My cat, Abbie, keeps spilling his water.

[prole_for_peace]

He does it on purpose and it is making me absolutely nuts.

A few weeks ago be had an automatic water thingy but he somehow popped the reservoir off and knocked it in the other room. That was a total mess. So I took of the reservoir and just filled the bottom. I came home last Friday and the bottom was sitting where it usually is, next to the fridge, but it was empty and there was water everywhere. The tiles on the kitchen floor were curling up at the edges and coming loose and water would bubble from the seams when I walked on the floor. I had to roll out the fridge to soak up the visible water and used about 3 beach towels to get all the standing water. Every hour or so, more would seep out and I would have to get up the new puddles. Then I went to Petsmart and got a big ceramic straight sided dog dish that is very heavy even empty. I don't know what he does because I never catch him, but there is usually water splashed about on the floor and about 2 feet up the side of the fridge. I just got home and the floor was VERY wet again.

WTF??? I would just keep a bowl of water in the sink for him but my other cat is trained not to get on the counters or in the sink (Abbie is untrainable. He knows what I want he just refuses to comply) so that wouldn't work for her. I may have to kill him. :eyes:

[Lorien]

1. Is your automatic water thingy a circulating fountain?

Many cats won't drink still water-Abbie may be trying to send a message about that. Circulating fountains are available at PetsMart, and they're pretty much impossible to tip over.

[prole_for_peace]

3. No, it is one of the gravity auto waterers.

And he has never had a problem before.

I really think he does it on purpose. He has this smug look on his face as I clean it up.

[MidwestMomma]

2. My cat Walter was always knocking over the water glass

Yeah, that's right, my cats drink out of a water glass. (Please don't mock me because I'm a crazy cat person!)

For some reason I started giving the cats their water in a glass tumbler. Not a full size glass but a half size tumbler. (I think I started using the glass tumbler because one of them was always knocking over the water bowl. I honestly don't remember how it started though.)

Anyway, whenever the glass got half empty, Walter would paw at it to get my attention and then eventually knock it over. Then I got smart and put the glass in a bowl and that was the end of the problem. Walter would still paw at the glass, but it wouldn't tip over because it was in the bowl.

So maybe you could put a bowl of water inside a bigger bowl. I don't know. Cats are weird about drinking water.

One of my cats Patches prefers drinking out of the bathroom sink. Anytime you go in there, she runs and jumps on the sink and meows for you to turn on the water to drip.

I only have one undemanding cat named Scamper. She will just sit quietly by the water glass until I notice it's empty. Or drink out of the dog's water bowl.

My goofy Walter is gone. But I still put the water glass in the bowl.

Isn't it wonderful how our cats train us!:-)

[uppityperson]

4. knew a cat that played with the water he dumped

For some reason he enjoyed dumping the water then chasing it all over the floor. Bad tip of the day: Put an ice cube into the water dish to really get him splashing.

[demnan]

5. You need

to get a watering dish which is too heavy for the cat to upset. And cats do like to play with water. Also put the bowl on something that doesn't slide easily, like a outdoor type mat (something that could take a water spill without getting hurt).

[Love Bug]

6. Put a boot mat under the water/food dishes

My cats are messy, so I put a boot mat (the kind you rest snow boots on) under their dishes. The mat has a lip so any water can't run onto the floor. It's ugly, but it works.

[politicat]

7. Cats like oxygenated water. Still water loses oxygen.

So they play with it - smack it around, dab paws, drag the bowl around - trying to stir it up. One of ours did this; we did the whole process from small bowl to big bowl to multiple cups to the 2 gal water dispenser that didn't circulate. They now have a cat fountain, and it took care of all of the problems. The fountain cost about 25 USD at petsmart, or you can use a desk-fountain if the plastic is non-toxic.

Ours started doing this at about 8 of age, and Dr. Katz (that's his name!) our vet, said it's common as they get older and start to lose their sense of taste. Still water tastes flat to them.

A rubber placemat also helps keep the fountain in place, though ours don't try to move the fountain anymore.

Pcat

[Eurobabe]

8. My crazy demon does a similar thing

he scoops the water out with his paw, onto the hardwood floor that is NOT supposed to get wet or it voids the warranty. Thanks buddy!

They're a piece o'work aren't they?