Some of the same characteristics that make cats great at living alongside human in such a variety of situation so how adaptive they are. But that same adaptive nature means that they will live for extended periods of time at a chronic low level of dehydration.
Cats, just like you, get dehydrated when they don’t take in enough water. Since cats are descended from desert-dwellers, they are good at extracting moisture from their prey, and they don’t feel thirsty to go drink water until they are 3% dehydrated. Cats don’t show any obvious clinical signs of anything being wrong until they are more than 5% dehydrated.
How to Help Your Cat Stay Hydrated
There are a few simple things you can do that will help your cat stay more hydrated and more healthy.
Kick the Kibble Habit
A lot of cats are on a kibble-only diet. Many vets will even recommend kibble because they feel that it’s a convenience food that that families will comply with. What many people who carefully select kibble don’t realize is that it is very low in moisture. Kibble is 6-10% moisture, while canned food is 75-80% moisture. For a cat whose system is used to extracting moisture from her food, kibble can leave a cat in a chronic low-level dehydration.
Getting cats off of kibble and onto a diet with more moisture can be difficult, and many people give up. Like everything with cats, it can take a lot of patience on your part to overcome your cat’s attachment to the stuff they spray on the outside of the kibble to make it taste so good. It took a full six months to fully transition my three cats from kibble to canned food, and I admit there were times I wanted to give up.
Once your cats are on canned food, it may seem like they never visit the water bowl any more since they get so much of their moisture directly through their food. You can even mix a little bit of water into your cat’s dry food, as long as your kitty will tolerate the slightly soupy texture.
Water Everywhere
One of the tricks that Dr. Sherri Basso taught me over ten years ago was to put water bowls in many rooms of the house. As she put it, “Every time your cat walks into a room, he should see a bowl and think, ‘Huh, I should have a little to drink!'”
It took some getting used to, and I tripped over a water bowl in the bedroom more than once, but it made a big difference for my cat Cyrano at the time who had chronic kidney disease. That lesson has stayed with me, and I have water available in multiple rooms of my house. The cats drink from all of them!
If you can’t have water in every room of the house, at least make sure there’s water available somewhere well away from your cat’s food dish. A lot of cats prefer not to drink near their food dish, possibly because they are hard-wired to think that a water source near their killed prey is polluted. You may be surprised how much more your cat drinks from the water bowl that Is far from their food bowl than the one near it.
Running Water
A lot of cats really like to drink from flowing water. That’s why there are so many goofy videos all around the Internet of cats drinking from faucets.
If your cat loves to drink from the tap and you are home all day to turn it off and on for your kitty, that might be a great solution. For some of us, a fountain is a great alternative to being on call at the water tap.
There are several different kinds of water fountains on the market. All of them use some kind of pump to recirculate water, and some feature falling water while others have water that flows over a surface. Some humans love the sound of falling water while others find it uncomfortable to listen to without extra trips to the restroom, so consider your cat’s preferences and those of the humans in your household.
The best fountain for your cat is one you can keep clean, so pay attention to the design and features, and make sure it’s a commitment you are willing to keep up before making it your cat’s sole source of available water.
The More Options, the Better
Helping your cat to stay hydrated is important to keeping your kitty’s health at its peak. Consider using a combination of high-moisture food, plentiful water bowls, and even flowing fountains to help keep your cat hydrated and happy.
Research and Further Reading
Candyce Jack LVT and Patricia Watson LVT, Veterinary Technician’s Daily Reference Guide
Little Big Cat, Dr. Jean Hofve, DVM, Why Cats Need Canned Food
Photo credits
depositphotos/kozorog
depositphotos/Madhourses
depositphotos/bollwerk
We have ONE fountain here and we all use it… but we’d like more!
Thanks for those tips. We have several water bowls and one big fountain. Wally seems to like the fountain the best.
Being a dog owner, I did not realize that cats won’t drink until they are starting to dehydrate. I always heard from cat owner friends that it is hard to get some cats to drink. I gave one friend one of my fountains (that Oz refused to use) and both her cats love it. This is really a great article!
Great info. Mom needs to put more water bowls out for us too.
The Florida Furkids
Great info and tips here. We have water dishes all throughout the house, but I want to look into getting a fountain a well.
Mum puts out 2 water bowls for us but we don’t drink too much from there as she only gives us canned food or pouches of food which keeps us hydrated.
Great tips! Mudpie likes it when I put some warm water from the tea kettle in her bowl. We have tea together 🙂
Having just lost Spooky to kidney disease, I know how important water is. Good idea to have more water around the house for them. Excellent post.
What great H2O info. I am for sure a well hydrated kitty. I get canned food twice a day and I also get about a total of 1/4 cup kibble and I have a wonderful fresh flowing water fountain that I love.
Hugs madi your bfff
you made mom think about putting out more water bowls…though she has no idea where since our condo isn’t so big. MOL
grate tips two day guys !!!!…..N ya noe, codz trooth…dai$y terns 13 this yeer & noe one…& we meen …..noe one….haz ever seen her drink waterz….total weerd we noe…… { tho her refuzes ta eat kibble ~~ sew…… }
I always wondered why the kitties don’t drink much from the water bowl by their food. They like to drink from the one in the kitchen much better. Now I know. I’ll put a couple more bowls down for them. They have a few choices for water here, including a fountain. And they get canned food twice a day. 🙂
Great tips.
Mom finally wised i[ and stopped keeping a bowl of water next to our food bowl. Our favorite spot is from a big coffee mug right next to the bathroom sink…and of course the faucet itself. She refreshes it a few times a day too.
Yes, yes and yes! We have water everywhere – running and still (and nooooooooo kibble!!).
Absolutely great blog. I do keep 1 extra bowl in the bathroom and she does drink from that more than in on her place mat where her dry, wet and water bowl are.
That’s one thing we’ve got, lots of fountains and bowls! We didn’t think Sister Dolly drank much water but we recently discovered she is a fan of an out of the way bowl!
Faith and Chizzy used to drink from the faucet. I had to get fluids once when I first came here. I wasn’t fed much wet food then. After that I got as much as I could stand. TW also has water bowls in every room. I’ve been seen drinking from the fountain.
We have several water bowl spread in the house. Purrs
I’ve read a study that proves kibble is addicting. That coupled with the fact that cats are hardwired to not switch foods easily can make it very difficult.
We eat both Kibble(Feline Calm) and canned food. And we have five water bowls and two fountains. Mom thinks we are doing well with this arrangement. Thanks for a well-researched report. XOCK, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Jo