do water fountains for cats really increase water intake? and what is the best automatic fountai

I'd like to get some member opinions of the success of the these automatic water fountains

and which brand/style do you thinks works best?

I have a male with urinary problems and want to increase his water intake over the canned food he is getting now

I have a drinkwell fountain. I think it's the basic model. One of my cats absolutely loves it and drinks tons of water from it. I don't know how much it increased his water intake (I have never once seen my other cat drink from it, so right away it only helps 50% of my cats), but I do have to refill it every few days. He has also started to like drinking directly form the waterfall part, so if you have a cat that is already inclined to drink from dripping faucets, a fountain would be perfect.

One downside if you're trying to keep track of how much your cats drink is that it's much harder to judge the amount your cat are drinking vs how much is being evaporated, because moving water evaporates much quicker than standing water. I know neither of my cats drank form the fountain for the first few days I had it, but I still had to refill the fountain after two or three days because about 1/4 of the water had evaporated already.

We've had two different ones - the Drinkwell and Petmate Fresh Flow - and didn't notice any increased water intake. Jamie does much better with lots of water bowls strewn throughout the house. I've also found that he likes to drink water out of a glass on my nightstand.

You know,  Winston LOVES to drink out of flowing water, but sometimes I wonder just how good these things are because they get SO gunked up quickly and they have SO many knooks and crannies that black mold grows in, even inside the actual pump, you have to pull that sucka to bits and get right inside with a que tip, it's nasty.

They do not make those things easy to keep mold free at all. That is NOT good for our systems, so you can't tell me that's good for our pets? I used to replace the water in ours daily and give it a good scrub out once a week and we still got black mold and this jelly like nasty substance right deep in the pump and in all the knooks, it was gross. I battled it for a year before I threw it in the bin. It was a Petmate one. This was about 4 years ago.

Now I get stalked my Winston at every sink I go to and have taps headbutted lol (have to make sure ALL loo seats are down in the house!!!) but it's a small price to pay. I also always have a big fresh bowl of water out at all times, but alas he loves his flowing water.

There was actually a study done, albeit a small one (and I'm not aware of any others), that came to the conclusion that water fountains don't seem to have an effect on feline urine dilution: http://winnfelinehealth.blogspot.ca/2010/09/water-fountains-for-cats.html

I used to have a Petmate fountain back when I only had 2 cats, and 1 cat never drank from it, only played in it (and made quite mess!), and the other cat liked drinking from it but only if there weren't any toys floating in it (which there frequently were, thanks to the first cat). It also became important for me to measure the amount of water cat #2 was drinking, thus rendering the water fountain useless. I donated it to a local cat rescue.
 

Think the best way is to add some water - not much - to his wet food.  As mentioned above fountains have to be looked after properly to avoid hygeine problems, and they are not silent.

I add some water to my kitty wet food.  She licks it up.

I've had a Pioneer Raindrop stainless steel fountain for over a month now, which may not be enough time, but so far I love it!  It is extremely easy to clean, I just rinse it out a few times a week and then start fresh. There are no nooks and crannies and I've never had any mold or scum, maybe because it's stainless steel.   The motor rinses off easily and snaps open to replace the filter. The filters cost about $11 for three, which get replaced every three weeks or so.  It holds a lot of water and I seldom have to add water more than once a day. I have three cats, so I also keep a glass bowl with fresh water available, but mine do prefer the fountain.  All three have alway liked water though, so I don't know if it increases their water intake.  I was worried about them using it to play in and make a mess, but so far that hasn't happened.  I use a Brita Water Filter pitcher to filter the water I use, even though the unit filters as well. 

The problem with fountains is you have to keep them really clean, so you want that to be easy. 

We have a Drinkwell 360 (in stainless steel) and all three cats LOVE it. It's super-easy to clean, takes less than 2 minutes. Tophel is our dripping-sink-drinker and I don't like leaving the water running; now he drinks from the fountain a dozen times a day. He's definitely drinking more than when he had to wait for someone to turn on the sink faucet! Lily didn't know what to do with it at first but was a copy-cat and drinks out of it now, too. Her tail does its happy-sway when she drinks from it, just like when she is eating her favorite foods! Sparkle drinks from it, too, but from the bottom part with the water dripping on her head, lol.

I ordered it from Costco in February, and also an extra 12 filters. I clean it every other day - more if I see a bit of food or hair or something dropped in it - it just takes a few seconds. The filters seem to need replacement about every 3-4 weeks. It's so much easier for me than keeping up with the dripping sink, and I don't feel bad about wasting water. I also like that the water stream is filtered, our kitties eat wet food and some raw, and they still really love this fountain!

p.s. The fountain is very quiet, too, you have to be standing right by it to hear the soft low hum of the motor. And you can adjust the streams of water so they don't make a sound, either, if you want. It is pretty big, though, but works great for us in the corner of the kitchen.

p.p.s. The Drinkwell 360 has these 3 black plastic "cone locks" that go on the sides; I don't see the use for them at all with cats (maybe if I had a huge dog or something) so I left them off. Less to clean, too. 

trudy1 said:

I'd like to get some member opinions of the success of the these automatic water fountains

and which brand/style do you thinks works best?

I have a male with urinary problems and want to increase his water intake over the canned food he is getting now

Click to expand...

I have 2 of the Drinkwell 360 stainless fountains.  All 4 of my cats are really into the fountains.  Yes, there is an increase in water intake and I can tell by scooping the litter boxes ;-)  Cleanliness is a must with the fountains so follow the manufacturer's directions for cleaning and maintenance.