How to Get Your Cat to Drink More Water

Some links are affiliate, so we may earn a small commission at no cost to you. Every purr-chase keeps two very demanding cats in treats. Our policy →

Cats are notoriously bad at drinking enough water, and the root of it can be traced all the way back to their ancestors. House cats are descendants of the African wildcat, a desert hunter that got nearly all of its moisture from prey. For instance take a mouse…a mouse is up to 80% water. So if a cat ate enough of them they would be fairly hydrated. Because of that, the species never developed much of a thirst drive and their kidneys are still desert kidneys, built to concentrate urine and hang onto every drop.

That setup worked for thousands of years, until we swapped a cat’s prey for a bowl of dry kibble, which is where the trouble starts. Cats don’t really know they need to make up the difference at the water bowl, they’re just not wired that way. Thankfully, there are ways to make sure your modern, non-mouse eating housemate is being adequately hydrated! Read on for the tips…

So, how much water does your cat really need?

The rough vet guideline is about an ounce of water a day for every pound your cat weighs, food included. So, that’s actually quite a bit of water if your cat is not getting moisture from their food and is eating only dry kibble.

If you suspect your cat is not drinking enough water, be sure to look out for the signs of dehydration, which can be subtle. Cats are very good at hiding pain or discomfort, so it helps to be on the lookout for any unusual or slightly off behavior.

Ideally they can get most of their water from food

Like we talked about in the intro, cats are meant to get most of their water from the food they eat. Otherwise they have to really like water to get their recommended daily ounces!

The easiest way to stay hydrated is with wet food, because then any additional water they drink is a bonus. In comparison, canned food runs around 70 to 80 percent water by weight, whereas dry kibble sits closer to 10, so the gap is big.

Louis thankfully eats the majority of his calories with wet food (3 cans of Royal Canin Adult Instinctive thin slices in gravy a day) with a small snack of dry kibble along with a couple pieces of freeze dried chicken and a freeze dried minnow. We rarely see him at the water fountain, but we’re less worried because the majority of his food is wet.

Thelma, on the other hand, is the problem child. She only eats dry kibble, so we go out of our way to make sure she has plenty of water or more hydrating options.

In addition to different types of water bowls and fountains which we’ll get into, we also try to get some moisture in via her treats. Thelma loves Churu but given her weird food allergies, is for some reason allergic to them. (We’re not sure why). So we give her 1-2 of the pureed, lickable treats from either Acana or Petco’s Whole Hearted line (she likes tuna and salmon). Their moisture levels range from 85-90%, which is the equivalent of around 0.45-0.48 ounces of water. So, not a lot clearly but they are decent! We’ll try to add about a tablespoon of water into a bowl with them as well. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Louis will get one of these tubes a day, too.

Our cats don’t like cat-safe broth, which seems very strange to me, but if they did I would try giving that to Thelma in her kibble or at least as a snack. Adding broth is a great way to get additional moisture in your cat’s food, but remember it has to be cat-safe, which means it’s free of any toxic seasonings and salt.

How to get your cats to drink more water: Give them more options

In addition to the hydrating foods you give them, be sure that they have enticing water vessels around the house as well. One bowl in the kitchen usually isn’t enough to entice your cats to drink more water. Instead, give them a few different options.

The type of bowl matters

Look for a wide, shallow bowl that won’t irritate their whiskers. It’s the same premise for their food bowl as well. Materials such as ceramic or glass or stainless steel usually beat plastic, which scratches and holds smells and bacteria that can eventually cause feline chin acne.

Cat fountains are a relatively new phenomenon (well, they’ve been popular for the past 20+ years, but I still think 2004 was yesterday so do with that what you will) and they are a great, enticing option for cats. Cats are drawn to moving water, and the ones on the market today not only provide a great way to keep your cat hydrated, but they’re great at keeping your cat’s water clean.

We had some sort of cat fountain ever since Thelma and Louis were little, and have gone through different brands. The last one they liked but we found it would develop mold/fungus inside the plastic well where the water sat, so we got rid of that one and switched to the Petlibro one. It still got a plastic water well, but a stainless steel bowl. And for some reason doesn’t get moldy as much at all. We replace the filter every two weeks and try to clean it at least weekly (though sometimes it can be two weeks). One is wireless and sits in our bathroom, and the other is plugged into a quiet spot in our living room.

They both drink from it, but about a year ago we brought home a plastic fish bowl type toy that has a plastic turtle in it. You’re supposed to fill it with water and the cats play with the water toys inside, but we noticed that Thelma LOVED drinking water from it. So it is now her water bowl! We refill it with fresh water twice a day, and try to wash it as often as we remember with a little bit of Dawn soap. I wish it wasn’t plastic, but it is BPA-free and it keeps her hydrated, so I’ll call it a win!

Our fountain setup, and what I’d look for in one

The reason we have fountains at all is because when Thelma and Louis were kittens they would bat over any and every water bowl they saw. Hence the fountains. We currently have two that are stainless steel (basin on top, plastic well below). One is plugged in and sits in a quiet corner of the living room, and the other is cordless and lives in the bathroom. Cordless is great if there isn’t an outlet conveniently located where you want the fountain to be (no more dragging extension cords around or trying to figure out where you can hide a plug behind the sofa!). We swap in the charged base for that one about once a week. We clean them as often as we can, ideally once a week, but when life gets hectic that sometimes slips to once every two weeks, and we try to change the filters every two weeks.

If you’re going to get a water fountain for your cat, I’d choose one that isn’t entirely plastic, so either ceramic or stainless steel (see above for why plastic isn’t the best option). Also look for one that’s easy to maintain. Ours comes completely apart, which makes it a lot easier to give it a good scrub. It helps if the filters are reasonably cheap, because you’re more likely to change them regularly if it isn’t going to break the bank each time. And choose one with a quiet motor. If your cat is nervous, a loud hum right next to the water will do little to calm them down.

Whenever fountains come up on Reddit, the replies sound a lot like our experience, including the part where the cat ignores it at first:

1000%. Game changer. But skip any plastic ones, get a metal one.

— via Reddit.com

And this one, which is Thelma in a nutshell:

Honestly it’s one of those things that either becomes their favorite spot or they ignore it for a week then suddenly decide it’s the best invention ever

— via Reddit.com

How we keep the fountains from getting gross

Our old fountain used to get moldy in the plastic well where the water sat. We’ve since switched fountains, but we still take ours apart and give it a good washing once a week (at least that’s the goal!). I wash all the pieces with a bottle brush and a little Dawn, and give them a good rinse. Instead of adding more water to the fountain, I dump out the old water and fill it with fresh. We change the filter out about once every two weeks. Thelma and Louis also have one particular toy they try to drown, a braided fabric piece with a feather on one end (we call it Tommy), and I’m always reaching into the fountain (or Thelma’s water bowl) to fish out a dripping wet Tommy. So when I say make sure you’re checking the water, I do mean LOOK in the water (still not sure why they like drowning this toy so much!). It’s annoying at times, but clean water is worth it.

The one we have now is wireless, because as you can see from this video, the cords were WAY too interesting.

Other people are just as particular about the cleaning part:

I did a stainless and ceramic both were good. I found the ceramic one a little easier to clean, but, whichever you choose you gotta clean and swap filters more than they say.

— via Reddit.com

Where to put the water bowls/fountains

First, you’ll want to put them in areas that are fairly quiet without a lot of foot traffic. You want your cat relaxed and not nervously on the lookout around them. Also if you have more than one floor, VCA Animal Hospitals suggest at least one bowl per level.

You’ll also want to keep the water bowl away from their food. I think unbeknownst to everyone growing up with a cat the past, well, forever, cats prefer not to drink right next to where they eat. We definitely never knew this until we got Thelma and Louis, because as a kid that is just what you remember having: the food and water bowls next to each other. So the solution is to move it a few feet away, or better yet to another room.

How to tell if your cat is actually drinking

How do you monitor how much water each cat drinks? It’s hard, especially with two cats sharing the same fountains. We mostly go by who we see. We keep the fountains in rooms we actually use, and since we work from home it’s easier to notice which cat is drinking the most. Louis is rarely seen there (he’s mostly on wet food, so that’s expected), and Thelma does most of her drinking from her fish bowl. Two things that help: if you fill to the same line each morning and top up with a measuring cup, you can see how much is missing each day. And if one cat has a favorite bowl, focus on that one, because it’s the easy thing to track.

If you have clumping litter, the clump size might help you, too. We use the Breeze pellet system, so I’m not using clumping litter and can’t see how much each cat has peed. That’s one downside of our setup (we have a general idea of whether each cat has gone, but it’s not an exact science). Really, it’s about knowing your cats’ norm and then watching for changes from that norm, which is a lot easier to do when the water is in a room you’re sitting in all day.

Tricks other cat owners swear by

Every so often (actually fairly often, since water bowls are apparently an eternal topic) someone on Reddit will post asking for ways to get their cat to drink more water, and the same suggestions always pop up: leave a glass of water on your nightstand (apparently they prefer the glass you use to the bowl you provide them), run the water in the bathroom sink for a minute, put a couple of ice cubes in the bowl on particularly hot days, use a wide bowl and fill it to the brim, and put the bowl on a windowsill or wherever else your cat likes to hang out.

People report different levels of success with each of these. I completely believe that cats want to use your glass instead of their own bowl (because cats). I can’t vouch for the ice cubes trick personally, but it’s cheap to try. What worked for us was probably the dumbest option: Thelma decided that a plastic fish bowl toy with a turtle in it was her water bowl (I told that story above). I guess the moral is to try different things and see what your cat likes, because the cat picks.

What we do for a cat who only eats dry food

Thelma hates wet food. We’ve tried pretty much everything you can buy and still, she won’t eat it, so her water has to come from somewhere else. Her routine isn’t glamorous. Her fish bowl (yes, the cheap plastic one) gets dumped out and refilled with fresh water twice a day. We keep the two fountains going as backup, and she used to drink out of one of them before she switched her allegiance to the fish bowl. She’ll still go back to the fountain if the bowl is out being washed, so I’m not sure why she likes that one particular spot so much. And she gets one or two lickable puree treats a day with about a tablespoon of water stirred in, which only works on the days she’ll accept the treat.

Thelma also loves to put her toys in the water fountains, like the time she put her favorite brown bird in this one.

One more thing: don’t put her water bowl in the dishwasher. Believe it or not, when I did this once, Thelma wouldn’t drink out of her bowl for days. It probably smelled like dishwasher soap instead of like home, so now it gets hand-washed. Not fancy, I know, but it’s helped us keep Thelma hydrated, and if your cat is a kibble-only cat like her, I’d build a little routine like this and stick to it.

When you’re away

My mom sleeps over and cat-sits when we travel, which I love. The water part of her instructions is simple. Thelma’s fish bowl gets dumped and refilled twice a day, both fountains get topped off with fresh water, and if a fountain is particularly cloudy, or if there’s a toy floating in one, she takes it apart and gives it a rinse. Before I leave, I show her how the fountains come apart (just in case), point out every water bowl and fountain in the house, and remind her how often we refill them. It’s a five-minute conversation, and it saves me from wondering whether anybody drank enough today. Whoever is watching your cat, do the same walk-through before you go, because a sitter who only knows about the kitchen bowl will only refill the kitchen bowl.

What to do if they just won’t drink water

If you’re not sure where to begin, put a second (or third) bowl or ideally fountain somewhere your cat already spends time, and make sure they’re at least a few feet away from their food. If your cat doesn’t eat wet food, try adding hydrating treats like lickables/purees that have a high moisture content. If a bowl or fountain isn’t working, try other vessels (like Thelma’s fish bowl with a plastic turtle in it) and also try putting on the faucet to see if they like it.

If nothing seems to be moving the needle, talk to your vet about ways to get your cat to drink more water, or special foods they should be eating to help with hydration. That’s why it’s also so important to do yearly or twice yearly checkups with your vet depending on your cat’s age and health to make sure their numbers show they’re hydrated as well.

For instance last year Louis’s creatinine, which is a kidney number, came back a little elevated once, and it was borderline enough that we ended up testing his blood three different times. The tests were the easy part; the waiting was stressful. Everything came back fine, and he passed a full blood workup in March with flying colors, but it changed how we treat the small stuff. You want to make sure you are aware of your cat’s habits, especially drinking and eating habits, and if something seems off give your vet a call or text. You’re never going to be sad you did.