From what I have heard, cats do not like to drink out of vessels that are narrow enough to bend their whiskers as they drink. Keeping this in mind, I have provided my cat with a wide shallow dish – but she still wont drink out of it. She seems to much prefer to drink out of the toilet, which is not what I want. I have seen her drink out of large wooden bowls that hold rainwater outside…could the material of the bowl be part of the problem? Ideas?
Do you keep the water in the dish fresh? Like replace it at least twice per day? That seems to be the major factor for my cats.
They won’t drink out of the toilet if you keep the lid down.
Well, mine both like to drink out of my water glass, especially in the middle of the night when it involves standing on my face to reach it. You might give that a shot.
(You’ll have to come and pick it up, tho. I’m not shipping you my water glass)
Some ideas and observations:
I’ve heard that cats don’t like to drink out narrow vessels, but I’ve also seen most of our cats sampling the contents of water glasses, mugs, etc.
Make sure the dish is low enough to the ground (and the water level is high enough) that the cat can dip her tongue into it while hunkered down. All of our cats prefer to drink in a sort of crouching position - a bowl that’s too high makes this inconvenient.
Our cats have no preference for one bowl material over others, but one cat developed acne on her chin when we gave her a plastic bowl. I understand that this is fairly common. Glass, ceramic, and metal containers solved the problem.
Put the toilet lid down. Gross as it sounds, she probably thinks the water in the toilet bowl tastes better than the stuff in the bowl. Make sure that her bowl is both clean and free of any soap or detergent residue that might flavor the water. Do you have a water softener? If you do, that could explain why she drinks water outside but not inside. If you put some outside water in her indoor bowl, will she drink from the indoor bowl?
I’ve tried one of these , these dome thingys and in the end they much prefer this plain old stainless steel dish. As long I we change it 2 sometimes 3 times a day…they’ll drink out of it. I’m getting the distinct impression your cat wants fresh water…perhaps even cooled. And you thought cat’s and people were different… 
I dont know if that is the problem. I havent changed it frequently lately, but that is because she pretty much always refused to drink out of it. The wooden bowl that she loves to drink out of outside is certainly far from fresh – it fills when it rains, then gradually evaporates over the course of days and weeks.
Our outdoor cat won’t touch her water bowl (straight from the tap) but will happily drink the dirty water in the plastic liner we keep under the various potted plants on the patio. Sometimes, there’s simply no accounting for curious tastes…
Why not just fill her water dish with water from the toilet? 
I have read that some cats prefer to drink “found water” - I guess the theory is that looking for a water source is part of the process for the cat. If you buy into this, the suggestion is to switch up your water bowls, and move them around periodically. I have tried this with our cat, and he seems to like it, although I fully admit it might be all coincidence or all in my head.
I would add that if you move them around, remember where you put them in case you need to get up in the middle of the night.
My first cat didn’t really seem to be drinking enough (although he’s always loved sink water and toilet water and shower water, etc.) so I tried one of those cat fountains. It did work, he likes it.
My cats love the fountains. Some of them just sit and watch it and play with the water. I used to use a large crockery bowl for the dogs and they liked that too. I think they might like their water a little cool and crockery or porcelain keep the water a little cooler . One of my cats bugs me for some cold water whenever I get some for myself from the fridge.
My cats liked drinking out of the sink (it dripped) so I got a ceramic bowl and put it in the sink. Eventually, I moved the bowl to the floor and they continued to drink out of it. I’ve given up on trying to move the bowl out of the bathroom tho’. Like others have mentioned, they like it best fresh and I change it several times a day. Despite liking the sink drips, they totally ignored the fountain I got.
My older cat would only drink out of the dog’s water dish. (or the bathroom sink if it was running juuuuust at the right rate) This held true no matter what I switched his own dish to, or what I switched the dog’s dish to, or how cold/fresh the water was. I decided that it was just to spite the dog. (who really doesn’t seem to care) Now I only have one water dish to fill.
The new cat appears to have a thing for my iced tea. The rest of the time she drinks out of what is now the communal pet water dish. (assuming my toddler hasn’t dumped it all over the floor again)
In short, cats are weird. Don’t try to figure them out.
In my experience, they really like to drink out of vessels that they’re not supposed to be drinking out of. And vessels that they’re supposed to be drinking out of tend to be ignored.
Cats. Go figure.
My Luna likes to drink out of the shower after we finish showering. As soon as we get out of the shower, there she is, licking up the water. Maybe shower water is the cat equivalent of expensive mineral water or something.
She also likes to drink out of our drinking glasses, if we would let her. Those are narrower than her whiskers, so that doesn’t seem to be the problem. I have been known to keep water sitting around in a glass for several days, so that’s not it, either.
The key is water that is fresh. Cats hate it when the water sits in their bowls, slowly evaporating.
They drink out of toilets, glasses and sinks because the water in them is fairly fresh (if gross in the case of toilets).
My cat never liked the recirculating fountain idea. Really, the only thing to do was to change the water at least twice a day.