Split water and food bowls by a good amount of space. Opposite sides of the room, or different rooms altogether. And more than 1 water bowl. Apparently these tricks are useful.

[–] Madrigal@lemmy.world 34 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Yeah I only learned a couple of years ago that cats hate having their water anywhere near food. Moving bowls into different rooms made a huge difference to their water consumption.

[–] Maalus@lemmy.world 13 points 2 weeks ago

There is also a trick I used to do - fill the food bowl with water (wetfood only). The cat plucked it out of the water and then drank the water. They take in most of their water from drinking blood / when eating. Also important to feed them internal organs - chicken hearts, livers, etc.

[–] Rakonat@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago

My mom was a florist with a greenhouse attached to the house. Cats loved roaming the greenhouse to find mice of course, but by far their favorite was all the glasses of water my mom used to cut flowers with, we joked that one particular tuxedo cat had a refined palette and would only sip on rose water.

When those cats were thirsty, they didn't check the water by the dog food or one in their cat tree for a sip, they'd go right to the table and counter top and sniff around at every glass they could find till something seemed just right for them.

Me and my sisters pretty much had to go around the house collecting glasses every day we got home from school cause my mother couldn't be bothered to clean up after herself.