My cat doesn't drink water, should I buy a cat water fountain?

Question

Lately I've been mixing a little bit of water in with her soft food and warming it up, and she's been drinking that. So she gets maybe a teaspoon of water a day from that, and eats hard food.

Should I try buying a cat water fountain? Has your finicky cat discovered the water fountain and now loves it?

I am thinking about buying one similar to the one in the URL below at Walmart for $30.

http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_detail.jsp?cm_ven=nextag&cm_cat=mercent&cm_pla=datafeed&cm_ite=54343&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=2534374302023690&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302033676&PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524441779167&bmUID=1159877137761

I actually have 2 bowls of water out for her every day that I change in the morning and evening. Both are glass bowls, one smaller than the other. One is upstairs by her wet food and the other is downstairs by her dry food. If the wet food is beside her dry food, she will only eat the dry food. She is too lazy or underdepedent to go downstairs when we are upstairs (unless she is starving or has to use litterbox), so she will eat her wet food upstairs.

Cat has been to the vet twice in the past month. She is fine, she has crystals in her urine though which is why I want her to drink more. She is on a special diet now as prescribed by the vet.

Answer 1

I had one of those, granted I have 2 cats but I had to fill it up 2-3 times a day. I got the drink well pet fountain with the additional water bottle thingy and now I have to fill it up 2-3 times a week!

I would recomend this:

http://www.amazon.com/Drinkwell-Fountain-Starter-Reservoir-Cleaning/dp/B000F1CXHC/sr=8-4/qid=1159878047/ref=pd_bbs_4/104-6380666-1183932?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden

Might I add, that before I got the pet fountains I didn't think that my 2 cats were drinking enough, and they would always come running to any faucet that we turned on, they even learned how to turn on the faucet, too bad they couldn't turn it off when they were done drinking. so after that was going on for a while I decided that they needed a pet fountain and they love drinking from that.

Answer 2

WOW! They make those?! That makes so much sense! I always wondered why my cat insists on drinking from the shower and the bath instead of the lovely clean water I've left for him downstairs. I think that sounds like a brilliant idea - cats always go for the most challenging option, eg, if it was between a bowl of ready made food and a running mouse, they'd go after the mouse every time. So the fountain sounds great cos your cat would have the satisfaction of 'catching' his own water - I know that sounds silly but I'm sure there's an element of truth in it.

Answer 3

first a warning - some of the foods "prescribed by the vets" are CRAP... did you know vets receive very little and sometimes no training on pet food ingredients and brands?? so when a food rep comes to them and suggests they can make oodles of money by prescribing certain foods they usually do...Science Diet for example is often "perscribed" it is over priced for its quality and they actually PAID for vets to endorse this food.. look at the ingredients yourself - if you see "BY-PRODUCTS" that is beaks feet and feathers, a cheap filler, but the main problem is by-products are preserved with a CHEMICAL PESTICIDE known as ethoxyquin - which can cause many internal problems - kidney - liver etc.. its banned from human use.... so think about it....

go to a pet food supply store (NOT grocery or wal mart) and select a food containing NO by-products, and is 100 % natural, preferably Human Grade Meat only....select one with low Magnesium content - in Canada NUTRAM is the best!!!


ok now about the water thing.. they are scams... cats dont like water with dust on the surface - if you simply change your cats water more often it wont be a problem ALSO NEVER use plastic bowls - stainless steel or ceramic is bettter

mixing the water with the canned food is excellent - I do that too... 1 teaspoon canned = 2 teaspoons water

Answer 4

my cat liked to drink out of the bathroom sink faucet. We had one of those fountains and it gor slimy very quickly, I had to take it apart and clean it every few days. Try some low sodium chicken broth to get more liquids into her. Lucky always liked that. I had a vet once tell me to give her some baby food, too. It had more liquid in it than cat food. i had another cat that only drank from a cup on the counter. He also loved to lick the water in the shower. Sometimes he would make me turn on the shower just so he could lick up the water. Crazy cats. good luck getting yours to drink more. :) We had the same problem with urinary tract infections with lucky.

Answer 5

Good for you for giving he wet food! :)

Anyway, she gets part of her moisture from the canned food, and she probably does drink a bit from the water bowls (small amounts, but probably true). But if you have the money to spare, I think getting her a fountain may be a nice idea - drinking a bit more water will not harm you cat!

Answer 6

To be safe you need to take your cat to the Vet and have he/she checked to be sure the health is ok. I will give you a link that you can get a Fountain for about half that price, and the more a cat drinks the better. They will have less urinary tract problems. My babies LOVE the Fountain. It took about two days to get use to the motor running, but now they love it. It is a quite motor in the pump, but remember it is NEW to them and THEY have much better hearing then we do. Here is the link:

http://www.wdrake.com

Answer 7

Try the fountain. She'll probably like it. Some cats love running water and that's what they want. My mom's cat will only drink running water from the bathroom tap. We have an automatic waterer for the cats and they use it all the time.

Good luck!

Answer 8

Wet canned food is almost 75% water - but mixing a tspn water in cat's food bowl is a good way of ensuring against dehydration. In the wild, cats get most of their water from the game that they hunt and eat, but they do still drink water. Leave a bowl of fresh water out for kitty everyday... you may not notice her drinking from it, but she does drink water from somewhere

Answer 9

Yeah, I thought my cat wasn't drinking water either, and I was starting to get worried too. Then I figured out that she's been drinking from the toilet instead of her bowl. Cats like COLD water, and mine for some reason, won't drink out of a bowl. lol So now I give her fresh, ice cold water every night, in a wide cup, instead of a bowl. She's stopped drinking from the toilet. :) Try leaving a bowl or cup of water with ice cubes in it for her.

Answer 10

My cat wouldn't drink from a bowl of water in the kitchen where he is fed, but used to drink my bedside water. Now I give him a whiskey tumbler fresh each evening and put it on the windowsill in the bedroom to keep it cool and away from kitchen smells. I stop him drinking my water by having a sports bottle instead.