My cat has decided to start dumping his water bowl over. Any ideas on how to get him to stop?
We have one of those self waterers. So it’s like a rectangle tray with a plastic bottle full of water on the top. My youngest cat, Timmy, is about 10 months old. He all of a sudden has decided it’s really fun to put his paw in the tray and pull really hard, spilling water all over the place. The first couple times he did it, I changed the water, thinking maybe something had fallen in it and it was dirty. I realized that wasn’t the problem, because he continues to do it. I tried putting the self waterer up and putting a different bowl of water down, but he did it to the regular bowl of water also. Has anyone else had this problem? Do you have any suggestions of what I can do to get him to stop?
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11 Answers
I would put a wide-base bowl down for awhile then replace that with the self-waterer again.It’s worth a try.My two cats are obsessed with water and stick their feet in all the time.They have wide based bowls now:)
I use a large dog-sized ceramic bowl currently.
You may need to get a really heavy ceramic bowl for yours since he has discovered how entertaining it is to tip over his water bowl. That’s why he’s doing it. He’s still a kitten and will make a game out of anything he can.
Years ago I had one of those self-watering things which was made to fit 2 liter size soda bottles. For me it was ideal since it was one way to recycle soda bottles.
One of my cats had other ideas. She discovered the amusement of the occasional air bubble gurgling up whenever the water level in the bowl part went down enough. Then she decides she could speed up the process by giving the thing a little nudge with a head butt to get that lovely bubble gurgling up.
Needless to say, after enough water ended up on the floor, I switched to a tip proof heavy bowl.
You need to do the same if you want to avoid constant spills.
I know that they also carry dog food bowls which have some type of suction cup attachment. Your kitty certainly isn’t the first to have discovered it’s fun to play with food bowls.
Timmy likes the attention he gets when he spills the water. Youngins like Timmy are high spirited and need almost constant interaction and attention. Go with the wide bowl suggestions and play with the little rascal.
Following on @Cruiser‘s suggestion, if he’s home alone a lot, start hiding treats around the house in places where he can find them, but that are challenging. They also make some toys that you can put a treat in and the cat will have to do a good bit of work to get it out. This can keep them entertained and stimulate their little brains.
Of course when I tried it I just kept finding treats that had gone undiscovered for weeks at a time.
get a non-dumpable water bowl – pet shops sell them, usually for dogs
I didn’t realize they sold dump proof bowls. I will have to make a trip to the pet store! Thanks all!
We have this problem with our two cats. The best thing we’ve found is to get a pet fountain. If the water is moving already they don’t seem as interested in making it move.
Throw him in a bucket of the stuff.See how he likes it.By the way this is a joke…well yeah it’s a joke.
as @candide said, there are bowls with wide bottoms and also rubber bottoms that make it extremely hard for the pet to knock them over. My relatives have german shepherds and they would constantly make messes with traditional bowls until they moved them over to these wide plastic ones. Check google for non-spill bowls.
1st, film the cat in action, and try to sell it to America’s funniest home videos…
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