My family always drinks filtered water and so do my rabbits. But something like ecoli or nitrates (a warning was issued about nitrates at the beginning of the month) can't be filtered out. Rabbits are SO MUCH more sensitive than humans to a slight change in their food or water. And something like ecoli or excessive nitrates, chlorine, or chemicals, could kill a rabbit and especially newborn kits that contain NO good bacteria in their bodies to fight disease.
From now on, I'm going to be purchasing bottled water for my rabbits. I've been wanting to do this for a long time, because I've never trusted our ghetto Everett water. It's going to be a huge increase in what I spend on them, but hopefully it will be worth it. I'm starting to think that our terrible water could be reason I've been having so many kits die. Maybe I'll get more live kits by changing their water supply to something better and fresher.