Wonder why your cat drinks tap water? Don't worry, it's normal for cats to prefer to drink moving water, it's in their genes, whether it's from the tap, glasses just placed on the table, jugs freshly filled or similar. This is because felines are very intelligent and clean, so they assume that the water that comes out of the faucet is fresher than that from their drinking fountain, which it can be stagnant for several hours and contain possibly harmful bacteria or organisms.
In this article on our site, we'll tell you more about why cats drink tap water so you can better understand your companion feline.
Why does my cat drink tap water?
As we have mentioned, cats prefer to drink moving water But why? Why don't they want to drink the water from their drinkers? It is very important to know these answers, since our little felines need to drink 50-80 ml of water per kilogram of weight per day, but in many cases they do not reach this amount, which can be dangerous for their he alth. The main reasons why your cat drinks tap water are:
- Stagnant drinking water: On many occasions, stagnant water from your drinking fountains, especially in homes where they are not changed very often. often, it tends to cause them aversion and they drink from it what is strictly essential. Sometimes some cats even hit the bowl before drinking from it, in order to move the water a little.
- Genes: Wild cats only drink flowing water as a way to avoid diseases that can be caused by pathogens in stagnant water. The same thing happens to our domestic cats.
- Tap water is cooler: As a general rule, water tends to come out cooler from the tap. This is especially attractive in the hottest months of the year, when the water in your drinking fountains tends to heat up easily.
- Drinker location: Is the feeder too close to the drinker or litter box? This can also prevent them from drinking from the water bowl as often as desired. In the wild, felines move their prey away from where they drink, and our domestic cats carry it in their genes, too.
Why does my cat drink tap water if he didn't before?
Normally, when a cat suddenly starts drinking tap water, where it wasn't before, two things can happen: or drink more sooner, or drink much less. If your cat drinks more than 100 ml of water a day, it can be considered that he has polydipsia, that is, that he drinks more than normal. As it is often difficult to determine the exact amount that your cat drinks, especially if he drinks from the tap or from various containers, we can suspect that he is drinking more if the water bowl is emptier than normal, if he drinks more frequently or for the first time from taps, glasses or containers, or even if he meows asking for it. Another way to know that your cat is drinking more is to look at his litter box and check if there is more urine than he used to do, since this disorder is usually associated with polyuria (urination more than normal).
My cat drinks more than normal - Non-pathological causes
Polydipsia may be due to non-pathological conditions, such as:
- Lactancia: females during the lactation period need to drink more, as water requirements for milk formation increase.
- High room temperature: In the hottest months of the year, the body's regulatory mechanisms are activated, requiring more water to maintain the internal medium temperature. In other words, your cat is hot and wants to cool down.
- Very dry feed: feeding dry feed greatly increases the need to drink water, as the feed is dehydrated, so where the moisture content is minimal. The solution and the best option to feed cats is to alternate the feed with wet food, which contains more than 50% moisture.
- Medications: corticosteroids, diuretics or phenobarbital can cause increased thirst and increased urination.
- Grooming: If this behavior increases, so does water loss due to increased loss through saliva remaining on the animal.
- Go outside more: if your cat has taken to going outside more, exploring, hunting or marking territory, it will become more active and need more water than a cat that does not leave the house.
If none of these causes explains your feline's polydipsia, perhaps it is time to think that he has a disease that produces polyuria or polydipsia syndrome.
My cat drinks more than before - Pathological causes
Some of the possible diseases that cause your cat to drink more water than usual are:
- Chronic kidney failure: Also called progressive loss of kidney function, which occurs when there is long-term, irreversible damage to the kidneys that prevents the correct functionality of filtering and removing waste from the blood. It occurs with more incidence after 6 years of age and polydipsia will vary depending on the severity of kidney failure.
- Diabetes mellitus: this disease is characterized by polydipsia together with polyphagia (they eat more than normal) and hyperglycemia (more blood sugar) because in most cases diabetes in cats is caused 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 in the form of energy. It is the most frequent endocrine pathology in cats older than 6 years.
- Hyperthyroidism: or increased metabolism due to increased thyroid hormones. It is a common disease in older cats characterized mainly by polyphagia but with weight loss, hyperactivity, poor coat, vomiting and polyuria/polydipsia.
- Compensatory polydipsia: due to diarrhea and/or vomiting that will increase the need to drink water due to the risk of dehydration that entails a greater loss of liquids derived from these processes.
- Liver disease: If the liver is not working properly, cortisol is not broken down, so it increases and, as a consequence, polyuria and polydipsia appear. The other reason is that without the liver there is no adequate synthesis of urea and, therefore, the kidneys do not work properly either, where osmolarity acts, so more water is lost in the urine and therefore the cat drinks more water. These symptoms usually appear in feline liver failure along with weight loss, vomiting and/or diarrhoea, jaundice or accumulation of free fluid in the abdominal cavity (ascites).
- Diabetes insipidus: either central or of renal origin, due to lack of antidiuretic hormone or inability to respond to it, respectively. Diabetes insipidus leads to polyuria and polydipsia because this hormone intervenes by preventing the kidneys from retaining water in the urine, generating urinary incontinence, among others.
- Pyometra in cats: also known as uterine infection. It occurs in older unneutered or younger cats who have undergone treatments to stop heat or estrogen and progestogen therapy.
- Pyelonephritis: or kidney infection. Its cause is usually bacterial (E.coli, Staphylococcus spp. and Proteus spp.).
- Electrolyte disturbances: if there is a lack of potassium or sodium or if there is too much calcium, it can lead to polyuria/polydipsia.
Now that we have seen the reasons why cats drink more water, let's see what leads them to drink less water (and that the little they drink is from the tap).
My cat drinks less water than before - Causes and consequences
If your cat has suddenly stopped drinking water from the drinking fountain and is showing interest in tap water instead, we recommend reviewing the first section on "Why does my cat drink water from the tap?" faucet?". If you can't detect the cause, we recommend you take it 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 their high moisture content (up to 75%). This characteristic is maintained by the domestic cats of their ancestors, the desert cats, which makes our felines prepared to subsist with little water, so they are capable of assimilating the maximum amount of water contained in their food. We can verify this in their feces, which are usually quite dry, as well as their urine, which is very concentrated and of little quantity. However, when the cat feeds mostly on dry food and hardly drinks from its drinking bowl because it only wants tap water, he alth problems may appear 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 get it in his diet, it will become dehydrated, which is a great risk to its he alth, since your cat needs to keep its body in fluid balance for circulation, the correct functionality of organic systems, regulate its temperature or eliminate waste.
- Constipation: the lack of water makes the stool harden more than normal by trying to absorb as much water as possible from it, which makes them more difficult to eject.
- Kidney failure: if our feline drinks less, there will be a risk of dehydration, which will cause the kidneys to receive less blood to filter and lose functionality, which leads to harmful substances such as urea and creatinine remaining in the blood, acting as toxins that damage tissues and reduce the ability of organs to function. Creatinine is produced when creatine is broken down to produce energy for the muscles, and urea is produced in the liver, being the residue resulting from the end of protein metabolism.
- FLUTD: This is a disease of the lower urinary tract in which cats have difficulty and pain when urinating, polyuria, polydipsia, blood in the urine, or obstruction of the urinary tract. The causes range from idiopathic cystitis, urinary calculi or stones, plugs in the urethra, infections, behavior problems, anatomical defects or tumors.
How to prevent my cat from drinking tap water?
According to everything we have been discussing, many cats naturally drink tap water, without this resulting in a problem of He alth. Another thing is that he has never done it and is starting to do it now together with a clear increase in his thirst, without this responding to any of the justifications that we have been giving. In these cases, it is best to take it to a veterinary center where they will do a check-up to detect any organic alteration and be able to give it an early solution. You shouldn't prohibit your cat from drinking tap water, but if it's a problem for you, there are possible solutions, like:
- Water fountain for cats: put a water fountain, which contains a filter and is in continuous movement, so the water it will come out fresh, clean and in a constant flow, it could be an effective solution to prevent your cat from drinking tap water.
- Cleaning and changing the water: the ideal is to do it frequently in its usual drinking bowl, and even moving it in front of your cat can help Let him drink from it.
- Wet cat food: Frequent feeding of wet food helps your cat get water with feeding and needs to drink less.
- Adult cat milk: Adult cat milk is another good source of hydration, but keep in mind that it is a complementary food to the feed or wet diet, because it does not have the nutrients that your little feline needs on a daily basis.
