Cat drinking from toilet

Sauve · 15-07-2010 2:00am #1

I've just caught my two-year old cat drinking from the toilet- any ideas on why he might be doing this?
We haven't done anything different re feeding, and he always has fresh water in his bowl......
It might seem perfectly normal to him but I think it's weird!

Xiney · 15-07-2010 2:03am

mine does it from time to time.

The porcelain is cool (I have experience of hugging it :rolleyes:) so it makes the water extra cold.

barry181091 · 15-07-2010 2:09am

Plus the water is perfectly fine and usually quite fresh, as long as your toilet is relatively clean.

Think about it, the flushed water in the toilet is probably cooler and fresher than the stuff in the bowl

shinikins · 15-07-2010 2:13am

My cat very rarely likes to drink from his own bowl, usually he'll lap some up from the kitchen tap if its dripping, or from the dogs bowl(he also likes to pee in that, but thats a whole other thread lol)

anniehoo · 15-07-2010 11:09am

Its very common tbh. I learned a very cool fact last week as i was wondering why my cat wouldnt drink from his bowl beside his food. Seemingly cats associate water beside their food as being tainted or spoiled. Its a nature thing. I suppose you wouldnt find food and water right beside each other in the wild.

Solution:move the bowl to another part of the house. Ive often caught my cat with his head stuck half way down the pint glass of water i bring to bed

Heroditas · 15-07-2010 11:23am

anniehoo wrote: »

Ive often caught my cat with his head stuck half way down the pint glass of water i bring to bed

Haha! So have I. We use bottles now!

shinikins wrote: »

or from the dogs bowl(he also likes to pee in that, but thats a whole other thread lol)

Sorry, can't stop sniggering at this one!

Xiney · 15-07-2010 12:14pm

My cat is far more dainty about drinking out of glasses - he puts his paw in and licks it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPhYYdQhh7E

Qualitymark · 15-07-2010 12:42pm

Put the lid down, for goodness sake. (More hygienic anyway; when you flush an uncovered toilet, germs go flying around the place landing on taps and going "Wheeee!")

Sauve · 15-07-2010 11:18pm

I do put the lid down!
Unfortunately I live with a boy who refuses to embrace the idea

Andrew33 · 15-07-2010 11:29pm

anniehoo wrote: »

Its very common tbh. I learned a very cool fact last week as i was wondering why my cat wouldnt drink from his bowl beside his food. Seemingly cats associate water beside their food as being tainted or spoiled. Its a nature thing. I suppose you wouldnt find food and water right beside each other in the wild.

Solution:move the bowl to another part of the house. Ive often caught my cat with his head stuck half way down the pint glass of water i bring to bed

That's a very interesting concept and I can understand the reasoning behind it, IE: you find a carcass (food) by the waterhole, the last thing you should do is drink the water from said waterhole. It ain't rocket science but don't expect your cat to know that. My dog drinks from his water bowl which is 2ft from his food bowl cos he knows the water is changed twice a day and his food bowl is lifted and washed as soon as he finishes eating.

bellapip · 15-07-2010 11:49pm

Hi there,

There was a thing about this on the TV last night.

Sadly I do not watch TV, so only heard what the kids and hubby were at, but it went something along the lines of water in the porcelain bowl being fresher and cleaner and less likely to be infested with flys or droppings which would be invisible to us .

It would seem that domestic animals have a standard and we are not keeping it.:D

Qualitymark · 16-07-2010 8:15am

bellapip wrote: »

It would seem that domestic animals have a standard and we are not keeping it.:D

You think you're joking? I couldn't count how many times I've been in a house where the humans' dishes and work surfaces are glittering clean, but they don't even wash the pets' dishes.

Sauve · 18-07-2010 10:58am

Yeah Ive seen this too where people let their pets' bowls get filthy- porr wee animals, sometimes I wish I could speak to them haha

mylittlepony · 18-07-2010 9:26pm

We caught our dog drinking from the toilet bowl too.

colly10 · 18-07-2010 9:34pm

I have a fountain thing out the back with a large bucket and the water in it is filthy. The cat loves to drink out of it though but will rarely drink water out of her bowl. She also likes to drink any water lying on one of the plastic containers out the back.
I think it's just one of those things, I can understand it but I wouldn't worry about it

Goreygal · 19-07-2010 3:31pm

This was on a vet programme I caught the other day and they said the problem with this is most of us use cleaning products of some sort in our toilet bowls and while the water may look clean to the eye it may hold residual chemicals from the products that can, over time, poison the cat/dog (or child... my nephew went through a phase of this!).

The vet recommended:

- ensuring fresh water in a clean bowl (chaning frequently during day)
- ensuring water bowl is shallow - cats apparently often don't like drinking/eating from something if their whiskers touch the side too much.
- separate food from water

Gg

Qualitymark · 19-07-2010 7:43pm

And by the same token, if you're ever in desperate need of water, the survivalists' code is: drink from the cistern, not the bowl.

Cat drinking from toilet

Comments