Cat Chat Feline Forum

I have had my 13 week old kitten for 3 weeks now. A few days ago she started digging the water out of her bowl. The whole water bowl ended up on the floor! She does it every time i fill it now and even when i give her kitten milk she does it. My other cat drinks the water, no problem so i know there is nothing wrong with it. Does anybody know why she is doing this and most importantly HOW DO I STOP IT?

you don't - she's a kitten and she's playing - it's what kittens do best

stand the bowl on some kitchen towel or similar, and put it somewhere where a bit of water won't do any harm

she'll probably move on to something else in time

I have a 19 year old that still insists in standing with her front feet in the big dog bowl and licking the water off her paws!!

Its a quirk and you just have to embrace it.

I agree kittens do play like that and some with litter! Some cats though don't like their water near their food. We adopted an elderly lad and he used to drag his water bowl around, apparently always done this. So we bought a dog bowl and placed it on a plate so it' didn't go all over. We then got him his own mug and a water fountain, he loved those but still used to scratch round them before having a drink lol.

My elvis has always done this, we now use a big ceramic bowl to that he can't tip completely over but he still digs a fair bit out. Makes the kitchen floor a bit slippery at times but that's cats for you......

[quote="Janey"]Some cats though don't like their water near their food. quote]

Aaaaaah, that makes sense. Minnie would not touch the water bowl next to her food bowl. Couldn't understand it. She would try and drink the orange squash out of my glass on my bedside box. I didn't think Tartrazine would so her any favours, so I put a bowl of water there and she's happy as Larry. Also means I can't forget to give her fresh - when I get my orange, she gets her water.

Lyn from Australia wrote:I read somewhere that cats who "dig" at their water are often displaying a behaviour from the wild - when they used to drink from brackish ponds and puddles etc - the "digging" being to get rid of yucky debris etc on the surface of the body of water. Some of my cats do this, others not.

I've read this too and believe this is true