Cats playing in their water bowl

[hopefulcece]

Hi all! I have 3 cats but having some issues with my two 7 month old kittens at the moment.

We have 2 drinking fountains, on upstairs and one downstairs, for the cats to drink from (for reference they are both drinkwell sedona fountains)

and the two kittens about a month ago have started digging, splashing and playing with the water. They even pull off the ceramic housing for the filter and mess that around.

They know its wrong and run away when I scold them but I'm scared to punish them for it in case they associate their drinking water as a bad thing.

They both drink normally from the fountains and them playing is a seperate action altogether but I need help!

They get water everywhere and are pulling the damn things apart

side note: they have ALOT of toys that they also enjoy playing with and several large cat trees/ hide holes

[Mollycat]

Are these kittens any particular breed? Or if they are common moggies are they by any chance white with maybe just a little colour mark on their heads and a fluffy coloured tail?

Regardless, you have kittens that love playing in water and unfortunately they make a mess. If you have room, could you give them a water play pen maybe with floating bobbing toys in it? Or let them have a little water in the bath at all times with a step to make sure they can always get out safely? I find it's always so much easier to give them a safe suitable alternative to something they want than try to stop them using the wrong thing.

[hopefulcece]

They are both black short hairs, i wouldnt be too bothered if they just splashed the water because i can always clean the floors im just stressed that they will break the fountains while im out of the house

[Ruth B]

Unfortunately if a cat likes to play with water there isn't a lot you can do about it. While water fountains are wonderful things, maybe replacing them with nice large heavy bowls until they calm down a bit might be a good idea, or put the water fountain in a room that you can monitor, and shut them out of when you aren't around to keep watch, and give them another bowl to drink out of and play with when they can't get to the fountain.

While your's may be black, I have to agree with Mollycat, there is something about white cats and water bowls. Our old Ragdoll used to love his water fountain, he would happily stand there with it running onto his head and onto our floor. Freyja our current white and black cat managed to upturn the plastic water bowl we had all over the landing carpet, on several occasions. She can't manage it with the heavy ceramic one we replaced it with, but every so often we hear the tink, tink, tink of claw against ceramic and know she is trying her best again.

[Mollycat]

Well it doesn't sound like they need too much encouragement to drink, and by playing they will inevitably get some water inside them as well, so maybe as Ruth suggests plain heavy bowls for now and see how this craze develops. If I had water crazy cats I know I would be looking for ways to give them that play opportunity but as you say they have to be able to do it safely.

My ragdoll didn't play in it but always had to dip a paw and tink-tink-tink before drinking, I put it down to his blue eyed not so sharp vision and maybe he couldn't see where the surface of the water was to drink - he certainly used to snuff a lot in it and cough and sneeze, when he got it wrong. And when the lady I got him from came to visit him and brought him a catnip toy, he drowned it in his water bowl!