quote:

Originally posted by Timdogg6:
I have had cats my whole life. I recently read that cats need more than one water source as they can hoard water. As in if you leave one bowl out, they leave it alone, they want it but they save it as just in case water.

If you put out a second bowl in a second location, they will drink from either bowl as they know there is a second source. I'll be dammed the minute I did it cat began drinking regularly multiple times a day.

I highly recommend trying this.

It's not just hoarding water. As they get older, they get lazier and many develop arthritis resulting in not putting much effort into getting water. I've seen the recommendation and concur that one water bowl/fountain on every level of the house.

At first, my cat was OK with only the 1.3 gallon fountain in the kitchen and used it throughout the day. Then, I moved from a 2-story house in Alaska to a 2-story house in Canada. Same furniture in the same rooms both houses, but for some unknown reason she began spending the whole time I was at work upstairs and not coming down to main level to drink. I noticed a decrease in water fountain depletion in kitchen and an increase in litter box urine smell (i.e. likely getting thick and unhealthy again). I ended up putting a 2nd identical 1.3 gallon fountain in Upstairs master bathroom, that fountain went through quite a bit of water, kitchen water usage remained steady, and litter box urine smell returned to normal. IME, the one fountain/bowl per level of the house made a difference.