Cats and water

ifconfig

Update on our cats, aged 8mths/18mths.
Male neutered. Living indoors but being introduced to outdoors.

We are really loving them.
The younger one does test out the patience of the older one and the older one is more timid (apparently he came to previous owners when older and might have had a harder start in life).

One issue I am mulling over at the moment is whether they really are taking as much water as I would have expected.
I heard that cats are very good at self regulating (with food + water).
However, we were told they were used to dry food (GoCat adult).
The younger one will take the dry food but the older one is a fuss pot and pleads for sachet food or scraps of meat, etc.
I've noticed that the water bowls which I fill each day aren't touched much - however, I cannot be sure.
I wondered if they have a problem with water in bowls (we have hard water by the way).
I've heard cats do prefer running water.
Also... how about putting ice into water ?

It just occurred to me that the older one in particular might prefer the wet food because he is not (for whatever reason) prepared to take the water we've left out for them ??

Any ideas

--ifc

haminka

My experience with cats is as follows :

Blank refusal of drinking water from the dedicated dish. Doesn't matter it's fresh and the cat is dying with thirst /while they need water, they don't need as much as dogs/.
Our cat would :

- drink water outside from puddles or rain water collected in empty flower pots etc.
- from the toilet /which forced us to always close the lid because we use the toilet fresheners/
- from the water tap

ladyjuicy08

If u feed wet they get their moisture from that and I add also add a little water to their food too ... I feed mix of wet n dry .only one of mine drinks from bowl the other likes the tap on gonna invest in a fountain

lolo62

i dont know about the ice thing but from my experience its an individual thing...my mums two barely touch the water she puts out. one is fine but the other is prone to dehydration...she feeds them go cat though dry

my new cat spends as long drinking as she does eating which i thought was excessive at first but apparently shes taking just the right amount

i came across another forum that discusses cat nutrition with an analytical breakdown of whats in foods...i found it helpful in getting a better idea of what a cat gets from food...for example applaws dry is 10% moisture and applaws wet is 77.8%

heres the link http://www.petforums.co.uk/cat-health-nutrition/112132-z-wet-food-cats.html

if my cat wasnt drinking i would definitely be looking at at least half and half to get more moisture in her diet, be careful of wet only though as from what ive learned it can cause gingivitis (not 100% on that though so dont quote me!)

Gadeia

It might sound silly, but not sure if it'll work but after 18 years leaving with cats, the other day I read that cats dont really like their water in a plastic bowl, so maybe trying a metallic bowl it looks more appealing. You never know... And as they say before they can be drinking water from the more random places, my cat seems to love the water from the plant pots...