Do cats hate water? The answer to this question is – it’s both true and false!
Obviously, cats need to stay hydrated like all animals and humans, so water intake is essential; their ancestors lived in hot dry countries and did not have the challenge of crossing rivers or large bodies of water – and although you would find them lapping up clean running water from a river bank, you would rarely see them immerse themselves in the river.
Over their evolution, cats have also learned to avoid still water as it could become stagnant and carry poisonous bacteria that would make them sick.
Most cats’ fur is soft and holds water, so if their coat gets waterlogged it gets very heavy and weighs them down. Not only does this make them cold, but it also means that they could not escape from any predator as quickly – their wet fur would slow them down.
Smell is a cat's most reliable sense, and although humans don’t associate water with a smell, cats can detect even a minute amount of chemicals in their water. Even though we might not detect the chemicals in our tap water, it does give out a particular odour that a cat can pick up straight away.
How often have you seen your cat playing with the water from a dripping tap? This, they enjoy because they have control with their paws and they can escape easily when they choose to.
Cat’s t’s whiskers are their radar to the outside world, particularly for anything that is close. Although cats have great vision, they struggle to see anything closer than 30cm, so they use their whiskers to detect any closeup danger.
So, if they are trying to drink water out of a bowl and their whiskers touch the edge of the bowl, it sends their senses wild! They are much happier drinking out of a wide bowl that is filled to the top, so that they can dip their tongue in without touching their whiskers on the sides.
Because cats generally don’t like their fur to get wet, it follows that not many of them like a bath. They are very good at keeping their fur clean themselves with regular grooming, but there may be occasions when you feel that your cat should have a bath – for example, if their coat gets matted or if they have something on their fur that they shouldn’t ingest.
If possible, avoid immersing them fully into bath water, but try to clean patches of their fur at a time using warm water with a cat shampoo, drying gently with a soft towel – avoid using a hair dryer as the noise and the fierce blowing will probably scare your cat.
There may be an occasion that your cat needs to be bathed – for example, due to a skin condition. Make sure you speak to your vet about options that do not involve shampoos and your cat getting wet – such as mousse that does not need to be washed off. But if you do have to bathe them, you may like to try the following approach:
We know that most cats do not like water, but there are a few exceptions!
It’s important to ensure that your cat has regular access to clean water, particularly older cats who may be prone to dehydration.
An average cat, weighing between 4-5 kg, requires approximately 250ml of water each day. If you feed your cat kibble, this has very little water content so your cat will need to have other sources of water. If you feed your cat tinned cat food, this has much more water content – but they should still have access to a water source, too.
It is important to keep track of the amount of water your cat drinks to ensure they are keeping hydrated. If you see any sign that they are not drinking enough, or they are drinking more than usual, this could indicate an underlying medical issue which you will need to have checked out by a vet.