Cat drinks water from everywhere but water bowl

Arya&Oreo

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Hello fellow cat people! **This is a very long post**
Now I know we all have picky cats when it comes to certain things but this pickiness with my cat's drinking behavior has moved on to obsessive. Let me explain...

Our cat has always liked running water (blame that on the new cat owners we were who thought it was SO cute when she drank out of the sink) but we have since weaned her off that and back to a regular cat bowl (with a fountain of course!) and it has been 2 years since her strong desire to only drink out of a sink (even though she still bugs us to turn it on). We originally had the green circular water bowl with the flower in the middle. She did not like the flower so we took it out and she drank water but always tried to drink in the bathtub after a shower or out of cups which isn't that odd, I've heard of many cats who do that.

Fast forward... that bowl broke, we got another fountain water bowl, a plastic skinny sort of single spout bowl. It was fine for about a year until the filter started getting backed up very often. Even with changing it weekly, it eventually kept getting worse until the spout would just stop flowing water after about an hour of us changing and cleaning it. Of course she didn't like drinking out of it and would resort to drinking out of my plant water when she thought no one was looking. (All my plants are cat safe! and the ones she was drinking out of were water-rooted of course - she wasn't just licking soil) but we didn't want her drinking out of those because that's not the freshest water plus she would try to pull the plant up and sometimes knock over the vase/pot resulting in broken glass if it landed on the floor.

So we ended up getting another bowl. This one was great! It's a very large metal bowl (almost the size for a medium-large dog), with a great big fountain and a super easy filter to change that was very large and didn't look like it would pose any issue of it getting backed up like the other one. Our cat must have drank out of that for a solid 15 minutes (which was, yes, very concerning that she was that thirsty) but we were just glad she liked it well enough to use it. We had planned on changing the water within the week just to keep it fresh but after no more than 2 days, she was back to her old ways to trying to find any other water source. So we changed the water right there (it didn't look dirty - we usually inspect it to make sure there isn't any food or an abundant amount of cat hair or debris in it) but we changed it because obviously there was something she wasn't liking about it. She came to it, drank a little, and we found her later still trying to drink plant water. So we thought maybe she doesn't like the charcoal filter that is supposed to be used with it?? Literally the only other thing we could think of. We had tried the whole cold water, ice cube trick, we had moved it away from the food bowls because we read that some cats don't like water next to their food, pretty much anything you could find online about cats and water bowls. So we took the charcoal filter out, put fresh water in it, put it down and waited...

I had put a scat mat down around the plants she was trying to drink out of but later heard a loud clash in the sink. It turns out she was trying to get my avocado pit out of it's container to then drink out of that... and I'll be honest that water is not the cleanest, it had a bit of a film on top just because I hadn't changed it in a couple weeks. So what the heck??? I'm really not sure what to do at this point, I plan on scheduling a vet appt when they open up (unfortunately the ones around here aren't open on the weekends) but I am posting to all you cat lovers and specialists in hopes of finding an answer. Also I would like to say that I do have another cat who has never had any issues with the water bowls and I myself have been continually tasting the water out of this new bowl just to make sure it didn't taste awful or like something was wrong with it.

Sorry I know this is a very long post, I'm just trying to get all the info I can in there... but I would also like to note that this cat knows when she is doing something wrong and will try to be sneaky about it. The past 4 days though, she has jumped up on the counters & stuck her paw in the pots right in front of me and my husband. Also to note, she's never really messed with the plants before. This seems to be like it's starting to turn into an obsessive behavior & we really don't know what's up with her water habits. Any advice or feedback would be immensely helpful - thank you so so so much! Also we do currently give them dry food - should we change to wet food to try and keep her hydrated more?
 

suzeanna

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There are a lot of people on this forum who can speak on this better, but -- wet food is definitely preferable for all cats, typically much more nutritious and ensures water consumption. I feed my cat a pate-style wet food, add an equal amount of warm water to it (since the can stays in the fridge), mash it together into a nice lukewarm stew, and she basically never drinks from her water bowls anymore.
 

minish

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As suggested above, I would reduce her need to drink with added water to her food. Less chances for trouble.
She doesn't seem to be particularly drawn to running water but sinks, plant water etc Maybe she's lacking something that draws her to soil. You could try giving her own plant water, by sprinkling some clean soil to a water bowl and see how it goes
 

neely

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Our cat has always liked running water (blame that on the new cat owners we were who thought it was SO cute when she drank out of the sink) but we have since weaned her off that and back to a regular cat bowl (with a fountain of course!) and it has been 2 years since her strong desire to only drink out of a sink (even though she still bugs us to turn it on).
Then why not let her drink out of the sink? Obviously this is her preference and she's trying to let you know. We had a cat who also liked to drink out of the sink but only one particular sink - the one in our master bathroom adjacent to our bedroom. When he passed I still left the faucet run ever so slightly because I had become used to it and it reminded me of him when I went to sleep. :hearthrob: He's been gone many years and at some point I stopped doing that but never forgot it.

As suzeanna suzeanna mentioned, canned food would improve her water intake and also be more beneficial for her health. If you decide to switch her over to wet food please be sure to do a gradual transition. Here's an Article that explains how to transition your cat:
Transitioning Your Cat From Kibble To A New Type Of Food – TheCatSite Articles

BTW, welcome to TCS! :wave3: Best of luck, please keep us updated on your progress. :alright:
 

catsknowme

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:hellocomputer:Welcome to TCS! I really like the description of your latest metal water fountain - what kind is it? Is your cat one of the water-loving breeds such Maine Coon or Abyssinian?
Is the water tap water from a municipal source? The chemicals are hard on the kidneys but some of them dissipate with exposure to air. It doesn't seem that is the problem since she didn't like water in her own bowl but perhaps she is getting some taste or benefits from plant water such as algae or minerals. Do your cats have access to fresh greens - a cat grass stand or something similar?
Do only cats drink from the water fountain or do they share with dogs (who "backwash")?
I concur with the others that wet food is best since cats are designed by Nature to get over 70% of their water from eating prey. Even soaking some of the daily kibble helps. Also, the Zero water pitcher or fresh, good-quality well water is best for kitties as well as your family.
BTW, we TCSers love photos :camera::bigeyes: :bluecat: :loveeyes:
 

KarenKat

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First I want to say you are very thorough and quite researched! I actually can’t think of anything you haven’t already tried.

I second trying the wet food instead of dry. We free fed dry all the time until we had a kitty that simply got super fat from it. So we switched to wet food. When we go on vacation for a couple of days we feed dry food and they are constantly guzzling water afterwards, so it definitely makes a huge difference.
 

She's a witch

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Cats don’t have a natural thirst drive, they are still dessert animals from evolutionary perspective, designed to take all the moisture from food, so as said above, wet only diet will solve your issue if she acts like she acts because of slight dehydration or minerals deprivation. My cats on all wet diet with water added to their food hardly ever drink (and my boy never). What does she eat?

But it’s also possible that she’s getting to the plant water to get your attention (negative is still attention). Can you try to get this water out of her reach and ignore her looking for it? If it’s indeed attention she seeks, are you playing with her daily?
 

FeebysOwner

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Hi. You've got a lot of good ideas given to you! I didn't quite see either of these -
Can you replicate the types of containers she seems drawn to and place one in the sink and/or bathtub? Let her know they are there and see if she would start to use those more than trying to get into actual plant pots. You could even place a leaf/frond of a plant in it for additional enticement if that is part of her interest. You can still keep the water clean, and remove the containers when you want to use the sink or bathtub and then simply put them back afterward.

Are you using different water in the cat water bowls compared to what is being used for the plants? Some people use filtered water for drinking/etc. but use water straight from the faucet/tap for plants/etc. If so, stop and see what happens. They do taste different.
 

maggie101

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I bought a fancy new water fountain, $80! She does use it. What's different is you can hear the running water. Just like if she were at the sink. If she is eating canned that should be enough water though a fountain would be nice! If you use water bows, add some tuna juice made with water

New video by Laura Seay
 

Caspers Human

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I don't understand why you are so worried about your cat drinking water.

Cats don't normally drink from the same place where they eat. Many humans put the cat's water bowl next to the food bowl and expect them to drink from there but that's not the way cats think.

Remember, in the wild, a cat usually eats on the run. It kills its prey then finds a safe place to go eat it. That place will not necessarily be near a water source. When a cat wants to drink, it will seek out a water source, wherever that may be.

It's a fallacy for humans to think that cats "should" drink from whatever place we think they should.

Casper drinks from three different places around the house. He drinks from the bathtub faucet. (We leave it drip, slowly, for him.) He drinks from a fishbowl on a table next to a window. He also drinks from a watering can, under a plant stand. These places are located separately, all around the house. Casper does not have a water bowl near his food.

Except for your cat knocking things over, getting into trouble or making a mess, I don't think it should matter how or where she gets her water. I suggest that her knocking things over and getting into trouble are separate issues.

I think it's really good that your cat drinks a lot of water. It'll help keep her urinary tract healthy and it can also help prevent other problems.

I think you should let your cat drink whenever and wherever she wants. Just make sure that there is plenty of water available at all times.

:)
 

slowblink

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Wet food definitely helped with my cats hydrating -- like, their coats are very obviously much silkier after the move to wet food for most meals (our kitten still free-feeds dry food, but the impacts of the wet food 2x daily are still very noticeable)!

Regarding water dishes:
- I can't tell from your info if you have multiple water bowls around your home. If not, that could possibly help? If the cat had more options for water in various spaces?
- Then, if the green water bowl w/ flower worked (even with flower removed) did you get another when that one stopped working? It sounds like no, but is hard to tell - so another thought would be to replace the broken dish she was okay with with another one?
- Finally, there are add-ons to sinks for sink-loving cats out there (thinking of products like this) as well as water fountains made to look like sinks (thinking of products like this) that maybe could help?

But if you're interested in feeding wet food, my personal opinion is that'd be a fine place to start and see if the plant water drinking habits resolve. May need to create some protection around the plants if it continues? My cat who only eats wet food rarely drinks from fountains at this time and I'll add water to her food to increase intake as well - it works great!
 
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Arya&Oreo

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Hello to everyone! (I'm sorry in advance for not tagging anyone in this reply, I honestly can't figure it out) Oh my goodness, all of these responses are SO helpful and beyond appreciated! Suzeanna and KarenKat (and to all others who suggested) - I will definitely be switching them over to wet food as soon as I can! I also appreciate the link that Neely provided - I will definitely be reading up on it before the transition! Also in response to your suggestion in letting her continue to drink out of the sink, unfortunately when we moved, our apartment has one of those bowl sinks that is just annoyingly far away from the faucet to where it has to be running at a certain pressure or else it will go all over the counter and we tried to turn it on as low as we could for her, but the pressure was just too high.

Minish - I hadn't thought about the possible nutrients in the soil that she is wanting/needing so I will definitely be looking into that more! Although hopefully with the transition to wet food, they'll be better hydrated! :)

Catsknowme - the fountain we have is a PetSafe Drinkwell stainless steel fountain and I will be attaching a picture of it! She is an American Shorthair Calico :) I am not sure about the tap water but it definitely gives me something to look into which I appreciate! We did get our cats two different cat grass plants a while back and they really didn't like them. They sniffed it once and never looked at it again. We can definitely try again though! And no dogs, just the two cats that share it with each other!

She's a witch - She does eat dry food but with all these responses, we will be switching to a wet food! And while I definitely believe that we give her enough attention, sometimes enough is never enough! So we'll make sure to monitor her behavior to be sure :)

FeebysOwner - Those are definitely very good options and we will try to place multiple containers around to see if she prefers one over the other and maybe the "why" behind a certain preference. The water, however, is the same water we use for both the cats, plants, as well as ourselves. :)

Maggie101 - The water fountain we have isn't loud running water but definitely loud enough for them to hear it. We are planning on switching to canned after reading these responses and we'll try the tuna juice idea as well! :)

Caspers Human - The main reason we are worried about our cat is because she is presenting behavior that is different from her usual behavior. I don't tend to worry very often but when I read that a change in behavior like this could be due to a medical issue, that's when I figured I would reach out just in case! (Better to be safe than sorry!) I do currently have their water bowl next to the food bowl but I plan on moving it to a different location. Unfortunately we can't leave the faucet on at a drip which I talked about in Neely's response or else we would. We definitely already have a few different water places (due to these amazing responses!) and we'll make sure to move the main one away from their food bowl. :)

Thank you again to everyone who responded with such amazing suggestions that we are definitely taking into account now! My husband and I really do appreciate all of these responses and it's SO great to know that there is a community of fellow cat lovers that are all looking out for each other!
 
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Arya&Oreo

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Hello ccw321! Sorry I missed your reply in my previous reply to everyone but I greatly appreciate your response and suggestions! We didn't have multiple bowls placed around but due to others' suggestions, we do now! As for the green flower bowl, I'm not really too sure why we never got another one, if I remember correctly, they were just out of stock at the time so we had to get a different type. I appreciate the links that you added and I will definitely be checking them out!! Thank you so much for your response :)
 

Cat McCannon

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I believe nitrates are bad for cats and plant soil has nitrates. Thus, I suggest discouraging your cat from drinking from the flower pots.

Cats are far sighted which means their vision is blurry up close. They can't see water in a dish. Some cats will dip their paw in the dish to test the water level. Running water or dirty water or water in the toilet or tub is easier for them to see.

Some dishes are uncomfortable for cats to drink from. Constantly bumping their whiskers is annoying.

Good on you for readily switching your cat to wet food. It shows you care about your cat's long term health.

Welcome to you and your cats to the forum!
 

daftcat75

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My angel Krista didn't care for fountains as much as she wanted to drink from my own glass.
IMG_4033.JPG
I got her her own nightstand and her own glass.
IMG_3365.JPG
This worked about half the time. She still wanted to drink from my glass. 🤦‍♂️ Sharing is caring. 😻 I enjoyed her drinking from the glasses because they were so much easier to clean and change the water than the fountains.

If your cat is eating an all wet food diet, that's enough moisture in their diet. Krista was taking steroids for lymphoma. Those made her thirsty. Before the steroids, I never saw her supplement her water intake. Except after throwing up. Often that was the first thing I did for her after she threw up was put a fresh bowl or glass of water in her face.
 

tarasgirl06

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Hello fellow cat people! **This is a very long post**
Now I know we all have picky cats when it comes to certain things but this pickiness with my cat's drinking behavior has moved on to obsessive. Let me explain...

Our cat has always liked running water (blame that on the new cat owners we were who thought it was SO cute when she drank out of the sink) but we have since weaned her off that and back to a regular cat bowl (with a fountain of course!) and it has been 2 years since her strong desire to only drink out of a sink (even though she still bugs us to turn it on). We originally had the green circular water bowl with the flower in the middle. She did not like the flower so we took it out and she drank water but always tried to drink in the bathtub after a shower or out of cups which isn't that odd, I've heard of many cats who do that.

Fast forward... that bowl broke, we got another fountain water bowl, a plastic skinny sort of single spout bowl. It was fine for about a year until the filter started getting backed up very often. Even with changing it weekly, it eventually kept getting worse until the spout would just stop flowing water after about an hour of us changing and cleaning it. Of course she didn't like drinking out of it and would resort to drinking out of my plant water when she thought no one was looking. (All my plants are cat safe! and the ones she was drinking out of were water-rooted of course - she wasn't just licking soil) but we didn't want her drinking out of those because that's not the freshest water plus she would try to pull the plant up and sometimes knock over the vase/pot resulting in broken glass if it landed on the floor.

So we ended up getting another bowl. This one was great! It's a very large metal bowl (almost the size for a medium-large dog), with a great big fountain and a super easy filter to change that was very large and didn't look like it would pose any issue of it getting backed up like the other one. Our cat must have drank out of that for a solid 15 minutes (which was, yes, very concerning that she was that thirsty) but we were just glad she liked it well enough to use it. We had planned on changing the water within the week just to keep it fresh but after no more than 2 days, she was back to her old ways to trying to find any other water source. So we changed the water right there (it didn't look dirty - we usually inspect it to make sure there isn't any food or an abundant amount of cat hair or debris in it) but we changed it because obviously there was something she wasn't liking about it. She came to it, drank a little, and we found her later still trying to drink plant water. So we thought maybe she doesn't like the charcoal filter that is supposed to be used with it?? Literally the only other thing we could think of. We had tried the whole cold water, ice cube trick, we had moved it away from the food bowls because we read that some cats don't like water next to their food, pretty much anything you could find online about cats and water bowls. So we took the charcoal filter out, put fresh water in it, put it down and waited...

I had put a scat mat down around the plants she was trying to drink out of but later heard a loud clash in the sink. It turns out she was trying to get my avocado pit out of it's container to then drink out of that... and I'll be honest that water is not the cleanest, it had a bit of a film on top just because I hadn't changed it in a couple weeks. So what the heck??? I'm really not sure what to do at this point, I plan on scheduling a vet appt when they open up (unfortunately the ones around here aren't open on the weekends) but I am posting to all you cat lovers and specialists in hopes of finding an answer. Also I would like to say that I do have another cat who has never had any issues with the water bowls and I myself have been continually tasting the water out of this new bowl just to make sure it didn't taste awful or like something was wrong with it.

Sorry I know this is a very long post, I'm just trying to get all the info I can in there... but I would also like to note that this cat knows when she is doing something wrong and will try to be sneaky about it. The past 4 days though, she has jumped up on the counters & stuck her paw in the pots right in front of me and my husband. Also to note, she's never really messed with the plants before. This seems to be like it's starting to turn into an obsessive behavior & we really don't know what's up with her water habits. Any advice or feedback would be immensely helpful - thank you so so so much! Also we do currently give them dry food - should we change to wet food to try and keep her hydrated more?
Hello A Arya&Oreo and welcome to TCS! Well, each cat, like each person, is an individual, so it's impossible to say what Oreo will like, but in our multicat family, we've always had great luck with the basic PetSafe Drinkwell original fountain, which I clean weekly as per the instructions. I'd put the link here, but it's a long one. You can buy at Petco.com among other venues.
And most experts recommend feeding high quality wet cat food. I feed mainly Blue Buffalo and Soulistic brands, 1/2 can per cat, 3 times a day. Those brands are widely available, including at Petco. I do feed Blue Buffalo dry formula chicken cat food for "healthy aging" as my cats are 16 and 13. These are free-fed, but I want them to eat the wet food as main diet and the dry as "snacks."
 

di and bob

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Get some clear plastic carpet protector with the little nubs on the back and turn it nub side up under your plants, and far enough out so she has to walk on it, which she won't, it hurts their feet. You can cut it easily to any size, and I really think once she gets out of the habit, you can remove them. Set up several heavy jelly glass jars or some other container filled with filtered water around for her to 'discover' and use. She may need them moved around at times, it sounds like she gets bored after a while with the same positions. She is doing this because she is bored, as most cats are in a house (and they should be kept inside), and is looking for things to amuse herself with. cats have a different digestive system and can eat/drink some really disgusting things that would make us sick. Like out of a poop-filled birdbath. But why take a chance? Scummy plant water can't be healthy, that is for sure!
 

Moonlight_wolf

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For some reason I loved this question because it shows just how silly and particular cats can be. We have three cats and one of them only drinks from the upstairs water fountain (both the cat fountains are exactly the same) and another only drinks from the watering can which we keep filled for him 😂. The things we do for our cats. 😂

I think that others have made some great suggestions so far! I honestly don’t have much other advice to add other than thanking you for taking good care of your cats and for caring about them.
 

Q-Tip Mama

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Hi, I’m not sure if I saw anyone mention the size of pee clumps in the litter box. We got our kitten 10 days ago and have been feeding exclusively wet food, with a bit of water mixed in (also a bit of chicken or fish, depending on what we eat for supper). I have not seen him drink ANY water, but I know he is well hydrated because of the good size of his pee clumps in the litter box. Before I got him, he had been fed a mix of kibble and wet (after weaning), and his pee clumps were definitely smaller than what he has now. It’s healthy for cats to get hydration with their food. In the long run, it will also reduce the chances of getting bladder and kidney issues.
 
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