Cat Fountains - any good?

Not quite sure which is the best forum to put this in

I was wondering if anyone had any experiences to relate with regard to cat fountains.

Radar loves running water, and likes drinking out of a running tap.

But Radar also loves running water, and letting him near the running tap usually ends up with me wet, the walls wet, and Radar wet

So if I get a cat fountain for him, will I have to coat the house in plastic sheeting to keep it dry from him playing with the water, will I end up with a permanently soggy cat, or will the novelty of playing with water eventually wear off?

I'll move this to the Care and Grooming forum for you.
If Radar loves running water, your best bet would be a Drinkwell fountain, because that's the closest to a faucet (the Petmate Fresh Flow has a little ramp, and the Cat It has a half-globe the water runs over). If you're worried about him slopping in the water, get yourself a large plastic serving tray for under the fountain, or even some floor tiles or a folded plastic shower curtain to just lay on the floor under it. He'll probably slop around, at least early on, but why deny him the fun?

Thank you - both for putting it in the right place (still finding my way around the forums LOL!) and for your response.

Sounds as if the drinkwell is the one I want to get him! I am sure he will have a ball with it

He adores playing with running water and I let him do so often when I am at home, it is fun to watch him chasing the water down the plug hole! He just can't stay away and will come running if he hears a tap start to flow, it's absolutely hilarious but I have had to ban him from the bathroom when we are running a bath because he plays with the foam from the bubble bath, gets covered in foam, slips around on the edge of a bath with hot water in it, and I do not want him to fall into hot water or get sick from licking off the foam later.

Drinkwell it is then, thanks

I have the CatIt fountain. My boy Pushkin likes to put his paw in and flick the water out sometimes. So I have a large pastic tray under it, like jcat suggested, and it works well.
Mind you, I don't know how it would hold up to a full-on assault by your water loving boy! Maybe he's part tiger?

Originally Posted by pushylady

I have the CatIt fountain. My boy Pushkin likes to put his paw in and flick the water out sometimes.

So I have a large pastic tray under it, like jcat suggested, and it works well.
Mind you, I don't know how it would hold up to a full-on assault by your water loving boy! Maybe he's part tiger?

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If he is out of the sitting room for any length of time, I can usually find him sitting in the wet handbasin Wet bottom, wet tail, wet paws, usually wet on the back of his head if the tap has been dripping. Unfortunately I haven't caught him on camera sitting in there!

I have yet to entice him into having a bath, although I have run a bit of water into the bath and watched him sitting at the dry end batting at the water with his paws. I hope that at some point he will try going further into the water, because he has white paws which get a bit grubby sometimes, but I want to keep water fun for him so won't force anything.

Part tiger LOL, that would explain a lot

I have the Drinkwell and I wish i had a cam for the first time Kricket saw it. She thought it was a game cause once the water starting running she thought she had to charge the fountain, bat at the water, run away, flick wet paws all over the place, repeat process. After 3 days of doing this, I caught her actually drinking out of it and then sticking her ears under the running water. Shes to much sometimes.

Also on a few occassions I've allowed my bearded dragons out on the floor to run around and they do run over to the fountain and drink too.

Duke and Sibohan will not drink from anything that is not running water any more. THey love their Petmate water fountain. It keeps them from drinking from the filter at the back of the fishtank

Callie LOVES her Drinkwell fountain!! I was having a hard time getting her to drink enough water, but once I got her the fountain, she immediately started drinking more. She'll drink from other bowls & cups I have throughout the house, but the fountain is her place of choice.

we have the cat it globe fountain thing. My 1 yr old is weird. She paws water out of the toilet, floods the bathroom, but won't drink standing water. She liked to paw all of the water off the globe. We moved it several times thinking she didn't like the location of the fountain but I think she just liked to play with the water? (she loves baths, the shower etc.) I liked that it enticed her to drink, and this way she only spread the water out of her fountain in tiny amounts instead of dumping a bowl or splashing it everywhere. The only problems I have found with it is that because of her intense pawing, she spread a lot of debris into the water supply and a ton of hair into the filter. The filters are quite expensive to replace in my opinion. I tried substituting with homemade filters made with carbon and filter pads bought in bulk for my aquariums, but it seems only the cat-it filters will allow the fountain to function properly. Running it without the filter allows hair to build up and clog the pump. They are a great way to make sure your cat is drinking just don't assume that because you are filling it often that the cat is drinking more however, the larger surface area of the water running over it will cause quicker evaporation so make sure to monitor your cat as they get used to the fountain whichever you choose. However, the water stays nice and cold and once the cats realize the water is running over the globe (it doesn't sound or look like a running faucet) they will definitely enjoy it if they enjoy running water. Good luck.

My cat would not use the Pet Mate fountain we got her...even when we had it out for a really long time so you'd think she'd be used to it! She just never used it, but even then she still managed to get food in it (she's a very messy eater!)
I'm hoping it will work out better for the new kitten we're getting--although being a Maine Coon he may like it a little TOO much heh. My dogs really liked the dog-sized fountain I got, but I had to stop using it because it would run dry too quickly (even though we got the largest size they made) and I was afraid the motor would burn out from running dry too often.

I always struggled to get Delilah to drink - she NEVER drank out of a bowl, unless it was immediately after I filled it. I used to run the tap to encourage her to drink out of that. So we decided to try the Petmate Fresh Flow fountain, and she drank out of it right away and has been using it ever since. (I was so excited!) The fountains are worth it, IMO.

Thanks everyone! I have yet to find a fountain but it is definitely on the 'to get' list.

Radar still gets to play with the taps daily - at the moment he is quite wet! He also tried to get into the washing up