Bottled water vs Tap water?

Our city water leaves much to be desired as far as contaminents go. I read a report on it about a year ago and decided right then and there that my family (including furry family members) were going to be consuming spring water instead. My question is: by doing this, are my cats going to be missing out on nutrients or anything? I know that spring water doesnt have fluoride which is important to humans, but what about cats?

Well, here in Spain, it is not generally good to drink tap water so we have bottled water all the time. The cats have it.....usually cool (cos its mad hot here, so it helps them stay cooler) The vet said no worries, lots of bottled water have all minerals etc in them and they are fine for humans and pets. Not sure about the floride thing, will have to check my bottles
All my cats also drink out of our pool, which vet also said shouldnt be a problem !! As you know cats drink mucky rain water so I bet they´ll just love bottled !!

Spring water will be perfectly fine for your cats. Afterall...cats would drink out of a creek in the wild.

Honestly I think its despicable that there is flouride and ammonia in our water. Fine if some people like to apply flouride to their teeth (I don't) but its certainly not a chemical thats meant to be ingested. I still unfortunately drink tap but soon we will be switching to filtered water and at work I drink bottled water. Your cats will only benefit from not having the added junk in the water.

my kitties seem to like it better, too

Thanks for your insight!

I hate treated city water so I drink bottled while at work. We at home on the other hand are on a well with Mt Rainier,s aquifer as the source. MMMM!

I'm all for tap water. I really don't think bottled water is any better than tap water unless your water supply is contaminated. It's just one of those things that companies use as a marketing ploy to try and make you but their product.

Cats do fine in the wild with dirty rain water, pool water, stream water, and in home they often manage to drink things like toilet water... They're fine with tap water!

We usually give them the water from our kettle that's been boiled previously, and we figure that would get rid of any impurities it may have.

We certainly only drink tap water ourselves. Where I came from, they don't fluoridate the water, and I moved cities when I was 21, and the dentist my husband and I went to said he could tell I was from there because of my teeth - he didn't pick that my husband was as well because he was given flouride tablets as a kid. The dentist said that explained it!

So anyway - I think bottled water is a waste of money...

So just because you came from a place that had flouride in the water and had good teeth implies that that is the sole reason for your good teeth? Good brushing habits matter little? I came from a place with no flouride in the water and I have good teeth, I also never used flouride and have never had a cavity. Maybe flouride markets are trying to make money? I'm not really trying to say that but that is the argument you are using on water.

There are many contaminants in water. Can you honestly say ingesting ammonia is good for you? Ammonia is commonly added to the water of major cities and is also considered a poison. Most cities have an incredibly high nitrate reading in the water which is essentially waste in the nitrogen cycle. High ammounts can disrupt your body chemistry and lead to problems. Not to mention small amounts of cancer causing agents and other contaminants in many water systems. Did you know many water systems in the US still contain giardia? One town over from me does. But it only matters if your immune suppressed but your body still has to fight it... What about chlorine, certinaly not a natural chemical to be ingesting. Also incredible amounts of heavy metals... Its really sad to look at your local water chemistry breakdown.

I also don't like all bottled water. Some brands merely bottle tap water, I won't mention brands but I'm not drinking water out of Atlanta, GA if I won't drink water out of Raleigh. I'll only drink from brands that purify their water.

Our well water tested positive for Arsenic so we only drink bottled RO water and that is also what our furbabies drink.

I agree that when you really do your research (and sometimes even just by the taste) tap/city water is gross! As for nutrients I think of it this way- water in it's purest form doesn't have anything added to it (such as chlorine or flouride, etc.) and water is the best thing you can drink. So if you are drinking purified water where they have removed the "extras" then you are not doing yourself any harm- more likely a favor! Injesting chemicals via the water system does more harm than good in my opinion.

The magazine Real Simple (love that mag!) had a whole article about how to determine good bottled water v/s bottled tap water. One of the easiest ways is to look for the source. If it comes from a true spring it will give the named spring source. If it says "Municipal" anywhere it there, it's tap water