Why a cat does not drink water from a bowl and how to train it

Some cats are very picky when it comes to water. You leave a bowl of water for them for the whole day, but as soon as you turn on the tap, they rush to it to drink.

Perhaps the cat drinks from a bowl, but all the time he plays with the water with his paw. Maybe she flips the bowl over and drinks from the floor. She can also balance on the edge of the toilet to manage to drink from there. And if you let your cat out for a walk, she prefers dirty rainwater from a puddle to her clean bowl.

It happens that the pet refuses to drink at all: neither fresh cool water, nor a beautiful bowl, nor a murmuring tap attracts it. Or you notice that the amount of liquid drunk by the cat is clearly less than its daily requirement. By the way, a healthy adult animal should drink about 50 ml of water per kilogram of weight per day.

What is the reason for such strange behavior?

No one can say for sure why pets are so picky about drinking water. However, there are several theories on this. According to one version, this is an instinctive aversion to stagnant water. In the wild, cats usually drink only running water, which protects them from diseases. Also, your cat may have figured out that tap water or rainwater is usually cooler.

It is also possible that she simply perceives the water as a toy. Turning over a bowl of water or chasing drops from a faucet can be an exciting game for her, with an added bonus of quenching her thirst.

Cats don’t need a lot of water to drink, especially if they’re eating canned food or wet food that already contains a lot of liquid, like Hill’s Science Plan for adult cats. Its tender chicken pieces have excellent taste and aroma, and the composition is balanced to support the health of the pet. With Hill’s Science Plan Feline Adult wet food, your cat will have no digestive problems, because it contains the highest quality ingredients. However, even when feeding wet food, it is very important that the cat has access to a bowl of clean water at all times.

If the cat does not drink at all, the owner should pay special attention to her condition. Such dislike will end badly: without water, a pet can last 4-5 days. After that, the animal dies.

Regular insufficient fluid intake affects the health of a cat: her blood thickens, problems with the urinary system appear, processes in the body slow down, and the coat becomes dull.

How to train a cat to drink from a bowl

There are several ways to train your cat to drink from his bowl.

Move the water bowl away from the food bowl. Your cat may not like having her food next to water.

If you think your cat doesn’t like the temperature of the water, put a few ice cubes in the bowl.

You can try changing the bowl itself. If the bowl is plastic, offer it metal, ceramic, or even glass. If your cat likes to turn the bowl around, try a wider, more stable, rubber-based bowl. This will confuse even the most stubborn kittens.

In addition, there are special drinking fountains in which water constantly circulates. Option – drinkers that turn on when an animal approaches. Such devices are powered by electricity, so you will have to find a place for them near the outlet.

Or maybe it’s just the water? Try to offer your cat different types of it: filtered, bottled, boiled.

You can occasionally leave the faucet ajar to allow water to drip from the faucet so that the cat can drink. If she is thirsty, she will use any available water source, but you can occasionally offer her tap water as a treat.