Idiot cat and drinking water

[saladsmoothie]

He is fussy about water. Fine. A lot of cats are. And he's thirsty and shouting at me for water, no not any water, it has to be acceptable water.

I got him a big ceramic bowl for water which I keep in a different place to his food. No good. Tried various bowls in various places. No. Not even if washed and refreshed several times a day.

I put out a clean tea cup of water on the kitchen side. This is only acceptable if it's water I was intending to drink myself. Somehow he knows if it was poured for him. Unacceptable.

I run the bathroom tap for him to drink from. This is a very interesting and can keep him occupied for some time, but he doesn't actually drink much.

He pitifully licks the drops of water from my legs after a shower. I am NOT prepared to spray my legs wet for him to drink throughout the day.

I bought one of those bells and whistles pet fountains and he LOVED it for about 4 months and then it was old and no good any more. Yes, I was cleaning it properly.

He used to be prepared to sit in one side of the kitchen sink while the tap ran into the other side, and he'd drink from it, but (a) yuck, get out of the bloody sink, and (b) he's changed his mind about liking that now anyway.

What have I missed? Any tips and tricks to get idiot cat to drink water?

So.... suggestions are to get fish, or engage in mind games with the cat? hahahahahaha! Mind games with cats? Ahahahaha!

I've been in that nightmare. The only thing that our vet suggested (other than the drinking fountain, which did work for a while for us too) was to use a big glass bowl for the water - anything to make the cat think it was drinking out of a pond, stream etc. Not sure that ever worked for our cat, but worth a try.

Mine have wet food so I top up the food bowl with water at mealtimes. This is the only way I've found of getting them to drink at all.

Dirty rainwater is the firm favourite and licking the shower screen is a close second

Leave the toilet seat up. It's the only way

Ernie does drink quite a bit, (he is on dried food) but he likes to drink off surfaces...so the shower screen bits of plastic. He loves his fountain and I was surprised how often you have to change the filter before it smells.

But yes just at home with manky outside water

This thread is wonderful. Are we all quite mad? I'm sure all our cats must meet up for a pint and, through tears of laughter, tell stories about the lengths they drove us to; "...and then... and THEN... she only went and got a bloody FISH!!!!! Ahahahaaaaaaaaa!!!!!"

Right. As luck would have i, it pissed down an hour ago here. I've gone out and found a bucket of rain water and used it to fill up the water bowl. Lets see if that helps.

Both my cats are currently under house arrest so they can't go out (and are driving me crackers).

By the way - question for those of you saying your cats never have dry food - what do they eat? Am interested as I've been considering moving mine away from cat food and on to a more natural diet. Not really done enough research to make a decision yet, just an idea I've been meaning to follow up.

One of mine drinks the most water when I leave bucket of it in the kitchen for an hour prior to a fish tank partial water change.
He can't get enough of it.
The water bowl next the food rarely gets drunk from.