Tell me about your cats' water fountain.

In My Humble Opinion (IMHO)
#21

This is the best cat fountain, period. I’ve had many others, including the Drinkwell. The Catit fountain is the easiest to refill, it stays cleaner than the others, and it is easier to clean when the time comes. It holds more water than most other fountains. My friends and I all have them now, and we all agree that our cats like this fountain the best. Our cats have stopped seeking out other water sources, like the toilet, which they did not do with other fountains.

All my other fountains died approximately one year after purchase. I’ve had this one for 18 months and it’s still going strong.

#22

We have a Catit too. Kitties seem to love it, tho’ they do make a mess when I clean it. (They’re kittens and love to play in the water. Strange, that. After it’s been sitting a while, they don’t make with the splashies as much.)

Easy to clean, holds a lot, it’s a good deal all around. I don’t clean it as often as I should - maybe every couple of weeks - and it always looks clean. (Reminds me, I need to clean it today when I get home from work.)

It’s pretty quiet, but you do hear the pump when the water gets low. I just dump in some more water from a glass and it’s all good. (Although this is really probably more of a sign that I should just clean the dumb thing. But I’m lazy like that.)

#23

We have the Drinkwell and have had it for years. Clean it once a week and change filters every three months or so.

Cats love it, it took them no time at all to get used to it. I stopped using the reservoir because the whole thing seems to get dirtier quicker when using it. I just refill daily as part of my normal routine.

#24

Mine is called a toilet.
I had no idea they made drinking fountains for pets, but I may have to look into this!

#25

Adding my voice to the chorus for the Catit.

I’ve been using mine for nearly six years, and it’s only just now getting to the stage where I’ll probably have to replace it. My cats absolutely refuse to drink from anything else, and will do a little impatient dance whenever it’s taken out of its usual spot for a cleaning. They seem to like the fact that they can both drink simultanously from the fountain without getting in each other’s way.

Obviously, there’s a new Catit on my Christmas wishlist this year. :slight_smile:

#26

We also have a Drinkwell, but never understood why we didn’t just continue to use the old fish pump we had that effectively created a fountain in a bin. It was much cheaper and did basically the same job.

However, that Catit looks too cool for words.

#27

I had bad experiences with cat fountains. Though this was some time ago and I’ve long forgotten the brands. They seemed far more effort than they were worth.

Now, I use a stainless steel drinking bowl right next to a sink, and evey time I walk by, I re-fill it; every time it looks gungy I clean it. Cat seems happy with this arrangement.

#28

Both of our cats prefer their water via other means than the fountain - Jim’s cat likes nothing better than water from a flower bowl or foot water from a foot bath, and my cat (like I said previously) wants her water running from the tap. They’ll both drink freely from any glass of water that is left unattended for longer than a minute.

#29

I’ve had a Drinkwell Platinum for bit over two years now and it works fine. I do a quick water change every week and give it a good scrubbing every 2-3. It’s a bit more work than just using a water bowl but the cats drink more water than they would from bowls so it’s worth it to me. It does make a little noise but it’s never been loud enough to bother me.

#30

I just finished the first prototype of an automated cat waterer.

My cat has some sort of chronic kidney problem, and he drinks a lot of water. He’s also picky - he won’t drink the water in a dish, if it’s been sitting out for a day or so. He likes the fresh water in the dog’s dish (because that gets changed several times a day as they gulp it down), and he really likes the water out of the faucet in the bathroom. So much so, that he’s become a nuance - he waits outside the bathroom door, and cries until someone turns on the tap, so he can hop up and drink from the sink.

With that in mind, I designed a system which allows him to have fresh water, without being an annoyance. I bought a 12v Solenoid valve and attached it to a T in the cold water line under the wash sink in the laundry room (where his food is). I used a saddle valve to regulate the flow. I then found an old motion sensor alarm from Radio Shack and used the outputs of the alarm to trigger the water flow (the output goes to a microcontroller circuit which give up to 5 minutes of water every 20 minutes, so he doesn’t just sit there and run the water). The water flows into a bowl, and drains into the sink drain.
I just finished it last night, and I’m training him to use it. I haven’t seen if he’ll go to it on his own yet, but if I activate it myself, he’ll drink from it until he’s not thirsty.

I’ll post photos if anyone is interested.

#31

Right now I have the Drinkwell Platinum. Even though I can take it apart and stick some bits in the dishwasher, I think it’s hard to clean thoroughly but that might just be my ocd and the fact that my cat is so particular I took it apart to see where all the gunk piles up. The gunk accumulates up in the motor and the handles and all the little crevices and then my cat refuses to drink from it (gross). I have some aquarium brushes to clean it as best I can but he’s still suspicious of it. Thanks for the Catit recommendation upthread-I might try that one.

#32

I had a problem with my Drinkwell getting dirty when I had it in the same place that I fed my cats dry food. One of them kept dunking kibble into the fountain and it got disgusting. Once I moved it away from all food, it didn’t get so dirty.

#33

I have a bubble-up fountain for the cats–a sort of blue donut in a round pot, and water bubbles up from the center. Don’t know the brand name off-hand; it’s downstairs. The cats were a little suspicious of it at first, but seem to like it now. It’s too broad-based to be knocked over.

I used to have a Petmate water-goes-down-the-slide dispenser, but it was harder to keep clean and began to make grinding noises when I gave it up and got the new one.

#34

Just an update on my automated cat waterer - after two training sessions, the cat is now using it on his own, and he has stopped pestering people to let him into the bathroom - huzzah!

#35

  1. Bought the Cat It. I already like the design better than the Drinkwell. My only worry is how to clean the plastic dome. It doesn’t get funky does it?

  2. Note to self: stop posting on all the Straight Dope cat threads before I get a reputation.

  3. Potentially pay Beowullf to build me a snazzy motion detector based cat watering fountain.

#36

You can unscrew the dome and wash inside it (should be a large roundish ‘nut’ underneath). I discovered this only the other day - having had a Catit for over 5 years!

#37

What many people don’t know is that cats have an innate need to keep drinking and eating separate. And that makes sense from an evolutionay viewpoint, as blood and deacying meat may contaminate a drinking well. The same holds for pooping; cats like to do that far away from drinking and eating.

So, people who try and have all things cat together in a corner (litterbox, food bowl, water dish) often end up with a cat who refuses to use one or two of those.

In our home, we have the litter box and the dry kbble bowl in opposite corners of the garage. The cat’s glass water jug is next to the faucet, in the windowsill, on my eye-level everytime I tap water. That way, I can see if the water is low or dirty. Works fine.