Any suggestions about how to cure my kitty problem?

[Paper Roses]

Minor on the scale of things but....

Since I adopter her over a year ago, she has grown and is the most wonderful pet. She has an annoying habit of trying to drink out of the kitchen or bathroom faucets. I was told she was born on a farm. Perhaps an outside faucet was the only place to get water.
In an effort to cure her of this habit, I placed dishes of water on the backs of the toilet tanks, on her favorite window sill and on the floor by her food dishes.
I never see her drink water anywhere. It would be nice to cure her of all this but when I tried to place just her water bowl by her food, she would not touch it and jumped to the sink.

It looks strange to have cat dishes on the back of the tanks. She needs some kind of behavior modification but I don't know what else to try. Of course, I don't want her on the kitchen counter.

[zbdent]

1. maybe try some pop cans with some small stones in them

placed on the edges of where the faucets are ... the noise from them falling might turn her off from leaping onto the counter.

Also, you might try one of those bottles like the hamsters use:



That might satisfy her way of getting water.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. You might consider getting her a pet fountain.

She probably just prefers running water - one of mine is the same way; every time she hears me enter the bathroom she runs in and jumps up into the sink and demands that I turn the water on so she can drink. I just do it; it's easier than trying to keep her out of the sink. I also have a pet fountain that she and the others drink out of. Since I haven't tried to "cure" her of drinking from the bathroom sink I don't know whether the pet fountain would have satisfied her desire for running water. But you could try it. I have the CatIt fountain it's quiet and simple and the cats seem to like it.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

3. on a farm, running water is cleaner

she probably learned that from her mom, or figured it out on her own.

Our cat will turn up his nose at his water bowl if there is any in his rain bowl. My guess is that he prefers it to chlorinated tap water, just as I prefer filtered tap water.

That pet-fountain sounds like a cool idea.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. My cat who demands water from the sink was born on a farm.

She spent the first four months of her life running around outside with her mom and sister, probably drinking rainwater or running water from a hose. I hadn't thought of that angle, but it makes sense.

[intaglio]

5. Just a thought, how about something like this/

[rox63]

6. One of my cats loves to sip from the bathroom sink faucet

It drips a bit, and she will jump in the sink occasionally and drink the drips. But she also drinks from a water bowl. My other cat never lets me see him drink, although I know he must. He's perfectly healthy, so I know he's drinking enough water.

[azurnoir]

7. one of my cats prefers water from the faucet too and he is city born and raised

I think he just likes the colder cleaner water so a few times a day I leave the cold water running at a trickle for 15 minutes or so he gets his drinks then, also in the winter I leave the cold water at a trickle all night when its really cold old house little insulation pipes on outside wall keeps them from freezing

[applegrove]

8. In the wild cats drink from moving water. Maybe that is why she likes the tap. You can buy cat

'fountains' online the mimic the running water a wild cat is used to. My dad bought one for my very domesticated cat and she hated it.

[Curmudgeoness]

9. I will also endorse pet fountains.

I hate them. The cats always love them. There are so many kinds and I am not sure that it matters what kind you get, but maybe you want to look for one that has a stream of water since your cat seems to like that. Just do a search for pet fountains and you will see all kinds.

And if you just do not accommodate your cat when it jumps up to get a drink, it will have to drink somewhere else (although as one who lost a cat to kidney disease, I would let her drink any place she wants!)

[Rhiannon12866]

10. I've known lots of cats who prefer drinking from the faucet.

One of the two little guys here will do so if it's dripping. They now have a cat fountain and just love it. I've known several cat households that have them and the cats seem to prefer them over a water dish. And it keeps them from jumping into the sink.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

11. Mine will drink water from a bowl, but he will yowl and carry on if

there is a kibble or a piece of dust or anything else floating in it--even in the middle of the night

The first time it happened, he yowled so loudly (at 2AM) that I thought he must have kitty appendicitis or something equally dire, or else that he was seeing something frightening out of the window, like a building burning down.

But no, it was just a kibble floating in his water dish. Since then, I have called him Prince Kidley--or the Brat Cat.