Water Fountain

[Joh619]

Hey,

My vets have recommended using the Royal Canin dried cat food (the vet variety) so I though I'd give it a try with Gaius, but I'm worried about him not drinking enough water. He's just got a bowl at the moment so I was thinking of getting one of those water fountains, but they all look a bit ugly lol. Not that it really matters what they look like :)

Does anyone have one of these at the moment and if so, which one and does your cat like it? Gaius is a bit scared of taps at the moment, but I think its more the noise.

[truthisouthere]

Hi
Does Gaius go out? If so he may be drinking more than you think. Cats prefer soft water and Chesi will drink nothing but rainwater with no ill effect.
If Gaius is Maine Coon he'll be drawn to running water like a magnet. I've never had a water fountain so don't know if most cats take to running water, probably eventually Gaius wil get used to it, perhaps other people can comment more on this who have one but I expect every cat's experience of it will be different!
Yes, the fountain means you'll have running fresh water, but you could just as well put bowls in a couple of rooms around the house and change them daily.
These fountains have little moving parts, what would happen if they went wrong, would your cat be traumatised and too used to his water fountain to use anything else while you got a new one? ..Anyone?

[dandysmom]

I can't help, have never used one. One boy liked to drink from a drippy tap, otherwise it's just a bowl. I mix a little warmish water in with Leia's moist food to be sure she's getting more fluids.

[Joh619]

He's only 10 weeks old so he's not allowed outside yet. I probably want to keep him as a house cat anyway, as long as he's happy with that. So he only drinks from his bowl at the moment, as he's scared of taps and too small to jump up to any anyway :) But he's on wet food at the moment so I'm not too worried about how much he drinks now. Just I don't want him to have problems if he moves onto dry food.

[Velvet]

I leave wet and dry food out - ours eat from both

At their yearly booster our two older cats (18 & 16 mths) were complimented on their good teeth and condition, so I will continue to feed them a mix of wet & dry.

It's up to you what you feed. I just agree with the vets when they tell me to feed all dry :-D

[dandysmom]

Definitely an individual decision, I'd never ever go all dried food.

[Pickalilly]

I leave wet and dry food out - ours eat from both

At their yearly booster our two older cats (18 & 16 mths) were complimented on their good teeth and condition, so I will continue to feed them a mix of wet & dry.

It's up to you what you feed. I just agree with the vets when they tell me to feed all dry :-D

I'm the same!! Every time I go to the vets, though my boy is extremely healthy and I brush his teeth etc., they do this 5 min talk at the end about how I should just feed Henry clinical, boring one- flavoured Hills Neutered dry for the rest of his life. What they don't realise is how much exercise he gets in the day

[veganbee]

I bought my old cat (sadly no longer with us) a water fountain for Christmas as he's an indoor and I was concerned about how much he was drinking. I think it increased the amount of water he consumer as he used to really love it. Bear in mind that he was a very nervous cat too!

Go for it, I think they're great!