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Question about some unusual behaviour in cats - moved into a new place sharing with a girl and her two cats. Both cats have food and water out all day, but they almost certainly won't drink from the water bowl if somebody is around. Instead they jump into the bath tub and meow ever more loudly until somebody turns on the faucet and then they drink. I'm curious if it's possible to train out this behaviour? At first I went along but lately I've noticed they'll jump into the bath tub in turn (so one will drink for five minutes, then leave, and the other will jump in just as I'm switching off the faucet) or one will demand a drink from the tub every ten-fifteen minutes. I hope I'm not seen as being cruel to them, as I said they're fed, given a supply of water and well looked after by the three of us living here. Any ideas? Or should I just forget about trying to change their habit?
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Oct 11, 2015 16:40
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| # ? Apr 20, 2024 01:23 |
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It's quite common for cats to not like drinking from standing water and only wanting to drink from a source of running water. It's probably something to do with the fact that they presume the running water is fresher, or maybe they are just being furry assholes. Anyway, you might want to look into getting a cat water fountain so that your cats can get running water themselves without having to screech at you to turn on the tap, they aren't too expensive.
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Oct 12, 2015 11:44
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MikeCrotch posted:maybe they are just being furry assholes. Diagnosis - is cat. Also try filling a people glass and setting it up on an elevated surface for them. My former cat only drank from a glass.
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Oct 12, 2015 16:12
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jet_dee posted:Question about some unusual behaviour in cats - moved into a new place sharing with a girl and her two cats. One of our cats has a behavior where he's associated us turning the bathtub on with, beyond fresh water, everything else awesome in life. So, if you're in the bathroom with him and he wants to be fed or pet he'll also jump into the tub and start rubbing his face all over the faucet  It's really just a thing cats do. The best thing you can do is not respond to every verbal whine they make and just turn the tub on for them when you're using the bathroom or walking by. We don't sit and babysit ours, we just get the faucet again on the way out/back
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Oct 12, 2015 17:53
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Then you have our little bastards...who refuse to drink from a fountain, but all tubs/faucets are fair game. And, if we don't turn one on when they yell, they do it themselves  It is just to the point where we make sure the one bathroom is open, and close all the other bathroom doors so they only have one they turn on. We just go in as we pass and turn it off again. It's like a game....
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Oct 12, 2015 19:16
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Mirthless posted:One of our cats has a behavior where he's associated us turning the bathtub on with, beyond fresh water, everything else awesome in life. So, if you're in the bathroom with him and he wants to be fed or pet he'll also jump into the tub and start rubbing his face all over the faucet  Not as insistently now that she has a fountain that has a stream like that, but in her weird little cat head she goes "THE BATHROOM IS THE PLACE WHERE GOOD THINGS HAPPEN" and if she is awake (and sometimes she wakes up if she hears you), she will come in with you and transform into lover-cat who loves you and loves the faucet and loves the rug and loves everything. She has this Pavlovian response that when the toilet flushes she flops onto her back in the doorway because someone will be coming out soon and they can RUB HER BELLY.Anyhow, OP: Buy a fountain. The Drinkwell Platinum has a stream that's more like a faucet and Kiska, who is so bad at drinking and thus bad at peeing that I often just call her the pisscat, loves it. It's kind of a pain to clean but if you keep on top of it it's not bad. I can't speak to any of the others.
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Oct 12, 2015 19:27
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If you buy a fountain-type water bowl, don't put it right next to the food bowl. If you do that they will inevitably get food into the fountain bowl and it will get all disgustingly mushy and then it will clog everything up and it will be horrible and you will hate it.
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Oct 12, 2015 20:04
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Khizan posted:If you buy a fountain-type water bowl, don't put it right next to the food bowl. If you do that they will inevitably get food into the fountain bowl and it will get all disgustingly mushy and then it will clog everything up and it will be horrible and you will hate it. Kiska's fountain is now at the other end of the hallway.
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Oct 12, 2015 20:18
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Cool, thanks for all the replies! Fountain sounds like a way to go. I was just beginning to worry about not being able to visit the bathroom at night anymore because the cats hear someone moving around and start meowing loudly, which wakes every other person in the house until someone gets up to let them drink from the tub. I'm usually too sleepy to want to hang around for five minutes while they drink!
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Oct 12, 2015 21:45
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My 2 cats started drinking from the toilet. I live in a townhouse, and the food / water bowls are upstairs. They'll drink from the upstairs or downstairs toilet. So I started keeping the toilet lids closed. Started washing out water dishes and filling them with fresh water every day ( sometimes twice a day ). Put 2 water dishes downstairs because I discovered they're lazy as hell and won't bother to run up stairs for water - nope, toilet is convenient! Weird thing is, I'll fill the downstairs water dishes back up, and then they'll trot over to them, stare at the water for a while, and paw at the water ( they don't do this upstairs ). Eventually they'll drink. They love the downstairs water bowls now. Admiral_eX_laX fucked around with this message at 20:30 on Oct 14, 2015 |
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Oct 14, 2015 20:27
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This brat loves to drink water only from the tub. We did get a fountain for him, which he drank from at the beginning but then stopped randomly. I only turn on the water for him when I'm in the bathroom too, so all other times he just sits in the tub and pathetically mews. When we go on vacation for a few days I assume he has to drink out of the water bowl since our petsitter isn't going to baby him.
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Oct 14, 2015 22:54
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My Bengal mix/terrorcat will only drink from a people glass set on the kitchen counter. I am a terrible, disgusting person. And so is she.
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Oct 17, 2015 09:54
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If you have a cat that likes drinking out of a people glass, try using a teacup and only fill it half full. Then you get the joy of seeing your dumb cat squeeze their entire dumb head into a tiny teacup, which apparently is my cats preferred way of drinking liquid.
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Oct 26, 2015 15:36
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Nthing the fountain, but also my old dumb cat would drink out of the toilet until I moved her water bowl away from her food bowl. Apparently they don't like having the water source next to the food source.
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Oct 26, 2015 20:08
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Mine only drinks from the toilet. Tried multiple water bowls in multiple places to no avail. We just clean the toilet more often now.
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Oct 27, 2015 01:14
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| # ? Apr 20, 2024 01:23 |
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Definitely get a fountain. I'm lazy, so I have a Big Dog fountain for the dog (and one cat) downstairs that gets cleaned weekly, and a regular Drinkwell with the giant expansion jug on the back upstairs. Penelope requires drinking from the tub while I'm in it and only while I'm in it. I guess she likes people soup.
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Oct 27, 2015 02:33
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