Why does my cat paw at her waterbowl?

Maybe she doesn’t trust you and is just checking if everything’s alright with the water.

She is feeling to see where the top of the water is. They can’t see it.

@bvdshec17 ; xD Maybe so! But I doubt it. I love my Blizzie-bear.

@davidbetterman ; They can’t see water? that sounds so stupid… I sound naive.

Okay, she is looking for the fish.

Cats prefer moving water.

It’s because the water bowl is too small. You need to get a bowl sized dependent on the size of their head and whiskers. Cat’s do not like when their whiskers touch the bowl when they drink.

My girlfriends cat not only paws at it, but he then drinks the water off his paw b/c he doesn’t want to drink out of the bowl. (So it’s like he’s scooping the water, like a human would if he had to drink out of a river or something)

@mrrich724 ; so thats why she drinks from the side…

This is what I use.

That Platinum Drinking Fountain probably works well, as I’ve heard cats like drinking from running water.

@troubleinharlem
That’s what our cat does too! I think we found our problem ;) Get a bigger bowl, or a fountain like @dpworkin has.

Here is another good looking one: http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3443868

I have two Maine Coons that do it because they like to play with water and make a mess :)

@mrrich724 Not my cat. He will shove his head right down into our glasses to get a drink of our water (my wife and I). It is like the Borg… you will be assimilated just give up and let him drink, knowing that what is his is his and what is yours is his.

It is true that cats cannot see immediately at the end of their nose, but they use their vibrissae as sensory organs.

It has nothing to do with bowl size – my Siamese does the same thing with the 2 quart dog bowl that she drinks out of. She also likes to lick it from her foot.

It’s thought that the pawing action is a leftover from the motion used to clear leaves and detritus from the surface of puddles and streams in the wild. Like many obscure behaviors, we can only make educated guesses.

I also had one cat who would always only drink the water off her paw and not from the bowl.

I theorized that during the time before when I adopted her and she was a stray that’s what she learned to do since she was most likely drinking from dirty puddles.

After all, what better water filter than a nice fuzzy paw :D

But with most of my cats I’ve also noticed the pawing behavior from time to time with both food and water.

I just chalk it up to instinctual behavior as it doesn’t relate much to their present reality of clean food, water, and dishes.

Checking the temperature before she drinks??!?!?!?!?!