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Hello I was just wondering if some of you had any suggestion on how to deal with the water dish issues :) Dexter will not stop putting is paws in it. There is water on the floor everywhere by his dish, he keeps on pulling on the dish causing spills. Any Ideas ?
Thank you
I'd love to know the answer to that one, every day we are mopping up spills. Hubby did suggest nailing the dish to the floor (bit drastic) but I think he'd still scrape it out.
I guess I am lucky! Hector and Roxy are quite happy just to sit and watch their water fountain (I've prob jinxed that now!)
I'm forever mopping up water from the kitchen floor but not from Simba who is a very neat drinker compared to my two brutes of dogs who slobber it up all over the place and then seem to hold mouthfuls of water of which they let go of half way accross the floor. I honestly don't think I'd notice if Simba spilt any:LOL: I have seen Simba having a drink before and one of the dogs comes over and shares the bowl with him. (we have a very large water bowl) Elsa lifts up her head and dribbles all the water in her mouth out which often lands on Simba's head if he doesn't get out the way quick:LOL:
Never found any solution to water mess I'm afraid except to keep an old towel handy. Keeps the floor nice and clean though:smile:
Hi there, I had a cat once who did this. He would not drink until he had moved the dish across the floor, spilling water. Someone told me this was because he can't see the surface of the water and wants it to move about in order to gauge where it is. Another theory is that such cats have a bit of a throwback to living wild and like to think they're drinking from a large expanse of water, complete with waves.
Either way, there's not much you can do! What I did was to get a great big ceramic dog water dish, which says 'DOG' on it, and he couldn't move it as far, but he had a go, every time! Good luck!
Find Dexter a new home.......
No,didn't think you would go for that.
I am sure there is not an answer other than have a water bowl with a lid on it & small hole to put a straw in & then teach our brainy cats to suck but knowing them they would blow even if they were that clever.I am the same as everyone else,I have them paddle in it,lay with front paws in while they drink,one who lays with front legs wrapped round the dome of the water fountain & walks away with all his front dripping wet as well,I have tried litttle bowls,big bowls,deep bowls & shallow bowls,heavy bowls to stop them being pushed around the floor & guess what,I am still in the army of "moppers" & very clean floors,but come on what better way to wake up than paddle in great big puddles with bare feet.......or even better still, you have guests round & a cat comes flying through & jumps on their laps & wraps very wet legs & feet around their neck & ask for a big kiss !
Lets see if anyone out there has cracked it yet..
Oh I am feeling so smug:rofl: But then again I have to mop around the food bowls a couple of times a day! Hector does like to take a great mouthful of food from the bowl and drop it not on the mat under the bowls but on the floor then eat it in delicate little mouthfuls:LOL:
Wellynton Boots is packing his bag to come & show Hector & Roxy the proper way to drink from a water fountain......
I will put an extra food bowl down...........and buy a new mop!!Quote:
Originally Posted by jckkerrison
Ours go through periods of a couple of days when they will each like to splash water or move a bowl, but nothing permanent. Perhaps if you got him one of the fountains he would enjoy seeing the water move and not do so much splashing. Three of our four love the fountains and do most of their drinking from them. Zephyr often sleeps right next to one:
We have ceramic water dishes which Louie or the dogs cant move but have to have another dish underneath to catch the overflow when Louie is in a stir the water round mode :LOL: at least he cant sit in the big one now :rofl:
Chester likes to dip his paws in the water. He can't move his bowl without a struggle as it has a rubber rim at the base of it, so it sticks in the spot where it's placed. This seems to work.
I have a water fountain outside they can splash around in surrounded with pebbles and I also have a big rubber based bowl in the ensuite bathroom.
Sarah plays less in the water now but Zack puts his foot in it when he drinks and splashes it around the bathroom the rest of the time - at least it is on the tiles and there is a drain!!
Thank you all for the fantastic suggestion, I will buy a water fountain this weekend. He loves getting his paws wet then use his litter tray. We end up with hundreds of little grey paw prints on the dark wood floor. He just chirp at us when he sees the mop :)
Ours is a Hagen Cat it one, there is a mat you can also buy which holds it in place. The fountain sort of clips into it.
I like that it holds a couple of litres so you know they will not run out of water when you are out.
Ha! We had to take the spigots off the taps in the utility because Hobbes kept turning them on so he could get a drink! This is despite having three water bowls and a washing up bowl in the utility sink full of fresh water AND one of those neat Water Fountain affairs.
Spike cuddles the water bowl, but doesn't dip his paws in; Whisper paddles with just one paw and then leaves little one-legged paw prints all over the kitchen floor. Hobbes has been in the shower with my husband..........and I still maintain that the best way to get a guy to put the lid down on the loo is to get a kitten! All of our have tried to slurp toilet water in the past!
It's just a Maine Coon "thing", I guess!:LOL:
I do have to warn anyone buying a fountain that while your cats may love them, you may grow to hate cleaning the darn things. They definitely tend to get mold growing in them and bits of food and hair can get into the pumps, so you periodically need to completely disassemble them (including disassembling the pump) and clean them well. One of ours is much easier to clean than the other, and this is something I would pay attention to when purchasing another one. I have found that ours can go only 3-4 days between minor cleanings (replacing all the water), and at least every two weeks you need to clean them quite well. The biggest pain is taking apart the pumps, but one of ours also has lots of little crevices in the top that get mold growth and are almost impossible to remove. You will almost certainly need brushes such as those sold specifically for the fountains. I cannot understand how not a single fountain that I have seen has a filter before the pump, to prevent debris from being sucked into the pump. They all have these "filters" that are mainly designed to remove chlorine, but do almost nothing about debris in the water.
Another consideration is that there are different designs in terms of water flow. Some just have water bubbling up, some allow it to flow down a slide, and others have a stream splashing into the base. I refuse to have a noisy splashing one, but we have one of each of the others, as two of our MCs like the bubbling action and one likes the flow. I actually took the top off the flow one so that it also has bubbling action. Thus, two of our cats will use both, one cat never ever uses the bubbling only fountain, and our fourth MC never uses either of the fountains (she like bowls in the sink).
I definitely feel they get our MCs to drink more water, but they are rather a pain!
sounds like a lot of work to clean it...i do a fair amount of pumps clean up already with our rather large reef aquarium. Might have to try the large ceramic dog bowl:)
Have to agree with NCarver they do take some looking after,we originally had one out in the cat pen,another in the hallway & a third in their room,the only one remaining is their room all the others we replaced with good old water bowls....
We tried a couple but ended up with the Catit fountain as they seemed to prefer having the choice of lapping off the dome or using the water bowl part,I have never added the food bowl part included as whatever you put in it would have ended up all awash. They do like it though & Bruce very often wanders past all the water bowls to use it although being a very precious MC he doesn't like paddling in the water left around the bowls by the others.
As for the cleaning I am very lucky as being female I don't really understand the mechanics of these things{who said that} it takes me several attempts to fill the dome & get it back in the right place, Wellynton Boots & hubby get very frustrated watching me,Welly because he loves to chase all those extra air bubbles that come up when you first switch it back on & hubby because " I would have had it done in seconds" .Now come on ladies,it does help to look a bit confused on some occasions doesn't it ?
I go by the motto that when it helps to appear thick,use it.....! because yes getting your little brush into those small places does take a bit of time.....
My solution was to put the cat water dishes outside... Gryfn plays in them... we have one water bowl inside but he doesn't tend to play in that one as much as they can go outside all day and play in the other bowls...
There's nothing more fun that his wet paws but when he wants a cuddle... :rofl:
Bubbies Have you tried a deeper bowl.
I have a house full of water splashing - water paw flicking coonies
the splash bowl - big wide is located in the shower bay - they can play to their hearts content.
Water bowls are deeper - come up as high as their chest - so they still paw either side of the drinker - but not flooding the kitchen. Good Luck with your adorable coonie bub. Cynthia
I hate to sound smug, but Freyja's got two fountains - one Drinkwell Platinum in the kitchen, and one small CatIT Pink in the study. As a result of having the fountains, she drinks heaps more water now than she did when we had bowls. But aside from occasionally flicking water on the kitchen floor from the Drinkwell's "fawcett", we have no water mess. At all. I know you all now hate me now...
They sound a great idea.Quote:
Originally Posted by FreyjaRoMaine
I will try and find 1 to start with!!
Our Dexter was exactly the same, maybe it's a Dexter thing! we bought a water fountain which he paws the side of but does not put his paws in it, so no more mess from that. He still likes to jump in the bathroom sink however, with the tap on and splash the water around scoopong it up with his paws to drink, but I think we're gonna have to live with that one. Apparantly they stir the water around to get air/oxygen into it as stagnant water is likey to harbour bacteria ( a throw back from their wild ancestry, which is why they like running water, because it is safer). Lisa xxx
Thats two of us then! I was starting to think I was the only one with tidy drinkers.Quote:
Originally Posted by FreyjaRoMaine
I have purchased a large ceramic doggy dish. He is not able to move it :) That seem to have fixed the issue but cut off his fun... So I now keep a large lasagna glass dish outside for him to play in. I only have to fill it with fresh water and he jumps in it with all 4 paws.
Really something to see. :smile:
Our first Maine Coon, Whodini, would tip his water dish over all of the time. I purchased a very flat and wide dog dish, similar to the one Bubbies mentioned above, and that did the trick.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bubbies
For our new kittens, we bought a CatIT fountain and both James and Penny are not too sure about it yet. I put a bowl down just to make sure that they would get some water while they are getting used to it and I noticed that James already has similar tendencies to Whodini. He spilled the bowl within minutes of discovering it :rofl:
Now, don't laugh, but when I first brought Freyja home she was curious about the Drinkwell fountain but not brave enough to do anything with it or near it. Two weeks it sat there, chugging away, and she would just stare at it like it was a TV. But not drink from it, or even dip her paws in it - she generally gave it a wide berth.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cindel
One afternoon I was playing with her on the kitchen floor and trying to persuade her to try the fountain, and I don't know what possessed me to do it, but I got on all fours and pretend to lap water from the fawcett, and then the pool. And I swear on Freyja's fluffy little paws, she copied me. She came right up and watched me, then drank from the pool. It took her a little while to build her confidence up with the fawcett (not helped by the fact she kept getting her lynx tips under the flow when lapping from the pool) but by that evening she wouldn't leave the fawcett alone either. It might have just been bizarre co-incidence, but she wouldn't touch it before that afternoon and I was contemplating removing it altogether. Since then, she's been great and we've got her a second one for a different floor. Took to that like a duck to water.
So, if you don't mind looking and feeling like you've been released too early from the local Asylum, give it a go!
Both James and Penny have the exact same reaction to the CatIT - they sniff at it and stare at it with complete facination and are not sure what to do with it. I put a more sturdy bowl down next to it and James likes to dunk his paw in the bowl, lick it and then stiff at the CatIT :LOL: It is so funny!Quote:
Originally Posted by FreyjaRoMaine
I may try your suggestion if they still don't get it after a couple of days. Thanks for the tip - I am always willing to act loony for my pets :shy:
Pictures please of proud mums showing their babies how to use a water fountain,I would never doooo anything like that,with the curtains open that is....!
Gives you a giggle just imagining bottoms up in the air {mums of course}& lapping away !
anna put dish in her cage she just paws the water out.... got small litter tray for dish ....no water left in dish but its in the tray .....
do not use dish... just put litter tray half full of water she stands in it plays then drinks it
the carpet and her quilt are :rofl: wet
Sadly, no wide angle lense in my house. Trust me, I don't have the kind of posterior that should ever be posted on the internet, especially when it's pointed skywards from the kitchen floor...Quote:
Originally Posted by jckkerrison
I have to admit, I did get a fit of the giggles when I realised JUST how ridiculous I would look if my neighbours glanced in!
I'm on my second Maine Coon. The first died just after 5 months from a birth defect. :( Fortunately our second, Martian, is quite healthy, despite a pollen allergy. ANYWAY, both of these Coons were and are total nuts with water! When little Moxie was alive we had to use a giant glass mixing bowl. Even though it was quite heavy he'd still knock it around. It almost seemed like the goal was to see the water move (???). Now with Martian we have a Drinkwell fountain. Every single time, without fail, he paws at the little waterfall, then paws the floor around it, like he's shuffling. It almost looks like a little dance! Then after this initial insanity, he'll finally drink from the water spout. Adding to this hilarity, he drinks really loudly and sounds like a Great Dane or something.
It's fascinating to me that odd water habits could be so breed specific. I'd always had Siamese and only once had one that scooped water and drank from her paw. All the others drank normally. But these two Maine Coons, and these are my only experiences with this breed, were/are both very peculiar with water.
I read somewhere that they're reverting back to a fishing instinct from their ancestors. Apparently hitting the water and making it move gets rid of reflections so they can see fish better. I have no idea if this is true, but it's a fascinating theory!
Hiya, they paddle around to clear 'leaves' from the water, one of ours paddles, the other stands on the edge of the bowl untill it tips a bit and that seems to satisfy his urge to clear the water. Ours very rarely manage to splash outside the bowl because our trick is.... A piece of large clear perspex on the floor (means you don't notice it) this prevents any splashes making it to the wooden flooring (just incase), and as for the bowls we have a large straight sided ceramic dog bowl inside a large metal sloped sided bowl, the water only makes it as far as the second bowl, hey presto!!! Although this means there is a lot of water to be drank we do obviously still change it through out the day. Hope this helps.
I am no longer feeling so smug Roxy has discovered the delights of playing in the fountain. She came in and jumped onto my knee for a cuddle and the back of her head was wet, also her feet front legs and various splashes all over. Methinks a certain Welly has been sending vibes to her!