Keeping kitty out of my water cups?

This may be one I'll never win, but I thought maybe someone might have some advice.

I drink a lot of water, and I always have a cup of water out on my coffee table. The new kittens, naturally, are always trying to stick their heads in it. Usually they end up knocking it over and spilling water everywhere. To them this is just dandy, they have a puddle of water they can lap up. But to me it's gross and unsterile, plus it ruins any papers or other stuff that the water spills on.

Is there ANY way to teach them that my water cup is off-limits? I can't monitor it 24/7, and I won't always remember to put it away when I leave the room for a minute or doze off on the couch.

Thanks,
chris.

My kitty does the same thing...has since a baby.

I tried using taller glasses to deter him but he still did it and knocked the glass over in the process. So i just gave up and use smaller glasses. He may get his head in but he does not knock the cup over!

I just laugh at him now LOL

I, too, drink a lot of water, and Sierra and Serenity both drink out of glasses. Sierra taught me long ago to use only heavy bottom glasses since she enjoys the sport of knocking it over after she's had her sip. I've never thought to attempt to deter either of them from drinking from my glass but always make sure to to have a few with fresh water set out around the house.

Oh man, with Oliver it's not just limited to cups or glasses of water, but now bottles (I've been sick since January and on meds 4 times a day, so I've been drinking a lot of bottled water)... so now, whenever he sees someone drinking out of a bottle of water, he expects some to be poured into the cap for him to drink! (Spoiled much?! ) It's made for some funny situations though: I've been at my parents' since March because of the sickness and had taken to staking my claim on the recliner in the living room, which, in turn, equalled "mama takes her meds in this chair and that means I get bottled water"... well a couple weeks ago, my dad was sitting in the recliner and the cat was on the floor. My dad opened a bottle of carbonated, flavored water and in one leap, Oliver was pearched on dad's belly!! It surprised me so much that I started laughing hysterically and it actually scared Ollie and he hopped down... I explained to him that he wouldn't like carbonated and/or flavored water, haha

So, in short, I think you're fighting a losing battle! Just make sure to use plastic/acryllic as opposed to glass cups and try sticking to shorter tumbler style cups that may not tip over as easily!

PS: Oliver has a minimum of THREE places/bowls designated for his drinking water - always fresh - and he still comes running to check out EVERY glass he sees!

I have actually come up with a solution to this since this is max's favorite sport, trying to dump a whole glass of water on my laptop . I take the glass and put it inside a small empty coffee can. This way he cannot knock it over and the only thing he can do is stir it with his paw and drink the water. (Although I have gotten mouthfulls of kitty litter and fur when I take a slug out of my water without looking in it first )

I can't even pour the kids a cup of milk without fighting one of the cats! I just try to be quicker and they fortunately don't like the taste of my husband's "cocktails" if they get a taste of that. But it seems like they are always winning the battle!

I've given up on cups and use a bottle instead. With the top screwed on firmly!

I was rudely woken up at 2AM when Bogart knocked the water glass over onto my head (it was on the end table and I was asleep on the sofa). He drank from my water glasses for 10 years until that night.

I switched to cups with lids or water bottles since then. I don't buy water, just reuse bottles that I've picked up at work meetings. Replace them when you get squeamish about them.

Same problem here with Lilly. I leave her a full cup in the sink- that way, if she knocks it over, the water just goes down the drain!

i got the same problem with Noah... hehehe.. maybe a sippy cup will help with the spills??

Yep I have the same problem, they drink from everywhere except where they should.

I even bought them a water flountain but they still prefer the cups, the taps and the loo !

I have given up trying to prevent my cats from drinking from my glass and now have a sports cap bottle.

I've been lucky with my three until yesterday. I watch Carly sniffing into a glass with just a 1/2 inch of water in it. She couldn't get her head to the water so she started cupping the water in her paw to drink. I let her do it for a couple of minutes (bad meowmy ) until I saw disaster coming with tipping the glass over on to the keyboard and stopped her from continuing. Instead I got little wet paw prints on my papers.

We just don't drink out of any cup or eat off of any plate that has been left unattended

Fortunately ours don't think knocking the glass over is much fun, so that rarely happens. Water and milk are of course their favorite drinks, but we really have to watch Midir because he doesn't seem to think that coffee and tea are bad for him

It would be annoying and maybe messy, but it might work to put two sided tape on the bottom of a glass for a while, maybe if they try to knock it over and can't, they'll give up?

Of course, if I've learned anything, it's that cats are determined and persistent and our will power usually gives out long before theirs

Originally Posted by shrekfx

i got the same problem with Noah... hehehe.. maybe a sippy cup will help with the spills??

Click to expand...

Been there, done that, sippy cups don't work!

Our cats liked sticking their heads in the cups, so I had the kids use sippy cups. The cats now knock over cups to check what is inside. I did put a fresh coffee mug of water out for them, so they have their own cup of water as fresh as mine...and it is wide enough to drink from without knocking it over. And we try really hard to keep cups, etc, put away.

For you, I'd advise as others mentioned, bottled water with caps.

Marlee is awful about this! I wake up during the night thirsty, so I keep tall cups with water at the bedside. Since I have a kinda small bedroom, my computer/school desk doubles as my night stand. Marlee has knocked water over 3 times, narrowly missing my computer each time. I just can't figure out what to do! It is really the only thing she does that bothers me, but its sorta embarrasing when I have company and am constantly reminding them to watch their glasses. For a while I left her coffee mugs of water around the place, but was afraid I was "giving her permission" to do it at anytime. Should I just go back to that and see if it satisfies her to have a mug of her own?

I gave up trying to keep the cats out of the glasses. Instead I took a very heavy weight glass (harder to tip over) of optimal height and it is now their water dish. They always go to this glass on the coffee table for their water and usually leave the other cups alone.

Now heaven forbid you bring home a soda cup with a straw from a fast food restaurant. You leave that thing unattended and the straw will be chewed to death and stolen before you realize whats happened.

Smidge was big on drinking the water on my nightstand...I just started putting a lid on it - she gave up after that.

It's a losing battle. That's my milk. On the kitchen table.

I have one (my 6 yr old "bottle baby"-the black and white one) who does something worse (well, except maybe the cat litter in the glass. Ugh. ) We will be laying in bed at night, having just turned out the lights, and we hear a "tink tink tink" coming from the bathroom. As we lay there thinking "I know that sound. What is that? What's dripping, what's..." we remember- it's Smoochie in there on the counter licking our toothbrushes! Arrggghh! But since it's late, and we really just want to lay there and go to sleep, we think (and what's funny is we have talked about it, and even if we don't say anything but "Arrgghh!" we are thinking the same thing ) "I'll wash it in the morning" and of course, we forget until we are half way through brushing our teeth! We tried to put toothbrush covers on them for a while, but we would forget when she didn't do it for a while, then we'd hear her again and dig out the covers again.

You have a little toothbrush licker, how cute!