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Automatic water fountains

post #1 of 15
11/13/09 at 4:22pm
Thread Starter 
I am in the market for an automatic drinking fountain for the kitties. Beeba got crystals this week so I would like to get one to encourage him to drink more.

I would like as quiet a fountain as I can find.

Any suggestions?

Thanks
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post #2 of 15
11/13/09 at 5:06pm
The quietest IMO is the Petmate Fresh Flow. My cats like better the Drinkwell Platinum (I have both). It is very quiet if you put on the lowest setting... Higher settings you hear the falling water noise - not too bad though.
There are a LOT of threads about this - do a search and you will get plenty of opinions!
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post #3 of 15
11/13/09 at 5:06pm
My Petmate is silent if spare tank is mostly full and it's a reasonable price too. No need for anything fancy. Good luck
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post #4 of 15
11/13/09 at 8:52pm
My boys really like their Drinkwell original and it is easy to clean.
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post #5 of 15
11/13/09 at 9:00pm
If your cats like free falling water, then the Drinkwell is the way to go. The petmate fresh flow is one some like, some don't. Petco also has their own style of fountain, for about $20 - again some like it & some don't.
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post #6 of 15
11/13/09 at 9:46pm
We use the Drinkwell standard model and the pump has a slight hum, but it doesn't seem to bother our cats -- who are freakishly afraid of strange sounds. I agree with the other poster who said to set it on the lowest flow setting. The first week, I would sit on the floor and when our cats would come for pets, I would show them the fountain, dip my finger in the water, and let them sniff to see that it was a good thing. They seem cool with it and the slight hum isn't problematic.
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post #7 of 15
11/14/09 at 12:23am
Quote:
Originally Posted by carolinalima View Post
The quietest IMO is the Petmate Fresh Flow.
I agree, we've got a Petmate Deluxe, Cat-It and Drinkwell Platinum. Petmate is almost silent, the others are not really noisy but enough to bother me if in the room overnight.
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post #8 of 15
11/14/09 at 8:35pm
Sorry for asking very very basic questions -- How much water is enough water?

My 2 kitties drink water from a bowl. I want to say they drink about 1/4 + cup of water every day combined. They also have 2 meals of wet food each day. They are 3 months old.

And how do I know they will prefer water fountain? I do not want to buy a water fountain before I know they will like it.
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post #9 of 15
11/14/09 at 10:04pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by koobe View Post
Sorry for asking very very basic questions -- How much water is enough water?

My 2 kitties drink water from a bowl. I want to say they drink about 1/4 + cup of water every day combined. They also have 2 meals of wet food each day. They are 3 months old.

And how do I know they will prefer water fountain? I do not want to buy a water fountain before I know they will like it.
The water fountain keeps the water cool, fresh and aerated; cats seem to like that way better than water that is just sitting in a bowl.
5oz total seems to be the qty for an adult cat. the more wet food you feed, the less additional water they will need to drink...
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post #10 of 15
11/15/09 at 1:45am
Time to bring up my review in the cat shopping section here on TCS -

http://www.thecatsite.com/Shop/214/S...Fountains.html
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post #11 of 15
11/16/09 at 10:24am
I have a Petmate fountain that my dog and cat share. I am adding another kitten to the family so I bought the Petco fountain last week and I have to tell you that I LOVE this fountain. It is very simple in design and looks really easy to clean. As far as noise, I only hear a bubbling sound, nothing major. I was pleasantly surprised with this purchase and would definitely recommend it! You just can't beat it for the price - $20.
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post #12 of 15
11/19/09 at 6:11pm
Spirited, after reading your post, I picked up the Petco fountain and it's currently on sale for $17.99. My cats are slowly starting to drink from their bowls again. Usually they're fed wet food twice daily (with added water) and once that routine started, my cats stopped drinking water as they were pretty well hydrated. But since I'm traveling soon, I've switched them back to 1 wet feeding and 1/4 cup of dry. For a couple of days, they weren't drinking but I've noticed in the last 24 hours, they've returned to the water bowls. So I'm not sure if I'll use the water fountain but picked it up since it was on sale. I've also noted that the clumps have decreased from 6-7 for the two cats combined to 4-5 daily.

I'm hesitant because I'm not crazy about the idea of my cats drinking from plastic. I looked inside the fountain and it's the simplest setup. It's basically a water pump tucked underneath the plastic top. And there's a holder for the filter. Everything can be easily taken apart.

I'm tempted to take the pump out of the plastic fountain and placing it in the large ceramic water bowl. Have it pump up water there and then my cats can continue to drink from their ceramic bowl. It wouldn't have the filter and the plastic top though.
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post #13 of 15
11/21/09 at 4:47am
Mine , while they have a freshflow, drinkwell and catit and drink from all of them definitely have a preference for the CatIt and loved it when I bought the huge dog one so they could all drink at the same time
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post #14 of 15
11/21/09 at 4:59am
Thread Starter 
I wish I knew they made a dog one. Turns out my daughter had an unused Drinkwell. So I bought the extra reservoir and they just love it!

Then I bought Beeb the one from Petco. He is drinking much more now. Makes me so happy to see that!
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post #15 of 15
11/21/09 at 6:51am
Hmmm...set up the Petco last night and both cats tried a taste test. Haven't seen them back since, though one of them is enjoying dropping her toys into the bowl

And I noticed only small clumps in the box this morning. Does it take awhile for them to get it? I have the flow set to low. Maybe I'll set it to lowest to see if that helps with the noise.

If the Petco doesn't work or breaks down one day, I'm going to try this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cordandme/2599903172/

Only I would buy a small fish tank or some large extra ceramic container to avoid the plastic.
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