My 3 year old cat loves to splash the water out of his bowl. He still drinks out of the bowl, but loves to play with the water. He also comes in and drinks water from my bath when I'm in it. He will play with the bath water too, no matter how hot it is. If I'm soaking sore muscles I have it as hot as I can stand.
I also have 2 dogs who will eat the cat food more than their own if they can reach it, so I learned many years ago to keep the cat dishes (and litter box too, altho that's in a separate room) up out of the dogs' reach. I have my cat dishes on a "sofa table". It's higher than a coffee table and is perfect for feeding him on. It has a glass top so I don't have to worry about the wood getting ruined when he plays with his water.
To keep his dish from sliding around, I put some rubber shelf liner under it. Then I just lay a dish towel on top of the rubber to absorb the water. I simply replace the towel every morning. Now he's able to have fun playing in his water bowl, and I don't have the mess I used to have!
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My 3 year old female cat keeps moving her water bowl about 5 or 6 feet and then dumps it out on the floor. Can anyway tell me why she might be doing this?
By candybones from Stuttgart, AR
Our cat used to like to play with her water bowl, too. Since I kept it on a small rug, I just stuck some Velcro on the bottom of the bowl & it stuck to the fibers in the rug.
One of my two tabby cats, the older (age 15ish) paws most of the water out of their water bowl. He then laps it up off the floor. This happens about 80% if the time. I've seen him drink out of the bowl normally.
Try getting a wider bowl. I read somewhere that cats don't like their whiskers to touch the sides of the bowls. Maybe that will help. :-)
Just had a strange idea, how about taking a sponge that is smaller then bowl and putting it in there. Leaving enough room around sponge so that he can get to water.
You don't want a cat fountain. The cats like them, but they are dirty. They only filter the particulate matter, not bacteria and other nasties. The pump gets loaded with gunk and slimy stuff and the whole thing needs to be completely taken apart at least weekly for a thorough cleaning.
I had a cat who would splash the water out. Then I realized he was washing the kitty litter off his feet. I ended up putting a towel down under the water dish and that helped keep the mess contained. He mostly drank his water from the bathroom faucet.
We had a cat that used to do that also. He was aged also. We realized later on that he was going blind and that he was listening to the water gurgle as it went into the bowl, and he did the same thing with his feet in the bowl. The only thing that we found that worked was one of those big metal roasting pans with high sides and we put the water container inside the roaster pan, but not before the floor was ruined under the water container.
Great idea about wider mouth bowl so their whiskers don't hit side of bowl. Tried one of my oval kitchen ceramic bowls.
Female Maine Coon that loves water. Over to bowl, one front foot in bowl and the other foot dipping into water and splashing it out. Had to laugh but I give up they are just too smart for me.
