How to Get Your Cat or Dog to Drink More Water

Why hydration is worth your attention

Water does not get the attention food does, but for some pets it matters more. Cats are the clearest case. They descend from desert animals built to wring most of their moisture from prey, so their thirst drive is weak and they tend to run mildly dehydrated on a dry diet without ever seeming thirsty. Over years that low fluid turnover strains the kidneys and concentrates the urine, which sets up the crystals, stones, and cystitis that send so many cats to the vet.

Dogs drink more readily, but they are not immune. An older dog, a dog on dry food, a dog recovering from illness, or a dog in hot weather can all slip behind on fluids, and a dog who drinks too little is at more risk of urinary stones and struggles more with heat. Good hydration is quiet insurance for both animals: it keeps the kidneys flushed, the urine dilute, and the whole system working the way it should.

The good news is that intake responds well to simple changes. Most pets who drink too little are not sick; they just find the water on offer uninteresting, badly placed, or off-putting for reasons that are easy to fix. Change how the water looks, where it sits, and what comes with meals, and you can lift intake a lot without any drama.

Moving water beats a still bowl

A bowl of standing water is the least appealing option you can offer, and cats especially treat it with suspicion. In the wild, still water goes stale and harbors trouble, while moving water from a stream or a drip runs fresh, so a lot of cats are drawn to running water by instinct. It is why yours drinks from a dripping tap, bats at the toilet, or ignores the full bowl next to her food.

A pet fountain gives her that moving water on tap. The constant circulation keeps the water aerated and cool, filters out hair and debris, and the sound and movement pull a cat in to drink far more than a static bowl ever does. For a cat prone to urinary trouble, a fountain is one of the most effective single changes you can make. We ran several through months of use in our pet water fountain reviews, and the standout was the PETLIBRO Dockstream cordless fountain, which runs quietly, holds a big reservoir, and, being cordless, can sit anywhere in the room rather than tethered to a socket.

A fountain only helps if it stays clean, and this is where people fall down. The pump and filter clog with hair and slime over a couple of weeks and the water turns unappealing, so the fountain that boosted intake ends up ignored. Rinse the bowl and change the filter on schedule, strip and clean the pump every week or two, and it keeps doing its job. A neglected fountain is worse than a bowl, because a cat learns not to trust it.

Where you put the water changes how much they drink

Placement is the free, overlooked half of the problem. Many cats dislike drinking right next to their food, a leftover instinct to keep water away from a kill that might foul it, which is exactly why the water bowl paired with the food bowl often sits untouched. Move the water away from the food, to a separate quiet spot, and a reluctant cat often starts using it.

Offer water in more than one place, too. A cat should not have to make a special trip across the house past the dog or the noisy kitchen to get a drink; spreading a few water stations around the home means there is always one within easy reach, which nudges up the number of times she bothers. The same helps a multi-pet household, where one animal may guard a single bowl and leave a shyer one short.

The bowl itself matters more than you would guess. A lot of cats hate the way their whiskers brush the sides of a narrow deep bowl, so-called whisker fatigue, and will drink better from a wide, shallow dish that leaves the whiskers clear. Ceramic, glass, or steel stay fresher than plastic, which scratches and holds a taint some cats reject. And whatever the vessel, top it up with fresh water at least daily, because pets drink more from water that is clean and cool than from a bowl that has sat all day.

Height helps some dogs, and cleanliness helps them all

For dogs, and for older or larger animals in particular, the height of the bowl can affect how comfortably they drink. A dog with a stiff neck or aching joints who has to stoop right to the floor may cut a drink short, and raising the bowl to a more natural level lets her drink in a relaxed posture. Raised bowls also stay cleaner and slide around less. In our elevated dog bowl reviews the Neater Feeder Deluxe stood out for its mess-catching reservoir, which traps the splashes and dribbles a sloppy drinker leaves and keeps the floor dry.

Height is not right for every dog, so match it to the animal. Raised bowls suit older dogs, arthritic dogs, and tall breeds who find floor-level drinking a strain, but for a deep-chested breed at risk of bloat the advice is less clear-cut and worth checking with your vet. A small dog or a puppy needs the bowl low enough to reach comfortably. The gain from height is real but specific, and the bigger, universal win for dogs is simply keeping the water clean, cool, and always available.

Whatever bowl a dog uses, wash it properly and often. A slimy film builds on the inside of a water bowl within a day or two, and it puts dogs off just as it puts off cats. A daily rinse and a regular proper wash keep the water appealing, and appealing water is water that gets drunk.

Add water through food, not just the bowl

The bowl is only one route to hydration, and for a poor drinker the meal is often the better one. Wet food is roughly three-quarters water, against the low moisture of dry, so a cat on wet or partly wet food takes in far more fluid without having to drink a drop extra. For a cat prone to urinary problems, shifting some or all of the diet to wet food is one of the most reliable ways to raise her total water intake, and many vets recommend it for exactly that reason.

You can lift the moisture of a meal in smaller ways too. Adding a splash of water or a little unsalted, onion-free broth to wet food, or soaking dry food before serving, bumps up the fluid and often makes the meal more tempting into the bargain. Do it gradually with a fussy eater, and never leave wetted food sitting out long in warm weather, since it spoils faster than dry.

Keep an eye on the signs that hydration is off, because a sudden change in drinking is worth acting on. A pet who suddenly drinks far more than usual, or a cat straining in the litter box, going little and often, or passing bloody urine, needs a vet promptly rather than another fountain, since those point to a medical problem the bowl will not fix. We test the gear, not the animals, so treat a real change in thirst or a struggling cat as a reason to call the vet, and use everything here to keep a healthy pet well-watered in the first place.