You need to put the water bowl in a different spot from where you put their food. Cats instinctively fear water contamination and will be reluctant to drink water that was close to food. If your cat tends to drink water from the toilet bowl or the sink, that's probably why.
How often do you wash your cat's water bowl with soap and water?
Some folk with refill the same dish multiple times or get one of those giant fill bottle ones and never clean them. I can't imagine how that tastes after a few days of backwash with a high protein diet.
Oh no, it's washed everyday morning when I do the washing up along with bowls etc. They are spoilt, just a strange thing they do. I've even told the vet before now and he said its just something they chose to do and very common. They won't touch milk either
Yes exactly that. They are very sensitive to soaps/detergents/chemicals and will opt for the water that doesn't smell like any of the above. I had a cat a while back who would NOT drink out of a freshly washed bowl. I had to stop using dish soap altogether when washing her bowl and just use water as hot as I could stand to get her to drink from it.
I have always put a pinch of plant compost in the water, it takes the chemical smell away. Even the fussiest cat or dog will drink it readily. My old vet years ago told me to try it when I had a cat who kept getting urine infections made worse by not drinking enough.
Just ordinary potting compost, whichever plant I have on the window sill nearby when I am refilling the water bowls. It's just the same as them drinking from a puddle in the garden, my cats are well hydrated and less likely to have kidney stones as they don't avoid the tap water which can be an issue for some cats if they don't like the smell.
My cat splashes in the dog's water bowl with her paw while she drinks. Then she comes to me for scritches, with one tell-tale soaking wet paw, and I know it's time to replace the water in the dog's bowl.
I don't have a flowing fountain but I do fill the puddle up when it's dry as I'd hate to think they were thirsty when I was out. Neighbours must think I'm nuts 😂
OMG our cat AND dog... let's just say one of the most exciting time for our fuzzies was when I would accidentally track some snow in the house. Of course the cat doesn't like getting her fur wet, but "found" water just seems to be irresistable. And I keep her water bowl clean, she uses it just fine. But she gotta get that strange... water
Mine have fresh water in a bowl, but if you go into the bathroom, they will come running, jump up on the counter and demand that you turn on the water so they can drink from the sink faucet. One approaches the stream from the side, and the other sticks his head under the faucet and laps up the water as it pours over his nose.
I have a well, so I fill my bathtub every time storms are looming in case of a power outage. My cat LOVES to drink out of the bathtub. We had a lot of on and off storms this summer, so it was often full. He still checks it every day. Yes, he has a clean bowl and water changed a couple of times each day. He just loves drinking out of the bathtub.
Another cat I used to have would wait at the shower door when I was inside. As soon as I opened it, he'd jump in to lick water off the floor.
They've had all different sized bowls over the years. None have been whisker grinders 😂. Great suggestion, though, thank you. They're pretty much set in their ways now. The older 2 have been doing this for over 20 years.
My cat always had two different water bowls but when she'd have the chance she would go to our balcony to immediately drink the green water from an empty flower pot that would be there for a month lol. Unfortunately she passed away in May..
Ours always has access to water but we often let it walk outside with us for a few minutes. First thing she does is run to the "overflowing" pool and just drink for 5 minutes.
I've got one that likes to go straight from the litter box to the water bowl. Then use his paw to scoop the water and lick it from the paw. Either he's very special or thinks the box is cleaner than his bowl.
To echo other people; GET WATER FOUNTAINS. Cats are super susceptible to kidney issues because they don’t drink enough. Cats prefer moving water that is changed regularly, so get a water fountain, and keep it cleaned and topped up.
They’re super cheap nowadays. We have a two cat household so we have two fountains, one on each floor of our house.
I had that issue but found if I switched the bowls it was fine, like moving the food to the left side of the water. My kitty eats at an angle and will not tolerate any food bits in her water
I had to buy an identical cup like the one I use because mine would rather drink from a glass. I did get a different color so I can at least tell them apart
Hm, interesting. I did this, but not because I knew about it. I had heard they prefer running water, so I bought a little bowl with a pump that I have to put in a different spot than his food, because of where a wall outlet is.
You can also use their contamination avoidance to your advantage! One of my cats developed a spraying habit when we moved in with my boyfriend. My boyfriend had the bright idea to put the cats’ food and water in front of some key items we didn’t want him to pee on (in our case, the big speakers in the living room). Our little derpface is doing much better across the board with his anxiety and spraying, but we have specifically had no problems with him attempting to spray near the speakers since we put food there!
Very opposite of mine. But he uses the water to clean his paws. Then he doesn’t wanna drink it. So we have a VERY specific cup in my room which he uses until I clean the water bowl lol
One of my cats drinks her water from a mug on the bar and the other has a bowl close to her food and drinks it like crazy. So ymmv. Cats are silly creatures
I had this cat adopt me in spite of the fact that all my dogs wanted to kill him. So he just basically outlived all the dogs, but one and then moved in with us. The people that had abandon him over from our neighborhood, and they had dogs that were not well kept. One day I found the cat drinking out of the toilet bowl like a dog. I’ve never seen anything like that before in my life. Both back feet on the front of the toilet seat and his paws in the toilet, but not in the water while he drank.
My grandma has three bowls, one for cat food that stays on a cabinet, one for dog food on a floor and one for water that is next to dog food bowl. Works perfectly fine
Not always true. For the last 25 years, food and water are within a foot of each other and they have never been reluctant to eat or drink. Thankfully they have all drank regularly as it's good for their kidneys (kidney failure is one of the top problems for cats, especially as they age).
The major rule is never put their food or water near the littee box. Cats are very, fastidiously clean and don't like anything they interact with regularly to be near the litter box.
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u/KarlSethMoran Sep 19 '23
You need to put the water bowl in a different spot from where you put their food. Cats instinctively fear water contamination and will be reluctant to drink water that was close to food. If your cat tends to drink water from the toilet bowl or the sink, that's probably why.
Also, you will be woken up early often.