She keeps moving her water bowl

[tabulahrasa]

it's driving me insane...

she drinks a bit, sticks her paws in it then scrabbles round beside it and pulls it across the room, then starts again

Why? How do I stop her?

I'm having to refill it constantly because she's spilling it all and I'm forever mopping up puddles

Can anyone at least think of a bowl that she wouldn't be able to do it with?

A friend solved this with a stone bowl which she had bought to grind spices. Or how about a large bowl with stones in the bottom? Or a bowl from the garden centre?

I guess she is trying to cover it over, like they do with their food. Only there is nothing to dig up and cover it with of course, unless your kitchen is outdoors!

Our cat does this sometimes too.

All part of what makes her special. (Grrrrrr).

but covering it makes no sense, I mean if you cover water with earth it's not water anymore is it, just mud... still lovely as my cats are I suppose they're not the sharpest crayons in the box, lol

I think stones might be a pita for emptying and cleaning, but a pestle and mortar type bowl might work, they're pretty heavy

that's what I was struggling to come up with, something heavy that wasn't so big that she'd make just as much of a flood by paddling in it, lol

Have you tried using a wide shallow bowl? Apparently cats prefer this. They also like their water to be kept some distance from their food (this is possibly some sort of throw-back to when they were eating in the wild and the dead meat might contaminate their water supply).

yep we had a big dog's bowl of water in the hall (dog died at the end of the year ) that was quite clearly a cat paddling pool and she could tip it over, lol

we've had those ones where it's two bowls in one - she couldn't tip it, but she was ruining her food moving it as well

we've had various bowls in various places because she's a relatively new cat (she's nearly 6 months old) and we had a dog and cat already when we got her, so they all have their own sets of bowls...

which is why I was trying on here as I've got a fair variety of bowls, so I was hoping for ideas I might not have thought of

I know it's not a major issue, it's blooming irritating though, lol

oh do you think a carpet tile might work? she'd still be able to make a mess, but she shouldn't be able to empty it, hmmm - I'll add a pestle and mortar and a carpet tile to my shopping list

Do you have her water bowl near her food? Some cats don't like to drink by their food for some reason. Our cat hardly drank anything until the vet suggested putting a water bowl in another room. As soon as we put one upstairs he started drinking a lot from the upstairs bowl. Still doesn't drink from the bowl in the kitchen.

As has already been said but I'll reitterate they do not like their water source near their food source.

give her a water bowl in another room of the house, we don't bother anymore girl cat drinks out of the glass of water by my bed (replaced fresh every evening) and wedges her head in it to drink if need be. Boy cat sits by kitchen tap and complains loudly until one of his servants turns tap on for him

CarGirl, do your cats have access to water when there is no glass of water by the bed or person to turn on the tap?

Just asking because I had no idea about the issue of cats not wanting water by their food until he was 10 years old, last year when he had cystitis and the vet told me. I wish I had known this and given him continual and conventient access to water somewhere else in the house. Since they told me about the water by the food thing I put water upstairs in our bedroom and by doing this noticed that suddenly he was drinking really often throughout the day so I took him to the vet and, as a result, today have got his blood test results back to say he has early kidney disease. It's good (in hindsight) to make sure they always have access to fresh drinking water, even when you're not there. All those years he wasn't drinking enough water because he didn't like where his bowl was. I can't help thinking if he'd had water where he wanted it at all times he may not be in this position. [Guilty emoticon]

the one that she's worst with is in the kitchen with the food - but she does it with the one in the living room too and she did it with the one that was in the hall

at the moment she's banned from the bathroom for playing in the toilet

I suppose she might just like playing with water?

It's nippy anyway, lol, because obviously my house has puddles in it, lol, my other cat's never got anything to blooming drink and it's making her twitchy because the older cat is firmly of the opinion that water should only be in bowls and not anywhere that she might get it on her in anyway at all

I think they play with water sometimes because they think that it might be icy and they're breaking the ice. Not so good if you have carpets or wooden floors that don't like flooding. Our cats (Maine Coons) do this, although they all like drinking from the pond unless it's frozen, if the pond's available they ignore tapwater.

Maine Coons are renowed for putting their paws in water to make it mvoing and prefer moving or non-tap water.

The glass of water is by the bedside 24/7 for mine, I have it at night to take my tablets and then it's left for the them during the day. In the evenings there is often a fight on to keep them out of whatever current glass I am using, obviously stolen water is preferred

Overnight we leave them a cup of water on the worktop as far as possible away from their food but what happens is that they race upstairs to drink out of my glass!

Our cat (Maine Coon) plays with his water, drops his food in and then eats it. Then when he's had enough he carefully pulls the mat out from underneath his bowls and places it on top of the food and water.

MIL (with 3 maine coons and stumpy the persian) has a water fountain, the main coons still stir it with their paws!!!