Cat water fountains

What is the difference between a cat water fountain and having a bowl of water available for the cat at all times?

Sorry to derail so early but it sounds so absurd.

MaizieD

Some cats will only drink water that is flowing. They can be a bit particular that way.

MaizieD, having bowls of water about obviously didn't help our cat (Maisie) or she wouldn't have been come dehydrated. And we will try anything to help her

It’s an instinct to protect them from contaminated water I think. I had a cat who wouldn’t drink from a bowl, and the only solution I found was to leave a tap dripping for him to jump up and drink from that. I developed a routine with him, the tap in the downstairs toilet was left dripping for an hour after he’d eaten, because I was worried about him eating cat biscuits without drinking. This was before water fountains were around, but you could try it before buying one to see if your cat will drink flowing water.

My Dds cat developed kidney problems and has to have a special food. Although there was water available in bowls he was not drinking enough.

She bought a cheap fountain and the change is really noticeable he drinks frequently and the only downside is the sound of tinkling water.

It’s like this one:
catit.co.uk/products/catit-flower-fountain

I’ve been told that water fountains are hard to clean and not hygienic. I don’t know how true this is.
My cat loves playing with water she has a small paddling pool in the bath which I put a few plastic cat toys in, she enjoys fishing them out she licks her paws as well as drinking the water which I change twice a day. She also has a small bowl of water in the bottom of the shower, her favourite place to drink. We remove the bowl when we shower. There’s another bowl next to her dry food in the kitchen which she rarely drinks.
She loves a dripping tap, she puts her paws in the drips then licks her paws, she’ll wait for you to turn a tap on, she drinks a lot of water throughout the day.

My son has a stainless steel water fountain for his cat. Apparently they are more hygienic than plastic or ceramic ones as they don’t harbour bacteria.

When I was looking after the cat I must admit the constant trickling noise of the water got on my nerves!😅

My neighbour has a motion sensor fountain but her cat prefers to drink from the bowl I leave outside for my cat who drinks copiously after every meal. He is 21 and has kidney problems so needs to drink a lot. I have 4 bowls in various locations, which I change at least once a day, but he won't touch the one near his food. I did try a fountain years ago, but none of my cats would use it, and it wasn't cheap.

My friend bought a water fountain on vet’s advice to help with dehydration. Cat wouldn’t go near it.

Fountains also filter nasties out. Our cats love theirs. Stainless steel one from Amazon.
Need to replace it now, puppy chewed through the wire!

If there were one that really gets cats to drink more water I would buy it, tried 2 but my then 6 cats totally ignored it, they also needed filters that you had to buy after the one supplied needed to be replaced, I have one cat that has feline cystitis long term, I give her soup as well as wet food, she won't drink what she should, so following this to see if someone has found a fountain that they recommend

Our cat won't touch soup or gravy, Shell.

Kittylester Does your cat eat only dry food? I've had cats for 45 years, and they all had wet food. There is usually sufficient moisture in it. That said, my current cat likes to drink out of puddles (he has fresh water daily). Has your cat been tested for kidney failure? It's common in older cats.

Mine used to be daisy-shaped, if I remember. Unfortunately, it was a waste of money as not one of my three cats used it.

We have had two at various times as we were worried our cat wasn’t drinking enough. Neither lasted very long before the motors gave out. The daisy shaped one lasted longer than the metal one. You do have to clean the little parts very frequently. We are back to a metal bowl now but our cat seems content with that now and is doing well with her drinking.

We only feed Maisie a few bits of dry food at bed time- she likes 'jelly'.

And, yes, she had a battery of tests during her visit to the vet. Maisie is 9.

We, too, have had cats for ever and getting them to drink has been a perennial problem.

I bought my cat a fountain. He was vaguely interested for about three minutes and then ignored it. I have bowls of fresh water outside. When he drinks from them (only when it has been raining) he chooses the rectangular one. I read that cats prefer dishes that don’t interfere with their whiskers so maybe that’s why he opts for that dish. But, most often he chooses to lap water from the guttering around my neighbour’s garage or from the top of the plastic stage box which is concave and collects water. Goodness knows what else lurks in that water.

I've been using a Catit 3L fountain for about 5 years and my various cats have all loved it and drink copiously from it.
catit.co.uk/products/catit-flower-fountain

It's plastic and I don't find it at all awkward to clean; it gets a good scrub out with bottle brushes every month when I change the filter.
So long as you keep the water level topped up, it isn't noisy at all and shouldn't irritate anyone. If the water level drops, it makes quite a pleasant "water feature" trickling sound. The motor is virtually silent.

I did briefly try out a stainless steel fountain, having been sucked in by the ads that told me my plastic one is unhygienic. Apart from being fiddly to assemble, the motor was noisy and my poor, nervous cat was terrified by the loud thrumming noise of the water pouring from the high spout on to the bowl.
I persisted with it for a week but poor Luna was miserable and then the motor packed up so it went back for a refund and the Catit was reinstated.

I volunteered for a while at a cat rescue and we had to put the water bowls away from the food bowls as I was told cats don’t like their water next to their food. Not sure if that is true, but I always put a bowl full of water outside on my patio and the cats always go there after their meal and drink from it. They rarely drink from the bowl next to their food. They also drink from the pond, puddles, the birdbath etc.

Mollys paddling pool complete with her favourite toys. She only eats dried food from choice.

We have had our plastic water fountain for about 5 years. Our 2 lovely gingers love it, no problem at all. We are surprised how much they drink. Easy to clean & very quiet, cheap on Amazon. Go for it!

Scribbles how is it powered. Can't find that on the link.

... Ginger will not drink from a bowl if it has clean fresh water in it - neither bottled nor tap.

But he is keen on a watering-can with algae growing at the bottom.

I believe there are cats who prefer water that might have come from a medieval court-yard - with notes of aged damp-leaves, plus a hint of rotting-wood.

I don’t know if this might be an idea. I have a little solar powered water fountain that sits in a big bowl in the garden. I don’t have a cat but one day I happened to see a neighbour cat happily dipping his paws in the water. It came from Amazon and was cheap. You can adjust the height of the spray by changing the nozzles that come with it.Only thing is it is for the outdoors only.