"Judy" wrote in message
. ..

"mahlon" wrote in message
lkaboutpets.com...
My one year old male cat is normal in all other ways except that he
regulary upsets water out of his water bowl. When drinking he places a
paw
in the water and then "paddles" the water out of the bowl onto the floor.
Why does he do this? How do I stop it? Any help would be appreciated.

mahlon

He could be doing this because he can't see where the water line is. Cat's
cant see the water line. When Matilda started paddling around in her bowl,
I
floated a top from a bottle of orange juice in the bowl. She can see the
cap - bright green - problem solved.

Hope this helps.

Judy and Matilda.


I've had three cats do this. Its a play thing. There's not really anything
you can do to 'stop' it - just fix a bowl so that there's not so much mess.
I've found that runniong water in sinks works - because then they splash,
but there's little mess. But then I have one male, Dylan, who is
fascinated with running water...and another male, Spike, who likes to drink
all the water he can out of the cat 'water cooler' because it gulps (air
bubbles). He spends quite a bit of time drinking water and watching it.
The vegetable bin idea is a good one; or one of those cheap cookie sheets
with sides...just something to catch the water. And make sure to get a
water bowl that doesn't tip - one of my cats, TC, learned to tip the water
bowl over - water everywhere.

As for the site thing: cats like most predators are slightly farsighted.
They have great vision for hunting and seeing distances - but not so good
close up. You'll find cats (and dogs) often don't like taking things, food
or drink, if its just shoved under their nose. They sometimes back away a
little to get a look. And I've seen all my cats 'nose' for water - sniff,
sniff, sniff, until they get the water on or up their nose - and then they
know where it is.

Bottom line: Most of the water behaviour either goes away or doesn't -
there's no real way to make them stop.

Melissa (+ Dylan, the sink drinker; Marlowe, a fellow paddler; Baghera,
fresh water only please; Isabelle, a queen of sophisticated taste - glass
only; TC, water splasher in spirit; and Felecia, queen of dribble)