Cat food for a kitten who drinks to much water

Hi all,

I'm looking for some advice on a line of food to start my foster kitten, Yakima, on. Yakima drinks water, and a lot of water, and then of course pees like a cat drinking a ton of water.

Background info:

Yakima was trapped as part of a colony of mixed ferals and abandoned strays. He is between 6-9 months of age and weighs just under 8lbs. He is also is a long hair kitty. I have 6 cats of my own and he shares a room with another cat trapped at the colony who we're trying to tame. His exam, blood, and urine test all came back clear; no big issues.

Our vet recommend putting him on a high quality urine diet to prevent possible bladder issues due to his over drinking. She also suggested he may need his water intake limited.

Right now he's on Purina One kitten chow, and when he eats with the resident kitties he gets Solid Gold Grain Free diet.

Our vet didn't see the need to put him on a prescription diet and recommended Purina Pro Plan's Urine Diet. However I read that Purina Pro Plan Urine diet is formulated to stimulate a cat to drink more. The opposite of what Yakima needs. So I'm looking for a food that designed for kitties with urine issues that isn't designed to stimulate thirst.

I'm eyeballing Wysong Uretic but I'm looking for other options! Thanks in advance.

I think cats who eat dry food drink more water.  Sounds like yours drinks even more.

 Have you thought about feeding him wet where he would get most of his water from his food?  Its much much healthier. 

Originally Posted by ReiKitty  

Our vet recommend putting him on a high quality urine diet to prevent possible bladder issues due to his over drinking. She also suggested he may need his water intake limited.

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Not drinking enough water will often lead to urinary issues. I would not worry about the cat drinking tons of water. Water is essential for the body to function properly. So let your cat drink If you see other unusual behavior or litter box habits, then you should have the vet do a complete check up with bloodwork. Excessive drinking can indicat diabetes but you would also see other typical symptoms like sticky sugary smelling urine or weight loss.

Could you feed more canned food with extra water added? That could help curb some of the drinking since the cat would be getting most of the water directly from the food. Dry foods often contain salt to make a cat drink more water.

I thought about trying him on a wet food only diet, but I'm just worried since he drinks so much more already I'm just giving him more water to process. 

Also he does get a big scoop of wet food at night. (sorry I forgot to mention it) it's probably about a 1/3 of his daily food intake. This did not noticeably decrease his water intake. 

I know not drinking enough water causes issues (One of my personal kitties is on a wet food only diet due to his not liking water). But when I say a lot of water, I mean it. He probably drinks double or more what a typical cat drinks. I have foster more kitties then I can count and Yakima out drinks all of them. When he drinks he drinks like a cat that hasn't had water in days, and he does this several times a day.  His blood and urine test indicate nothing wrong medically with him. The vet mentioned something about a mental disorder that tells cats to drink even when they're not thirsty, and she suspects he may suffer from that. 

Putting him on a urinary diet isn't a requirement, it's just something we want to put him on as prevention.

i would try to get him to drink water with electrolytes. they make ones for animals, such as pet-a-lyte or rebound oes, or you can even use unflavored pedialyte. 

Why not try for a few days giving him nothing but a good quality canned kitten food and see what that does? You've got him confined, so it should be easy to gauge your success or failure.

Aome cats drink lots of water. Whenever id pour a glass id pour some cold water in my cats bowl and hed drink it. He even knew what it was when id ask if he wanted water. He would come running to drink. Most cats wouldve left if no food was involved.

There was an episode on My Cat from Hell about a cat who drank a LOT of water, and I mean a LOT.
I didn't see the conclusion, but I believe the diagnosis was OCD. You might google it and see what the diagnosis/fix was.

I remember that episode it was a black persian and he owner thought it was cute n kept giving him water for a good laugh instead of playing with him. Once she starte playing wih him and moved his bowl.into her kitchen he became a normal cat . But hed drink for 10 or 20 minutes straight . My water loving cats would drink for 1 or 2 minutes. Lol

Thanks for the tips!

I didn't even think of the pet-a-lyte. I have a bottle from a previous foster. I gave him a bowl of that and bowl of water last night. He tried the Pet-a-lyte but didn't drink much of it by this morning.

 Why not try for a few days giving him nothing but a good quality canned kitten food and see what that does? You've got him confined, so it should be easy to gauge your success or failure.

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I might try it after all... He won't argue... 

He doesn't like water as much as that cat on My Cat From Hell does!  (I found a clip) He drinks for 30 seconds or so and wanders off. He gets played with and plays with the other kitties in the house. We have water bowls in a couple places around the house too and he drinks from all of them. And he does come running when I freshen a bowl of water.

I think he was water deprived growing up and so he drinks it all the time because he doesn't know when it will be available again. He is great about using the litter box. The vet did say something along the lines of it's probably all mental in his case.