I spoke to a cat behaviourist recently (our cat Sidney went awol and had to be trapped to bring him back. He seems to have had some sort of psychotic break and now has mild ptsd, but is recovering v well.)
The lovely cat behaviour woman was a source of the most fantastic info, some of which was about water bowls. I will pass on what i can remember:
- some cats refuse to drink from 'tainted' water. The source of this taint can be the plastic in a bowl, washingupliquid residue, the smell of another cat, or similar. Metal or ceramic are best.
- cat food and cat water bowls should never be near each other. Move them at least 6 feet apart, preferably have them in a different room.
- cats like choice. There should be several different water bowls around, in different shapes, with different levels of security and different approach vectors
- some cats won't drink from a bowl that rattles against their collar tag, or bends their whiskers back (in which case try a wide, shallow bowl, never a deep one) or is positioned somewhere they could be pounced on from hiding, or brushed against in passing.
- stressed cats often fail to drink enough, making stress a major cause of things like Pandora's Syndrome, cystitis and crystals in urine.
Hope that helps.
