9 Reasons Why Cats Don't Want To Drink And How To Overcome Them
Almost all living things on this earth need water, including cats. Drinking water is one of the basic needs for humans and cats. Therefore it is important for both individuals to consume enough water every day.
Because if the need for water consumption is not met enough, it will lead to various health problems such as dehydration, fever, canker sores and the most severe is kidney disease.
Of course, as cat owners, we don't want our cats to get sick just because of trivial problems such as not drinking enough water. That's why when the cat doesn't want to drink water, we try our best to find out why the cat doesn't want to drink at all or is lazy to drink.
Then after knowing what the cause is, we can find a suitable solution so that the cat will return to drinking as usual. So what are the reasons cats don't want to drink at all? Check out the explanation below.
9 Reasons Why Cats Won't Drink
Actually, if we observe carefully, we ourselves can know what the reason is why the cat doesn't want to drink the water that we serve him. Angora herself knows the reason why cats don't want to drink water because I diligently observe cat patterns and attitudes and do a little experiment with cat drinking water.
And the final result that I got regarding the main reason why cats don't want to drink is as follows.
1.The Cat Doesn't Want To Drink Because It's Been Drinking Enough
A cat who has had enough to drink will certainly not want to drink. When we feel that our cat rarely drinks or never drinks when in fact the cat has been drinking as much as he needs to meet his daily water consumption.
But we don't know it because we rarely monitor our cats because they are busy doing daily routines such as working, taking care of the household and so on. Our ignorance is also caused by cats often wandering out of the house ( usually village cats ) .
Not infrequently cats who like to wander outside the house drink water from anywhere.
2. Cats Are Sick
The name of being sick, whatever is served in front of us will taste bad or we don't want to eat at all. This also applies to cats. A sick cat will tend not to eat and not want to drink. In the case of a cat who is mildly ill, the cat usually just doesn't want to eat and prefers to drink.
Cats who are mildly ill may still be able to be treated independently at home using medicines that we can buy at the nearest pet shop. The medicine that we will give to the cat must be adjusted to the type of disease.
You can ask the pet shop owner for suggestions on the best medicine for our cat's illness. Usually the shop owner will give the appropriate medicine, tell you the correct way to use it.
And what to do when it turns out that the drug does not work on our beloved cat. For cases of minor illnesses such as thrush, just by buying medicine at a pet shop, usually the cat will recover easily.
However, in the case of a cat who is seriously ill, usually he will not want to eat and drink at all. When we feel sure that our cat is seriously ill, we should immediately take the cat to the vet.
Do not delay it or try to treat it yourself because the risk of cat death will be very high if not handled by experts.
3. The Drinking Water Is Dirty
You can give other animals dirty drinking water, but this does not apply to cats. Cats will reluctantly refuse to drink the dirty water you give them or drinking water that gets dirty because you forgot to change it. If you don't believe me, you can prove it yourself.
This happens because the cat has become accustomed to drinking clean water every day so that the cat can choose which drink is good for him. In addition, dirty water will usually change the taste and smell.
Of course, this makes the cat not want to drink the water at all. It's a different story if the dirty water is used to wash fish, chickens, cows and the like. In fact, cats will happily drink this water because the smell of the water has changed because it has been mixed with the smell of the food that was washed in it.
Some of you may say that there are also cats who like to drink dirty water such as toilet water. This saying is true, but do you know that this is because cats feel that the water we give is no better than toilet water, cats do not find water to drink other than toilet water or without us knowing cats are used to drinking toilet water.
Cats who are used to drinking toilet water should change their behavior by not allowing them to drink in the toilet and getting used to drinking with the clean water we provide. Because as we know toilet water is unhealthy, it contains various bad bacteria that can cause digestive diseases such as diarrhea if allowed to be frequently consumed by cats.
4. The Water Smells
Water that has a changed smell can be one reason your cat won't drink. White water that smells slightly pungent or rotten will certainly make the cat's sense of smell feel that the drinking water is not suitable for drinking.
Even because the smell is very unpleasant to the cat's taste, the cat will make a movement to plant feces around the bowl where the water is. This movement is usually done by cats on objects that are considered to smell similar to the smell of feces.
5. Water Too Hot
Do not give the cat drinks that are too warm. Warm human size is not necessarily the same as warm cat size. Precisely the water that we think is warm will actually feel hot on the cat's tongue.
When a cat drinks water and feels hot he will stop and choose not to drink the water and look for other alternative drinks such as water in the bath or water in the toilet hole.
6. There Is Too Little Water In Drinking Water
The lack of water in the cat's bowl or drinking bowl will also make the cat lazy to drink. Whenever we feel that there is too little water, immediately add water in the bowl or cat's drinking bowl so that the cat will drink and not drink water carelessly.
7. Too Many Cats Drinking in One Place
There are some cats who are reluctant to overcrowd when drinking. This cat will prefer to avoid drinking bowls that many cats drink in there. The cat will prefer to wait until the drinking bowl is empty and then he will drink there.
8. Drinking Water Is Too Much Trouble
Have you ever seen a cat prefer to drink in a bucket rather than a drinking bowl provided or not drink at all. Sometimes this happens to any cat, be it breed or domestic.
This occurs when the cat perceives that the position of the drinking bowl is too troublesome, difficult to reach or too small. This also applies to cats who suffer from arthritis or arthritis.
Cats with this disease will not choose a place to drink that he thinks is easy to reach and does not make it difficult for him.
9. Cats Are In Heat ( Mating )
Cats that are in heat or want to mate tend to be lazy to eat and rarely drink. Cats will meow more often and move to and fro looking for females. For cats that are left free to leave the house like village cats, usually cats will wander all day outside the house and don't remember to go home to just eat and drink.
How To Deal With A Cat Who Doesn't Want To Drink
Some of the ways that you might be able to do so that a cat who previously did not want to drink at all now wants to drink again is as follows :
Giving special cat milk for cats that you doubt whether he really has had enough to drink or not
Diligently clean the cat's bowl or drinking bowl
Replace the cat's drinking water when the water feels dirty and smells and changes in taste
Give the cat boiled water that is not too warm
If you have a lot of cats, make sure to provide more drinking bowls
Put drinking water in a good position and easy for the cat to reach
Thus the article about 9 reasons why cats don't want to drink water at all and how to overcome them. Hopefully this article is useful for you. Don't forget to share it with relatives, other cat lovers and to your social media accounts.