Catnip Tea?

[hwangster]

I have a cat that doesn't drink out of his bowl. He enjoys water from the shower head. Not the faucet, not from his very expensive fountain bowl that I bought, and not from a shower like contraption that I made.

So the only way I'm getting him to drink water is 1) turning on the shower head or 2) wet food.

I don't like using the shower head because tap water is not very clean in Taiwan, and 2ndly it wastes too much water.

I read somewhere that I can make catnip tea. Cool it off, and have the cat drink it. I will try this once with a very light dosage, but is this such a good idea?

Has anyone tried this?

 

[cheylink]

This is totally not necessary. If your kitty is thirsty, they will drink from fresh water dispensers. One thing I have experienced with Maia is that she prefers drinking from one of my glasses left on a shelf for her. Regardless you may not observe them drinking from their water dishes, but they do and will if that is what is available. If you truly feel they have some avoidance of their water dish, the best correction is to drink from it yourself in front of them. Often they will imitate our actions, therefore drinking from a glass maybe easier......

 

[rosiemac]

I bought some of those catnip teabags and mine turned their nose up at them

Put some ice in their bowl as well because mine drink more when i do that

 

[sport]

Sport likes his water refrigerated. I just keep a bottle of tap water in the fridge, and he thinks he's drinking bottled water.."whatever"...but is works for Sport..LOL. I love their individual personalities.

 

[zane's pal]

If they don't like the catnip tea, you can drink it. It doesn't make humans high.

Zane is one of the cats that catnip doesn't do anything for; after I found that out, I used it for myself.

 

[goldenkitty45]

Long time ago I took a "survival" type of course where the teacher showed you how to eat things out in the wild. Our project at the end was to make something from wild plants.

I chose catnip tea. My cat, Mitten was a big fan of catnip mice

So I figured he would drink catnip tea. I made some from fresh catnip leaves. It was HORRIBLE tasting and even Mitten would not even try it.

If you want him to drink more, then add warm water to the canned food and make it a little more soupy. I do that all the time and my cats also drink out of the bowls - so I know they are getting plenty of water.

 

[dasanismom]

My cats' urine has a high concentration of ammonia, so I took catnip (from pet store) and added it to a tea diffuser. Longest I've seen any of my cats drink. One of my cats will not touch wet food. They also have a glass water dish with a filter/fountain. Can't make a cat drink water...but they are happy to lap up catnip water! I wouldn't do any of the packaged teas. They have other ingredient that are iffy with toxicity. Besides, I have yet to find a cat owner that doesn't have a bag of catnip stashed away.