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I thought of this when feeding our came-back-from-near-death 20-year-old cat River. As I recall, neither vet I took her to mentioned kidney disease, her blood work was all within limits except for anemia. If you've followed the River Tales, she's doing well after the last vet visit with a steroid shot.
As I've mentioned, long ago a vet told me cats typically die of kidney or cancer. So I thought, why not give River a wee bit more water? She was drinking heavily for quite a while after the steroid shot--and no, she has NOT been driving, so rest your minds!--so I started adding a bit of water to her food.
Then I started adding a bit, less than a teaspoon per 5.5 ounce can, to everyone's food. The other cats, after all, are cats too and if the C&K rule holds, a little extra water should help not harm their kidneys.
I haven't checked with the vet on this, nor have I checked with Doctor Google.
As long as your cats are still getting the nutrition they need from their food I think a little extra water is a good idea. I don't know if it's been mentioned to you in other threads but having several water stations away from their food bowls will encourage them to drink more water too. I tried it with my cats and it works. A lot of cats don't like to drink where they eat. I placed bowls of fresh water throughout the house, like the bathroom and on a kitchen countertop where it's away from the floor and away from food prep areas and I can measure each day how much water they have consumed. My cats seem to love it when the water is fresh and cold, probably because we live in a very warm climate.
I've had cats that will eat more of the wet food too if it's slightly warmed up. It enhances the smell and mimicks the warmth of a fresh kill.
I have two water bowls in the house, the only one I've ever seen drinking water was River, and that was after her doctor episode and she was getting better. Inky will drink the occasional drab of evaporated milk I put down, I've never seen Pretty Girl drink anything.
I had to move River's water bowl because she started to enjoy napping next to it, or rest her head on it, which meant spilled water. Kitties do funny stuffs.
Wet food is preferred for cats because of the water content. Many cats do not drink enough water, so dehydration is fairly common. I'd rather give my cats a little bit too much water than not enough since they can eliminate the excess.
They've been on an-only-wet-food diet for a long time. Someone on here talked me out of kibble, cats mom or someone like that? Haven't seen her around for a while.
I wanted to suggest a tip given to me many years ago. Our Tucker had gained a lot of weight (on prescription diet food, no less) and needed to slowly lose that weight. We switched him over to canned food, and as we slowly reduced the amount of food, we replaced that with water. It worked great, and over the months he lost the weight. *
* I saw slowly because cats should not lose weight quickly. It's dangerous if they drop too much weight, and should lose ounces per week and no more. We monitored his weight with a digital postal scale.
My cats drank more water when I moved the water bowl to the other side of the room. In my case I put it in the living room just outside of the kitchen where their food was. I also switched from a small bowl to a large mixing bowl for water. One even took to playing with the water by slapping at it with her paw. But the real fun starts when I occasionally sprinkle catnip in the water.
My cats drank more water when I moved the water bowl to the other side of the room. In my case I put it in the living room just outside of the kitchen where their food was. I also switched from a small bowl to a large mixing bowl for water. One even took to playing with the water by slapping at it with her paw. But the real fun starts when I occasionally sprinkle catnip in the water.
I put a water bowl by River's sleeping spot in the LR. She used to drink from it, then she started using the bowl as a pillow. Spill spill. So now she has an empty bowl to sleep next to or rest her head on/in.
Kitties does funny stuffs.
They have another bowl in the kitchen.
Our young sprout Inky (age 7) is the only other one I've seen drinking water, I haven't seen Pretty Girl drinking water.
Thank you Dwatted Wabbit! Izzi accepts a tiny bit of warm water now. I barely rinse the plastic tubs of the halfsies and use some of that.
You're welcome Threestep. This just seems like a good idea in general, I now put a dash of water in the cans for our outsider kitties.
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