Can you teach a cat to swim?

This is in case a cat falls into a pool.

If it is possible to teach cats, how is it best taught? Just throw the cat into the pool and rescue it if it goes under?

:smile_cat:

I’m certain there are better ways to teach (especially as the cat may well hate you for the experience.)

In return, the cat will teach you how to bleed.

That’s an absolutely cruel way to treat a cat (or any animal).

Supposedly, cats can swim instinctively, there’s no need to teach them. But if you’re concerned about your cat falling into your pool, you need to ensure there’s a ramp or something else the cat can climb on to get out of the pool if/when that happens.

This is incredibly important because if you reach down and pull the cat out of the water yourself…

Cats are natural swimmers, it’s just that most of them hate getting wet.

This one certainly did. (Hurricane Harvey, 2017).

You just need a bigger cat

Cats are fine swimmers–as shown, tigers and jaguars swim for fun and any cat will swim if it needs to. They just don’t like being wet and having to groom themselves dry. Heck, I have an 18 lb tomcat who loves getting a bath–he doesn’t groom himself worth a damn so he goes to the groomer who bathes him and gives him a super cute lion cut couple times a year. He digs his groomer and she barely needs to use a muzzle on him, only for brushing him out if he has mats and he’s not crazy about having his claws clipped or the anal glands being expressed. He does love the bath though, apparently the issue is that most people who bathe a cat use water that’s too cool, they like a warm bath.

And when they’re hungry:

This commentary is brilliant. Love da cat😾

I gave my cat a bath once. I used warm water, but he still hated it. I still remember his baritone moans of despair; I never heard those particular sounds from him before or since.

I’m the first to admit The Captain is a weirdo–he also really likes car rides, never complains and really likes it when I leave the windows down for him.

I’ve had cats since 1983. I would never force (i.e., throw) a cat into water. But on the few occasions that they found themselves in deep they instantly knew how to swim to a shoreline or shore-like object.

As has been said upthread, always have an easy way for a cat to climb out.

Years ago I accidentally startled a cat sleeping next to a pool. The cat jumped up and took off - right into the middle of the pool. I swear the cat popped up and ran across the surface of the water to get out of the pool, in reality he just swam really fast and disappeared for the rest of the day. Doubtless plotting my destruction.

Bobcats are another of the cat family that don’t seem to mind swimming. There’s lots of video of this online.

The Turkish Van is a domestic cat breed that allegedly likes to swim. There are plenty of videos in the usual sites, and they look gorgeous.

Pretty much all mammals can swim, some just like it more than others. Chucking your pet cat into a pool will only teach it to distrust you.

All except one of the dogs I have owned have loved water. The one who didn’t, who didn’t even like stepping in puddles, I picked him up (all 45kg of him) and jumped off a pier into the river with him. He swam back to shore fine but was pissed with me for a week.

I’ve heard big cats will slowly enter the water while holding a stick in their mouths. Fleas and such will migrate upwards to stay out of the water. The cat submerges himself until the stick is all that’s left, and the fleas go there. Then the cat lets the stick go.

Don’t know if it’s true.

My cat fell into the goldfish pond. She swam eight feet so quickly that she was barely wet when she got out.