Hi pet parents. Wally here. Y’know, we’ve talked before about the importance of us cats (and dogs too!) drinking enough water…and we’re gonna talk about it some more because many pet parents don’t realize that keeping us properly 
hydrated is as important as feeding us wholesome foods.
Proper hydration can help cats and dogs with things like:
– Preventing urinary tract infections and urinary disease
– Promoting healthy kidney function
– Aiding with energy levels and regulating body temperatures
– Speeding recovery time form sickness or surgery
Not drinking enough water can lead to dehydration which can be pretty serious. Signs of dehydration include vomiting and/or diarrhea, lack of energy, excessive and ongoing panting, loss of appetite, sunken and dry eyes, dry and sticky gums, and loss of skin elasticity.
And in the summer, with soaring temperatures, us cats and dogs can easily get dehydrated. If you find your pet exhibiting these symptoms, you’ll want to make sure he or she is seen by a vet as soon as possible.
So how can you get your cat or dog to drink more water?
One way is to feed them wet food rather than dry. Most canned cat foods are around 70-80% moisture whereas most dry foods are only around 10%. Us Island Cats eat mostly wet food so we get a lot of our daily water intake that way. You can even add a little water to the canned food to increase the moisture.
But another way of getting water is by actually drinking it, which most of us cats don’t do enough of. So making water attractive to us cats can help to entice us to drink more.
Us cats don’t like drinking dirty water or water out of dirty bowls. So you gotta keep those bowls clean and change the water frequently to ensure freshness. You may even wanna use filtered or bottle water since tap water contains yucky minerals or too much chlorine.
Many cats, me included, like the sight and sound of running water. But for some reason, humans don’t like to leave the faucet on. A pet drinking fountain is the next best thing to a running faucet. There are some pretty nice fountains available now.
Like the PetSafe Drinkwell® 360 Multi-Pet Stainless fountain which you can buy from Chewy.com. That’s right. Chewy sells more than just pet food.
It holds 1 gallon of water which makes it great for cats and small or medium size dogs…or for multi-pet households. The carbon filter in it keeps the water fresh longer and free from bad tastes and odors. It comes with 5 different interchangeable spouts so you can decide if you want 1 stream or up to 5 streams of water. It was really easy to set up…even the mom figured it out…and it’s easy to clean, too. You can put it in the dishwasher if you want. Just don’t put the pump in there. It’s fairly quiet…the sound of the falling water is very zen-like.
Hey, how’s that water, Ernie?
Very refreshing, Wally!
You’re right, Ernie!
*SLURP*
A drinking fountain can really help to get your pet to drink more water. We give the PetSafe Drinkwell® 360 Multi-Pet Stainless fountain BIG paws up! So if you’re looking to buy a fountain for your pet, you should definitely consider this one. Right now, Chewy.com is selling this fountain for just $55.20 which is an excellent price. And remember, all orders over $49 ship for free.
Disclosure: As members of the Chewy.com Blogger Outreach Program, we received the PetSafe Drinkwell® 360 Multi-Pet Stainless fountain as compensation in exchange for our fair and honest review. Chewy.com is not responsible for the contents of this post. The Island Cats will only share products and information that we feel are of interest to our readers.
30 Responses to “How to Get Your Pet to Drink More Water #ChewyInfluencer”
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We sure do make use of our fountains and that looks like a darn nice one!
I would really love to have a water fountain for Da Boyz, but The Hubby remembers that old one we got years ago, that scared the cats and was a waste of energy and $$! Maybe I should just purchase one, and set it up on a day he’s not around.
We need to get one of those. Tip Tail gets in the sink where the faucet drips and drinks there. Great review. Have a great day.
i’ve tried different fountains but the boyz prefer making me turn on the bathroom faucet for them. Thompson can get quite vocal about it.
That is the PERFECT fountain……….we won one of those in a giveaway. After a few weeks Mom and Dad realized that I’d learned playing in the water was more fun than drinking it. We had water all over the floors in spite of having a BIG rug under it! Besides I still would ask for a “sink drink”…..so Mom gave it to our local shelter for the kitties and THEY loved it (of course!).
Hugs, Teddy
We LOVE that fountain!!! Our mom wants one, but she says we’ll have to wait. It’s so important for kitties to drink enough water in this heat!
That looks like a great fountain. Water is so important.
A great fountain! We have a cleaned-every-morning bird bath so I get to it before the birdies, haha,
That looks like a pawsome fountain! My boys won’t drink from fountain although they would drink from the faucet!
That looks great!
I drink from my own mug. I like to dip my paw in and lick the water from it 🙂
Ohhhhhh that looks most refreshing and I might even want to stick my paw in it….so hot here in
NC. I’m thankful to be an in door kit kat,. I have always love water.
Hugs madi your bfff
I actually use and like my stainless stain 360 but TW hates it. She finds it too hard to put together. Also when she first got it, she thought the foam prefilter wasn’t necessary so she threw it out. Then she saw all the junk in the water the very next day and had to buy a package of them.
We have one here we are just about to set up!
Great review, and great advice ! Purrs
We have a fountain that all our pets love so much none of them drink from the regular water bowl anymore. I also put a little plain homemade chicken broth on the cats’ wet food. The’ll drink the broth even if they turn their nose up at the food!
That’s a nice fountain! We have two fountains we drink from but of course Mommy’s water always tastes best. Don’t tell her we drink it, okay? Anyway, great post with good info, boys!
Sam is so good about drinking her water, and it’s a good thing because she prefers dry food over wet (though she does lick every bit of gravy out of the wet food). But I credit her fountain for the fact that she drinks so well.
We used to have one for the dogs as well, but it broke when we moved. It came to our attention recently that Luke wasn’t drinking much water. He gets re-hydrated food and I put extra water in. But I think another fountain would really make him happy…he loved the old one.
This one looks nice, and not breakable like the ceramic one we had! I’m going to look at it and we just might order one!
Staying hydrated is SO important in this horrendous heat! That’s a very nice fountain 🙂
Great looking fountain! A spiget for each of you.
That looks like a really cool fountain! I like that it’s dishwasher safe. It’s hot here and my cats definitely need to stay hydrated.
That looks like a nice fountain. We paid $100 for a ceramic one when Puck was having urinary problems but he never used it.
it does seem very Zen like–I might have a sip!
IZA drinks lots of water from the bowl. Ayla and I are satisfyied by what is is the stinkey goodness. But TBT may add some to our wet foods.
We have a fountain, but not the one you mentioned here. Most of the boys like to drink from it, although Oliver struggles with snorting more than he drinks!
We don’t have a fountain yet and mom is really thinking about getting one.
What an awesome fountain! We have a different one and it’s pretty popular. We love this one too though!
Good post, Wally (and good drinking, Ernie). We have a fountain here, and Gracie (our senior sweetie) loves it. She drinks lots of water from it. Ava is learning to drink from it, too.
MeOW That’s great guys. We’ve seen that fountain ’round but never up close. Guess it was a special item this month. big hugs
Luv ya’
Dezi and Raena
We have the 360 and love it!!! Great review!
The Florida Furkids
That is a pawsome fountain! We used to have one years ago, but it was nothing like yours. MOL!