Water Fountain

I’ve been thinking a lot about trying to get a cat water fountain and decided to see if my cats would like it by just using a big metal bowl and a small table water pump I had. My one cat didn’t even want to wait for the water before trying to use it, my other cat has already gone back to it twice. I guess I could keep just using this set up but I would rather have something that looks better so I found this one. My big issue comes with the fact that it’s plastic and I will have to replace filters. Any thoughts?
PETBIA Cat Water Fountain 84oz/2.5L Automatic Pet Dog Water Fountain Dispenser | eBay

I have had multiple fountains for years and I do believe that it helps with overall health. There are tons of styles and types on the market. Mine have always been Drinkwell, for no really good reason, and they have been acceptable. You might want to try for a style that mimics what you set up for your cats since they took to it. Some are BPA free if they are plastic, but that opens up the discussion that BPA free does not mean much of anything. I have not always used filters at all, but replace the water frequently by dumping out the fountain, not just refilling.

I personally have never had any luck with fountains. My cats just ignore them and went to drink out of the kitchen sink instead (Indy just thought it was a toy and dumped the water all over the floor) and all they do is make anyone who comes in have to pee. It was a drink well platinum I think. It got slimy and nasty after a while so I threw it out.

We got our Bassie a fountain after seeing her drink from the sink several times. She loves it and so do the other cats. When the fountain is in the dishwasher, they all look for it (we leave them a bowl full of water in its stead).

Mine is also a Drinkwell and I just got another for the room where my paraplegic kitty spends the night so he has fresh water, too.

They do get nasty if you don’t clean them regularly.

solusumbra said:

I’ve been thinking a lot about trying to get a cat water fountain and decided to see if my cats would like it by just using a big metal bowl and a small table water pump I had. My one cat didn’t even want to wait for the water before trying to use it, my other cat has already gone back to it twice. I guess I could keep just using this set up but I would rather have something that looks better so I found this one. My big issue comes with the fact that it’s plastic and I will have to replace filters. Any thoughts?
PETBIA Cat Water Fountain 84oz/2.5L Automatic Pet Dog Water Fountain Dispenser | eBay

Click to expand...

I have one very similar to this made by PetKit.
Petkit Eversweet 2 Pet Health Intelligent Smart Drinking Water Fountain Cat Dog 689745124723 | eBay

My advice when purchasing a fountain from the internet is make sure you can find the filters and that they ship quickly enough. I like my Petkit above. But I ended up having to buy another one because they couldn't ship me the filter and its adapter for the older model any faster than 30 days. The new model would ship in a week. At least, I now have two of these so I can put one out while I wash the other. They did eventually get the filter adapter for the old model back in stock so I only have to buy new filters from here. Those I get from Amazon.

We keep a small bowl of water out for our cats 24/7. Our 2 girls, Lexi and Bonnie, got to the point that they would only drink from the kitchen faucet. We wanted to discourage this behavior, but we wanted to make sure they would drink enough water.

We bought the Catit Flower water fountain. I modified it so that the flower was up higher than how it comes from the factory to make it more like drinking from the sink. It took a couple of days, but both girls now drink from the fountain. The boys could care less about the fountain.

Since the fountain is now critical, I have purchased an extra pump (just in case). You can get an exact matching pump on Amazon for much less than what Catit sells the pump for. I also buy 3rd party filters on Amazon that are much less expensive than buying the Catit filters. I clean the fountain and replace the filter every couple of weeks; it only takes about 20 minutes.