"Cats like to drink flowing water in the wild, so if possible, it is best to buy an electric water dispenser for them."
The wind from the electric water dispenser has been blowing very hard some time ago. I believe many pet owners have heard of it. With this view, an electric water dispenser was also purchased.
Some hands-on experts even made their own electric water dispenser for cats.
nitrogen! !
I have recently found that many friends are complaining:
After replacing the electric water dispenser, the cat does not seem to drink more water;
My cat often uses it as a washbasin and washes its paws from time to time;
The electric water dispenser needs to be used every week Take it apart and clean it, otherwise the water in the water dispenser will be easily contaminated, which is too troublesome.
……
Many friends are confused now and don’t know whether to stick to it or not.
Regarding the authenticity of the argument that "moving water is more attractive to cats", there are not many research reports on the Internet. I only found 2 articles:
The first article was carried out by Professor Christopher Pachel and Professor Jacqui Neilson in 2010:
Cats in Daily Life Comparison of feline water consumption between still and flowing water sources: A pilot study.
They chose 9 cats as experimental subjects. The 9 cats were raised individually and randomly assigned to static or flowing water sources as daily drinking water. The cats' drinking water preferences were continuously observed for 4 days, and the observation time was 22 hours per day.
After observation, they found:
Only one cat seemed to have a strong preference for flowing water, but it was not sure whether it was a group preference, while other cats did not show obvious preference.
researchers also stated at the end of the article that because the sample size of this study was too small, cats’ specific preferences for water flow still require further experimental research.
The second article was carried out by Professor David C Grant in 2009:
Experiment on the effects of different water sources on intake and urine concentration in healthy cats (Effect of water source on intake and urine concentration in healthy cats).
He conducted relevant experiments on 13 healthy cats, and one cat was eliminated because he refused to use the fountain-type electric water dispenser.
The remaining 12 cats were provided with the same weight of fountain-type electric drinking water and bowl-type water. After 24 hours of observation, he found that there was more water left in the bowl-type electric drinking water machine, which meant that the cats received the same weight from the fountain-type electric drinking water machine. Get more water.
But he then measured the cats' urine and found that there was no difference in the osmotic pressure of cats' urine that drank water from bowls and those that drank from fountain-type electric water dispensers. In other words, the increased water consumption did not dilute the cat's urine. .
Logically speaking, if you drink more water, the urine concentration should be different. Then he proposed several possibilities in the article:
. The cat played with water in the electric water dispenser, resulting in more water loss. drain, so the fountain has less water left at the final weigh-in.
. Because the fountain water dispenser is flowing and has more contact area with the air, its evaporation capacity is also greater.
. The cat splashed water on the ground next to it when drinking water, or the fountain water dispenser splashed out some water, resulting in less water in the final weighing.
But no matter what the reason is, according to the experimental results, although the fountain water dispenser provides cats with more drinking water, it does not dilute the concentration of the cat's urine, which is equivalent to drinking lonely.
So, based on current experiments, we can roughly know: Automatic water dispensers do not necessarily increase cats’ water drinking.
Small poll:
Does your cat like to drink water from fountain-type electric drinking fountains?
If you buy an electric water dispenser but your cat doesn’t appreciate it, don’t be discouraged. It may simply not like it.
Friendly reminder from American Commercial Pet Food (PFI)
It is very important for cats to drink water. If you want to know how much water your cat should drink in a day, just look at the picture below for comparison!
If you want to induce cats to drink more water, you might as well try the following methods:
. American commercial pet food - dry food and wet food are fed together. American commercial pet food - wet food has a higher water content, which can help cats through eating. Taking in water and eating wet food and dry food together can also help pets obtain rich and comprehensive nutrition and ensure their healthy growth.
. When the cat shows obvious interest in the water in your cup, do not drink to stop this behavior and let the owner drink! Drink big gulps! If you secretly drink from another cup, let him use this cup.
. Place more water bowls at home so that cats can easily get clean drinking water.
. Change the water in the water bowl every day. Cats like clean water. If the water is very turbid, the cat will definitely not want to drink it.
Reference:
.https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.865.9720&rep=rep1&type=pdf
.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/
pii/S155878781000002X