Since just yesterday, Wally has started playing in his water dish. And by playing I mean knocking out 75% of it onto the floor in about two seconds. I’m sure it’s a game but it’s also incredibly messy and leaves the other two cats without water.
Any thoughts on how to get this behavior to stop? I know he’s playing but at this point I’ve taken the water dish up and put it down occasionally for the other kitties, but that’s not a viable long term solution.
I use something like this. He’ll proabalby still make a mess, but at least you’ll have water available for the others.
Hey, my cat Serafina has to drink from moving water. If the water is not moving (like in a bowl or plain old water dish) she uses her foot to rock the bowl (making a huge mess). I bought one of the kitty bubble water fountains and there has been 0 mess since. Hope it helps!
We have one cat who does the same thing. We finally put the water dish in the bathtub. He can play all he wants and we use a big dish so there’s usually water left for the other cat (who prefers to drink out of the toilet anyway).
It’s like it bothers him that he can’t see the water unless it’s moving. He has to poke the dish to make waves before he drinks. We can hear him sometimes pushing the dish back and forth across the tub. Glory’s and my cat must be twins separated at birth.
I just wish I knew what in the world triggered this. The create-a-giant-wave-and-mess ploy literally started last night. VERY annoying, he’s always drunk from the bowl normally.
I think I’ll have to put the water dish in the tub. We live in a garden (aka basement) apartment, so we don’t need any additional water vapor added to our living space–running water is not a good option.
Our cat Hestia did this. We noticed that she was whacking the water bowl and moving it, so we solved the prioblem by getting a big, heavy ceramic water dish. The problem hasn’t recurred (and the bowl is easier to clean)
I actually saw him do it today. He’s taking his paws and throwing the (fresh) water out. We are using a huge ceramic dish intended for dogs (says Woof Woof on the side!) simply because with three cats, I’m filling it pretty often as is.
I think it’s a game for him. This is the same cat that figured out how to flush the toilet so maybe he’s water obsessed and only now realized it at not quite two years of age.
I know somebody who had gotten one of those. One of his cats found out that when the bowl was emptied it made a “blurping” noise when it refilled, so he started scooping water out of the bowl so he could hear it again.
Fortunately, none of my cats have started doing that. Yet. If I don’t refill the bottle when it’s empty, however, they will knock the whole thing over to let me know it needs to be refilled.
I have a cat that loves to scratch at the water bowl. We’ve actually defeated him* by doing the following
#1 use a heavy ceramic bowl
#2 set the bowl in a contraption** that prevents it from sliding around and spilling
*Yes, I am proud to have outsmarted my cat.
**contraption is a scrap of 1x12 with a big hole cut in it for the bowl (actually 2 holes for both water and food bowls) to set in. The 1x12 is then stapled to an anti-skid anti-spill placemat. The weight of the bowls/wood is enough to ensure nothing can slide, and the bowl itself can’t move because it’s set inside the hole in the 1x12.
Our cat will splash out water to drink it. We don’t have a reason she decides it needs to be on the floor to drink that day. She uses her paws in the water without moving the bowl.
I don’t have a cat but I use a water hole dish like this http://www.amazon.com/Water-Hole-Dog-Cat-Feeder-Bowl/dp/B0002DGVW6 for my dogs.
It might work for you. good luck
PS. Wally is a very cute cat.
I think that might actually work! And the only thing that is currently saving Wally’s life is that he’s cute. Really cute. He purrs nicely too.
my stretch the superduper does this as well. i tried the bubbler… he broke the pump splashing all the water out.
solution is big bowl 1/4 th filled for the floor, smaller full bowl in the sink for the others. (stretch has motor skill difficulties.) the other cats like to have clean water not washed my feet water!
I have a dish similar to this one for the 1 of 3 kitties who likes to drink with his feet. (Literally: he soaks his paw and then licks it.) When he was younger, he would get over-excited and knock the dish all over.
He’s 8 now (:eek::(), and while he still drinks by soaking his paw, he’s doesn’t kick the bowl around as much. Also, a gallon-sized bowl appears to be heavy enough to be less fun now that he’s geriatruc.
Wally is definitely cute.
Maybe this is a dumb question, but wouldn’t they fall in? How do they get the water out of that?
Apparently, my new kitten is capable of reading the Dope. She just started playing with her water dish and splashing water out for the first time ever, mere hours after I read this topic!
From my kitty to yours, with love.
I am heading to the pet store to get either a Water Hole or a Buddy Bowl. I don’t much care which one I get, either looks like it will do the trick. And if Skipton’s doesn’t have either one, Amazon here I come!
My Barbara plays in water all the time. I got tired of him knocking his bowl around, so I got a cat-fountain. Mostly he drinks from it or watches the water run, but every week or two he snaps and lays his chest in the bowl and does a sort of breast-stroke while whipping his tail around. Putting ice cubes in the fountain results in him slapping ice cubes out.