Why do cats drink tap water?

Author: Laura McKinney
Date Of Creation: 3 August 2021
Update Date: 1 November 2024
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Why is My CAT DRINKING TAP WATER? 🚰🐈 Find out!
Video: Why is My CAT DRINKING TAP WATER? 🚰🐈 Find out!

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Do you wonder why your cat drinks tap water? Don't worry, it's normal for the cat prefer to drink running water, this is part of the genetics of these animals, whether tap water, freshly placed glasses on the table, freshly filled jars or similar. This is because cats are very smart and clean animals, so they assume that the water that comes out of the tap it's fresher than the drinking fountain, which may have been idle for several hours and contain potentially harmful bacteria or organisms.

In this article by PeritoAnimal, we will tell you more about why do cats drink tap water for you to better understand the feline companion. Good reading.


Why does my cat drink tap water?

Cats prefer to drink running water. But why? Why don't they want to drink the water from their drinking fountains? It is very important to know the answers to these questions, as our little ones cats need to drink between 50-80 ml of water daily for every kilogram of weight., but in many cases, they do not reach this amount, which can be dangerous for your health. The main reasons why your cat drinks tap water are:

  • standing water in the drinking fountain: often, stagnant water from your drinking fountains, especially in houses where it is not changed frequently, tends to produce an aversion to cats, who only drink it if strictly necessary. Sometimes cats even hit the container before drinking, in order to move the water a little.
  • genes: wild cats only drink running water, as a way to avoid diseases that can be caused by pathogens present in stagnant water. The same thing happens with our house cats.
  • Tap water is cooler: in general, the water usually comes out cooler from the tap. This is especially attractive in the hottest months of the year, when the water in the drinking fountains tends to heat up easily.
  • Location of drinking fountain: Did you leave the feeder too close to the water cooler or the litter box? This can also cause cats not to drink the water from the trough as often as desired. In the wild, felines carry their prey away from where they drink, and our domestic cats also carry this trait in their genes.

In the following video we detail the reasons why a cat drinks tap water?


Why did my cat start drinking tap water if he didn't do it before?

Usually, when a cat suddenly starts drinking tap water and hasn't done it before, two things can happen: or he will drink because he is more thirsty than before or much less. if your cat drinks more than 100 ml of water per day, it can be considered that he has polydipsia, that is, that he drinks more than normal.

Since it is often difficult to determine the exact amount your cat drinks, especially if he drinks from the tap or multiple containers, you may suspect he is drinking more if he is drinking. drinking fountain is emptyer than normal, if you drink more often or for the first time from taps, cups or containers and even meow asking for it. Another way to tell if your cat is drinking more water is to look in her litter box and check for more urine than before, as this disorder is often associated with polyuria (wetting more than usual).


My Cat Is Drinking More Than Normal - Non-Pathological Causes

Polydipsia can occur due to non-pathological conditions, such as the following:

  • Lactation: Females during the lactation period need to drink more as water requirements increase to enable milk production.
  • high ambient temperature: In the hottest months of the year, the body's regulatory mechanisms are activated, and more water is needed to maintain the temperature of the internal environment. In other words, your cat feels hot and wants to cool off.
  • very dry food: Feeding the cat dry food greatly increases its need to drink water, as the food is dehydrated and therefore its moisture content is minimal. The solution and the best option for feeding cats is to alternate the ration with moist food, which contains more than 50% moisture.
  • Medicines: Corticosteroids, diuretics or phenobarbital may cause increased thirst and urinary frequency.
  • self-cleaning: if this behavior increases, it will also increase the loss of water through the saliva that is deposited on the animal.
  • Go abroad more: If your cat is going out more, exploring, hunting or marking territory, it will be more active and will need more water than a cat that doesn't leave the house.

If none of these causes explains your feline's polydipsia, perhaps it's time to consider that your feline may have an illness that produces polyuria or polydipsia syndrome.

My Cat Is Drinking More Than Before - Pathological Causes

Some of the possible illnesses that can make your cat drink more water than usual are:

  • Chronic kidney failure: also called progressive loss of kidney function, which is produced when there is prolonged and irreversible damage to the kidneys, which prevents the kidney's function from properly filtering and eliminating waste products. It occurs most frequently from the age of six years onwards, and polydipsia varies according to the severity of the kidney failure.
  • diabetes mellitus: in this disease, polydipsia is characteristic along with polyphagia (eating more than normal) and hyperglycemia (higher blood sugar level), as in most cases diabetes in cats is produced by resistance to the action of insulin, which is the hormone that is responsible for moving sugar from the blood to the tissues where it is used for energy. It is the most common endocrine disease in cats older than 6 years.
  • hyperthyroidism: or increased metabolism due to increased thyroid hormones. It is a common disease in older cats and is mainly characterized by polyphagia, but other symptoms are weight loss, hyperactivity, bad looking coat, vomiting and polyuria/polydipsia.
  • Compensating polydipsia: by diarrhea and/or vomiting, which will increase the need to drink water due to the risk of dehydration associated with increased fluid loss resulting from these processes.
  • liver disease: if the liver does not work well, there is no degradation of cortisol, which increases and leads to polyuria and polydipsia as a consequence. The other reason is that without liver there is no adequate synthesis of urea and, therefore, kidneys don't work well. This affects osmolarity and more water is lost in the urine, so the cat drinks more water. These symptoms usually appear in feline liver failure, along with weight loss, vomiting and/or diarrhea, jaundice, or accumulation of free fluid in the abdominal cavity (ascites).
  • diabetes insipidus: either central or renal in origin, due to lack of antidiuretic hormone or inability to respond to it, respectively. Diabetes insipidus causes polyuria and polydipsia because this hormone intervenes by preventing the kidneys from retaining water in the urine, causing urinary incontinence, among other things.
  • Pyometra on cats: also known as uterine infection. It occurs in younger or non-neutered female cats who have undergone treatments to stop heat or estrogen and progesterone therapies.
  • pyelonephritis: or kidney infection. Its cause is usually bacterial (E.coli, Staphylococcus spp. and Proteus spp.).
  • Electrolyte changes: A deficiency of potassium or sodium, or an excess of calcium can lead to polyuria/polydipsia.

cat drinking less water than before

Now that we've seen the causes why cats drink more water, let's see what drives them to drink less water (with the little they drink from the tap).

My cat is drinking less water than before - Causes and consequences

If your cat has suddenly stopped drinking water from the drinking fountain and is now interested in tap water, we recommend that you read the first section on "Why does my cat drink tap water?". If you don't see what the cause is, we recommend taking you to the vet.

On the other hand, it should be noted that most of the water that felines ingest in the wild comes from the meat of their prey, due to its high moisture content (up to 75%). Domestic cats retain this characteristic of their ancestors, desert cats, which makes our cats be prepared to subsist on little water, and therefore are able to assimilate the maximum amount of water contained in their food.

You can see this in stools, which are often very dry, as well as in urine, which is very concentrated and small in quantity. However, when the cat is mainly fed dry food and hardly drinks from the trough because it only wants tap water, it can appear. health problems derived from low water consumption, such as the following:

  • Dehydration: Your cat can resist a lack of water for several days, but if he doesn't drink water or remove it from his diet, he will become dehydrated. This poses a great risk to your health, as your cat needs to keep his body in fluid balance for circulation, proper functioning of organic systems, temperature regulation and waste disposal.
  • Constipation: lack of water causes the stools to harden more than usual, which makes evacuation more difficult.
  • Renal insufficiency: If your cat drinks less water, there is a risk of dehydration, which will cause the kidneys to receive less blood to filter and lose functionality. Thus, harmful substances such as urea and creatinine will remain in the blood, acting as toxins that damage tissues and reduce the organs' ability to function. Creatinine is produced when creatine is broken down to produce energy for the muscles, and urea is produced in the liver, the residue resulting from the end of protein metabolism.
  • lower urinary tract disease: this is a disease in which cats have difficulty and pain when urinating, polyuria, polydipsia, blood in the urine or obstruction of the urinary tract. Causes range from idiopathic cystitis, kidney stones or urinary stones, urethral plugs, infections, behavioral problems, anatomical defects or tumors.

How to prevent my cat from drinking tap water?

According to everything we've discussed, many cats drink tap water due to their nature, without this resulting in a health problem. It's different if he never did and starts drinking now, along with a clear increase in his thirst, without meeting any of the justifications we've already mentioned.

In these cases, it is best to take him to the veterinarian, where tests will be done to detect any organic changes and to provide an early solution. You shouldn't ban your cat from drinking tap water, but if that's a problem for you, there are some possible solutions:

  • Water source for cats: you can install a water source with a filter and that keeps the water in constant movement so that it will come out fresh, clean and in constant flow, it can be an effective solution to prevent your cat from drinking tap water.
  • Clean and change the water: ideally, this is often done at the regular drinking fountain, and moving it in front of the cat can help him drink water from there.
  • Wet food for cats: Offering wet food often helps the cat get water with the food, so it will need to drink less.
  • Milk for adult cats: milk for adult cats is another good source of hydration, but it is important to remember that it is a complementary food to a wet diet, as it does not have the nutrients that your feline needs to ingest daily.

If you want to read more articles similar to Why do cats drink tap water?, we recommend that you enter our Curiosities section of the animal world.