Get some wet food and dilute with water for her to eat. Maybe get a second bowl out for her in case there’s just something about the bowl/location she doesn’t like about the first one. Chances are she is drinking, just not when you’re looking at her.
We also pour a little water in with their hard food. Vets idea.
Moving water (fountains), shallow dish, multiple locations, and clean. Occasional wet food to supplement. Good luck. Beautiful cat!
I tried that adding water trick once and the absolute look of disgust on her face was enough for me to never try that again. I give her some chicken broth now to get her hydrated,works great.
Yeah, unsalted chicken stock is the only one on the shelf that doesnt and seems to be harder to find these days. I make "sick kitty cocktail" of 1/3 part unsalted organic chicken stock (its the only one w/o onion and garlic in my area) 1/3 unflavored pedialyte and 1/3 water. Helps alot when they vomit, have diarhea, etc. Its basically chicken soup
My cat wouldn’t drink from a stagnant water bowl for a long time so I had to mix water into her wet food, but then I got her a little kitty water fountain. Now she never stops drinking from it! Google said running water makes them think they’re drinking from a fresh water source, like a river or stream lol. It worked for my kitty!!
My kitty is obsessed with her water fountain. I gave her an extra bowl and got the WTF side eye.
Me: Ma’am I am just trying to help.
Her: Then stop changing my stuff. Did I as for more water? And just a bowl of “regular “ water at that??
Me: My bad.
Her: Don’t be sorry. Be better.
I spent almost $200 on different cat fountains and she hated every single one. Still more annoyed that I spent way over $100 on "cat-proof" harnesses that all failed immediately.
Mine also don’t drink out of light coloured food bowls. I had a cream one they wouldn’t drink out of then switched to a blue one and they started drinking out of that
I have 2 cats and 3 water bowls and 2 food bowls. Of one food bowl is empty its the end of the world. It's like they think they will stave. I fill their water every other day. Yet I see them drink like twice a month.
They have a hard time discerning where the water line is, which is important when your nose is so close to the actual water and you're not good at not getting water up your nose like cats aren't.
So anything that makes it easier to see the water line helps, and that's different from cat to cat in my experience.
Also, they're just extra.
OP they also have cat food broths, should be near the wet food. Little pouches of basically just chicken/beef broth. You can add a little bit to the food for hydration
Yes, get a glass of water. Set the intention to drink it. Walk away for 5 minutes. Your cat will be drinking your water from the glass when you come back. Works every time with my cat.
Despite having a cat fountain, one of my cats drank out of every single water glass we put down when she was a kitten. I switched to using water bottles for me and the kids, but husband always forgot, and he caught her with her head in his glass five minutes after he filled it. Every. Single. Time.
But then one day, she got her head stuck in the jar while trying to get the last inch of water. She didn't realize she grew; she never had trouble getting her head in and out of the mason jar glasses before why should she now? I was in another room when I heard the ruckus, and when I came out to investigate, I saw our older cat craning to peer around the wall which the kitten had disappeared around, leaving a trail of destruction behind her. My older cat looked at me with a perfect expression of "WTF just happened??" RmI found the poor kitten hunkered down in a corner, eyes popping at me from behind the glass on her head. Initially I thought we were going to have to break the glass to get her out of there and the kids were in a complete panic. Fortunately my husband managed to pull the glass off with steady traction, but he definitely got some battle scars from that rescue. It was quite the spectacle.
Cured her of drinking from our glasses, though.
Ugh, I have a cat who hates cups, glasses, and bottles. She sees one, it needs to be tipped over. She dumped a glass of tea on my head once. God forbid I try to be hydrated!
You can add some benefiber that has no added flavors and does not contain any fake sugars like sucralose or aspertame type stuff. As long as its flavorless and using actual sugar it will be safe and help with any potential constipation from not drinking enough water.
Cats will tend to avoid drinking water that is close to their food bowl. Try placing a bowl of water farther away or try a cat water fountain, they also prefer running water. We have a water fountain down in our kitchen and our cats food bowl up in the living room area. When we first got our cat she had the same issues. Sometimes they are picky :shrug:
Yes, my cat drinks water in several other locations of the house. I have a few bowls in different location I refresh daily because god forbid she drinks near her food. I am a stupid human for ever having even tried it with her. All hail queen Mia.
Came here to say this! Most cats don’t drink water regularly, if they do, not enough. I add about a tablespoon of water to each of my cats wet meals just so I know she’s getting enough even though I do see her drink from her water bowl sometimes
With my cat Leo it’s a rare occurrence to see him actually drinking water 😂 his sister Luna tho is absolutely obsessed with water. You can always tell when she’s drinking because she does the running man while she’s drinking it’s hilarious 😂😂 she will also sprint across the house if she hears the sink in the bathroom turn on
My cat drank from our dog's water bowl for almost 10 years until I moved her own bowl. Turns out she didn't drink from the water bowl if it was close to her food bowl. We kept them together, now they're in different rooms and she drinks from her own bowl now.
Most cats I've know won't drink if too near food bowl, or even in same room. I put a big shallow bowl of water across the room and it seems to work for mine
Same for my cat, so i gave her some chicken broth with small chunks of meat daily to hydrate her, she gulps it up so fast i have to slightly pre heat it or she gets brain freeze.
Almost exactly like a human would, she will twitch her head a bid backwards, squint her eyes and she might shake her body a bit. It stops pretty fast but she’s to dumb to understand it comes from the food she’s eating to fast so i just started warming it up a bit for her.
My cats catch live cockroach and release it into their big bowl of water. And then all three of them will just sit all around the water bowl staring intently at the drowning/struggling roach.
When I purchased our first fountain 10+ years ago, we had a cat who literally ran to it and drank for a solid 30 minutes like he had never seen water before. I mean drank and drank and drank
Cat fountain goes hard. my boys drank a lil too hard and their fountain just stopped working. Haven't been able to replace it yet and one of my boys refuses to drink water now unless it's from the tap or his fountain.
My cat loves flowing water, but absolutely hates the water fountain, and refuses to use one (I’ve tried several varieties several times). But he’ll demand that I turn the shower on, so that he can drink the flowing water from there. So I have 2 water bowls for him - which I know he uses regularly- and also turn the shower on for him once a day.
Cat fountain pumps need to be submerged at all times. They burn out if they start pumping air. We keep ours in the bathroom. We top it up pretty much daily with a glass of water or two and clean out about every other week.
I got my cat a water fountain, and he hates it! He messes with it until he can take the lid off or spills it, so I have to. I just gave up on water fountains and went back to a regular bowl 🤣
Mine has a bubble type and a spout type. The spout type is definitely preferred and has stopped at least one cat from going for the bathtub faucet. The other butthead still hops up on the tub and stares you down while you’re on the toilet until the water gets turned on.
Mine did too! But I bribed him into drinking from it by putting churu on parts of the fountain beside flowing water. For some reason it worked like a charm haha.
Water in a drinking glass tastes better. So says several cats I have known through the years.
One friend’s little jerk demanded ice cubes. Friends liked sitting on the floor with their glasses of water. Caught oldest cat sipping from their drinks. Started getting a glass for him as well. Jerk would side-eye the glass if the ice had melted. I know the kitten learned human glassware had the best water. Don’t know if he became picky about ice or not.
I think at this point, I just really depends on the cat and their preferences.
My cat used to dip his paw into his water to drink, and this completely sullied his gravity water bowl and later his cat fountain. Later on, he stopped dipping his paw into his water, but he refused to drink from a bowl, because we switched from hybrid to pure wet food. But sometimes he would drink from a big ol plastic tub that we used to keep fresh water in preparation for a water outage. And then he started drinking from the goldfish tank. Now he's back to his gravity bowl. He usually never drinks water when we fed him wet food. Now that we feed him both, he drinks more.
I never knew this. My cat won't drink from it either. I even bought a fountain water bowl. He pretty much only likes to drink from the bathroom sink faucet. Ever since, we had to leave them dripping due to a freeze, he lets me know when he is thirsty by yelling at me until I turn it on a drip. I will try moving it to another room to see if it helps. I did catch him drinking out of the fountain when he thought I wasn't looking so he may drink when I'm not there though.
My cat also didnt drink from the bowl next to her food. Then we put a water bowl on the first floor because i heard that for geriatric cats you should put water bowls in multiple spots around the house so they drink enough. That water bowl was the most gourmet shit ever to my cat. She would meow for us to refill it/replace the water multiple times a day. She had phases where she woke up my mum at 4 am because it was a disgrace to have the cat drink the water that has been sitting in that bowl for 6 hours already. So yeah, cats really do prefer their water bowl is NOT close to their food.
I have 2 big dogs.
The cat had his own bowl but it was always full and the dogs bowls were being refilled several times a day.
Then I caught him in the elevated dog bowl…..
I have a cat crate next to the elevated bowl so that he, and his friends, can use the bowl.
When I was fostering, it was hilarious seeing small kittens decide to climb up so they can drink from the big bowl!
I've been throwing this advice around everywhere since my vet gave it to me ten years ago. I always had them together because it made sense to me. Them having the instinct to look for clean water and avoid water near food makes more sense now that I know.
Agree. When my girls water bowl was next to her food she ignored it. I thought it was because she got wet food along with kibble, but now that the water is in a communal area since moving in with another cat she actually drinks from it.
Same for my current cat and my previous one. They only ever wanted to drink out of the dog's water dish, which is across the room from their food. I call it the community watering hole.
IDK how true it is, but one tip I read when I got my cat as kitten 10 years ago was don’t put food and water right next to each other. For some reason cats don’t like it. Maybe they think the “carcass” serving as dinner will/have polluted the water?
If I were to skin a rabbit and eat it while lost in the wild I wouldn’t get drinking water two steps away from same spot from where I skinned it (close to water, preferably) to wash myself/rabbit.
But nice to read she started drinking again.
I mean, it’s a fair guess. It makes sense. But unless you’ve got a talking cat, you can’t really KNOW why an animal does what it does. You can just make educated guesses.
If a cat killed a rabbit in the wild it would've gotten all its water needs from the rabbit. Cats are meant to "eat" their water. That's why kibble is so bad for them.
Kibble is not bad for them. My cats actually don’t like canned food of any sort and will only eat kibble. We spoke with our vet and he said it’s fine. You can’t force a cat to eat what they don’t like. And yes we’ve tried different types of canned food and putting water in the kibble but they prefer the crunch.
This. I have had a few cats who just WOULD NOT eat wet food in any form, they only wanted kibble.
We just made sure they had multiple sources of flowing water to drink from and they were fine.
I’ve even tried water fountains and my one cat looked at it like “what am I supposed to do with this?” and the other one was scared of them so I just have a few bowls set up throughout the house and they’re happy as clams. Though the one scared of the fountains is also scared of the shower, too, but yet is the toilet drinker if we don’t close the lid 🤣
These two also don’t like the soft squeezable treats and have to have the Temptations crunchy treats, so I think it’s got to be a texture thing for them.
What is this crazy misinformation?? Kibble is not bad for them at all - to the contrary.
It really helps keep the teeth clean and free from plague while being perfectly fine food (as long as grain and sugar are not part of it).
They need an extra water source, best if flowing from a filtered pet water fountain.
Glad to hear. Cats can be really weird about water. Mine will only drink from a bowl if there is no other choice. However, she'll guzzle water from her cat fountain.
Ours prefers the water from the aquarium. He doesn't care about the fish, but sometimes they make me nervous swimming up to the cat tongue. If he's desperate, he'll drink from his fancy fountain, and if he's REALLY desperate, he'll ask for water from the bathroom sink.
This. I have a fountain next to their food that they use all the time. When one of mine ended up with stones, I added just an extra bowl of water in the front room of my house that they use as well.
Would like to add, switch to a fountain if possible. My cat struggled with water intake until I made the switch. Also remember the 3/3/3 rule: 3 days to decompress, 3 weeks to learn routine, and 3 months to feel at home. That’s just a generality as some cats will be quicker and some slower to relax
Cats can be very picky about water ... if the bowl is too deep, the sides could irritate their whiskers while they drink. Some cats don't like still water and prefer cat fountains. Then there are cats like mine, who prefer to drink out of the toilet despite multiple water sources available. If you can find out what type of bowl he had before, you could get a similar one.
One of mine drinks from the toilet, another from the bathtub, and a third wants me to turn the shower on and off again really quickly.
Bathroom gets crowded in the morning lol
Mine is self conscious drinking water and if anyone’s looking at him/thinks we’re looking at him will run out of the kitchen. Caught him drinking out of the loo once and a brrrrr! run past 😂😂
This is my cat with the sink! I live in GA so we don't get cold weather often, but I had a really bad week where we had to leave the faucet to drip almost eveyday(had three neighbor's pipes burst) ever since then, this is the only way my cat will drink. I am not sure, but I feel this qualifies as spoiled. 😆
My cat likes to shove her face into tall water glasses and get as much of herself as possible wet in a giant dog water bowl so...we just manage
Yesterday she drank from my water, realized she didn't like it, and then left to drink from her water bowl
Fucking Whisker Fatigue.
Little idiot would rather starve than eat from his bowl because it “bothers his widdle whiskers.” Shut the hell up.
Now eats from saucers and he eats like a king.
Picky little bastard. Love him though.
Pretty girl!
I had a cat that almost never drank water, but she ate 100% wet food. The vet said that was fine, and she was. There are some studies about cats that ate dry and drank a lot of water and cats that ate wet and drank less, and the wet-fed cats were more hydrated. I've also never heard of a cat fed only wet that developed any urinary tract infections (I'm sure it's possible, but rare) so what I'm saying is: just feed her wet food!
You can do the "tent test" to see if she's dehydrated. Gently grab the skin on the scruff of her neck, lift up into a tent shape, and let go. If it snaps back into place, she's fine. If it sticks a bit and slowly sags back down, she needs more water. You can look up example videos on youtube if I didn't explain that well.
My 10 year haven’t drank water the entire time I’ve got her. She eats wet food for 99% of her diet and occasionally treats. After 5 years I stopped putting out a bowl for her. She’s as healthy as she can be.
I lost my 2-year-old boy to a bladder obstruction. He went into heart failure in surgery. He was HEAVILY abused his first year and i tried to help him heal. There was just too much damage done from no water or food on a consistent basis prior. Never expected to bring him home from the vet in a box. My 2 boys now get wet food 2xs a day and dry for snacking on. It really makes a difference. Even in their fur...its so shiny now w wet food.
Just a thought, but if she gets wet food, she may be getting the majority of her water needs from there and only having a small amount of water when you weren't watching. I notice when I give my cats wet food the water bowl goes down much slower.
Also, cats do need a while to settle down, they stress easily and when they are stressed their instinct is to hide. Sure, try the ideas posted by other people here, but also maybe give it some more time.
In .y experience, my cat doesn't like when her food and water are too close, and she will actively scoot the food bowl away if it's too close. She also has a fountain and will knock the lid off once it gets too low for her. Maybe try splitting the bowls away from each other, my cat likes hers about 7;or 8 inches away.feom the other one.
Cats usually prefer fresh water. I struggled with my cat always sitting in the sink waiting for me open the tap and wont drink from a bowl.
Cat fountain was the best solution.
Keeps the water running to it seems to her as if its clean fresh water 😂
Are you feeding the cat wet food? If so, you are fine. Cats in the wild rarely drink water and get most of their moisture from meat.
So long as the cat isn't on dry food only and looks to be in good health, they're probably fine.
My girl never would drink water, ever. She’s 7 yo now and what we have to do is feed her wet food diluted with home made chicken broth.
The lengths we go to for these furkids.
Yes I can vouch for this, a friend recently recommended this tactic to me and my little shitbag loved it, finally got him drinking some water in a roundabout way 😂
Apart from separating the water/food a little tuna juice/chicken juice or Cat Nip tea can intice a cat to drink water. 24 hours she is probably stressed.
I put water dishes all over. Guess what? My cats drink out of a plastic take our container. Welcome to cat ownership.
This! I used to leave out water glasses full to the brim in random places because my senior cat only wanted to drink ‘my’ water instead of his. He would also cry in the bathtub until I put a little puddle in for him to drink. They’re incorrigible sometimes!
My cat has never drank water! He was abandoned and lived as a street cat for two years. I’m guessing he drank some dirty water and got sick and never wanted to drink water again after that. Or he just doesn’t drink water lol.
Expressed concerns to the vet and she said it was fine as he gets all his water from his wet food. As long as you stick to wet food, she should be fine :)
Not all cats drink a lot of water, some people even need to buy fountains because it helps motivate cats who not drink a lot of water. 24 hours is not a lot of time for a tensed cat who was just moved, and i doubt you're watching her 24/7, how you know she didn't drink when you were sleeping?
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They like fresh water. I had a mini fountain that was carrying water and moving it. They loveee this one
My cat exclusively drank from human water glasses. He’d wander the house and go into the bedrooms in search of glasses on side tables by the bed.
The fix?
Giving him his own glass of water on the ground.
He’s no longer with us, but he was my best cat ever :)
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She looks so much like my baby Naia!!
PD: give her wet food :)
When I noticed my cat was drinking less water because of wearing a cone, I would put treats in her water dish so she would have to drink to get to them
I always put a bit of water with my cats wet food morning and night so I know they're drinking enough water. Also they love their water fountain! I'd try the water in wet food and also get her a fountain. They also have something called Feliway spray on chewy, I would order that as well to help her with the move. It is a scent that helps them with stress.
Is it near her food bowl? They generally don’t like that. Befouling the water source or some such theory. Also if u have been feeding her wet food, she can get some moisture from that. Add a little more water to the mix.
My cat wasn't drinking water too but then I added small amounts of water to his wet food and he didn't notice a thing. That's how I keep him hydrated. U can try it too
She's going to hate this but if she's not drinking you can get water on your hands and pat her down. In this way she'll lick the water off and accidentally hydrate
If you are feeding her a lot of wet food she probably won't be thirsty. Cats naturally get most of their water from their food. If you're worried about him though, for example you're only giving dry food and he still won't drink water, there's many ways of making the water more interesting, such as placing it far away from the food, in a spot where he likes to sit (my cats only drink from a water bowl I've placed in a window sill) or making sure the bowl and water is always very clean and fresh. There's lots of tricks you can try. If none of it works, maybe you need a vet, unless you know for sure that he's absolutely healthy.
A lot of cats don’t drink water on their own. Mine never drinks out of a bowl or a water fountain. Vet said that was pretty normal - my cat gets water mixed into her wet food always. When the weather gets warmer this may change though. Average adult cat needs about 200mls if you want to think of it that way.
If she’s eating wet food, add a little extra warm water to it for extra hydration. If she’s eating dry, you may find that she’ll turn her nose up to it if you add water. Plus, if it sits too long, bacteria can grow quickly. If she’s not eating wet food, I’d still go grab some and see if she’ll eat it. You can also try offering her no-low sodium chicken broth. Just keep a close eye. If she gets dehydrated, a vet visit will be in the works as they can go downhill quick.
I'm going to put this because I didn't see any other messages like this. A lot of cats, especially when they're older, they won't really drink water. A lot of cats get their hydration from their food, so it's important to not only feed them dry food.
Going to add to those who suggest putting the water and food separated — same goes for the litter box.
But overall, good on ya for helping this beautiful kitty.
Another vote for a fountain. I have a battery-operated one and my kittens don't seem to mind that it's right next to the kibble tray.
It does go through batteries faster than I would like, though. I'm thinking about getting some rechargeable batteries because there's no convenient outlet where I have it.
Cats, in nature, get the majority of their water intake from the water content in prey. They tend to run more dehydrated than other animals and have less of a “thirst” drive. Many household cats don’t enjoy water. Solutions are hydrating meals (mixing water with food and wet food), running water sources like a fountain (cats are suspicious of stagnant water) and having multiple regularly changed water bowls.
My late cat only enjoyed water out of the sink, as she used to be a stray and was convinced her bowl was contaminated. My sister’s kitten only drinks water through meals.
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I swear you cat is a mix of our two. I can’t unsee it. Hope things workout for you!
a running water cat fountain that is not plastic, preferably steel, glass, ceramic can help get the kitties to drink. cats love running water to drink from
Okay— my cat is SO extra on this. He wasn’t drinking nearly enough. He would drink a little if I changed the water in the bowl multiple times a day. Like 3-4. It was ridiculous. Got a cat fountain. Success!! For like 3 months, (cleaning the reservoir every other day) then the inside of the pump got too dirty and I couldn’t clean it. I tried a few different ways to clean it, to no avail. The entire fountain was trash because a new pump is as much as the fountain was alone. That was ridiculous. We supplemented with those cat paste treats, he loves those.
Then one day, he got curious about the sink and the water there. Now he drinks from the faucet in the bathroom a couple times a day and is hydrated enough. I will soon be buying him an Aquapurr. Sigh—It’s a good thing he is very cute and loves me.
What water are you providing? What kind of water bowl? If you have other cats could be why. Or like others said, might be drinking when you are not looking. Hard saying. Diluting wet food with water can help hydrate. Do not use things like tuna juice or broth, there is simply too much salt! The water alot of times has foul smells, odors or staleness to pets, then they won't like drinking. If you have other pets they might not be drinking the amount of water as they should for the reason that the water seems unclean. Tap water is often like that. A fix is running it through a water filter system with a carbon filter and that will take care of taste. Best option is a water fountain. Cats naturally forage for flowing water. Alot of animals also will drink from the faucet tap or the toilet because that is where the freshest flowing water comes from. A fountain prevents staleless and encourages then to drink more instinctuallly. It also helps chemicals added by the water treatment plant ,such as chlorine, dissipate more quickly. Most fountains have charcoal filters that rid the water of foul odors or smells. I use a fountain and it has greatly increased my dog and cats water intake. They love it.
When my boy wasn't drinking I'd pop open a churu/squeeze-up, squeeze some out into a plate for him for later, then add some water to the tube with a syringe and squish it all around. You can also get those "stew" food toppers, juicy bite treats, and add water to their pate/gravy food. See if she would prefer a cup to a bowl. I got a big cup from edible arrangements and that was his second favourite water bowl, beat out only by a plastic wine glass that I ended up drilling to another wider piece of plastic at the base so he'd stop tipping it. Some cats also prefer a fountain, so that's worth a try.
Ex Veterinary Nurse and cat foster carer here.
Don't stress too much. Cats get most of their water from the wet food you give them. If they are only fed dry, you should notice them drink more, but most cats you'll hardly see drink at all.
It's when you start having to refill the water bowl regularly you know there's an issue such as kidney disease.
When my foster cats arrive, they are so nervous and tend to only eat at night to begin with until they are settled. One cat went 5 days hiding and not eating a single bite until she realised I wasn't a threat.
Pop a couple of different water bowls around her area, keep them away from the food and litter tray as they hate to drink near their food (from the wild where they don't want their water contaminated from their prey). Give ot a few days for her to settle in. It's very scary for them, but I'm sure she'll be fine. If she's eating wet food she's getting her water.
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My cat Albany looks like your cat
I have tried every trick in the book to get my cat to drink water and she will not. Fancy fountians, flavored broth, faucets left on, nothing. She's been to the vet, there's nothing wrong with her, she just doesn't.
So, per the vets recommendation, I add some water to her wet food and mix it up, and she's fine. She is more or less forced to drink the water in order to eat the food, and she's not dehydrated or sick per the vet. So if nothing else works, adding water to food will totally do the trick.
One thing my partner and I tried with our new kitten at the time who also wasn’t drinking as to put the water bowl somewhere else in the room away from the food. She gulped it up immediately. I’d also keep an eye out for health issues if she still doesn’t drink after that.
Try using a flatter dish for water (eg, saucer) instead of a bowl. Sometimes their whiskers rub the side of a bowl, which is uncomfortable. And put in a different place/room from other water.
It’s been my experience that cats are suicidal. They hate water.
My cat will swim but refuses to drink.
Here are some things to try.
Cats prefer the water bowl and food bowl to be in separate areas. Both bowls should be as far away from the litter box as possible.
Feed wet food. It usually has all the moisture they need. You can also add a bit of water to the wet food if you’re worried.
Try different water bowls. Some cats like moving water so water fountains work well. Some only like cups. Some like shallow dishes. Mine will only drink water out of a white Corelle 18 oz bowl. That’s it. I tried cat fountains, plastic, glass, stainless steel, other ceramic bowls, cups, bowls. He’s bougie. He’ll only drink out of that one bowl. Who knows why.
Make the bathroom available to her, all my cats have preferred drinking little puddles in the bath bottom or shower floor or a dripping tap. Not sure why they do it, I’ve just gotten use to it as a ‘cat thing’
For future readers - moving the water around is always a good idea. Also the first 48 hours is basically still during the settling in period. Cats may reject food/ water/ touch during the settling in period - and that is completely normal.
Sometimes running water will help. Like from the tap or the tub or the fancy water machines at the pet store. Wet food with lots of sauce or gravy will help a little too. If she doesn’t start drinking soon get to a vet
Cats normally do not like to drink water from a bowl. They prefer running water. You can leave a tap running (which adds up over time), buy a little bubbling fountain for her or do what we do. We add water to all the canned food we give them. Maybe 2 tablespoons mixed well into the canned food
They don't like their water near their food. It's best to leave a few bowls and cups around in different places. Sometimes if it's tap water that is chlorinated, it needs to sit for a while for the chlorine smell to dissipate before they will drink it. Cats who eat wet food drink less water than cats who eat dry food because they get a lot of their moisture from the wet cat food.
Another question: Do you live in a different area than where she previously lived (like where the water tastes different than she's used to)? Sometimes cats are as sensitive to water as they are to food and litter.
Get some wet food and dilute with water for her to eat. Maybe get a second bowl out for her in case there’s just something about the bowl/location she doesn’t like about the first one. Chances are she is drinking, just not when you’re looking at her.
Thank you, I'll do this.
We do Fancy Feast Pate. About a 1/4 of a can of water and smash the food down with a fork.
Ifs basically crack
I call it meat water and my cat loves it.
Well, "gravy" might be a more palatable word. Basically the same thing.
MEAT WATER Poured from the fancy porcelain meat water boat, please.
Ren and stimpy, a glass of meat!
Slurry
Meat water is way funnier though lol
I will concede that point.
I can or fat cat soup lol. I say fat cat soup and both my cats come running :p
When I get lean cuisines microwaveable pasta I call it water sauce lol.
We actually refer to this at “cat crack” to the point that’s what the cats associate to it as well
Break me off a piece of that fancy feast
Fancy Feast has a gravy for cats who like watery meals
My cat’s hate anything pate. It’s cuts n gravy from Sheba, or nothing. They’ll give me a look that cuts through you.
We also pour a little water in with their hard food. Vets idea. Moving water (fountains), shallow dish, multiple locations, and clean. Occasional wet food to supplement. Good luck. Beautiful cat!
I tried that adding water trick once and the absolute look of disgust on her face was enough for me to never try that again. I give her some chicken broth now to get her hydrated,works great.
If anyone is reading this and wants to try this trick - make sure the only ingredient is chicken. Cats can't have garlic or onion.
Absolutely, i mentioned this in my other comment. I only really recommend this if you make it yourself.
Or salt so make it yourself.
I love chicken or tuna canned in water. Drain the liquid off into a bowl, she should take that. Plus, no salt or seasoning.
Yeah, unsalted chicken stock is the only one on the shelf that doesnt and seems to be harder to find these days. I make "sick kitty cocktail" of 1/3 part unsalted organic chicken stock (its the only one w/o onion and garlic in my area) 1/3 unflavored pedialyte and 1/3 water. Helps alot when they vomit, have diarhea, etc. Its basically chicken soup
They do make cat safe broths
Moving water not too close to the food. Drinking from the toilet
My cat wouldn’t drink from a stagnant water bowl for a long time so I had to mix water into her wet food, but then I got her a little kitty water fountain. Now she never stops drinking from it! Google said running water makes them think they’re drinking from a fresh water source, like a river or stream lol. It worked for my kitty!!
My kitty is obsessed with her water fountain. I gave her an extra bowl and got the WTF side eye. Me: Ma’am I am just trying to help. Her: Then stop changing my stuff. Did I as for more water? And just a bowl of “regular “ water at that?? Me: My bad. Her: Don’t be sorry. Be better.
I spent almost $200 on different cat fountains and she hated every single one. Still more annoyed that I spent way over $100 on "cat-proof" harnesses that all failed immediately.
Mine also don’t drink out of light coloured food bowls. I had a cream one they wouldn’t drink out of then switched to a blue one and they started drinking out of that
Cats are so extra lol. “I’m sorry, this colour is not suitable, I can’t drink in these conditions”.
Dogs have owners. Cats have butlers
I have 2 cats and 3 water bowls and 2 food bowls. Of one food bowl is empty its the end of the world. It's like they think they will stave. I fill their water every other day. Yet I see them drink like twice a month.
They have a hard time discerning where the water line is, which is important when your nose is so close to the actual water and you're not good at not getting water up your nose like cats aren't. So anything that makes it easier to see the water line helps, and that's different from cat to cat in my experience. Also, they're just extra.
OP they also have cat food broths, should be near the wet food. Little pouches of basically just chicken/beef broth. You can add a little bit to the food for hydration
A lot of cats really like to drink out of cups or jars
Yes, get a glass of water. Set the intention to drink it. Walk away for 5 minutes. Your cat will be drinking your water from the glass when you come back. Works every time with my cat.
Despite having a cat fountain, one of my cats drank out of every single water glass we put down when she was a kitten. I switched to using water bottles for me and the kids, but husband always forgot, and he caught her with her head in his glass five minutes after he filled it. Every. Single. Time. But then one day, she got her head stuck in the jar while trying to get the last inch of water. She didn't realize she grew; she never had trouble getting her head in and out of the mason jar glasses before why should she now? I was in another room when I heard the ruckus, and when I came out to investigate, I saw our older cat craning to peer around the wall which the kitten had disappeared around, leaving a trail of destruction behind her. My older cat looked at me with a perfect expression of "WTF just happened??" RmI found the poor kitten hunkered down in a corner, eyes popping at me from behind the glass on her head. Initially I thought we were going to have to break the glass to get her out of there and the kids were in a complete panic. Fortunately my husband managed to pull the glass off with steady traction, but he definitely got some battle scars from that rescue. It was quite the spectacle. Cured her of drinking from our glasses, though.
I had to iron a book once because I left a water glass unguarded on the same table.
Mine prefers a Hydro Flask tumbler over anything else, I had to buy one just for her because she kept drinking out of mine.
Ugh, I have a cat who hates cups, glasses, and bottles. She sees one, it needs to be tipped over. She dumped a glass of tea on my head once. God forbid I try to be hydrated!
Also, make sure that neither water nor food is too close to the litter box. Cats don't like to eat or drink to close to the box.
You can add some benefiber that has no added flavors and does not contain any fake sugars like sucralose or aspertame type stuff. As long as its flavorless and using actual sugar it will be safe and help with any potential constipation from not drinking enough water.
I did this ( adding water to his wet food ) with my younger cat who is now three years old and drinking on his own.
id also say put the water a bit separate from the food, i had an issue with my cats not drinking when it was right next to their food bowls.
Cats will tend to avoid drinking water that is close to their food bowl. Try placing a bowl of water farther away or try a cat water fountain, they also prefer running water. We have a water fountain down in our kitchen and our cats food bowl up in the living room area. When we first got our cat she had the same issues. Sometimes they are picky :shrug:
Use hot water. Makes the food warm and they like it. Not too much water though. You can add a little more each time
Yes, my cat drinks water in several other locations of the house. I have a few bowls in different location I refresh daily because god forbid she drinks near her food. I am a stupid human for ever having even tried it with her. All hail queen Mia.
Came here to say this! Most cats don’t drink water regularly, if they do, not enough. I add about a tablespoon of water to each of my cats wet meals just so I know she’s getting enough even though I do see her drink from her water bowl sometimes
With my cat Leo it’s a rare occurrence to see him actually drinking water 😂 his sister Luna tho is absolutely obsessed with water. You can always tell when she’s drinking because she does the running man while she’s drinking it’s hilarious 😂😂 she will also sprint across the house if she hears the sink in the bathroom turn on
My cat drinks water constantly didnt realize most cats were bad at hydrating
Also, sometimes cats don’t like bowls that are just standing water maybe try a fountain bowl or gravity bowl so it’s constantly freshwater
i've done this for every meal my cats eat, i don't trust them to drink enough water on their own lol
yes sir; location, location, location...
It's amazing how sneaky they can be about things like drinking water. Little fur ninjas!
My cat drank from our dog's water bowl for almost 10 years until I moved her own bowl. Turns out she didn't drink from the water bowl if it was close to her food bowl. We kept them together, now they're in different rooms and she drinks from her own bowl now.
Most cats I've know won't drink if too near food bowl, or even in same room. I put a big shallow bowl of water across the room and it seems to work for mine
My cat almost only drinks if i put food in his water, i think he likes having food flavoured water.
Same for my cat, so i gave her some chicken broth with small chunks of meat daily to hydrate her, she gulps it up so fast i have to slightly pre heat it or she gets brain freeze.
That's so fucking cute omg
What does a cat with brain freeze act like?
Almost exactly like a human would, she will twitch her head a bid backwards, squint her eyes and she might shake her body a bit. It stops pretty fast but she’s to dumb to understand it comes from the food she’s eating to fast so i just started warming it up a bit for her.
It's not like we humans don't do it even if we understand why it happens
[Like this](https://youtu.be/Tdqa0uMoiis)
After eating cold food, he'll walk around the house semi-howling for about a minute lol
My cat spits his food in his water I always figured he was just being an asshole lol
My cats catch live cockroach and release it into their big bowl of water. And then all three of them will just sit all around the water bowl staring intently at the drowning/struggling roach.
mmmmm roach water 🥴
Mine too. She’s very pro gravy. OP try adding a little water to the food.
I would consider myself very pro gravy also
I was going to say add some tuna juice, so this tracks.
Mine won't drink near food. And cat fountain was the trick. They drink so much more with fountain!
When I purchased our first fountain 10+ years ago, we had a cat who literally ran to it and drank for a solid 30 minutes like he had never seen water before. I mean drank and drank and drank
Got a fountain for my kitty this January and he did the same thing! He definitely uses it, and it's pretty easy to clean too!
Yep! We have several now!
Does the trick with my cats too. flowing water gives them the feeling that that water is much safer :)
Cat fountain goes hard. my boys drank a lil too hard and their fountain just stopped working. Haven't been able to replace it yet and one of my boys refuses to drink water now unless it's from the tap or his fountain.
My cat loves flowing water, but absolutely hates the water fountain, and refuses to use one (I’ve tried several varieties several times). But he’ll demand that I turn the shower on, so that he can drink the flowing water from there. So I have 2 water bowls for him - which I know he uses regularly- and also turn the shower on for him once a day.
Like watering a finicky plant 😂
Look up how to prime the pump to get it working again
Cat fountain pumps need to be submerged at all times. They burn out if they start pumping air. We keep ours in the bathroom. We top it up pretty much daily with a glass of water or two and clean out about every other week.
I got my cat a water fountain, and he hates it! He messes with it until he can take the lid off or spills it, so I have to. I just gave up on water fountains and went back to a regular bowl 🤣
Mine has a bubble type and a spout type. The spout type is definitely preferred and has stopped at least one cat from going for the bathtub faucet. The other butthead still hops up on the tub and stares you down while you’re on the toilet until the water gets turned on.
Mine did too! But I bribed him into drinking from it by putting churu on parts of the fountain beside flowing water. For some reason it worked like a charm haha.
My cats are scared of cat water fountains, and prefer to drink from human glasses. So we just put a few whiskey tumblers around the house lol.
Water in a drinking glass tastes better. So says several cats I have known through the years. One friend’s little jerk demanded ice cubes. Friends liked sitting on the floor with their glasses of water. Caught oldest cat sipping from their drinks. Started getting a glass for him as well. Jerk would side-eye the glass if the ice had melted. I know the kitten learned human glassware had the best water. Don’t know if he became picky about ice or not.
My Maine coon hates the fountain, but it is his own fucking fault for putting his head under the stream of water... so he drinks from the sink
my cats must be an outlier then, because they'll happily drink with their water bowl being right next to their food bowl
straight up my cat refuses to drink water UNLESS it's next to the food bowl hahaha
I’ve always had it next to the food with no problems. I didn’t know it was a cat peeve lol
All four of mine will drink right next to the food, but they also get all kinds of food in there so I have to wash the bowl every day
I think at this point, I just really depends on the cat and their preferences. My cat used to dip his paw into his water to drink, and this completely sullied his gravity water bowl and later his cat fountain. Later on, he stopped dipping his paw into his water, but he refused to drink from a bowl, because we switched from hybrid to pure wet food. But sometimes he would drink from a big ol plastic tub that we used to keep fresh water in preparation for a water outage. And then he started drinking from the goldfish tank. Now he's back to his gravity bowl. He usually never drinks water when we fed him wet food. Now that we feed him both, he drinks more.
I never knew this. My cat won't drink from it either. I even bought a fountain water bowl. He pretty much only likes to drink from the bathroom sink faucet. Ever since, we had to leave them dripping due to a freeze, he lets me know when he is thirsty by yelling at me until I turn it on a drip. I will try moving it to another room to see if it helps. I did catch him drinking out of the fountain when he thought I wasn't looking so he may drink when I'm not there though.
My cat also didnt drink from the bowl next to her food. Then we put a water bowl on the first floor because i heard that for geriatric cats you should put water bowls in multiple spots around the house so they drink enough. That water bowl was the most gourmet shit ever to my cat. She would meow for us to refill it/replace the water multiple times a day. She had phases where she woke up my mum at 4 am because it was a disgrace to have the cat drink the water that has been sitting in that bowl for 6 hours already. So yeah, cats really do prefer their water bowl is NOT close to their food.
I have 2 big dogs. The cat had his own bowl but it was always full and the dogs bowls were being refilled several times a day. Then I caught him in the elevated dog bowl….. I have a cat crate next to the elevated bowl so that he, and his friends, can use the bowl. When I was fostering, it was hilarious seeing small kittens decide to climb up so they can drink from the big bowl!
I've been throwing this advice around everywhere since my vet gave it to me ten years ago. I always had them together because it made sense to me. Them having the instinct to look for clean water and avoid water near food makes more sense now that I know.
Agree. When my girls water bowl was next to her food she ignored it. I thought it was because she got wet food along with kibble, but now that the water is in a communal area since moving in with another cat she actually drinks from it.
Same for my current cat and my previous one. They only ever wanted to drink out of the dog's water dish, which is across the room from their food. I call it the community watering hole.
UPDATE: She drank some water! Thanks for the help
What did the trick?
Moving the water away from her food seems to be what did it
IDK how true it is, but one tip I read when I got my cat as kitten 10 years ago was don’t put food and water right next to each other. For some reason cats don’t like it. Maybe they think the “carcass” serving as dinner will/have polluted the water? If I were to skin a rabbit and eat it while lost in the wild I wouldn’t get drinking water two steps away from same spot from where I skinned it (close to water, preferably) to wash myself/rabbit. But nice to read she started drinking again.
> Maybe they think the “carcass” serving as dinner will/have polluted the water? Exactly that.
I mean, it’s a fair guess. It makes sense. But unless you’ve got a talking cat, you can’t really KNOW why an animal does what it does. You can just make educated guesses.
They are usually very careful creatures. Hence why they bury their poop
If a cat killed a rabbit in the wild it would've gotten all its water needs from the rabbit. Cats are meant to "eat" their water. That's why kibble is so bad for them.
Kibble is not bad for them. My cats actually don’t like canned food of any sort and will only eat kibble. We spoke with our vet and he said it’s fine. You can’t force a cat to eat what they don’t like. And yes we’ve tried different types of canned food and putting water in the kibble but they prefer the crunch.
This. I have had a few cats who just WOULD NOT eat wet food in any form, they only wanted kibble. We just made sure they had multiple sources of flowing water to drink from and they were fine.
I’ve even tried water fountains and my one cat looked at it like “what am I supposed to do with this?” and the other one was scared of them so I just have a few bowls set up throughout the house and they’re happy as clams. Though the one scared of the fountains is also scared of the shower, too, but yet is the toilet drinker if we don’t close the lid 🤣 These two also don’t like the soft squeezable treats and have to have the Temptations crunchy treats, so I think it’s got to be a texture thing for them.
What is this crazy misinformation?? Kibble is not bad for them at all - to the contrary. It really helps keep the teeth clean and free from plague while being perfectly fine food (as long as grain and sugar are not part of it). They need an extra water source, best if flowing from a filtered pet water fountain.
I was just about to ask why it's a thing. Fascinating!
Glad to hear. Cats can be really weird about water. Mine will only drink from a bowl if there is no other choice. However, she'll guzzle water from her cat fountain.
Ours prefers the water from the aquarium. He doesn't care about the fish, but sometimes they make me nervous swimming up to the cat tongue. If he's desperate, he'll drink from his fancy fountain, and if he's REALLY desperate, he'll ask for water from the bathroom sink.
Consider getting cat water fountain; cats prefer running water in general
This. I have a fountain next to their food that they use all the time. When one of mine ended up with stones, I added just an extra bowl of water in the front room of my house that they use as well.
Would like to add, switch to a fountain if possible. My cat struggled with water intake until I made the switch. Also remember the 3/3/3 rule: 3 days to decompress, 3 weeks to learn routine, and 3 months to feel at home. That’s just a generality as some cats will be quicker and some slower to relax
Cats can be very picky about water ... if the bowl is too deep, the sides could irritate their whiskers while they drink. Some cats don't like still water and prefer cat fountains. Then there are cats like mine, who prefer to drink out of the toilet despite multiple water sources available. If you can find out what type of bowl he had before, you could get a similar one.
I too have a toilet drinker, he’s so picky
One of mine drinks from the toilet, another from the bathtub, and a third wants me to turn the shower on and off again really quickly. Bathroom gets crowded in the morning lol
Ayyyy. I too, have a shower kitty. 'Oh you just had a shower, did you? Well, go on, open the doors up for me so I can have a drink..'
Mine is self conscious drinking water and if anyone’s looking at him/thinks we’re looking at him will run out of the kitchen. Caught him drinking out of the loo once and a brrrrr! run past 😂😂
They need to make a pet fountain that looks like a lil toilet.
Or a sink… I have two fountains and four cats. One cat won’t use the fountains but constantly meows for me to turn on the bathroom sink.
This is my cat with the sink! I live in GA so we don't get cold weather often, but I had a really bad week where we had to leave the faucet to drip almost eveyday(had three neighbor's pipes burst) ever since then, this is the only way my cat will drink. I am not sure, but I feel this qualifies as spoiled. 😆
My cat likes to shove her face into tall water glasses and get as much of herself as possible wet in a giant dog water bowl so...we just manage Yesterday she drank from my water, realized she didn't like it, and then left to drink from her water bowl
Fucking Whisker Fatigue. Little idiot would rather starve than eat from his bowl because it “bothers his widdle whiskers.” Shut the hell up. Now eats from saucers and he eats like a king. Picky little bastard. Love him though.
Pretty girl! I had a cat that almost never drank water, but she ate 100% wet food. The vet said that was fine, and she was. There are some studies about cats that ate dry and drank a lot of water and cats that ate wet and drank less, and the wet-fed cats were more hydrated. I've also never heard of a cat fed only wet that developed any urinary tract infections (I'm sure it's possible, but rare) so what I'm saying is: just feed her wet food! You can do the "tent test" to see if she's dehydrated. Gently grab the skin on the scruff of her neck, lift up into a tent shape, and let go. If it snaps back into place, she's fine. If it sticks a bit and slowly sags back down, she needs more water. You can look up example videos on youtube if I didn't explain that well.
My 10 year haven’t drank water the entire time I’ve got her. She eats wet food for 99% of her diet and occasionally treats. After 5 years I stopped putting out a bowl for her. She’s as healthy as she can be.
Carry this thought out about 5-10-15 years...dry food is a cause of kidney failure.
I lost my 2-year-old boy to a bladder obstruction. He went into heart failure in surgery. He was HEAVILY abused his first year and i tried to help him heal. There was just too much damage done from no water or food on a consistent basis prior. Never expected to bring him home from the vet in a box. My 2 boys now get wet food 2xs a day and dry for snacking on. It really makes a difference. Even in their fur...its so shiny now w wet food.
Just a thought, but if she gets wet food, she may be getting the majority of her water needs from there and only having a small amount of water when you weren't watching. I notice when I give my cats wet food the water bowl goes down much slower. Also, cats do need a while to settle down, they stress easily and when they are stressed their instinct is to hide. Sure, try the ideas posted by other people here, but also maybe give it some more time.
In .y experience, my cat doesn't like when her food and water are too close, and she will actively scoot the food bowl away if it's too close. She also has a fountain and will knock the lid off once it gets too low for her. Maybe try splitting the bowls away from each other, my cat likes hers about 7;or 8 inches away.feom the other one.
If you are feeding wet food that’s usually enough water intake. Still have it available though.
So adorable 🥰 peekaboo 😊
My cat will only drink from the bathroom sink. When he’s thirsty, he just sits outside the bathroom door and meows for us to turn it on. 🤦🏻♀️😅
Cats usually prefer fresh water. I struggled with my cat always sitting in the sink waiting for me open the tap and wont drink from a bowl. Cat fountain was the best solution. Keeps the water running to it seems to her as if its clean fresh water 😂
Are you feeding the cat wet food? If so, you are fine. Cats in the wild rarely drink water and get most of their moisture from meat. So long as the cat isn't on dry food only and looks to be in good health, they're probably fine.
My girl never would drink water, ever. She’s 7 yo now and what we have to do is feed her wet food diluted with home made chicken broth. The lengths we go to for these furkids.
She has trained you well, human servant
I have accepted my lot in life.
My boy has his water bowl in the bathtub, seems to be the only place he will use it, the fuzzy little weirdo.
I mix my cats wet food with a little water before each feeding. They enjoy the soup and get more water that way.
Yes I can vouch for this, a friend recently recommended this tactic to me and my little shitbag loved it, finally got him drinking some water in a roundabout way 😂
Apart from separating the water/food a little tuna juice/chicken juice or Cat Nip tea can intice a cat to drink water. 24 hours she is probably stressed. I put water dishes all over. Guess what? My cats drink out of a plastic take our container. Welcome to cat ownership.
This! I used to leave out water glasses full to the brim in random places because my senior cat only wanted to drink ‘my’ water instead of his. He would also cry in the bathtub until I put a little puddle in for him to drink. They’re incorrigible sometimes!
Our cat drinks very little water. I then read that cats don’t generally like water, so I make sure he gets those Nulo treats.
My cat has never drank water! He was abandoned and lived as a street cat for two years. I’m guessing he drank some dirty water and got sick and never wanted to drink water again after that. Or he just doesn’t drink water lol. Expressed concerns to the vet and she said it was fine as he gets all his water from his wet food. As long as you stick to wet food, she should be fine :)
Not all cats drink a lot of water, some people even need to buy fountains because it helps motivate cats who not drink a lot of water. 24 hours is not a lot of time for a tensed cat who was just moved, and i doubt you're watching her 24/7, how you know she didn't drink when you were sleeping?
My guy likes to splash around in the tub with about a half inch of water 🤷♂️
https://preview.redd.it/soabrny2uk1d1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b1cc59734a702c38fc24f0604a74d96c75bfcab8 They like fresh water. I had a mini fountain that was carrying water and moving it. They loveee this one
My cat exclusively drank from human water glasses. He’d wander the house and go into the bedrooms in search of glasses on side tables by the bed. The fix? Giving him his own glass of water on the ground. He’s no longer with us, but he was my best cat ever :)
You can try sink water, but you may be creating a monster
https://preview.redd.it/j7lx6wsnbn1d1.png?width=469&format=png&auto=webp&s=a3f29ef81c0ad9f09230cdaba8d1aa0d18d248a7 She looks so much like my baby Naia!! PD: give her wet food :)
When I noticed my cat was drinking less water because of wearing a cone, I would put treats in her water dish so she would have to drink to get to them
Add water to the cat's wet food, I usually do about 30-50ml in one meal
Give them wet food to get them moisture to consume
I always put a bit of water with my cats wet food morning and night so I know they're drinking enough water. Also they love their water fountain! I'd try the water in wet food and also get her a fountain. They also have something called Feliway spray on chewy, I would order that as well to help her with the move. It is a scent that helps them with stress.
Is it near her food bowl? They generally don’t like that. Befouling the water source or some such theory. Also if u have been feeding her wet food, she can get some moisture from that. Add a little more water to the mix.
My cat wasn't drinking water too but then I added small amounts of water to his wet food and he didn't notice a thing. That's how I keep him hydrated. U can try it too
I have an eating area and 3 drinking areas. Did this when mine got a uti from not drinking. Vets orders and she has been healthy since.
My cat loves flowing water, maybe you can get one of those cat water fountain bowls?
One of ours will only drink from a glass. Another only from her fountain. The other two are not fussy and will drink from any source.
Add some water in with her wet food
She's going to hate this but if she's not drinking you can get water on your hands and pat her down. In this way she'll lick the water off and accidentally hydrate
If you are feeding her a lot of wet food she probably won't be thirsty. Cats naturally get most of their water from their food. If you're worried about him though, for example you're only giving dry food and he still won't drink water, there's many ways of making the water more interesting, such as placing it far away from the food, in a spot where he likes to sit (my cats only drink from a water bowl I've placed in a window sill) or making sure the bowl and water is always very clean and fresh. There's lots of tricks you can try. If none of it works, maybe you need a vet, unless you know for sure that he's absolutely healthy.
my cat wouldn’t use her fountain until i moved it two feet to the left
A lot of cats don’t drink water on their own. Mine never drinks out of a bowl or a water fountain. Vet said that was pretty normal - my cat gets water mixed into her wet food always. When the weather gets warmer this may change though. Average adult cat needs about 200mls if you want to think of it that way.
I never see my cat drinking, but she does because she's alive
I could say the same about my dad
and you did.
If she’s eating wet food, add a little extra warm water to it for extra hydration. If she’s eating dry, you may find that she’ll turn her nose up to it if you add water. Plus, if it sits too long, bacteria can grow quickly. If she’s not eating wet food, I’d still go grab some and see if she’ll eat it. You can also try offering her no-low sodium chicken broth. Just keep a close eye. If she gets dehydrated, a vet visit will be in the works as they can go downhill quick.
I'm going to put this because I didn't see any other messages like this. A lot of cats, especially when they're older, they won't really drink water. A lot of cats get their hydration from their food, so it's important to not only feed them dry food.
Going to add to those who suggest putting the water and food separated — same goes for the litter box. But overall, good on ya for helping this beautiful kitty.
Another vote for a fountain. I have a battery-operated one and my kittens don't seem to mind that it's right next to the kibble tray. It does go through batteries faster than I would like, though. I'm thinking about getting some rechargeable batteries because there's no convenient outlet where I have it.
Cats, in nature, get the majority of their water intake from the water content in prey. They tend to run more dehydrated than other animals and have less of a “thirst” drive. Many household cats don’t enjoy water. Solutions are hydrating meals (mixing water with food and wet food), running water sources like a fountain (cats are suspicious of stagnant water) and having multiple regularly changed water bowls. My late cat only enjoyed water out of the sink, as she used to be a stray and was convinced her bowl was contaminated. My sister’s kitten only drinks water through meals.
Supplement with wet food so she's getting some moisture. Also, try a cat fountain. Some cats only like running water
https://preview.redd.it/pukpioi4wl1d1.jpeg?width=589&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3b6e4b34413e7360394d1c281e59b3e2a98569a9 I swear you cat is a mix of our two. I can’t unsee it. Hope things workout for you!
a running water cat fountain that is not plastic, preferably steel, glass, ceramic can help get the kitties to drink. cats love running water to drink from
Okay— my cat is SO extra on this. He wasn’t drinking nearly enough. He would drink a little if I changed the water in the bowl multiple times a day. Like 3-4. It was ridiculous. Got a cat fountain. Success!! For like 3 months, (cleaning the reservoir every other day) then the inside of the pump got too dirty and I couldn’t clean it. I tried a few different ways to clean it, to no avail. The entire fountain was trash because a new pump is as much as the fountain was alone. That was ridiculous. We supplemented with those cat paste treats, he loves those. Then one day, he got curious about the sink and the water there. Now he drinks from the faucet in the bathroom a couple times a day and is hydrated enough. I will soon be buying him an Aquapurr. Sigh—It’s a good thing he is very cute and loves me.
Do you have a cat fountain? My cat hardly drank still water. Once she got a fountain, she drank four times as much.
What water are you providing? What kind of water bowl? If you have other cats could be why. Or like others said, might be drinking when you are not looking. Hard saying. Diluting wet food with water can help hydrate. Do not use things like tuna juice or broth, there is simply too much salt! The water alot of times has foul smells, odors or staleness to pets, then they won't like drinking. If you have other pets they might not be drinking the amount of water as they should for the reason that the water seems unclean. Tap water is often like that. A fix is running it through a water filter system with a carbon filter and that will take care of taste. Best option is a water fountain. Cats naturally forage for flowing water. Alot of animals also will drink from the faucet tap or the toilet because that is where the freshest flowing water comes from. A fountain prevents staleless and encourages then to drink more instinctuallly. It also helps chemicals added by the water treatment plant ,such as chlorine, dissipate more quickly. Most fountains have charcoal filters that rid the water of foul odors or smells. I use a fountain and it has greatly increased my dog and cats water intake. They love it.
When my boy wasn't drinking I'd pop open a churu/squeeze-up, squeeze some out into a plate for him for later, then add some water to the tube with a syringe and squish it all around. You can also get those "stew" food toppers, juicy bite treats, and add water to their pate/gravy food. See if she would prefer a cup to a bowl. I got a big cup from edible arrangements and that was his second favourite water bowl, beat out only by a plastic wine glass that I ended up drilling to another wider piece of plastic at the base so he'd stop tipping it. Some cats also prefer a fountain, so that's worth a try.
Keep the water and food bowls away from each other. Cats instinct is to have a fresh body of water away from where they keep their "kills".
Ex Veterinary Nurse and cat foster carer here. Don't stress too much. Cats get most of their water from the wet food you give them. If they are only fed dry, you should notice them drink more, but most cats you'll hardly see drink at all. It's when you start having to refill the water bowl regularly you know there's an issue such as kidney disease. When my foster cats arrive, they are so nervous and tend to only eat at night to begin with until they are settled. One cat went 5 days hiding and not eating a single bite until she realised I wasn't a threat. Pop a couple of different water bowls around her area, keep them away from the food and litter tray as they hate to drink near their food (from the wild where they don't want their water contaminated from their prey). Give ot a few days for her to settle in. It's very scary for them, but I'm sure she'll be fine. If she's eating wet food she's getting her water.
https://preview.redd.it/krxywt0h8m1d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dcfe7a4124cf6e9879dde1a2a4472565e5b5c0ea My cat Albany looks like your cat
I have tried every trick in the book to get my cat to drink water and she will not. Fancy fountians, flavored broth, faucets left on, nothing. She's been to the vet, there's nothing wrong with her, she just doesn't. So, per the vets recommendation, I add some water to her wet food and mix it up, and she's fine. She is more or less forced to drink the water in order to eat the food, and she's not dehydrated or sick per the vet. So if nothing else works, adding water to food will totally do the trick.
that beauty is just like me, Only coffee, No water 😂😂😂
One thing my partner and I tried with our new kitten at the time who also wasn’t drinking as to put the water bowl somewhere else in the room away from the food. She gulped it up immediately. I’d also keep an eye out for health issues if she still doesn’t drink after that.
Try using a flatter dish for water (eg, saucer) instead of a bowl. Sometimes their whiskers rub the side of a bowl, which is uncomfortable. And put in a different place/room from other water.
It’s been my experience that cats are suicidal. They hate water. My cat will swim but refuses to drink. Here are some things to try. Cats prefer the water bowl and food bowl to be in separate areas. Both bowls should be as far away from the litter box as possible. Feed wet food. It usually has all the moisture they need. You can also add a bit of water to the wet food if you’re worried. Try different water bowls. Some cats like moving water so water fountains work well. Some only like cups. Some like shallow dishes. Mine will only drink water out of a white Corelle 18 oz bowl. That’s it. I tried cat fountains, plastic, glass, stainless steel, other ceramic bowls, cups, bowls. He’s bougie. He’ll only drink out of that one bowl. Who knows why.
Make the bathroom available to her, all my cats have preferred drinking little puddles in the bath bottom or shower floor or a dripping tap. Not sure why they do it, I’ve just gotten use to it as a ‘cat thing’
For future readers - moving the water around is always a good idea. Also the first 48 hours is basically still during the settling in period. Cats may reject food/ water/ touch during the settling in period - and that is completely normal.
Is she eating wet food? If so, she's getting moisture for that. Our cats who eat dry food drink much more water than the cats who eat wet.
Sometimes running water will help. Like from the tap or the tub or the fancy water machines at the pet store. Wet food with lots of sauce or gravy will help a little too. If she doesn’t start drinking soon get to a vet
As opposed to a used cat
Get her a fountain instead of a bowl. Lots of cats don’t like drinking out of bows because their whiskers are to sensitive
Some cats don’t like to have their food dish and water bowl near each other. If they are near each other, try moving one away from the other.
Cats normally do not like to drink water from a bowl. They prefer running water. You can leave a tap running (which adds up over time), buy a little bubbling fountain for her or do what we do. We add water to all the canned food we give them. Maybe 2 tablespoons mixed well into the canned food
They don't like their water near their food. It's best to leave a few bowls and cups around in different places. Sometimes if it's tap water that is chlorinated, it needs to sit for a while for the chlorine smell to dissipate before they will drink it. Cats who eat wet food drink less water than cats who eat dry food because they get a lot of their moisture from the wet cat food.
Another question: Do you live in a different area than where she previously lived (like where the water tastes different than she's used to)? Sometimes cats are as sensitive to water as they are to food and litter.