I’ve noticed that, in a home, cats often seem to seek out
alternative water sources, like the toilet, puddles left in the shower, or a glass of water left unattended. My edudcated guess is that the domestic cat, having originated in North Africa, a fairly arid region, instinctively
seek out all the water sources they can find, and periodically recheck them now and again. Does anybody know
if my guess is on target?
thought that it was the idea of “fresh” water that appealed to them, vs. water that’s been standing around. I’ve had cats that preferred the water directly out of the tap - one would require you to fill the sink upon demand (a Siamese), and the other preferred the stream of water coming out of the faucet…
that’s my take on it anyhow.
I have had cats lick my head after getting out of the shower. Once I saw a cat get her face stuck in a cup while trying to drink out of it. She started running backwards in circles untill it fell off.
Yeah, fresh water sounds about right, my cats lick me after i come out of the shower, and they jump in the tub as soon as i’m out too.
One of my cats turns his nose up at the water dish, even if it it fresh. He’s just a contrary being, as are most cats, I think. My other cats eats and drinks anything at all. He also has a pika problem: he eats plastic bags and shrink wrap if we don’t keep them locked up. But that’s a whole other thread, I think. :rolleyes:
One is that cats don’t like artificial-tasting water. Chlorine can be a turn off. Natural tastes, like what you’d find in a stream, are probably more popular.
On the other hand, they like running water, which makes water straight out of the tap more attractive. What they’d really like is a freshly running stream of distilled water, I suppose. So they have to search the house for the next best thing.
I’ve heard that alternate sources of water can make cats sick. Never seen any actual evidence of it, though. You’re not supposed to let cats drink out of flower vases or rain puddles or any of that.
I think it’s important to put water away from food. Water is less attractive when it’s been sitting next to the cat’s food … don’t know why.
You should get a pet duck… they can drink anything
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=30605
There is a 'cat drinking fountain", available by mailorder, that recycles the water, filters it, and then it flows down a mini waterfall. My cats loved it (it broke down after a year +, becuase we have REALLY hard water, and the co took it back, no questions asked). Mt bengals want running water, so we let the tub drip, and they drink there. Use filtered water in the bowl.
Mark my cat down as another “runninng water only” drinker. She has never, never used her water dish (so we eventually just stopped setting it out) and instead drinks from the bathtub faucet in the morning and we’ll occassionally leave it dripping for her as well. The rest of the time, she laps out of the toilet. No real theories on why it is, since all my other cats had no issues with the water bowl so I assume it’s on a cat-by-cat basis.
While my cats will drink out of their water bowl (filled with distilled water). One likes me to leave the sinking running in the morning and she drinks from it. The other by far prefers to drink out of cups. She will watch you like a hawk if your drinking water and the second you turn your head your cup is filled with cat hairs.
Hey Daniel, I don’t suppose you could dig up a source for that cat fountain, could ya? We’ve been looking for one for a while (our cat likes to drink out of the faucet, but our don’t stay on in a consistent stream). The only ones remotely resembling a fountain that we’ve found are the kind that always keep the dish full, which is no advantage. And we tried to rig one up with a fish tank pump, but the cat didn’t quite get it.
My last cat drank out of his water dish and never showed any interest in consuming any other water, including running water, although he did enjoy watching it as it swirled around the sink or toilet bowl. Once when I left him in the care of what I THOUGHT was a responsible pet sitter while out of town, he ended up with no food or water for several days and compensated, I deduced on my return, by drinking from the toilet. That was the only time, brought about, obviously, by necessity. (And that was the last of that “friend”, BTW.) My two current cats arrived at different times. The first, a female, drank only from her water dish (although she did like to watch running water). The second, a male, drank from his water dish at first, but at some point he discovered a glass of water on my nightstand (I take a big glass of ice water to bed with me every night) and had a nice long drink out of that. Since there was almost always a glass of water there, he soon grew to prefer that source above all others and would come into the bedroom specifically to get a drink whenever he was thirsty. I thought at first that it had to do with the coldness, but he was just as interested when the ice was long-melted. I then thought of freshness, but he continued to prefer the water out of the glass even when it had been sitting for two days, and even when I just finished filling the water dish. We have well water so there is no chlorine, etc, but regardless, the water in my glass is the same as what’s in their bowl (not bottled, for example). Likewise, the melted ice is just previously frozen tap water, so I would not expect it to significantly change the smell or taste. By this time, it has reached the point where he drinks from my water glass 90% of the time (actually I now leave one specifically for him on the nightstand around the clock and refill it every time it gets too low for him to reach), only occasionally taking a sip from the real water dish. If he comes for a drink and it is too low, he will actually stand there and wait while I go downstairs, fill the glass, and bring it back to him, at which time he drinks gleefully. 
I have finally concluded that this preference has little if anything to do with the water itself, and everything to do with insinuating himself further into the world of the humans - in short, he likes it because it makes him feel special, makes him feel like a closer member of the family, and gives him the chance to enjoy having me fetch and carry for him, thus proving just how wrapped he has me and how secure his place is as the object of totally unreasonable adoration and indulgence. Interestingly, a couple of months ago, our female, the just-drinking-from-the-water-dish cat, also began to drink from the nightstand water glass. She only does so occasionally and still uses the water dish as her primary watering source, but clearly she learned this behavior from watching him, not from any innate preference for that water. [shrug]
I’ve never seen my cats drink from the toilet, but one of my cats loves to lick the water off of the shower wall while I am taking my shower. It’s pretty funny because he hates getting a bath, but will get soaking wet in order to drink the water from the shower!
Cats are territorial in a very weird way, I think the water-seeking behavior is related to this. Cats always evaluate their territory by checking out the perimiter. They constantly scan the edges of their territory to see if there are any changes. They seem to be seeking out:
-holes in the perimeter where mice might get in
-holes in the perimeter where they might escape
-hiding places
-food and water sources
I know that if I leave a glass of water sitting around anywhere in my house, my cat will discover it and start drinking out of it.
I have two Siamese, the older of which is 15. Their litter, food, and fresh water have always been kept in the basement, but after seeing Ernie (the 15 year old) repeatedly drink from the toilet bowl, I was convinced that he’d fall and hurt himself (he’s not as steady as he used to be, and I’m just a tad overprotective). I assumed I’d solved the problem, but I continued to find him drinking from the toilet. THEN it dawned on me! He prefers COLD water. I drop a few ice cubes in his special kitchen bowl a few times every day, and he hasn’t been seen slurping from the toilet in ages! He now comes RUNNING to his bowl when he hears the freezer door (so much for my “poor old cat” theory).
I agree with cygnus. My cat that likes drinking from cups is totally doing it to be a human.
On the toliet drinking phenomenom. My SO and I leave the toilet seat down because my cat plays in the water. Yechh! I can’t believe you guys let your pets drink out of there.
We leave the lid down, too. Who wants to smooch someone who has been drinking toilet water? Plus, it keeps them from ingesting water that is laced with cleaning products. Side benifit: dh never leaves the seat up.