My wife and I moved across the state about a month ago and ever since then our cat Shai (female, 7 years old, 10 lbs) won't drink water on her own. She used to drink out of a glass (wouldn't drink out of a bowl or fountain--she's always been picky) but since we moved she won't touch that water. We thought initially maybe the water tasted different, so I filled three jugs full of water from our old apartment, but she still wouldn't drink it. In addition to this we have tried:
She won't touch any of it. The only way we can get her to drink is to put a little water in a bowl, get her near the bowl with treats, and then drop the treats in the water. She will then drink the water around the treats for a little while until they become too soggy and she loses interest, or until the water is shallow enough for her to take the treats out of the bowl and eat them. We do this every 3 hours or so. My wife and I are often up at different times of the day so we can usually give her water about 6 times a day. I estimate she is getting about an ounce each time. I have seen sources online saying cats need an ounce per pound but this seems excessive, and impossible in our case. Besides, I don't think she ever drank that much.
She seems to be getting enough water for now, but this situation is obviously not ideal (we can't leave the house for even a day), and not easily sustainable. She becomes desensitized to the treats after a while and it becomes harder and harder to get her to drink, so we have to switch the kind of treats we give her.
Right now she is eating dry food, and we are trying to get her on wet food so she will get more water intake, but she is super picky about that too. We have tried probably 15 kinds of wet food in the past month and she sort of likes a few of them but mostly just licks up the gravy. We found one kind where she actually ate most of it, but the store was out when I went back so I ordered a bunch online. Haven't received it yet, but hopefully she will still like it and won't become tired of it after eating it a couple times like she does with her treats.
Anyway, we are looking for suggestions on ways to get her to drink, especially ways to get her to drink again on her own. I feel like we may be conditioning her to *not* drink on her own, by giving her the treats, but it didn't seem like we had much choice at the time. And the longer we keep giving her water this way, the harder it will be to get her drinking on her own, I imagine. As you can see we have tried a lot of different methods without much success, and I am at a loss what else we can do, so I'm really hoping someone here who has had similar problems will know what to do.
Thanks in advance for your help.
- using several different containers (glasses, bowls, coffee mugs)
- placing these in different rooms, several at a time
- using spring water, distilled water, and "drinking" water
- getting her to drink out of the faucet
- getting her to drink low sodium chicken broth
- rice milk (she used to drink it sometimes from cereal bowls)
She won't touch any of it. The only way we can get her to drink is to put a little water in a bowl, get her near the bowl with treats, and then drop the treats in the water. She will then drink the water around the treats for a little while until they become too soggy and she loses interest, or until the water is shallow enough for her to take the treats out of the bowl and eat them. We do this every 3 hours or so. My wife and I are often up at different times of the day so we can usually give her water about 6 times a day. I estimate she is getting about an ounce each time. I have seen sources online saying cats need an ounce per pound but this seems excessive, and impossible in our case. Besides, I don't think she ever drank that much.
She seems to be getting enough water for now, but this situation is obviously not ideal (we can't leave the house for even a day), and not easily sustainable. She becomes desensitized to the treats after a while and it becomes harder and harder to get her to drink, so we have to switch the kind of treats we give her.
Right now she is eating dry food, and we are trying to get her on wet food so she will get more water intake, but she is super picky about that too. We have tried probably 15 kinds of wet food in the past month and she sort of likes a few of them but mostly just licks up the gravy. We found one kind where she actually ate most of it, but the store was out when I went back so I ordered a bunch online. Haven't received it yet, but hopefully she will still like it and won't become tired of it after eating it a couple times like she does with her treats.
Anyway, we are looking for suggestions on ways to get her to drink, especially ways to get her to drink again on her own. I feel like we may be conditioning her to *not* drink on her own, by giving her the treats, but it didn't seem like we had much choice at the time. And the longer we keep giving her water this way, the harder it will be to get her drinking on her own, I imagine. As you can see we have tried a lot of different methods without much success, and I am at a loss what else we can do, so I'm really hoping someone here who has had similar problems will know what to do.
Thanks in advance for your help.
