How to make Terra the Cat a more eager drinker?

[thefishyone]

This thread is NOT about the kind of drinking you do with your friends after work, but about how I can make Terra more enthusiastic about her water dish. According to her vet, all cats have a poor thirst reflex that gets worse with age. At her last checkup, her vet recommended I switch her to wet food, which I did.. She still doesn’t get as much water as she should.

I’m thinking the primary reason is that I probably don’t was her bowl thoroughly or frequently enough. I don’t like to use soap when washing her water dish, as is then smells like soap, which she hates. Should I try running her dish through the dishwasher to ensure it gets properly cleaned and the soap residue rinsed off? How frequently should I do this?

I saw the a cat care article on this site recommended a fountain over a dish. Could a fountain encourage her to drink more?

Will be asking Terra’s vet for his opinion once they open. Terra is also a senior cat, so it’s my understanding that not drinking as much water might just be a natural part of growing older for a kitty.

Thoughts?

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi, try hydrogen peroxide instead of soap to clean the water bowl, and you could get a couple more so that you can replace it with a clean one but wouldn't have to wash it right away, if that helps.

You could use the dishwasher. I do for the ceramic food dishes but of course not for the plastic pieces of the water fountain.

I clean every time I refill it, to avoid bacteria buildup etc.

A fountain might help. Keep in mind the design of it can matter to cats. One I've had luck with is the pioneer pet swan neck style, but if she's familiar with a bowl it might be better to try and find one for her more like what she's used to.

Chewy and Amazon have great return policies which helps if the first one you get doesn't work.

I didn't know if you saw this article also or if it's the one you referenced;
Tips To Increase Your Cat’s Water Intake - TheCatSite

 

[iPappy]

My cats love their fountain, and eat an all wet diet as well.
On the water bowl, the suggestion above to use hydrogen peroxide is a great one. I do use dish cleaning soap to clean their bowls and fountains, but, after I rinse thoroughly I will throw some white vinegar in there and re-rinse well. It makes the bowls and fountain parts so squeaky clean, and seems to remove any residual soap smell (I do this for some of my own dishes, too.)
What type of wet food is your cat eating? You could always add a little bit of warm water to her meals for added hydration.

 

[Alldara]

I use boiled water and then wipe down with a fresh cloth. This won't be suitable if you use plastic bowls though.

 

[cmshap]

Fountains are great. The only reason I no longer use them is because I have hard water, and the fountain was quickly getting clogged.

I could have bought filtered water to use just for the fountain, but I personally did not like that option. So I find it easier to use a regular ceramic bowl.

My cat drinks more water when the bowl is always filled to the brim with fresh, cool water. I replace it multiple times per day. Yes, I am wasting much of the water, but he drinks more when the level is near the top and it is fresh.

I usually don't wash the bowl with soap. I run it under hot tap water and "scrub" the whole surface thoroughly with my fingers. Every once in a while, I give it a real wash with soap. But I don't see how ceramics can retain soapy smells (although I am not a cat with their sense of smell) if you rinse them thoroughly after washing. My cat doesn't seem to care after I've actually washed his water bowl, and then thoroughly rinsed it in plain water after.

 

[Purr-fect]

Another vote for using a fountain.

We use the pioneer raindrop fountain.

Apparently cats prefer to drink from moving water.

If your fountain is clogging, you could remove the filter and run the fountain. That would still give the water movement. You would have to change the water daily. You could also use filtered water in the fountain. That might not clog the fountain.

If you are going to use a bowl, i suggest using one large enough so the cat's whiskers don't touch the sides. I have read, a bowl too small is stressful to cats. Perhaps this is why your cat prefers the bowl to be completely full. You can use the "old" water on your plants.

 

[Alldara]

You'll find which foutains works best depending on the water on your area. The Catit one works best for us.

Mostly my cats just use regular mugs. I have some decorative ones that I don't use, but didn't want to part with and they've been repurposed as cat-bowls. It's their preference even over the fountain.

 

[catapault]

I have never, in the 12+ years we've had them, seen Domino and Mr Poe drink water. Domino did used to like water from a dripping tap but if we had such an always leaky faucet I'd be calling a plumber.

The boys are each fed half a 3 ounce can of wet food four times a day. I add about a tablespoon of water each time and mash everything together. As members of the clean plate club they assiduously clear both solids and liquid from their metal dishes.

Which means each cat is getting approximately 1/4 cup of water each day. Together with wet food this seems to be adequate.

 

[cmshap]

If your fountain is clogging, you could remove the filter and run the fountain. That would still give the water movement. You would have to change the water daily.

If you are going to use a bowl, i suggest using one large enough so the cat's whiskers don't touch the sides.

I found cleaning fountains to be a royal pain (I don't have a dishwasher). My cat is a good drinker, so I personally find a regular bowl to be the easiest solution for my particular case.

And yes, that is why I always fill his bowl to the brim, so he always has access to water without having to touch his whiskers to the sides. I see him drinking from the bowl more often than I saw him drink from the various fountains I tried. That might just be his predisposition, as an individual cat.

 

[Furballsmom]

Another option might be a tall drinking glass

 

[Caspers Human]

Cats generally don't drink from the same place as their food. Placing a water bowl right next to their food dish is convenient for us humans but cats are "Meh..." about it.

Try putting containers of water in other places around the house. Our eldest cat, Casper, likes to drink from a watering can that we keep under the plant stand. We stopped putting plant food in the can because of it. There's a fish bowl on the window sill. The fish is long since gone but we keep the bowl because Casper likes to drink from it. Then, there's the bathtub faucet. It drips, just a little, and Casper likes to drink from it so we leave it drip for him.

The younger cat, Elliot, drinks from all the places Casper drinks except the tub. He's afraid of the tub. Somebody in his Before-Time probably tried to give him a bath and treated him badly.

Anyhow, that's where our cats get their water. None of it comes from a bowl beside their food dishes in the kitchen.

Try moving your cat's watering spots around and see if they like it better.

 

[cmshap]

Cats generally don't drink from the same place as their food. Placing a water bowl right next to their food dish is convenient for us humans but cats are "Meh..." about it.

Interesting, I hadn't heard of that before.

Willy always drank wonderfully from his water right next to his food, and he's been my only cat so I don't have anything else to compare to.

 

[IndyJones]

I found the fountain i had got slimy and was too hard to clean. I also have very hard water even with a softener it still scales things up over time. Indy would also knock it over and use it as a swimming pool (better than the toilet but still messy) but the slime was the big reason i dont use it.

I also no longer use any plastic dishes because they cause both my cats to break out in zits.

 

[cmshap]

I found the fountain i had got slimy and was too hard to clean.

Yes, this was exactly my problem. And there are too many components to remove and clean. I'd rather clean a regular bowl every day instead.

But, my cat is a good drinker, so it hasn't been detrimental to him to switch back from fountains.

Yes, buying filtered water is a possible solution. Maybe I'd have done that if my cat drank much better from fountains. But I refuse to buy water if I don't absolutely have to.

 

[Caspers Human]

We used to have a water bubbler for Casper to drink from but he was less than enthusiastic about it. He would drink from it but he preferred the faucet. When we got a fish, he started drinking from the fishbowl. When the fish went belly up, we cleaned it out and kept it for Casper to drink from. Right about that time, we discovered that he was trying to drink from the watering can so we quit putting Miracle Gro in it and he started using it all the time.

A cat in the wild wouldn't have its water source in the same place as its food. A cat might catch a mouse and eat it then look for water, somewhere else, like a stream or some other body of water. When I thought of that, it made sense to put the cat's water dish somewhere else, too.

Another thing cats don't like is to have their food and water in a corner or too close to a wall. Cats (in the wild) need to be on guard for predators or other "bad actors" and don't like it when they can't see who might be coming. They want to keep tabs on their surroundings. Indoor cats don't face the same dangers as outdoor cats but they still have the instinct for self-preservation.

Casper's watering can is on a shelf, under the plant stand. He has a clear view in three sides. I noticed that he usually approaches it from the side, instead of straight on. The water bowl is up high...which many cats like...plus it has three sides of clear view. If you count the window, there are no obstructions. The only place that's closed in is the bathroom but that's mostly a safe place so I don't think having a clear view is a problem, there.

Regardless, I think the best thing is to try putting water out in different places to see where you cat likes to drink from, best. Your cat's idea of a good watering hole is probably different than the human idea of a good place to drink.

As to cleaning the containers, we just put them in the dishwasher. They get cleaned and sterilized that way. (Provided you use the heat dry cycle.)

All our cats' food bowls are stainless steel. We bought several of them, on sale, from WalMart. We keep the extra ones in the cubpoard. Whenever the cats are fed, we use a clean dish from the cupboard and put the used on in the dishwasher.

As for the water containers, we just rinse them out with plain hot water then, occasionally, dowse them with white vinegar. That removes any hard water scale and keeps them nice and clean.

 

[Alldara]

Yes, buying filtered water is a possible solution. Maybe I'd have done that if my cat drank much better from fountains. But I refuse to buy water if I don't absolutely have to.

Our water here is very soft and it still got all gross. We would take it apart and clean it every week and there was still slime.

I, too, would rather clean a bowl every day. My wife likes the fountain out sometimes and we still have it. But Magnus won't drink from it anyway. With Nobel gone, Calcifer hardly uses it. It wasn't worth the effort.

 

[cmshap]

Our water here is very soft and it still got all gross. We would take it apart and clean it every week and there was still slime.

Yes! What exactly is that, does anybody know? I always assumed the slime was from hard water, and it was minerals, but apparently not.

It's especially unmanageable when you don't have a dishwasher that you can put the fountain components into. Cleaning fountains manually with dish soap was an enormous pain in the butt. And I had to do it more frequently than I expected.

Washing a ceramic bowl is so easy and fast, it's a much better solution for me. But like I said, my cat is an enthusiastic drinker... enough that I discussed it with my vet in the past, as I began to suspect he had a kidney issue, or something. But nothing was found to be wrong when he was tested. He is just a very enthusiastic drinker, which my vet said will likely benefit his health into old age.

 

[Alldara]

Yes! What exactly is that, does anybody know? I always assumed the slime was from hard water, and it was minerals, but apparently not.

Likely it's from the cat's mouth.

 

[cmshap]

Likely it's from the cat's mouth.

Interesting, because his water bowl also gets this "slime" but it's very easy to scrub off from a plain ceramic bowl.

If I go a couple of days between cleaning the bowl -- which is unlikely, as I usually clean the bowl every morning when refilling it -- it is especially slimy. And the film on the sides takes on a light brownish color.

 

[IndyJones]

It is likely what is called a biofilm. Swimming pools often get them too if they aren't maintained or balanced correctly. It is a buildup of microbes, bacteria, and oils from the body. In this case the cats mouth.

It is not something you want hanging around, especialy in a water bowl.

Looks like this when allowed to acumulate.