Cat drinking fountains

I think in order to fix my cat's desire to beat the crap out of the water bowl and spill it everywhere, I should try a running fountain. What kind do you have and how do you like it? I am also worried about leaving it running all day while I am at work. Is this something I should be concerned about?

Thanks for any input!

We've been using the Drinkwell fountain for several years and haven't had any issues with it running all of the time. The main thing is to make sure that it is full before you leave as the pump can burn out if allowed to run dry.

I had the Drinkwell, for about 6-7 years before I droped it and it cracked somewhere and was leaking all over the place. The cats loved it, I thought it was hard to clean. I now have the Cat It. The cats took a day or so to adjust, but now love it. The "handle" on the resevoir is a little fragile as mine broke from having the garbage can knocked over on to it 1 too many times, but it works fine without it. This one too is a pain to clean, but my guess is they all are.

I use the PetMate. It's the medium sized one and holds a lot of water. My guys all seem to like it. I've had it for a little over a year and no problems.

We use the CatIt. The cats use it a lot. I clean it thoroughly each Saturday (I don't find it difficult to clean), refill with 4 bottles of water and by Wed/Thurs I need to add another bottle of water to get through until the weekend so I know they are drinking well from it.

My cats love Drinkwell; I have not tried the others.

I confess that my hubby and I let the water run down on our first Drinkwell and it burned the motor out after a fair amount of time (more than a day is all I will admit LOL) . Suffice to say it did not set the house on fire and we let it go for a long time (we had a second water bowl nearby for one of our cats who didn't like the fountain at first), so even if you are negligent as we were once, it will not be a danger to you.

I should add that we found the CatIt made noise when it was getting low on water. I don't know if this is normal, but ours did. My daughter and husband noticed it (they have great hearing).

Originally Posted by Yosemite

I should add that we found the CatIt made noise when it was getting low on water. I don't know if this is normal, but ours did. My daughter and husband noticed it (they have great hearing).

Click to expand...

I think that is normal because mine does the same thing. When it gets low it starts pumping water mixed with air which makes a fair amount of noise.

Originally Posted by BarbB

I confess that my hubby and I let the water run down on our first Drinkwell and it burned the motor out after a fair amount of time (more than a day is all I will admit LOL) . Suffice to say it did not set the house on fire and we let it go for a long time (we had a second water bowl nearby for one of our cats who didn't like the fountain at first), so even if you are negligent as we were once, it will not be a danger to you.

Click to expand...

Another reason I didn't get the Drinkwell again is that Jordan learned how to flip it over. So, when ever he was angry he would flip it. One day I was gone all day & night at school. When I got home it was totally fliped upside down and the pump was loud enough that I could hear it outside my apparment, but no fire & it still worked after that.

We have a Pet Mate water fountain..my foursome love it.
And the filters are very cheap for it.

Allie is yours a motorized running one? Looks like I have some personal research to do, thanks all!

I just got the petmate fresh flow fountain and so far all is great with it. It holds more water than I thought it would and the filters aren't too expensive.

I think any of the 3 brands would be fine

We have 3 fountains for 2 cats in 1 apt (actually, 2 now b/c the 3rd one was "retired" b/c it fell out of favor & we felt 2 was enough for the time being):

1. Petmate Freshflow fountain
2. Catit Fountaint
3. Drinkwell Platinum fountain

The Petmate is the one we've had for 4 years; it's going strong, no prob. We got the Catit b/c Munchie had an UTI issue and we wanted to make it more convenient for him to get a sip of water, but they decided to switch into the mode of drinking only from the pool and not a running surface -- so the Catit is in the closet now (we have the one that's just a dome, no pool). I love the Drinkwell Platinum; it's got a large tank, so doesn't need to be refilled often, and like the Petmate, is virtually silent (and I'm very noise-sensitive

).

I got a good deal on the Drinkwell Platinum + cleaning brush kit (a must for cleaning any fountain...makes the job a lot easier) + extra filters from The Cat Connection: http://www.thecatconnection.com/page...-DRNK/BWL-7490

We got the starter kit = 1 Drinkwell Platinum Fountain, 4 Drinkwell charcoal filters and 1 Drinkwell Cleaning Kit = $71.99

P.S. We fill the fountains w/ Poland Spring Water -- ah, spoiled furkids

!

I've the Petmate and the Drinkwell and love them both. Each of the cats have their favorites and won't use the other, spoiled brats. I've noticed with the Petmate you have to be a little more diligent about keeping the water pump cleaned out, it seems to clog fairly easy [then again all the fur floating around from the chinchilla cages doesn't help either ]