Cats and the Drinking Fountain

goldenkitty45

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I'm considering getting one of those running water drinking fountains for the gang. But my main concern is them playing in the water and making a mess.

Charlie loves to bat water - he's the one I fear making the most mess on the kitchen floor with the fountain.

Do any of you that have fountains, have cats that play in the water and is it a problem?
 

epona

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I didn't have mine long enough to see whether it would be messy as Radar put everything he could get his paws on into the bowl to watch the water fall on different things. Paper towels, socks, caps, toys, the mail - I had to change the water about 30 times and the motor still clogged up and broke within 2 days. He's not known as the Destructicat for nothing


Radar is not an average cat though, he does have a particularly destructive edge to his mischief!

Here he is proudly dunking Nate's baseball cap
(You'll notice I put a plastic storage container lid behind it against the wall in case water went everywhere
)
 

white cat lover

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I've got a tray with a small lip under neath my Drinkwell. Twitch is big on playing in water.....yes she does play in it....but the tray catches most of the splash. I've got placemats leaned against the wall where it is, too.....splash guards.


Twitch does the most mess making when she's sticking her head in the running steam!
 

yosemite

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I have the CatIt so there is no "open" water for them to play in. The water basically just runs down the side of the dome into a very narrow trough. The kitties just lick the dome to get their water. They do drink more water since I've been using it. I had a PetMate, but the open water collected dust and other debris so I changed it for a CatIt. We just cleaned the pump and whole thing out with vinegar last weekend. Amazing how much lime builds up even using spring water.
 

gingersmom

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Originally Posted by Epona

Here he is proudly dunking Nate's baseball cap
(You'll notice I put a plastic storage container lid behind it against the wall in case water went everywhere
)
NICE!


I have two Drinkwells, and you already know I have two Bengals. While they love water, the only thing they use the fountains for is drinking.


Although Ferris WILL drop a furry mouse into the fountain on occasion. He's my fountain watcher, been fascinated with them since I adopted him as a kitten. He'll lie in front of one for HOURS, and he gets excited when I refill the reservior!


I do keep the fountains on folded towels, however, as our only spillage seems to occur during mad kitty crazies.
 

alleygirl

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I have the petmate fountain and when I first got it, Riley DID play with it and in it quite a bit, but after a week or so the novelty wore off and he used it for drinking only.

The bathtub faucet however, he never tires of
 

sweets

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I had a cat years ago that liked to bat the water out of the fountain. I would come home to find the kitchen floor flooded. Once I figured out it wasn't the sink with a leak, I put the fountain up on the counter with a dish drain under it. The water was funneled right into the sink.
 

cat mommy

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Originally Posted by white cat lover

I've got a tray with a small lip under neath my Drinkwell. Twitch is big on playing in water.....yes she does play in it....but the tray catches most of the splash. I've got placemats leaned against the wall where it is, too.....splash guards.


Twitch does the most mess making when she's sticking her head in the running steam!
I have the same thing (http://www.petsmart.com/product/inde...earch&keepsr=1)
under my Drinkwell. All I ever find is the furry toy mouse or pom-pom ball that they like to give a drink of water to
. But I've never had problems with the cats playing or getting the water all over the place.
 

laureen227

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i have 2 petmate freshflows, & just got a drinkwell platinum [arrived today!] but it's not set up yet. no problems w/water play, tho.
 

ashley45

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I was going to get one, but then I started reading about how much cleaning you have to do....take it all apart and scrub the peices weekly. I figure turning the faucet on is more convenient than that. And, sadly, yes, the faucet is the only thing Moses will drink out of....
 

missymotus

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Mine play more with their water bowl than the 2 fountains.

I have cat placemats underneath to catch any spills.
 

yosemite

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Originally Posted by missymotus

Mine play more with their water bowl than the 2 fountains.

I have cat placemats underneath to catch any spills.
Yes, I can certainly see them playing more in a bowl of water than a fountain.

As to the remark by the poster about taking them all apart every week to clean, it's not that bad. With the CatIt, the top portion just lifts off and I rinse the bottom and just use one of those sponges with the soft scrubber on one side to clean the dome. I then just rinse the bottom portion under hot running water and use the sponge to get it squeaky clean, run clean water through the filter to clear it, refill the bottom, top up the dome level, replace the top dome on the bottom and plug it in - voila. Every once in awhile if the lime residue builds up, I just fill the bottom portion with plain white vinegar, let it set for about 1/2 hour and the vinegar dissolves all the lime, rinse and it's clean.
 

gingersmom

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It takes me just 10 minutes to clean my Drinkwell with the Drinkwell cleaning kit.
 

iluvdevons

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I love the Drinkwell. Both Ares and Hypnos love water sooo much that they not only play in the sink, but have taken to standing in the shower with me
- but note that despite this great love of water, neither plays with their water in the Drinkwell - I think it might depend on the kitties
 

littleraven7726

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We have the Drinkwell. No problems with them playing in it. I also have it elevated about 3" off the floor, I noticed my cats were a lot more into the fountain when I raised it.

We tried all of the fountains and so far I like the Drinkwell best. Both of my cats drink out of it now (it took a while though).

Tip: Don't buy the Drinkwell brush set. Save yourself some money and get the Munchkin baby bottle brush. It is 2 brushes in one for about $3.
That and hot soapy water cleans our fountain great.
I also don't use the filters. I clean it weekly and fill with water out of our Pur Pitcher.
 

missymotus

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Originally Posted by Yosemite

Every once in awhile if the lime residue builds up, I just fill the bottom portion with plain white vinegar, let it set for about 1/2 hour and the vinegar dissolves all the lime, rinse and it's clean.
That's a good idea, thanks
 

sakura

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Not a problem here. The fountain I have (Fresh Flow) doesn't have water that falls like a faucet, it runs down a little ramp instead.


Thanks for the vinegar tip! I have a ton of lime residue in my old fountain. (I swear the place I live has the hardest water in the world).
 

abstract

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I have an automatic waterer, not a fountain, but my cat plays in it constantly. Water everywhere. Every cat is different, but I'm actually looking around for a water bottle to replace my bowl.
 

laureen227

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update: the drinkwell is up & running! i've only seen Pixel drink from it, so far - but Cable & Firefox were quite fascinated with it. i've left both of the freshflows up, too, altho if the drinkwell grows in popularity, i'll probably give the smaller freshflow to a friend.
 

yosemite

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Originally Posted by Sakura

Thanks for the vinegar tip! I have a ton of lime residue in my old fountain. (I swear the place I live has the hardest water in the world).
It's safer than chemicals and relatively cheap - a large jug of vinegar is only about $2 and we simply keep the vinegar, mark on the jug that it is for cleaning the water fountain and tea kettle and re-use it a couple times.
 
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