We have 5 foster cats who got spayed/neutered yesterday. When they came home, two of the started displaying behavior that was brand new -- they are aggressively playing in the water bowls. I'm used to kitties who may dip their paws in the bowl, even swirl a bit, but these two sweet girls are scooping up the water repeatedly, throwing it around, soaking everything within a 5 ft radius of these bowls. They never did anything like this before their surgeries. Their 3 siblings aren't doing the same. I was hopeful that last night they still had some of the painkiller in their system and had the 'frenzies' -- almost all of my cats have reacted like that after surgeries; once the sleepy period wears off they have a crazy frenetic play period where they are seeking out attention much more than normal, and playing hard core. I hoped the water scooping/throwing was part of that and would subside.
Last night I put much less water in the bowls than I normally would, and put towels all around the bowls. This morning the bowls were empty and the towels were soaked. I refilled the bowls and immediately the girls came and started their play.
Help! Any suggestions? Obviously I can't keep letting them do this, but NOT leaving water out isn't an option because they all need to drink.
I turned on the faucet just a drip to see if they would be distracted by that movement and that would be enough to get them to leave the water bowls alone, and while they loved the faucet, they ended up just making a mess with that too -- and it got dangerous because they were splashing so much water on the counter and then running through the sink bowl that they started slipping and sliding and falling.
I do have cat water fountains that I've always used for my older cats, but past experiences taught me that often those work best when the cats are out of that early playful kitten stage, because at first those fountains do serve more as play (and mess making). So, I had not put out a cat fountain for these guys yet. They are around 3 months old now. They were ferals born under a deck in our neighborhood -- the mom is a common visitor, and we worked with one of our wonderful friends who does a ton of animal work with the shelters here. He trapped them all, got mom spayed and dropped her back off here (and we still see her -- we have some cat shelters and food under our deck) and had the kittens registered with the shelter to be adopted, but they of course needed a foster home first because they were just weaned. And our goal is to have them all adopted before they ever have to spend a night at the shelter!
Now that they are spayed/neutered we are close to that point, but in the meantime I need help with this water mess (and I'm sure the people who originally have 'claimed' these two girls to adopt aren't going to be thrilled when they see this new habit...)
Last night I put much less water in the bowls than I normally would, and put towels all around the bowls. This morning the bowls were empty and the towels were soaked. I refilled the bowls and immediately the girls came and started their play.
Help! Any suggestions? Obviously I can't keep letting them do this, but NOT leaving water out isn't an option because they all need to drink.
I turned on the faucet just a drip to see if they would be distracted by that movement and that would be enough to get them to leave the water bowls alone, and while they loved the faucet, they ended up just making a mess with that too -- and it got dangerous because they were splashing so much water on the counter and then running through the sink bowl that they started slipping and sliding and falling.
I do have cat water fountains that I've always used for my older cats, but past experiences taught me that often those work best when the cats are out of that early playful kitten stage, because at first those fountains do serve more as play (and mess making). So, I had not put out a cat fountain for these guys yet. They are around 3 months old now. They were ferals born under a deck in our neighborhood -- the mom is a common visitor, and we worked with one of our wonderful friends who does a ton of animal work with the shelters here. He trapped them all, got mom spayed and dropped her back off here (and we still see her -- we have some cat shelters and food under our deck) and had the kittens registered with the shelter to be adopted, but they of course needed a foster home first because they were just weaned. And our goal is to have them all adopted before they ever have to spend a night at the shelter!
Now that they are spayed/neutered we are close to that point, but in the meantime I need help with this water mess (and I'm sure the people who originally have 'claimed' these two girls to adopt aren't going to be thrilled when they see this new habit...)
