My cat will drink Rain water,or even the water in my pond,but not tap water or milk what can i do?

Answer 1

Put a bowl outside and let them drink from that- cats often object to the chlorine in tap water so filtering it might help if you have posh cats!

Answer 2

Hi Ray***

1. Pleeeaaaaaaaase do not give your cat MILK!

2. Rain-water, is puuuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrfect!!

3. Pond water is a common drinking place for cats. If it has a filter system with bubbles, it is ok.

Having 5 (over 10kg each) cats, live inside only, they all drink from my fish-tank, bubbles and all. Even from the windmill feature I have to the entrance of my home where the water drops from the top of the windmill (like a waterfall), they hold out their tongues and lick in the middle of the fall, big mess, BIG FUN!! They even touch the water with their paws and then lick the water off, until they turn and their tail gets full of water. Then everyone is sprayed.
luv peppa-anne

Answer 3

I have a big "critter pond" drinking bowl outside for the animals and my dog will always drink from there first before she drinks from the inside bowl. I think the rain water is softer and does not have all the chemicals and also your cat may be just wanting plain water with no milk in it. Try some plain water and see. Also I let her inside water set in a plastic jug to let some of the chemicals disperse, I have heard it helps to let it set out.

Answer 4

some cats are like that. I understand that this is because a lot of places have water which smells of chlorine and they don't like it. My own cats refuse to drink water straight from the tap. They prefer to leave it for a couple of days until the chlorine smell has gone. Mine also hate cold water and want luekwarm stuff.
Mine also insist on a bowl of diluted warm evaporated milk every morning and yowl and try to trip me up if I'm not fast enough getting it for them. They have always had this and so have developed a tolerance for lactose. They never get the runs from it. It had to be diluted well though.

Answer 5

We leave a bowl outside our back door which we fill up every so often with tap water. We try to make sure it's always full but in the Winter it fills with rainwater anyway.

Our cat isn't quite so fussy about what she drinks, although she loves this water that we leave outside in her "dirty" water bowl!(We do wash it regularly!) I wouldn't worry too much about her not liking milk. Our cat quite likes cold tea too! She will often beg to go outside just to drink from it even though it's the same stuff from the tap. How's that for kid-ology?! It's worth a try though.

Hope that helps.

Answer 6

Part of the charm of cats is they never do what you want. Apparently cats taste water in a way that humans don't. Drinking rainwater is perfectly natural in this respect and must be a pleasant change frrom boring old tap water. Our cats try and drink from the tap which we discourage. One cat named Precious tries to drink my Buxton mineral water from the bedside carafe and the other Oktavia loves the water from the porridge pan at breakfast. We wash all our crocks in the dishwasher so it's not a problem.

Answer 7

That is natural instinct, perhaps the chlorine or just the taste of tapwater turns your cat off. My cats will not drink out of a bowl, and they wont drink tapwater. They insist on drinking from the fish tank or trying to get water from the tap on my water cooler. They are very healthy . As long as your cat is not restricted from her spots to access water, and is treated regularly with Program or Revolution she will be fine. If she cannot access the water, your cat may get dehydrated (loose skin, dull eyes and lethargy), see a vet immediately. She may drink bottled water as a last resort. Also, Adult cats do not need milk.

Answer 8

Don't worry, rain water or even pond water is better than no water at all... my advise is to let your cat get on with it, because, from personal experience, if cats don't drink anything at all, they get dehydrated (obviously), but it can also lead to other more serious problems... such as problems with the kidneys, urinal infections and stress-related problems (yeah, cats can get stressed too, lol), which if not fatal, cost a small fortune to cure!!

Answer 9

Just don't worry! I have 2 cats and they rarely drink from their water bowls indoors and prefer rain water! We let them get on with it and they're perfectly healthy. Cats don't need great amounts of water anyway and they will drink tap water when they're really thirsty. Tehy're clever little things so don't think they'd drink rain/pond water if it was upsetting them!

Answer 10

Certainly won't do it any harm. Cats are fickle creatures, my two have a regular supply of water in their water bowl, but would much rather drink out of the bath, straight from the tap, out of a glass - in fact, any water from any source other than their bowl! The main thing is it's drinking, but don't give cows milk because it upsets the tummy.