Avoiding her water bowl

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Bunster

Bunster

Member Since 2017
hi, Bunny is improving daily, she now walksnormal and runs to eat, before we waited on her hand and foot :) ...she still walks around her bed several times before she goes in, almost like she doesn't know where it is, but even this habit is improving. The real mystery is she is avoiding her water bowls..I'm making sure she gets water with a dropper and in her food but I still dont understand why she hates water now. She always drank water after she ate...hoping this will improve too
 
Bunster said:
hi, Bunny is improving daily, she now walksnormal and runs to eat, before we waited on her hand and foot :) ...she still walks around her bed several times before she goes in, almost like she doesn't know where it is, but even this habit is improving. The real mystery is she is avoiding her water bowls..I'm making sure she gets water with a dropper and in her food but I still dont understand why she hates water now. She always drank water after she ate...hoping this will improve too
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If you give her water with a dropper and add extra to wet food meals, she's probably not thirsty. My three eat wet food with added water and almost never drink from the water bowl. They did quite regularly when they got a bit of kibble. No kibble in the house anymore.

BTW: my diabetic ate Royal Canin S/O for a long time before diagnosis because of many bouts of cystitis. Ever since the FD diagnosis over a year ago, the switch to low carb wet food, and my regular addition of warm tap water to all his meals, there hasn't been a single episode.
 
Bunster said:
hi, Bunny is improving daily, she now walksnormal and runs to eat, before we waited on her hand and foot :) ...she still walks around her bed several times before she goes in, almost like she doesn't know where it is, but even this habit is improving. The real mystery is she is avoiding her water bowls..I'm making sure she gets water with a dropper and in her food but I still dont understand why she hates water now. She always drank water after she ate...hoping this will improve too
Click to expand...

I don't know if you've tried a fountain. My cat started avoiding water too until I bought a drinking fountain. She loves it. I think the sound of the running water attracts them.
 
Lots of theories about cats and water. They want big bowls because they don't want to get their whiskers wet, won't drink from a bowl a dog has slobbered in, don't like water near their food, it's instinctual to seek running water (clean) as opposed to still water (the swamp) and might explain why they drink from the sink and sometimes the toilet. I agree, try a fountain. Things to look for; ours had an AC adapter that was part of the cord, not a plug-in, so it was always laying in the floor getting knocked around and wet, the water filters were so small we removed them, it hummed and vibrated, really annoying.
 
A couple of other things. Our tap water sometimes reeks of bleach which is actually the smell of chlorine. Chlorine will evaporate quickly when left out (I have an aquarium) but cats don't know that and they might smell something you don't. Noah and his brother Andrew were both splashers, the bigger the bowl the more likely they'd get 1 or 2 feet in there and out came the paper towels. If it's not medical it could be just about anything. Try a second bowl further away than the first. Try a discount fountain before you pop for a good one. Trying to guess what a cat is thinking makes it worth having them around, all that mystery, your living room is the jungle, the hallway the savannah!
 
Noah & me said:
A couple of other things. Our tap water sometimes reeks of bleach which is actually the smell of chlorine. Chlorine will evaporate quickly when left out (I have an aquarium) but cats don't know that and they might smell something you don't. Noah and his brother Andrew were both splashers, the bigger the bowl the more likely they'd get 1 or 2 feet in there and out came the paper towels. If it's not medical it could be just about anything. Try a second bowl further away than the first. Try a discount fountain before you pop for a good one. Trying to guess what a cat is thinking makes it worth having them around, all that mystery, your living room is the jungle, the hallway the savannah!
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Until she went through this seizure, she drank from all her bowls. We have a well and we use both metal and ceramic large bowls. She will go to the bowl and then walk away, Its just a mystery...hoping it's just a phase but a fountain is a great idea.
 
They have always splashed the same bowl, ceramic with a deep blue bottom. Sometimes I wonder if they can't see the bottom of the bowl and it annoys them. That might sound silly but I once watched a cat walk across a mirror on the floor, look down and then jump off like he thought he was going to fall. Janet's right, try a different bowl, see what happens. Our Border Collie would NOT NOT NOT eat from some bowls, she was OCD.
 
I read somewhere to put teacups of water on windowsills or other places they like to sit/sleep. I tried it and it does seem to encourage them to drink. I have to fill the small bowls much more often than I ever had to fill the bigger one. I do want one of those flower fountains like Janet has though...:rolleyes:
 
Priceless. We have 2 now that just drain glasses of water and NEVER knock them over. How does a cat do that and why can't cat haters see the beauty in that. A dog would......
 
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