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Playing with water instead of drinking

post #1 of 6
12/28/09 at 5:32pm
Thread Starter 
I have a grown male cat that has started this horrible habit of spilling most of his water either by dragging the bowl around with his paws, or splashing it around. No matter how many times I yell at him, he will not stop. Now I don't know whether he had enough water or if he has spilled his bowl. Any suggestions on how to stop this? I tried changing the bowl from a automatic feeder to a regular bowl. I don't want him to be thirsty, but I also don't want my rug ruined cause of the water!!!
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post #2 of 6
12/28/09 at 6:51pm
You need to use heavier water bowls that cannot be dragged or tipped. I use those heavy square glass baking pans. There are also stainless steel bowls with weighted and rubber bottoms

In addition, placing the water bowl into a low sided tote box (like those kind for under bed storage) or a tray with side of an inch or two, will protect your carpet, if there is any spilling.

This is a normal thing for a cat to do, so yelling or any kind of discipline really won't help at all. You have to outsmart them instead.
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post #3 of 6
12/29/09 at 7:46pm
[quote=otto;2794814]You need to use heavier water bowls that cannot be dragged or tipped. /quote]

I agree 100% with this.
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post #4 of 6
12/29/09 at 8:13pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by otto View Post
You need to use heavier water bowls that cannot be dragged or tipped. I use those heavy square glass baking pans. There are also stainless steel bowls with weighted and rubber bottoms

In addition, placing the water bowl into a low sided tote box (like those kind for under bed storage) or a tray with side of an inch or two, will protect your carpet, if there is any spilling.

This is a normal thing for a cat to do, so yelling or any kind of discipline really won't help at all. You have to outsmart them instead.
These are excellent suggestions. You should also realize that yelling to discipline a kitty is more confusing to them then anything. Just think of it as someone yelling at you in a completely foreign language, over and over......
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post #5 of 6
12/30/09 at 6:45pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by cheylink View Post
These are excellent suggestions. You should also realize that yelling to discipline a kitty is more confusing to them then anything. Just think of it as someone yelling at you in a completely foreign language, over and over......
thanks everyone for the suggestions. i found a heavier bowl that we used to use for our dog's water and put it in a plastic container...hopefully this will eliminate the problem and he will drink the water instead of playing with it
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post #6 of 6
12/30/09 at 7:06pm
Cats love to play with water, so he probably will both drink AND play!

My little Ootay (rb 5/09) liked to splash in the water bowl, with both paws. She would sit up on her haunches and splash the surface of the water like she was playing a drum!

Currently Mazy cat is my water baby. She always pulls the bowl an inch or two, then pats the water with her left paw, before drinking out of it. It may be she likes her water moving.

Your cat may like moving water too, have you ever thought of trying some kind of fountain?
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