My cat scratches at his water!

We have 3 kitties george 1 he is deaf and we think is a long hair russian blue. roger he is a big old tomcat and 2 yrs old and my buddy and sammy who is a runt and beautiful (even with her shaved broken leg ) anyways we have a dog and he is big and so they ALL drink from the same bowl.one big happy family if u can believe it!! it isa big silver bowl. but the deaf one, george, scratches at the bowl EVERYTIME before he drinks out of it. its hard to describe really its not like when he thinks he is covering and hoarding his left over food like cats do, its almost like he is in a litter box yet feeling the temperature at the same time! he wont just walk up to it and drink it he must scratch at the dish, the water and knock the bowl around first then he drinks! ive never ever seen a cat do this and i dont know why he does!!

I don't know, but I once had a horse who could not drink unless he stirred up all the water first, with his nose and with his hoof if he could reach into wherever he was drinking from! Then he would really enjoy the muddy moving water!

Could be he is trying to get air/oxygen into it? One of our cats used to do that as well (but this was one who loved water). She would dip her paw into the water and then sometimes lick it off, or just leave her paw on the rim partially in the water while she drank.

My cat Phoebe does the same thing. I have nine other cats and none of them do it. I really have no idea why she does this either. Just another one of her quirky habits.

Tanya

Originally Posted by hayleym72

We have 3 kitties george 1 he is deaf and we think is a long hair russian blue. roger he is a big old tomcat and 2 yrs old and my buddy and sammy who is a runt and beautiful (even with her shaved broken leg

) anyways we have a dog and he is big and so they ALL drink from the same bowl.one big happy family if u can believe it!! it isa big silver bowl. but the deaf one, george, scratches at the bowl EVERYTIME before he drinks out of it. its hard to describe really its not like when he thinks he is covering and hoarding his left over food like cats do, its almost like he is in a litter box yet feeling the temperature at the same time! he wont just walk up to it and drink it he must scratch at the dish, the water and knock the bowl around first then he drinks! ive never ever seen a cat do this and i dont know why he does!!

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lol sounds like my cat Angel, she does the same thing with the water bowl that my dog and her cat sisters share!

I've been told that my cat is a Russian blue (although I've done some online research and found that it's probably pretty unlikely). My cat, Krohl, does the same thing. He scratches at his water bowl and food bowl, much like he would in the litter box. Sometimes, he even does this motion while he is drinking/eating. I have no clue as to why he does this, but it can be pretty funny to watch!

It could be that he can't tell where the surface of the water is. So pawing it will move the water enough to tell. Some have prescribed putting a little food coloring in to the water so they can tell the difference.

Two of my cats do this same scratching thing, both at the water & food bowls. Looks pretty funny and when I 1st saw it, had a panic, cos thought it was the pre-dig action in the cat-lit.
Think we need an expert on this one, seems like lots of cats do the same.........I´d love to know what it meant ??

Originally Posted by katachtig

It could be that he can't tell where the surface of the water is. So pawing it will move the water enough to tell. Some have prescribed putting a little food coloring in to the water so they can tell the difference.

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I've also heard about using ice cubes for that.

Petunia scratches at her food, but not her water. yesterday, she was scratching at the food because I gave them some canned (she was NOT happy about that!) food. In her defense for that, it did smell like poo!

Jo

I forgot to mention this in my last post...My cat also likes to scratch at the the floor or table if there is any kind of food left behind. For example, after eating dinner the other night, I set my plate (with a few scraps of food) on the counter while I was clearing the rest of the table. My cat had jumped up on the counter and was doing the scratching thing in front of my dinner plate!

One of my cats will drag the plastic water bowl if it is low. Everything will be quiet and then I will here the bowl dragging on tile. The bowl will be about half empty and she cries as soon as I walk in. I put fresh water in and she is happy.

I asked my vet about that once and he told me some cats can't see the water so the movement helps them to see where it is.

Sophie is a mixed Russian Blue and Persian spayed female strictly indoor cat now about 4 years old with lots of personality and intelligence. She came to our house from my wife's daughter's house as a 6 month old kitten after the birth of a new baby when the kitten began sitting on the newborn's chest. Sophie bonded strongly to my wife and usually sleeps on top of the bed covers at the foot of my wife's bed. Soon after Sophie arrived in our home she began pushing her water bowl around the floor and spilling water in the process. We countered by using a ceramic crock bowl that was too heavy for her to move. That worked fine and all was well until a few months ago when she suddenly started using her front paws to splash water out of her bowl, mostly at night, but more recently she is seen doing so also in the daytime. We countered by getting a large plastic tray with an upturned edge that would retain the spilled water and protect the floor. This helped control the water mess but the splashing behavior continues as a daily problem. It is a nuisance to be sopping up spilled water every day. This seems to be a play game with Sophie and she seems fascinated with the water but we are not sure about this and we would like to understand the motivation for the behavior. Although she does lick her wet paws when finished playing in the water, she otherwise drinks normally. We tried moving the location of the water and food but that made no difference. Because the splashing behavior occurs more at night than in the daytime, we have recently countered by simply removing the water bowl at night. But this is a hassle. We are wondering if there is any kind of watering appliance that will store and dispense water on demand but not provide any kind of open pool for mischievious cat paws to play in. Any ideas are greatly appreciated.

Originally Posted by katachtig

It could be that he can't tell where the surface of the water is. So pawing it will move the water enough to tell. Some have prescribed putting a little food coloring in to the water so they can tell the difference.

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I agree. My cat dips her paw into the water before she drinks sometimes and I think that is really what she is doing.

Originally Posted by kluchetta

I've also heard about using ice cubes for that.

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Harley scratches at his water when he drinks it, I've actually started putting 2ice cubes in his water dish every morning to keep it a little cooler in the summer. But yesterday I came home to find his water dish in the middle of the kitchen floor - he had scratched at the bowl and drug it in the middle of the floor and used it from there!

This is so interesting to me! Do you think it has anything to do with the Blue Russian in the cat? Krohl loves to push around his water bowl and I think he likes to laugh at me stepping into a puddle of water in socks. I've tried the ice cube trick a couple of times, but then he just wants to bat at the ice cube and it makes an even bigger mess. One way I've learned to stop the mess is to place his water bowl in the kitchen sink. If it spills, it just goes down the drain anyway.

On a side note:
My cat is fascinated with the shower. Before I can even step out of it in the morning, he has already jumped in. Anyone else's cat do this?

omg our cat does this too but all of them do for some reason! they would freak if we tried to put them in but insist they jump in or hang out on the tub till we are done.

my cat does this same thing but she always empties the bowel in the process and gets my floor all wet....she does this to all liquides!...when im drinking sometihng and i look away she will find my drink smell it then knock it down and run, what the heck!...she does this to my water machine thingy too ( the like alhambra big 5 gallon bottle machine things) well theres a tray on the bottom for where water goes in case it doesnt make it inot the cup and she scratches the hell out of it untill it comes off....it is not easy to get that thing off, why the heck would she do so much work to spill it...its like she hates water.