Filtered water VS Tap water.

freaknpink

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I have been unsure about giving my cats tap water for a while now. I remember reading a while back that the fluoride in tap water can be bad for cats digestive tracks. 

I decided to do a test last week.

I put out two bowls of tap water and one bowl of filtered water from my brita  and kept an eye on them for a few days.

The bowl with the filtered water was empty after 2 days and the two with tap water not touched. I repeated the test again...this time putting out two filtered and two tap...same results after a few days...tap water untouched. That's enough for me to quit giving my cats tap water. They must smell or taste something they don't like and will choose not to drink it if given other options.

Anyone have anything to add to this topic?
 

odiakkoh

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Mine will drink more filtered water than tap. Our tap doesn't have fluoride in it though.
 

faustandfigaro

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I guess it all depends on the quality of your tap water: however there are definitely stuff in it that cats wouldn't drink if wild in nature !

I live in Paris, France, where the tap water is supposedly good, but I give my cats a mixture of filtered water and non-mineral water (bottles - what we call "source water" in France).
 

pushylady

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We don't trust the water from our tap here enough to give it to the cats all the time. We're not paranoid about it or anything, but think it's definitely better for everyone in the long term to drink it filtered.
 

txcatmom

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Mine have also shown a definite preference for filtered water. 
 

sugarcatmom

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I give my cats filtered water as well, even though we actually have great tap water here, I just think it's a little high in minerals. By the way, Brita filters don't remove fluoride, only reverse osmosis or activated alumina filters do that. 
 

tobytyler

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I have a private well, so no fluoride, but there is copper and other minerals.  I use a Brita filter for all water, and even use filtered water in the filtered fountain (which has a similar carbon filter).  The well water tastes very good though, and thankfully my cats love water.
 

Winchester

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Well, we buy several gallons of spring water every week for our cats. We're on a well and we have a water softener system with reverse osmosis, etc. The cats have been drinking spring water forever (because of previous water issues on our well, which is why we installed the water system to begin with) and I really hesitate to take a chance on our well water.
 

bagheera2

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I feed my cat five way filtered water if at all possible. It is what I drink myself, because of the disparity in tap water. If I am concerned for my health I am concerned for hers. Although this is a cat spot, a testimonial to my system is two beagles that my ex-wife had. When I got there the dogs had diarrhoea, they were drinking tap water and eating cheap food. I took the wife to the Petsmart store and had here by a reputable dry lamb and rice formula dry food, and then went and outfitted myself with a 5gallon refillable bottle and dispenser and after that the dogs only had filtered water and decent food The symptoms cleared up in less than a week.
 
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