Paw drinking

[JulieA]

We have a one year old beautiful gray and white long haired cat called Basil. He has a funny way to drink water, by dipping his paw into the water and drinking off his paw.

Has anyone else seen this happen? I wonder why he does it this way?

:-?

[Mike]

Originally Posted by The Alexanders

We have a one year old beautiful gray and white long haired cat called Basil. He has a funny way to drink water, by dipping his paw into the water and drinking off his paw.

Has anyone else seen this happen? I wonder why he does it this way?

:-?

That sounds like it could be amusing to watch, I have only ever seen that behaviour on TV. I wondered if it may be the size/shape/look of his water bowl :?:

My cat currently loves his latest toy, a scratching post

Regards

Mike ...

[TheGuru]

The Alexanders,

Maybe the answer could be in the books below.

<iframe width="300" height="300" scrolling="no" frameborder=0 src="http://rcm-uk.amazon.co.uk/e/cm?t=siliconhell-21&l=st1&search=cat%20behaviour&mode=books-uk&p=12&o=2&f=ifr&lt1=_blank"> <table border='0' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' width='300' height='300'><tr><td></td></tr></table></iframe>

Regards

The Guru

[madcat]

Hi,

From my experience they only drink like this when they don't feel comfortable with their drinking bowl. Maybe it's too small, or too deep from them to drink from. Have you tried a shallow bowl? Thats what we use with Jack.

Does he eat OK?

Maybe the water is too cold, and he is testing the temp... if you are concerned you should talk to your vet about this behaviour.

MadCat

I had a cat that would put one foot in the water bowl before he would drink from it. When he'd had his fill he'd take his foot out and shake the water off never failed to make me chuckle. He liked to drink the soapy water after I'd had a shower too. Weirdo!

[JulieA]

Thanks for the advice and thoughts received.

We placed a shallow dish of water near the normal bowl of water. Bazil looked at the new dish, but then went to the original bowl, stuck his paw into the water and proceeded to drink in his usual manner. ;-)

It musn't be the temperature of the water, as he did this right through our hot Aussie summer.

I think he's just 'different'! It's one of the reasons he endears himself to us.

[surkdidat]

On a sort of similar subject our cats love drinking directly from the tap, or quite happily sit in very shallow amount of water if you run it for them, ie they sit in the bath, and if you slowly run the cold tap they will quite happily sit in it, until its paw level, then thats a good enough bath for them!!

[JulieA]

That sounds amazing! I've never seen anything like that!

[madcat]

On a sort of similar subject our cats love drinking directly from the tap, or quite happily sit in very shallow amount of water if you run it for them, ie they sit in the bath, and if you slowly run the cold tap they will quite happily sit in it, until its paw level, then thats a good enough bath for them!!

Jack does that as well. If I run the tap in the sink, he jumps in to drink from the tap, then he plays with the water and bats it with his paw trying to stop it going down the plughole! He quite happily sits in the shallow water in the sink and has a wash.

MadCat

I dont own any cats as I have budgies so need to be careful My next door neighbour is the proud owner of 10 though so I'm generally surrounded with them. One in particular, Ernie, wont drink water from anything other than a babies potty! (obviously not used nor the original purpose) Very musing to watch