Is it ok for a cat to drink dog's water?

Albus prefers to drink from the sink, toilet, or the dog's water dish over his own dish.

We try to prevent him from drinking from the toilet (even though we don't use any of those perpetual toilet bowl cleaners or anything), we don't mind giving him drinks out of the sink, but we're not so sure about letting him drink out of the dog's dish, either. I always keep a bowl of water out for him, but I almost never see him drink from it.

We live in a condo, so we have to walk our dog outside. We're really careful about keeping him away from puddles, other dog's poop and garbage, etc., so the risk of him having parasites is really low.

Is there any other concerns I should have about Albus drinking out of Tana's bowl? Tana is kept in a kennel when we're not there, and because he has inappropriate peeing issues, we control his water schedule. It would be very feasible to just dump out any water after Tana's done drinking, since we don't even want him having free access to it.

I know, I should get Albus a Drinkwell or Petmate or whatever, but I know I just wouldn't be good about the maintenance, and we really don't mind giving him drinks in the sink.

When I had a dog and cats they always wanted to drink from the dogs bowl, and they were always fine.

We change out the dogs water in the bowl twice a day. The cats are always first there,e ven though they have their own bowl of water in their safe room. I think it's a dominance thing - they drink first, so it's really theirs.

Charlie drinks out of Keno's dish all the time, and likes the sink water or when I'm pouring filtered water.

The only one I would NOT want them to drink out of would be the toilet.

We have several water dishes, and the cats and dogs share with each other.... sometimes even drinking at the same time. We've never had any problems!

Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

The only one I would NOT want them to drink out of would be the toilet.

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Exactly!! I sure wouldn't dip a cup into my toilet no matter how clean I may think it is, to get a drink for myself. Think about what a toilet is for? I get so upset when I hear that people let their animals drink from the toilet bowl. IMHO if they wouldn't drink out of it, or let their kids drink out of it, they shouldn't be letting their animals drink out of it either. Yuck!

Ollie and Cuddles share one watering hole... Cuddles has a water bowl inside and out that Ollie doesn't touch, then Ollie has his big 5 gallon waterer in my room and big like soup mugs in the kitchen and computer room - the one in the computer room gets frequented by the dog haha (and being a black lab, she empties it in like one gulp)