Water Dish Spilling

[Tempi]

My 9 month-old male kitty, Milton loves to turn over water dishes. He will "paddle" in the dish and shake his head before and during drinking and seems to lick the water off the side of the dish where the water meets the bowl on the sides.

He is a very big boy and can flip over just about anything. He will sneakily reach onto the coffee table and tip over glasses of water, milk, juice, even though he obviously knows better (he runs as soon as he does it) and will jump onto the counter at night to push empty glasses off and watch them crash to the floor. Believe me, he knows better than that but just can't help himself.

We have duct taped a special tray that clamps two water dishes onto it but he has figured out how to undo the clamp, much to our dismay. He slides the water dish off the top of the basement steps and runs alongside it all the way to the bottom. How can I get him to stop tossing his water?! lol

What causes this behaviour and is there any kind of Milton-proof water dish out there?

Thanks!!

[Luba]

Why don't you offer him a plastic one that you put in the tub in the washroom. That way he can climb in the tub and mess as much as he wants.

As for his own water dish, hmm well I guess he does need to have water out and accessible to drink.... what about one of the dish stands where the bowl sits into a hole and the rim keeps in place. You can probably even make one yourself with some scrap wood. Just make sure you have a dish with a wide rim at the top so it doesn't fall through the hole.

[rainbow]

You can get some wood and make a four sided box to enclose the water dish in. As far as the glasses on the counter put them in the sink on their sides.

[clm]

I've had every puppy of mine do that, but not any of my cats. One of mine likes to bat water as it dribbles from the tap, but that's the extent of her water curiousity. He's obviously quite facinated with liquid. Sorry, I can just picture it.
I think the suggestion of a bowl sitting in something that he can't tip it over in is a good one.

Cindy

[Mamakicia]

A full bucket (not too tall) in the bathtub should be too heavy to tip, and the bathtub will catch any splashes.

[Kinguni]

Originally Posted by Tempi

We have duct taped a special tray that clamps two water dishes onto it but he has figured out how to undo the clamp, much to our dismay.

We had something similar for Meeko when he was younger since he always flipped the water dish. 17 lb kitty simply flipped the whole tray instead! We ended up using Velcro to attach the tray to a large cart, but sometimes he still managed to unstick it! He grew out of the habit eventually.

Pixie, on the other hand, knocks over glasses left on tables if there is liquid in them, and then drinks from the floor. Everyone knows this, yet they still leave their glasses on the coffee or end tables!

[growler~GateKeeper]

One of my sisters' cat used to knock the water dish around all the time until she bought on of these water fountains no more playing w/the water dish now There are other kinds I have the PetMate water fountain

[phoozles]

I've got the same one, growler, but I must be behind the times - when did they make it look all sleek and fancy like? I'm going to pretend I didn't see it so that I don't end up upgrading the same unit just because it's a different colour.

[growler~GateKeeper]

Phoozles the black PetMate was out when I bought mine in early Oct 07. The one I bought is this one white & blue, I don't know what the earlier ones looked like

[kit1469]

my grandma got one of those fountain things .. she didnt like it said it was hard to maintain and clean .. havent tried it myself .. maybe they have fixed those problems ??

[Love4himies]

I have a petmate fountain and my cats love it. The foster kittens had a fascination with water and dumped their bowl in their bedroom all the time, but with the fountain, they couldn't and loved to watch the moving water.

[SARAH]

Yes, I was thinking of the fountain as well. The pet store at the local mall has one for the kittens, it looks pretty cool