Drinking Water

Hi... I'm new to the whole cat thing and this site has been so helpful. I have a quick question...

How do you know if your cat is getting enough water to drink? I know she eats her food so she must drink her water... but it doesn't seem like she drinks very much. I'm used to dogs and how they lap it up like nothing... do cats do the same thing?

This probably sounds pretty stupid... but I'd really like to know. Thanks.

Originally Posted by Missa Wissa

Hi... I'm new to the whole cat thing and this site has been so helpful. I have a quick question...

How do you know if your cat is getting enough water to drink? I know she eats her food so she must drink her water... but it doesn't seem like she drinks very much. I'm used to dogs and how they lap it up like nothing... do cats do the same thing?

This probably sounds pretty stupid... but I'd really like to know. Thanks.

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A typical cat won't drink as much as a dog. If you're worried about the amount of water your cat is drinking perhaps you should monitor the water level.

I personally found my kitties drank much more water when I got a cat fountain. I started off with the PetMate and although it was easy to clean the motor didn't last very long. Last week I bought a CatIt (sp). The kitties actually seem to be drinking even more since the water stays cleaner and runs better. When I clean the litter and find the big clumps of urine I know they are drinking more.

You can see if your kitty is dehydrated by pulling the skin around the scruff of her neck, I think. If the skin bounces back straight away, then she is fine. If the skin does not bounce back quickly, she might be dehydrated.

In my experience, cats can be very finicky about their water supply. Ebony will pretty much only drink from a running faucet. Sofie has one of those kitty fountain water bowls. They are definitely not like dogs, in terms of water consumption!

Also, if you are feeding canned food in addition to dry food, your kitty will be getting some extra moisture from that too.

ps from a fellow newbie. This board definitely is a great source of info.

does your cat eat dry or wet food? wet gives them a lot of the water they need, so they won't drink much extra. my kitty eats mostly dry food, so i monitor the water he drinks. putting out extra bowls definitely helped him drink more. i see him drinking more and as yosemite said, i also noticed the larger pee balls in his box.

Originally Posted by whuckleberry

does your cat eat dry or wet food? wet gives them a lot of the water they need, so they won't drink much extra. my kitty eats mostly dry food, so i monitor the water he drinks. putting out extra bowls definitely helped him drink more. i see him drinking more and as yosemite said, i also noticed the larger pee balls in his box.

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Just an added note - our two eat more wet than dry food and still drink good quantities of water which I'm pleased about. Mika particularly loves to lick the water running down the dome. She liked the water running down the ramp on the other fountain. I also find the water stays cool in the new fountain.

Originally Posted by Yosemite

Just an added note - our two eat more wet than dry food and still drink good quantities of water which I'm pleased about. Mika particularly loves to lick the water running down the dome. She liked the water running down the ramp on the other fountain. I also find the water stays cool in the new fountain.

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ah, so mika really loves running water. that's great!

actually now that i think of it, wally does like to sip water right after eating wet food. hmm.

If you're worried the cat isn't drinking enough, putting extra water bowls around the house is helpful. I did this when my cat was having a urinary tract infection, and it turned out that he preferred to drink in the bedroom instead of in the kitchen. So I didn't have to leave all the bowls out... just the one in the bedroom. Now he drinks much more water than he used to.

Of course, unless you're dealing with a male cat with a tendency towards those problems, you don't have to worry about the amount your cat drinks. Chances are it's probably fine. Cats are used to getting moisture from the wet food they eat, as well.

Does anyone add water to can/pouch food? When I was feeding canned science diet, they were happy to eat the stuff that looked like it came out of a blender, but it took them awhile. I added water to make it go down easier and they happily ate it all much faster. So I continued adding water to their new chunks and gravy type (nutro natural choice kitten pouches) and they still lick up all the gravy before touching the chunks. Just wondering if others did this regularly or if there's a problem with this. I figured the more water the better...

Originally Posted by Yosemite

I personally found my kitties drank much more water when I got a cat fountain. ... The kitties actually seem to be drinking even more since the water stays cleaner and runs better. When I clean the litter and find the big clumps of urine I know they are drinking more.

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Same here, we keep an eye on their water intake anyway, but I often see them at one of the fountains, a few icecubes in the water bowl can also entice them to drink more

Previous cats I've had have never seemed to drink much water. My older cat used to drink water from the shower floor. Blossom seemed to drink a lot up until last week. She also drinks from the shower.

None of my cats will drink the water if it's in a spot they don't like. I keep one bowl with their food, but they rarely ever drink out of it. They like to drink out of the one we keep in the corner of the bathroom. It's quite funny actually because usually whenever you open the bathroom door after being in there, there's at least one cat waiting to come in and get a drink! We really need to look into getting a kitty door!