Why Your Cat Refuses to Drink Water (and What to Try)

Cats can be very picky sometimes, as we all know from when our furry royalty turns their nose up at chicken and demands fish for weeks at a time.

But there's one thing they'll always go for, and that's water. Cats get thirsty just like the rest of us, and they need to drink.

Except, sometimes they do turn their nose up at their water dish. If your cat is refusing to drink, what's going on, and what can you do?

Why Cats Refuse to Drink Water

The first thing you need to do is determine whether or not your cat is being picky or if they're legitimately ill.

Drinking too little ( or too much) can be a sign of illness. Worse, cats often hide their illnesses, which is why they can feel like they come out of nowhere; they only seem to show up when your cat is no longer capable of hiding them from you.

The good news is, there are a bunch of reasons your cat might be avoiding water that aren't related to an illness or health issue. If your cat isn't drinking, it's not necessarily time for a trip to the emergency vet.

Medical Issues that Cause Reduced Drinking

First, let's look at those medical issues. Why might your cat be avoiding water?

Dental problems are some of the most common. Many of my readers have mentioned that their cats have decreased water intake, as well as decreased food intake and other symptoms, when they have a tooth infection. A broken tooth or a tooth infection makes it painful to drink, so your cat will avoid drinking. Look for symptoms like drooling, facial swelling, and avoidance of food.

Urinary and kidney issues are probably the second most common, though I don't have the specific numbers to back this up. Kidney issues are pretty common in cats (I've had my share of kidney infections and kidney disease, and I'm sure you have too). A kidney infection, chronic kidney disease, bladder infections, a kidney obstruction like kidney stones, and a variety of tumors and cancers can all make it difficult or painful to pee. When that's the case, your cat will resist going, so they're full, so they won't want to drink any more.

Neurological issues clock in as a distant third as a root cause of decreased thirst in cats. There are a handful of brain problems cats can develop, from encephalitis, hydrocephalus, trauma, or brain tumors, which can affect the thirst center of the brain. In these cases, your cat is thirsty, but their brain just isn't telling them that, so they don't feel the urge to drink.

The bad news is, medical conditions require medical treatment, which means a vet trip, a vet bill, and possibly some bad news.

The good news is that all of these conditions will have other symptoms. If your cat has swelling, if they're behaving differently, if they're failing to use the litterbox or their litter is showing issues like blood, if they're avoidant of touch, if they're avoiding food; all of these are signs of something wrong, and you should bring your cat to the vet.

On the other hand, if they're just not drinking water, but they're fine in all other respects, then there's probably a non-medical reason for it. Fortunately, these are the most common root causes, and you can usually try to solve them with simple tweaks or changes.

Non-Medical Reasons Your Cat is Not Drinking Water

Now, let's dig into the reasons why your cat might not be drinking when it's not a medical reason.

Maybe they are, and you just don't see it. Just because you don't witness your cat drinking doesn't mean they aren't drinking. They just might be sneaking around to do it. I've known some cats that are very shy and don't like to show weakness, so they only eat and drink when people aren't around.

Another possibility is that they're drinking from another source. A friend of mine told me about her cat, who she thought was refusing to drink at all. Multiple vet trips showed nothing wrong, so she took to watching him closely. You know what she found? She had a faucet that was slowly leaking, and her cat was using that for water instead. What a rascal!

They may be getting enough water from other sources. This is actually kind of common, especially in cats with a mostly wet-food diet, or cats that have dental issues and can't eat hard kibble, so you mix water in with the kibble to soften it.

The truth is, cats don't need a lot of water! In fact, they only need about four ounces of water per five points of weight, so most cats only need about a cup of water per day. That's really not a lot, especially if you're used to how thirsty dogs can be.

They find their water bowl too dirty. Now, I know what you're thinking. I've seen stray cats drinking out of foul, muddy puddles, and we've definitely had to stop our fur babies from drinking out of the toilet or stagnant dishes in the sink, so why would they turn their nose up at a bowl that you just cleaned?

Well, cat bowls can have issues. Especially the plastic bowls! I hate plastic food and water bowls for a lot of reasons, but one of the big ones is that they're actually impossible to fully clean. Tiny scratches and abrasions turn into canyons for bacteria to fester and grow in, and you can't ever really get them disinfected without risking your cat drinking something they shouldn't.

Your cat, too, can smell the signs of those bacteria, and they're a lot more sensitive to that than they are to food scraps or dirt in water. After all, if water has a bit of food scrap in it, that's just soup, but if it has bacteria in it, that's an infection waiting to happen.

They don't like stagnant water. A lot of cats will drink out of bowls when there's no other option, but most of them greatly prefer running water. That's why cats will try to drink out of your faucets when you're filling a glass, doing dishes, or running the bath. It's also why I really recommend fountain-style water bowls; cats just love them a lot more than a bowl.

They're developing whisker fatigue. This is one you might not think of, but it makes sense when someone tells you. I had my "a ha!" moment too! Cats use their whiskers for a lot. Those long, stiff hairs tell them a lot about their environment.

A common issue with a cat water bowl is that it's just too small. Every time your cat goes to get a drink, their whiskers tickle the edges of the bowl. That's kind of like sensory overload for them. Imagine if, every time you tried to take a drink from a glass, something ran a finger over your cheeks. It'd get really annoying, right?

If your cat is getting irritated every time they drink, they'll stop drinking. The same goes for food bowls, by the way, which is why shallower trays or plates work better.

They don't like where the water bowl is placed. There are a lot of reasons why the placement of a water bowl can cause issues.

• It's too close to their litter box. Cats don't like to eat or drink near where they do their business, because of the risk of contamination.

• It's near something that startles them. A friend of mine had this problem; the water bowl was near their water heater. It's not something you think about, but for the cat, this was a big machine that would make unexpected noises at random intervals, startling them out of drinking.

• It's in an anxiety-inducing space, such as a well-traveled hallway. Cats want to be aware of their surroundings, and the awareness overload of constant activity makes them feel less comfortable drinking.

• Another cat has claimed the territory. If you live in a multi-cat household, one cat might have claimed the food and water dishes as their territory and bully the other away from them. You'll need a second set for your other cat.

It's not always obvious whether or not you have these problems, so it's important to try to change things up to solve the problem, rather than just thinking about it and dismissing causes because you haven't seen the obvious signs.

What to Try to Get Your Cat To Drink

Now that I've covered the issues, what can you try to solve the problem?

Clean and Replace the Water or Bowl

The first thing I always recommend is replacing water. Cats want clean water, but their threshold for clean can be different than yours. Clean the bowl thoroughly, or even get a new one if you've tried that already.

Like I said above, I always recommend a fountain water bowl, but they do still need their own maintenance. A customer of mine told me her cat loved their new fountain for months, and then suddenly stopped using it. That's when she learned that the fountain had a filter that needed to be cleaned, something she hadn't even thought about before. Cleaning that out solved the problem, and now she makes sure to clean it every couple of weeks.

Replace the water, replace the bowl, replace and clean filters, and see if any of it helps.

Another tip: when you're shopping for a fountain bowl, try to get one with a clear reservoir. That makes it a lot easier to track how much water your cat is drinking, so you can monitor their water intake. Some will be lost to evaporation (especially if you're in a dry climate), but you should be able to keep an eye on how much water is being consumed that way.

Move Where the Water Lives

Where does the bowl go, and has anything changed to make it a less attractive place to drink?

I already described a bunch of reasons why the bowl placement might be bad, so think about whether any of those are true. Changes to activity in the home, changes to the position of furniture, changes to the noise made by appliances, all of these can cause problems.

I had one customer tell me about a time when their cat stopped drinking, and the reason turned out to be a change in when they did their laundry. They had recently gotten a job with slightly different hours, so they ran their laundry at different times, and the noise of the washer and dryer were resonating through the wall where the water bowl was. Their cat's routine was disrupted, and they stopped drinking until they moved the water dish.

Other Options

You can always try other things to get more water into your cat, too.

Leave a faucet trickling. I've known cats that refuse to drink even from a fountain and demand the sink. It's not a permanent solution, but it's fine until you find something else that works.

Add more water to their food. Especially if they're on a dry food diet, rehydrating it a bit can make it more appealing and give them more water.

Add a splash of flavor to their water. A tiny bit of broth (low sodium and no onions or garlic, please!) can make it much more attractive to them.

It doesn't necessarily take much change to get a cat to drink more, so there's no reason not to just try things and see what works.

Questions About Cats That Don't Drink

Wrapping things up, I had a couple of other questions to go over.

What are the signs of dangerous dehydration or medical issues?

I already mentioned some of these above, but keep an eye out for things like dry gums, skin tenting, sunken eyes, constipation or diarrhea, vomiting, panting, and the like.

Behavioral changes can also indicate something is going wrong. If you see any of these, bring your fur baby to the vet.

How likely is it for a medical issue to be the cause?

It's hard to say. On one hand, medical issues are somewhat common, especially kidney problems in cats. On the other hand, I think a lot of people don't even really pay a lot of attention to how much their cat is drinking, so it sneaks up on them. Either way, it all depends on your cat, so just watch their behavior.

So, there you go; everything I know about cats that don't seem to be drinking. Have something to add? Let me know in the comments!