when he was inside. The bottle is hung on the wire next to where his food bowl is mounted, and he knows where it is because I have seen him investigate it. He maybe is a tiny bit dehydrated based on skin turgor.

In Oregon where I live, it has been getting down to the 30s overnight - 50 during the day, but the water isn't freezing. I'm wondering if the water is still just too cold for him to want to drink much since I imagine it would drop his body temperature, especially considering his size. At what point do we need a heated water bottle? Or could it be that we should adjust the placement? There isn't a great place for him to stand next where this bottle is, but I didn't think that was necessary since he used to drink out of the same bottle while hanging on the indoor cage even when he did have a spot to sit/stand next to it.