Thread: End of our rope.

My wife and I have been working for over a *year* now to get our two 'coons to stop playing in their water dish.
This is not the usual "it's cute when they play" sort of stuff. They will take any size bowl and simply empty it out. We've gone through hundreds of dollars worth of special fountains trying to give them reasons to not cause trouble. Still they persist. It's not just the water everywhere problem. They keep getting sick. They get junk on their feet then they drag it in the water, and no amount of filtering or other stuff will keep the water clean.
Tonight James knocked over a DogIt watering dish. 1 gallon of water all over the carpet, soaked. This is the *second* time. He's figured out he can do it, now it's been two nights in a row.

We've spent so much time and done so many stupid things to try and get our cats to learn that the water is for drinking. Personally I don't care if they play in it, but they end up getting sick!

We are truly at the end of our rope on this. The cats are 2 and half years old, and even after a year of constant daily work, they will not learn to respect their water source.

It is impossible for us to even leave the house for an hour with a water dish out, because they will simply empty it out.

We need a solution for this problem that *works*. The playing in water thing is cute, but it's a major health problem, and that is where I'm simply losing it. We knew that Maine Coons played with water going into it all, but I never expected them to be so outright retarded.

Has anyone had any success in solving this sort of issue?

A wall mounted watering station such as this NEW! Maow Wall-mounted Cat Feeder from Vurv DesignÂ*|Â*moderncat :: cat products, cat toys, cat furniture, and more…all with modern style ?

Sorry I did giggle, I know you are at the end of your tether but it just sounds so familiar to coonies all over the world. Our boy actually lies down to drink so gets his whole chin and ruff in the water, he then sits and flicks it out but we use a huge dog bowl that he cant move. They all drink out of cups if left around so they get knocked over, and they all think its fun to sit in the sink and play with whatever water is there. Its a nightmare after they have been bathed for a show!!

How to stop it, I would personally use the smallest bowl possible when out of the house, I am guessing they arent left for that long, so if they tip it out its not much water. Then I would supervise drinking times when in the house, put a big bowl down, watch them drink, when they start to play, take it up and replace with the tiny one. This way they will drink when thirsty and only play with a small amount of water which will soon get boring.

Good luck.
x

I can’t really help you with the behavioral thing… though Tatja did go through a phase when she insisted on digging the water out of the bowl. So I put down a large shallow heavy ceramic dish with a towel underneath. It didn’t stop her from digging but at least she couldn’t topple the bowl.



As for them getting sick all the time... I sincerely doubt it's stuff in the water that makes them sick. My three often drink from a bowl in the garden, it’s filled with rain water and has all kinds of dubious things in it – leaves, twigs, dead bugs, soil, bird feathers. Never did them any harm. And look at outdoor cats who drink from puddles…
So perhaps it’s wise to have the vomiting (if that’s what you mean by being sick) checked out by the vet, and not put it down to stuff that gets in the water.
Good luck!

Hi Neural, have you tried a 'Road Refresher' they are the best things since sliced bread for a coonie and only cost about £12 for a large one on ebay. we switched over 18 months ago and have never looked back, they can't spill the water due to a detachable rim lip and a central float only allows a small amount of water for drinking at any one time, seriously, they are the bees knees . Snoozy

I appreciate all the advice. Antonia: They aren't really throwing up. They just get Diarrhea.

Snoozy: We went to the pet store today to get some food and litter, and those exact bowls were right there in plain sight. The price was decent so we decided to give that a go.

I like that the don't hold a whole lot of water. Less to be spilled.

I'm not claiming it to be a success immediately, but so far so good.

Is it wrong that I got a giggle out of watching James try his hardest to get water out of the bowl, but fail completely at it?