Recently, my cat has started exhibiting a new, odd behavior. Whenever I go into the bathroom, the cat will follow. She jumps up onto the counter and will start rubbing her head on my side or arm, kind of like she does when she wants something. Now’s where it gets weird. She will then climb into the sink and start clawing at it (the clawing behavior is another thing she does when she wants something). Then, she will lick the faucet right where the water comes out. I would guess that she wants water, but she has clean water in her dish.
Anyone else have a cat that does this? Why would the cat do this?
My cat exhibits the same bathroom behavior, has the same clean water, yet loves to watch the toilet flush and then tries to drink from it! Other times she’ll drink standing water - miniscule puddles, really - in the bathtub. The water in there really isn’t colder than the water in her bowl. I just figured she was a weird cat!
The water is pretty cold straight out of the faucet. I’m not sure how the cat would know that though, when it’s actually on, she gets away from it. When she’s licking the faucet, it’s dry. She’s just licking metal. I just tried to put ice in the cat’s water dish though to test this, but she is just staring at it like WTF is this?
It’s definately the movement of the water. My cat would do this with a drip in the faucet. In fact she could drink out of her bowl and she’d be done, and I could take her to any faucet and turn it on and she’d drink some more.
They have “cat fountains” you can buy to keep your cat’s water dish moving, rather the water in it moving, like in a fountain.
I have never known a cat to not want to drink from the faucet. Cats instinctively prefer running water to stagnant water and extremely fresh water to water that’s been sitting. Also, if the water dish is right next to the food, they tend to drink less (they will still drink obviously). It’s not odd at all - pretty normal for a cat actually.
As others have noted, cat fountains are popular for this very reason.
Cats have lots of static in there fur. Water fixtures are great conductors of electricity. Your cat likes to be shocked through it’s tongue. Your cat is weird. Your cat is therefore a normal cat, but in a cat way, not normal as we would usually use the word.
My cat always has plenty of fresh, clean water, and yet prefers to lick water from the floor of the shower. She is also facinated by the smell of soap, will roll and rub on freshly washed bare feet after a shower.
I don’t doubt the typical feline fountain-lovin’ behavior at all, but as an anecdotal aside: my kids leave the water running from the faucet from time to time, yet I’ve never noticed my “weird” cat taking any particular interest in drinking from it.
The soap thing, though, would make sense for her since again, she loves drinking up the water puddles after someone’s bathed. And again, the TMI involved in her drinking from the toilet. Maybe she just likes the taste of, um, slightly flavored water?! :dubious:
My cat is also insane for the bathroom sink. He gets me up every morning to go turn it on. So, naturally, I bought him a cat fountain, thinking that he would be content with that and lay off already. Nope. He’ll drink from the cat fountain, but it’s not any more interesting to him than his old water dish. He still wants the sink.
My theory is that, in addition to preferring running water, cats are more interested in things when they are “found.” Being desert animals by nature, their ancestors had to hunt down their water and food. Modern cats still have that searching instinct, and thus “found” water in the bathroom sink, in the tub, in puddles on the floor, is more stimulating than water that is in the same place day after day.
Tikva follows me to the bathroom at night, and while she’s waiting for me she loves to play with tap water. She’ll bat the stream with her paw, and stick her head under and try to drink it. I think it’s the movement.
My cat will only drink from the faucet. She ignored her cat fountain. She lets me know when she needs a drink, and has trained me to run the water at the right pressure.
My cats are the same. We have twin sinks in the main bathroom and one of them is just for the cats. Of the six of them, 4 have various sink configurations they like to drink from. Some want (fresh) still water in the basin, others like the tap running. One of them likes a little in the basin which he drinks, and then turns the basin into a cat Wall-of-Death which he scoots around in and then falls asleep.
They have a water fountain that is regularly changed. They used to love it but most now prefer the sink. I find they get bored of their main drinking mechanism quite often. For about 6-8 months I used to have to* fill up six individual glasses which were kept by their food bowls.
It just makes them even lovelier
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Of course I didn’t have to, but they like it and it’s funny, so I did.
I’ve seen this 100 times, and I still laugh out loud watching it.
I’ve got two cats. One makes a point of drinking from the sink…in fact, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen him drinking from his dish. The other one, kind of like the OP’s kitty, hops in the bathtub and licks at the drain. She won’t drink from the sink, but she does use the water dish.
