Cat drinking fountain?

I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the right place, but does anyone have a cat drinking fountain? I would love to get one for Daisy because she likes to play in water, but I want a battery operated one (I just don't think my cats + water + electricity would mix). I looked at some online a few minutes ago and not only are the ones I found electric, they also seem to have a bunch of stuff that you have to purchase with them. I would appreciate any advice. I had no idea cat fountains were so complicated!

Moved to Health Forum.

I have this one. It comes 100% complete with a filter. You can purchase additional filters for when you run out. I did that in advance so I would have 1 on hand when I needed to change it.

http://www.bonkers4pets.com/servlet/...ountain/Detail

It's easy to assemble. I just washed it after removing it from the box. Put the water sealed electric piece inside. Filled up the base. Filled up the blue reservoir and placed it upside down on the base, and put on the cover. Plug it in and away it goes.

No need to be concerned about it being electric. The cord is long and plugs into a wall outlet.

I refill/top it up every couple of days and wash it out completely once a week. The weekly washing and setting it back up takes me less than 5 minutes.

My cats love the fountain.

I have one and my girls love it! Mooch used to splash the water all over till I got the fountain. I notice she likes to drink where the water comes out the top of the fountain instead of where it pools at the bottom. It's super easy to assemble and use. All you have to buy for it are the filters. We have the same Petmate Fresh Flow one as in the link above.

I got one awhile ago and my cat loved it. Basically cured her need to jump in the kitchen sink every time I turned on the faucet.

I'll say this though -- be sure and put the fountain on the floor. I had mine just a couple inches off it on the bottom ledge of a portable kitchen island and Sophia knocked it over during the day - causing all the water to spill and the unit to run dry which in turn, burned out the motor.

So, yeah..lol

We have 3 different brands. A cat-it, Drinkwell platinum and petmate deluxe. All are electric, the cat-it comes with a cord cover if you're worried about chewing.

I use all of mine without filters, I put filtered water into the fountain but do not purchase the additonal filters and the fountains all work just fine.

I don't use filters in mine either. I have 3 - the Petmate Fresh Flow, Drinkwell, & then the Petco store brand one. My cats splash water fairly often, & with a 'drip loop' in the cord I've never once had a problem (and I've had them for years). The drinkwell with the free flowing stream is my faucet girl's favorite.

I have the petmate freshflow deluxe, and I do use the filter... I find it that it helps with my kitties eating wet food... it gets messy some times. I also wash the filters quite often, so they do last a while.
I love mine - I top it off every day, and clean it once a week. Kitties like it a lot as well - highly recommend it......
The only thing I wish is that the water chamber was bigger, like the drinkwell... but hey, nothing is perfect!

If the plastic construction is of any concern, I've also received confirmation (thanks, Otto!), that a stainless steel Drinkwell 360 will be coming out this fall - no price announced yet, though, although I've got to assume it'll be more than the plastic version, which is between $50 and $60 as I recall. My kitties love the 360, even more than the Drinkwell Platinum.

Oh, yeah, definitely floor location for a fountain - and I've got a place mat underneath, although mine aren't big splashers. Mine's in the kitchen.

Good luck in shopping!

I have the Drinkwell --- my foster boys love it. They don't play in/with it too much but their water consumption has definitely increased. Ditto on the floor location on top of some sort of waterproof mat. It takes 5 min to clean. And check online - prices there may be better than a pet store.

Thank you all for the advice. I think I know what I'll be giving my cats for Christmas.

Just wanted to make a comment. When I stopped using the filter on my CatIt, the end of the motor with the holes would end up getting plugged with cat hair and cause the motor to work harder. I could hear the motor running and knew it was getting clogged. After cleaning, the fountain would work better and be quiet. I have started using the filters again which I believe will lengthen the life of the motor.

We have a Drinkwell fountain that the kits love. We leave the lid off of the top (where the spout is) because Albert prefers to drink from there and we do not use filters in ours. They harbor bacteria and our vet instructed us not to use them because of that. We clean ours out once a week and have had no issues. It does make an annoying sucking sound when the water runs low, but that stops after you top it off.

Interesting observation about the bacteria. We've had one for 5 years and Bijou is pretty healthy, like 20 lbs healthy.

I wash the filter when I clean the fountain every week and put a new filter in once a month so I'm not worried about bacteria. The filters are cheaper than new motors.

That's interesting about the filters too - I know I can the cats' filter way more regularly than I do my own Brita pitcher filter. Well, of course the cats get better water than I do!