Water Fountain for Pets

[Pellice]

I'm considering a water fountain for my cat. Amazon has a nice stainless steel model on sale. But the filters - that's where they get you!

What are your experiences with pet water fountains? Is it an extravagance? I myself am perfectly fine with tap water, so should I even get my cat habituated to a higher level of consumption? Cleaning is more demanding than rotating out the water dish every few days. And kitty has managed so far with a couple of water dishes! And, her favorite dish of all is the bird bath on the deck, so I can't say she's very discriminating.

Still she seems to be attracted to water coming out of the tap. But I think I'm talking myself out of it here.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

Not a water fountain, but I recently bought my cats one that has a gallon jug of water upside down that drains into the bowl a little at a time. That way, the majority of the water remains clean in the jug and only a small amount in the bowl gets dirty with fur, chunks of food from their nearby food dish, etc. I still clean the bowl every day or 2 or as needed, but the water supply lasts at least a week if I need it to. I tend to clean the whole thing and refresh it about every 4 days or so. I also have a matching gravity fed food dispenser too. I like it much better than just having bowls of food and water sitting out. The cats seem to approve.

 

[swakyaby]

Now here’s a topic worthy of cat lovers, the fresh water fountain! What is it about moving water that gets a cat’s attention better than a bowl of still water? My cat will sit for hours in the morning in our spa tub, waiting for someone to wake up and turn on the tub water to a trickle to drink.

Doesn’t he realize we have a drought going on here?

 

[Major Tom]

I've tried water fountains, as well as the automatic-feed arrangement that Paunchy Pirate describes, and eventually came to the conclusion that water bowls are easier, and just work. I mean, there's not much to go wrong!

The water fountain that I had was a cheap plastic one. It was a mistake, as a thin slimy layer of biofilm built up on the plastic. If I were contemplating the purchase of another fountain, I'd get one with a nice, large ceramic bowl. Even so, you still have to disassemble and clean it fairly regularly. Water bowls (I use metal ones) are so much easier to wash out and refresh.

One good reason I can think of for a water fountain, is to encourage your cat to hydrate more. A low-tech way to get around this is to leave a tap on a very slow drip occasionally. Some cats love to drink from a dripping faucet.

 

[N02L84ER]

We have a cat water fountain. The cats prefer to drink from a bowl, but anytime we have to be gone for a week, the fountain works great.

 

[Texas Proud]

We have a cat water fountain. The cats prefer to drink from a bowl, but anytime we have to be gone for a week, the fountain works great.

Our 2 cats ignored the fountain after 2 days.... we gave it to someone else..


BTW, one of our cats preferred the toilet to the fountain...

 

[cyber888]

I just got a Solar Water Fountain .. this is more for birds, but it works. No electricity, just solar all day and it works

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08S3QYTY6?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1

 

[GalaxyBoy]

We used a fountain for a while but gave it up in favor of simple bowls. If you get a fountain be sure to get the cleaning kit or be sure you have the right sizes of bottle or tubing brushes as it can get pretty gnarley pretty quickly. I neglected to take the little pump apart for cleaning for too long and, well, it wasn’t pretty. And yes, the filters add up fast. I tried an off brand but they didn’t fit as well and didn’t do as good of a job. Maybe I tried the wrong ones.

 

[statsman]

We tried just plain water bowls, but we always seemed to have at least one cat who wanted to play in the water and/or knock over the bowl.

Sadly, the water dispensers we use (we have two 32 oz) are no longer made, and for the past several years I couldn't find them. I now see that Amazon has them available, but at $21, that's three times what we paid for one 6-7 years ago. Pricey for a very basic water dispenser.

https://www.amazon.com/Lixit-Water-Fount-Base-32/dp/B0002ZS302/

Pretty much all other water dispensers are either too large, too easy for the cats to get them to leak/spill water, or require bottles with too narrow of an opening for cleaning.

 

[googily]

This is the one I'm successfully using.

Cat Water Fountain Stainless... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07SBXDMZQ?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

I love the huge reservoir and that it has a blue light that starts flashing red when the water is getting low. Also makes it easy for me to be gone, say, two nights without feeling like I need to have some come deal with them.

This one seems fairly easy to clean, and the cats haven't died of thirst, so I guess they are using it! Took one cat a little while to warm to it, but he doesn't drink much water anyway. The other one started slurping from it immediately.

It's so much better than the early fountains that were all plastic and would become impossible to clean very quickly.

Yes, the filters add up, but so does the food, the litter, the nip, the toys, the scratching posts.... Just add it to the pile!

 

[skyking1]

great topic and i had never thought about it, but I could plumb in a floor sink in the new build for it.

 

[JoeWras]

Our little old guy is getting messy as he ages. There's some sort of instinct going on. He slaps the water and frequently just paws the the floor in front of the bowl. His favorite trick is to visit the litter box and move directly to a water slap. Ugh!

A floor sink actually sounds like a great idea .

I love the mystery of cats. Each one of our buddies had unique habits around the water and food bowls.

 

[TrvlBug]

Our 2 cats ignored the fountain after 2 days.... we gave it to someone else..

... ...

This was our experience with the water fountain. Also, they now get an additive to the water as one of the kitties has teeth and gum issues and IIRC the fountain doesn't lend itself to water additives.

 

[tmm99]

How about flushing the toilet with the lid up and leaving it up?

Just kidding.

We have to keep our toilet lids down or our cats will drink out of the toilet bowls...

 

[Katsmeow]

First about water fountains and then an alternative.

We did have a water fountain for out cats. It did wear out (they do after several years) and we didn't replace it because we were putting our house on the market and decided to wait until after we had moved (which hasn't happened it).

The cats 100% prefer the water fountain. They preferentially use it when given an alternative. You do have to refill it but not as often as the bowl. We will get another one when our circumstances permit it.

Now for the alternative. When we did some remodeling we got a couple of faucets that turn on based upon motion (and turn off with lack of motion or after a specified period). One cat absolutely love it. She drinks from the running water. If the faucet is set so that it isn't motion detected she comes and meows at us to turn it on. She loves it.

Cat 2 likes it and often drinks from it. She also likes to play in the water.

Cat 3 mostly ignores it (very occasional at best).

Cat 1 definitely prefers this to the water fountain. Cat 2 probably likes the fountain best. Cat 3 definitely prefers fountain or bowl to this. Would never rely on just this option (would have a bowl for back up).

 

[JoeWras]

A lot depends on the age and capabilities of the cat. Our poor guy is now over 17 and can't jump up to faucet level counters anymore. He can't even make it on the toilet seat. He apparently used to sneak some drinks from sinks and toilet.

Now that those are out of his capability, he has started this water slapping thing.

As an aside: it is heartbreaking to see your friend go through the same experiences as you are in super fast motion. I have arthritis, and so does our cat. It has advanced so fast for him. It is like watching my future.

 

[Ally]

Our 4 cats love fountains, especially the pioneer pet stainless steel type from Amazon. We clean them every two weeks and they seem to last.

 

[SecondAttempt]

Doesn’t he realize we have a drought going on here?

He's a cat. He just doesn't care. His wants come first. Surely he has trained you on that!

 

[SecondAttempt]

So, in all seriousness, cats, dogs, and other animals probably prefer running water over still out of instinct. Running water is generally less likely to be polluted so we evolved that way. If you were camping and thirsty would you drink out of the lake or the creek flowing into it?

 

[cranberryjoe]

One thing not mentioned so far, but the cat's water source (whether it's a fountain or bowl or whatever) should not be located next to the food. We keep our fountain across the room from the food dishes. Cats prefer fresh water (which is why they are attracted to a fountain or dripping faucet over a stagnant dish) and they prefer the water to not be contaminated by food or litter. So keep the water away from the food, and especially keep that litter box far away from food and water!

My cats definitely prefer the fountain, although they will also drink from water dishes. We keep water dishes in several rooms around the house and they get used, but the fountain is their main source. We use a ceramic fountain which is pretty easy to clean. Previously we used a plastic fountain. It was hard to clean, and it quickly broke.

 

[djsander]

We used the stainless steel pioneer tear drop shaped at Amazon. Cleaned it once a month and changed the filter when cleaning. Once in a while cleaned disassembled the pump and cleaned it which wasn’t too difficult. Charcoal filters are just over $6 for a pack of three. One of our cats was breaking out around her mouth and the vet said they can be allergic to plastic and recommended stainless water bowls. We switched to the fountain and she stopped breaking out.

 

[ER Eddie]

I offer my dog distilled and remineralized water. It's probably one of the healthiest waters you can drink. He usually ends up drinking out of puddles on the street, lol.

 

[ncbill]

I've tried water fountains, as well as the automatic-feed arrangement that Paunchy Pirate describes, and eventually came to the conclusion that water bowls are easier, and just work. I mean, there's not much to go wrong!

The water fountain that I had was a cheap plastic one. It was a mistake, as a thin slimy layer of biofilm built up on the plastic. If I were contemplating the purchase of another fountain, I'd get one with a nice, large ceramic bowl. Even so, you still have to disassemble and clean it fairly regularly. Water bowls (I use metal ones) are so much easier to wash out and refresh.

One good reason I can think of for a water fountain, is to encourage your cat to hydrate more. A low-tech way to get around this is to leave a tap on a very slow drip occasionally. Some cats love to drink from a dripping faucet.

Ditto...fountains were a pain to clean.

I just change out the water in her bowl each morning.

 

[CatinKS]

Found out by accident that our cats prefer drinking out of a beer pitcher that we used to water plants. They will drink the first 3 inches and then we refresh it about every 2-3 days. Have a water bowl near the food dish that they don't normally touch.

Thought about adding some yellow food coloring to make it appear they are actually drinking beer for a funny photo, but imagine the Cat Police would haul me in.

 

[Texas Proud]

Ditto...fountains were a pain to clean.

I just change out the water in her bowl each morning.

BTW, it seems that our cats are not that interested in drinking fresh water... we have a mug on a window sill in the kitchen that they drink out of... we just fill it when it goes down. It does go down quickly as it is evaporating because of sun...


Every once in awhile I will clean the mug and it takes awhile for the cats to get back to it... seems they want 'older' water for some reason...