15 Creative Ways to Trick Your Choosy Cat Child into Drinking More Water

Author image for Laurent Shinar
Laurent Shinar • Writer and Editor
Jul 9, 2026 5:30 PM EDT

Our feline fur babies are more unique than snowflakes. Making the task of raising them that much tougher than it needs to be. If it wasn't hard enough finding a food that our cats and our wallets agree upon, you then have to handle their particular drinking habits. But thanks to a clever group of pawrents we may have a few helpful hints as to how to get your choosy cat child to drink enough water.

Reddit's r/CATHELP subreddit is quite direct in its intentions, it hosts a space for pawrents in crisis to have their concerns heard and helped. So when one pawrent posted pleading for help with their cat child who refuses to drink enough water the community leapt into action. And seeing as this is a very common problem for feline pawrents, I myself have done many rounds of battle with a cat who refused to drink enough. We figured we would extend their helping hands to you so that anyone dealing with this problem will have some support and tools to deal with it.

If you are lucky enough not to be afflicted by this problem I will briefly illuminate you on the subject. Water is incredibly important for cats as under our care they do not quite get the same kind of liquid intake as they would in the wild. Wild prey contains far more juice than even the fanciest wet food, so us pawrents are left with the challenge of ensuring our feline fur babies are well watered to make up for their unnatural diet. But problematic cats tend to be very particular about their water consumption, meaning that if the water container is not in the purrfect spot, not off the purrfect type, or not of acceptable quality they simply will not drink. And so you see how harrowing a problem this can be for the pawrents who handle it on a daily basis. So I hope these pawrental insights are helpful to those of you fighting the good fight. They shall drink their water yet!
 

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  • 01
    "My cat loves the bathtub so we leave a bit of water in there all the time."
    via Its-not-like-that
  • 02
    Paint_Flakes We doubled our cats water intake with "secret water." We found that our cats absolutely love driving from water cups on the counter for whatever reason.
    via Its-not-like-that

  • This is so legit and a really interesting solution to a very common problem. Though while it does solve the problem of how to get your feline fur baby to drink the appropriate amount of water, it creates an entirely different problem as well. That being that no glass is safe anymore. You might think that the cat will respect the sanctity of what is yours and what is theirs. But as any experienced cat pawrent can tell you, there is no such sanctity amongst cats and before you even realize what has happened you will find yourself with a mouth full of fur…
     

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    Cheezburger Image 10644132352
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    JimmySquarefoot I bought a champagne saucer for my cat to drink water from. Not just because he was a bougie fancy man.
    via Its-not-like-that
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    Cheezburger Image 10644131584
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    joysbox My fun trick is adding at least a 1/4 cup of water to the morning wet meal. We also have pumpkin puree (he's on a de- chonking plan) in there so it really is a soup at that point. It's
    via Its-not-like-that
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    他
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    marisapw3 Boiled chicken livers in water. No added salt. Keep the water around for a Kitty cat special drink.
    via Its-not-like-that
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    Cheezburger Image 10644131328
    via Ilovemycats201
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    Exact Yak7780 One of my cats likes the water fountain as a foot bath
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    回到
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    Bitter-Researcher389 Not only do we have fountains for the cats, we fill them with water from a Zero Water filter. Our cats, rabbits, and guinea pigs all seem to prefer the filtered water versus straight tap.
    via Its-not-like-that
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    Cheezburger Image 10644132608
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    [deleted] I've had great success with a plant watering pitcher. I keep it full sc he can access the water. He drinks most of his water from the pitcher. He even drinks out of the watering cans outside in the summer. Cats are weird
    via Its-not-like-that
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    Cheezburger Image 10644132864
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    East-Ad5173 My cats would rather drink from dirty puddles than from water bowls or fountains
    via Its-not-like-that
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    Cheezburger Image 10644131840
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    Gatecrasher1234 Put a glass of water on your bedside table. They will drink, especially if they think you are not looking
    via Its-not-like-that
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    Cheezburger Image 10644133888
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    Gatecrasher1234 Also, buy bottled water. My cats hated tap water. Sometimes I would give them fresh rainwater.
    via Its-not-like-that

  • Now this is a very interesting one indeed. The fact that your cat might not be drinking is not because of the vessel you have served them the water in, but in fact because of the water quality. We had never given this too much thought but it s a very realistic issue. Cats have far more sensitive senses than us, and even we can tell the difference between tap and filtered water most of the time. So for a cat it must be night and day. And while the rainwater thing is a little strange, it is also legit, as rainwater often has many minerals that tap water does not. But we would probably still leave it for the plants and trees,
     

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    Cheezburger Image 10644133120
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    anonymousnsname I have 2 cats 3 bow Is. 2 in their main room they like to hang out (away from food, they don't like food and water next to eachother) and 1 in their 2nd favorite room.
    via Its-not-like-that
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    BELL'S
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    ladyonecstacy My cat loves the bathtub so we leave a bit of water in there all the time.
    via Its-not-like-that
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    [deleted] I put the bowl opposite side if the food idk why but they don't like it near food
    via Its-not-like-that
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    Cheezburger Image 10644134144
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    rcinfc Our 14 year old lady really only wants to drink from the sink running at a trickle.
    via Its-not-like-that
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    shiftinganathema Put water in an over tray. Put bottle caps in the water. Put treats in the bottle caps.my cats drink while trying to snatch the treats, and it's also a free enrichment toy
    via Its-not-like-that
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    Траш
    via Ilovemycats201

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