Every cat owner worries at some point during the hot months whether their pet is drinking enough. This is not an unjustified thought, as we all know that insufficient fluid intake can have a detrimental effect on almost all bodily functions and organs.
The drinking behavior of the cat - what you should know about the amount of liquid and the cat's fluid needs
Are you worried because your cat is not drinking or is drinking very little despite the rising temperature? We have summarized the most important information about the daily amount of water a cat drinks and the general fluid requirements of house cats. You will also find a few tips and tricks here on how to make the water bowl more appealing to your cat and motivate it to drink.
Below we will clarify the questions:
- What determines the amount of water a cat drinks daily?
- How much fluid does a cat need?
- My cat doesn’t drink or drinks too little – what can I do?
What determines the amount of water a cat drinks daily?
If your cat is an outdoor cat or spends a lot of time outside, it will probably instinctively drink enough there.
However, if you have a purely house or indoor cat, other factors come into play here - namely the type of feeding. As long as you feed your cat wet food, or better yet BARF , the food covers a large part of its fluid requirements. However, if your cat is fed additionally or exclusively dry food, the required daily amount of fluids automatically increases.
How much fluid does a cat need?
The rule of thumb for the daily drinking amount of the cat is:
60 ml per kilogram of body weight
So if your cat weighs 4 kg, its daily fluid requirement is around 240 ml. If you then subtract the moisture loss according to the manufacturer for wet food and BARF, there is usually not much left for the required daily fluid amount. However, if you feed your cat dry food, it should drink the appropriate amount of fluid per day.
To be able to judge this a little better, observe the color of the urine. If it is light yellow and looks fresh, then everything is fine. However, if it turns dark yellow to beer brown, then your cat is definitely not drinking enough.
My cat doesn’t drink or drinks too little – what can I do?
Motivating cats to do anything is a challenge. Therefore, convincing cats who are reluctant to drink to drink fluids requires a few tricks. Here are some suggestions:
- Set up a drinking fountain. The moving water makes the cat curious... maybe you'll get lucky?
- Offer your cat several drinking places spread around the house. This way you can at least cover the local preferences of the house cat.
- Maybe you should choose a different drinking bowl or a different material for the water bowl? For example: metal reflects, so cats often cannot judge the water level and therefore do not even try to drink. On the other hand, some cats like plastic drinking bowls very much.
- Pay attention to the shape of the drinking bowl: a wide and flat drinking bowl offers your cat enough space for its sensitive whiskers.
- If the cat is extremely reluctant, you can add unseasoned meat broth or blood to the drinking water. This has motivated many a cat to drink.
We wish you every success!
