Will cats ever mature once they get older?

[mrflash23]

Sorry but the only reliable way to see if a cat is dehydrated is with the tent test.  What you are seeing is an indication of how much she has drunk, which is a different thing.  She might drink a lot and still be dehydrated, or she might not drink at all and be fine.  Are you confusing dehydration with thirst?

I guess im confused then, i always thought that if you dont drink enough liquid like your suppose to than you will get dehydrated

Maybe she needs a drinking fountain that can't have things dropped in it.  Maybe even one of those hanging water bottles (like this one).  How is she putting things in her water, though?  Carrying it there in her mouth and plopping it in?  If the bowl were up high, maybe it would be harder to drop things in.  If she had multiple bowls, would she put something in all of them?  I'd give her multiple and varied types of water containers and see what happens.  Then you can leave the toys out.  

i have no clue how she does this, i just wake up in the morning or come home and then i just find stuff in there, and she doesnt do anything around me, when i got her this new condo thing everytime i would see paper wrappings in the water, this was just randomely there in the morning or the evenings, i didnt pay any attention to it at first cause i thought its just one of those things, so then that one day turned into everyday, it actually took me awhile to figure where she was getting it from, and then the water would be dirty and turned a different color, it looked awful, and the same thing used to happen with her toys, and i see why she doesnt drink it, cause i wouldnt either

 

[orientalslave]

I guess im confused then, i always thought that if you dont drink enough liquid like your suppose to than you will get dehydrated

OK, start at the beginning.  Cats were first domesticated in the Near East probably from the African Wild Cat, Felis silvestris lybica.  It's lives ry place - a desert - and they are very well adapted to their environment  They produce very concentrated urine, and rarely need to drink as their prey contains enough water.

Our domestic cats are the same - those eating only wet and/or raw food get enough water from the food and rarely drink.  I see it with my cats - the one I've never seen drink is the one that will not eat dry food.

How much water your cat drinks might be related to how much dry food she eats that day.  She only gets dehydrated if she fails to drink enough, but the fact she drinks more some days than others doesn't mean she gets  dehydrated on the days when she drinks less.  Maybe on the days she drinks less she has eaten more wet food, so she needs to drink less.

The amount humans need to drink (at least in temperate climates) has got inflated by the people selling drinks...  There is a lot of water in our food and that all counts, along with what we drink.

 

[mrflash23]

ok thanks for all your help guys, and thanks for taking to the time out to post, finally a forum that is actually helping me, instead of just saying that im doing things wrong, i really appreciate this, and i already started new games,  and put out 4 more water bowls, instead of just one, and so far only a couple of toys ended up in just 2 bowls and the other 2 are still empty