How to Get Your Cat to Drink More Water

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Cats are bad at drinking enough water, and it’s biology more than stubbornness. They came from desert animals, so the thirst drive is weak, which means a cat can be low on water and feel no particular urge to do anything about it. The rough vet guideline is about an ounce of water a day for every pound your cat weighs, food included, and for an eleven-pound cat living on dry kibble that adds up to a lot of trips to a bowl they were never that motivated to visit.

Most cats are not holding out to be difficult. Usually something specific is putting them off, the bowl or the spot or the smell or the way the rim presses on their whiskers, and once you find the thing, it tends to sort itself out. Sometimes. They are also just strange, and at some point you make your peace with that.

Signs of Dehydration

According to Cornell’s Feline Health Center, dehydration in cats can sometimes show up as:

lethargy
weakness
poor appetite
dry gums
sunken eyes

Older cats are especially worth keeping an eye on. Chronic kidney disease is super common in senior cats, and hydration is one of the main ways vets help manage it. If your cat suddenly stops drinking, seems unusually tired, or starts acting noticeably different, call your vet.

Give them more spots, and better bowls

One bowl in the kitchen is usually not enough, especially if your cat spends the day on the other side of the house. Put a few out where they already settle, a corner of the bedroom, the end of a hallway, the spot by the window they like, and skip anywhere with a loud appliance or a lot of foot traffic, because most cats will not relax enough to drink there. If you have more than one floor, aim for at least one bowl per level, which is what VCA suggests too.

While you are at it, move one bowl well away from the food. A lot of cats do not like drinking right where they eat, and shifting the water a few feet off, or into another room, is a change that feels too small to matter until day three, when your cat is using the new spot like it was their idea the whole time. The dish matters as well. A wider, shallower bowl that does not press on their whiskers suits most cats better, and ceramic or glass or stainless steel usually beats plastic, which scratches and holds smells until a cat gives up on it without telling you why. Thelma does the opposite and will drink from one specific plastic dish and nothing else, because consistency is for other cats.

Get the water into the food

The easiest win is wet food, because your cat does not have to decide to drink anything. The water is already in the meal. Canned food runs around 70 to 80 percent water by weight where kibble sits closer to 10, so the gap is big. Louis eats wet food only, and we almost never see him at a bowl. That worried us for a while, until we did the math on how much he takes in at every meal and let it go. Lickable treats help too, the gel ones in the little tubes, and they are handy for a cat who is not on wet food and is not much of a drinker. Thelma is allergic to Churu, the best-known brand, so we use Acana or WholeHearted instead, and most cats lose their minds for them. The water in one tube is small next to a full meal, but over a day it adds up. If your cat already eats wet food, stir a spoonful of warm water in before serving, or a small splash into kibble, and go slow about it, because a cat who notices you tampering with dinner takes it as a personal insult.

If they still will not drink

If none of that lands, a fountain is the next thing to try, since a lot of cats prefer moving water. It reads as fresher and harder to ignore, and it is the closest thing to the running stream their desert wiring still half-remembers. It does not need to be expensive, but it does need to be easy to clean, because a pretty fountain that turns into a slimy science project by day three is not helping anyone. Whatever you land on, wash the bowls daily when you can, and on a fountain change the filter and clean the pump on the maker’s schedule rather than the one you would prefer.

Thelma went through her fountain phase, used it, lost interest, and then decided the only acceptable drinking vessel in the house was a small fish-shaped bowl with a turtle toy sitting in it. I cannot explain it. We refill it every day. It is BPA-free, but it is still plastic, and we would much rather she drink out of almost anything else, but she will not, so the fish bowl stays.

When to Call the Vet

A cat drinking a little more or less day to day is usually nothing. A sudden change is different.

Call your vet if your cat:

stops drinking entirely
seems lethargic or weak
has dry or tacky gums
stops eating
vomits or pants
suddenly drinks WAY more than usual

According to PetMD, dehydration can also show up as panting, weakness, and collapse, so a noticeable change is worth taking seriously. (A sudden uptick in thirst can also signal a medical issue, so don’t ignore that either.)

If you are not sure where to begin, keep it simple. Put a second bowl somewhere your cat already spends time, move one bowl away from the food, and get more moisture into meals with wet food or a few lickable treats. If they still barely touch a bowl after that, a fountain is worth a shot. Some cats will be weird about that one too, and that is part of the arrangement.