Water bowl weirdness

[derekthecat]

I have two kittens, one male, one female. They're siblings, 8 months old.

Derek, the male, has this weird habit of scooping ALL the water out of their bowl. He just starts scrabbling his paws in it until it's empty.

It's quite funny and very kitten-like but when we're at work all day it can mean they're left without water - and obviously this is a problem.

Does anyone know why he does this? I've tried a few different bowls - ceramic, plastic, metal - but he does it with all of them.

He is just one of those cats who loves water - he tries to get in the shower with me, he climbs in the sink (etc) but I think this habit is annoying his sister who would just like a nice drink occasionally!

 

[catlover73]

2 of my cats will drink water only with their paws out of a regular water bowl.  I have 2 fountains and they will both drink out of the fountain without using their paws.  

Have you tried leaving more than one water bowl in multiple locations?

I used to have a water kitty.  He enjoyed having water drizzled off your hand while you were in the shower to drink.  He used to get soaked.  This was Claude's preferred way to drink water.

Does Derek drink out of the sink if it is running or does he still use his paw to drink then?

If he is not using his paw to drink water that is moving then perhaps a fountain would be helpful for this issue.  You could always get a couple of fountains because Derek can not be in two places at the same time so it would make it easier for your other cat to have access to water.  Some of these cat fountains have large reservoir so it may help prevent him from removing all the water while you are at work.

Perhaps something like this would be helpful to your issue.

https://www.chewy.com/dog/drinkwell-original-pet-fountain/dp/51044

I know this fountain is designed for a dog but it can be used for cats too.  One of my friends who has a multi-cat household has these for her cats.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

Mooch used to paw and splash all the water in the bowl when she was a kitten.  She'd even soak the wall next to where we kept it!  We bought a fountain and haven't had that problem sense! 

 

[sprin]

I think you've gotten great advice, especially putting water out in a few different places and maybe getting a water fountain.. I use a coffee mug for a water bowl in my room, and my cats love it. Maybe that would be harder for him to splash and empty than a bowl? I know some cats do better with bowls because it doesn't push on their whiskers, but my cats will all drink out of the mug. Plus I'm totally the type of person who has a ton of unused mugs around. We also have the cat water fountain, and 2/3 of our cats use it. We have the Catit kind, which might be a good suggestion since it only pushes a little water out at a time so there wouldn't be a bunch of water there for him to splash in. 

 

[derekthecat]

This is all great advice, thanks folks. They're such funny animals aren't they. 

The coffee mug idea is particularly brilliant because they LOVE drinking from anything they're not supposed to. - I've already tried that this morning and they loved it.  I'll look into the fountain