Drinking out of the toliet
By TerryZ
@TerryZ (22076)
United States
44 responses
@mummymo (23706)
•
25 May 08
Wow I bet you are very calm and patient then! I had to bathe Tia a few times and she is about the size of a large rat when she is wet - I think I still have some scars from those times though! lol I had to wrap her tightly in a towel when I was done and leave her on the floor to fight her way out or I would have been scratched to bits! xxx
3 people like this
@Maggiepie (7816)
• United States
25 May 08
It's best to start them out as small kittens, but this will also work on many adult cats.
Here's MY method for TEN STEPS TO A HAPPY BATHTIME FOR KITTY.
FIRST: BUZZ DOWN (do NOT CLIP!) those nails! "Bath" is NOT spelled B-l-o-o-d! Yours OR hers!
SECOND: Warm up the bathroom & make sure you have lots of dry, absorbant towels, the thicker, the better. ALSO, have a plastic tub of warmish water set aside for rinsing.
THIRD: Bring Kitty in & let her become comfortable with you. Be patient.
FOURTH: Run a shallow bath, a little warmer than YOU would like it, but not HOT.
FIFTH: (Here's the Big Secret) SOAP DOWN THE TUB -- all sides, & ESPECIALLY EDGES.
SIXTH: Gently lower Kitty into the 2-3 inches of water, & when she tries to get OUT (& she WILL.../o), let her try. The soap will prevent it.
SEVENTH: Soap down your HANDS, & gently massage, in a petting way, Kitty's body all over -- -- except for her eyes. Do this a couple of times. If you see any critters in her fur, take a pair of hemostats & WAFFLE the critters. This prevents REinfestation.
EIGHTH: Remove kitty from soapy water & rinse gently in the other tub. By this time, she won't have much fight left in her, if ANY.
NINTH: Wrap her in a towel, leaving ONLY the head sticking out. Wait, & she'll likely go to sleep. Change towels as they get soaked.
TENTH: When she's asleep & sufficiently dry, put ONE LAST dry towel on her, & stuff her, towel & all, down into a shouder bag, again with her face out so she can breathe. Go read a book, or better yet, take a nap with her.
I have done it thusly for years, & my cats don't fear the bath at ALL.
Maggiepie
1 person likes this
@metschica25 (5399)
• United States
25 May 08
mine wont drink out of it but they do drink sink water . they will play and jump in the toliet sometimes tho.
3 people like this
@melanie652 (2524)
• United States
25 May 08
We keep our toilet lids shut too. We have cats that will drink out of it and play in it. I think it is a game to them - to see if someone forgets and leaves the lid up!
@applefreak (3130)
• Singapore
25 May 08
that's so very interesting to know that your cat drink out of the toilet. do they ever fall into the bowl? i think mine will so i've made sure water is available to them. we have containers of water all over the place so that they won't ever run out of water. i'm actually alright with them drinking out of the toilet bowl if it's flushed clean. my main worry would be them falling in and getting stuck. they might drown if no one ever realised they were stuck.
though for hygiene sake i always close my toilet bowl lid. that must be done before flushing so that the bacteria won't fly all around the bathroom. :D
2 people like this
@sparkofinsanity (20471)
• Regina, Saskatchewan
26 May 08
I am not a cat, nor do I have a cat.
But I do drink out of the toilet in the middle of the night when I'm half asleep and very thirsty.
I don't know why.
Perhaps I was a cat in a former life?
Meow!
2 people like this
@mentalward (14690)
• United States
25 May 08
My thoughts on this is that the water in the toilet is fresher and cooler than the water in their bowls. My cat doesn't do it, but my husband's cat does. I hate to have to wait to use the toilet because the cat's not finished with it yet.
I have two Maltese dogs and, luckily, they're too short to even try. LOL
@deebomb (15304)
• United States
25 May 08
My kitty doesn't drink out of the toilet but prefers a drinking glass. Every time I had a glass of water beside me here she came to get a drink. Since I don't want to drink after her i finally got her her own drinking glass. It is a very wide mouthed glass and she has it on a table that is used for books and such. Now she leaves my drinks alone.
Thought These cats and the toilet rather cute. Check them out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WofFb_eOxxA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WofFb_eOxxA&feature=related
@Maggiepie (7816)
• United States
26 May 08
This reminds me of a cat I once knew, called Sab. One of her favorite toys was a marble. Whenever she'd get what we called "the weirds," she's take one in her mouth & cqrry it around to find "interesting" places to HIDE it. We'd discover them now & then...under our pillows, in our shoes... Owitch?
One day, our priest was visiting, & he was seated in a very low-slung chair. There was no side table for him on which to place his iced tea, so he sat it on the floor by him.
Along comes Sab, marble in mouth, who spies the tea, & promptly runs over & ...yep ... ker-PLUNK. In it went.
Fortunately, we'd SEEN it this time, so we warned the father. He has cats & took it in stride. LOL!
But another cat we had liked to dip her PAW into the tea & bring it up to lick...one soggy paw at a time!
Maggiepie
1 person likes this
@polachicago (18716)
• United States
25 May 08
My cat will not drink, but she likes to play with the water with her paws.
She likes when water is coming down. She is just watching.
Often she was just checking what is going on with her paws.
I like to keep door to my bathroom close, so litter box is in one of my rooms.
2 people like this
@Angelwhispers (8978)
• United States
25 May 08
Terry, its our cat as well that does this... In fact he sits on the toilet, seat waiting for some one to come in use the bathroom, flush then he wants to drink... crazy. our dog has no interest.
2 people like this
@callarse1 (4783)
• United States
25 May 08
Wow that's cute. I could only imagine because I love cats/dogs so much. Unfortunately I don't have a pet at the moment. When we used to have a dog he would always drink from the toilet. My brother's dogs do, too. I've never had a cat, but I would imagine that some of them do, too. I guess yours likes to play in the water. 
Pablo
Pablo2 people like this
@Hatley (163776)
• Garden Grove, California
25 May 08
yes I used to have a dog before we lived in apartments'and
he had the same unfortunate habit of drinking out of
our toilet unless we kept the lid down. it really
did disgust me as we had a big water bowl for Swap so
he did nothave to do that at all. I always wondered'
how good for the dog that germy water was too.
2 people like this
@aero89 (422)
• United States
29 May 08
It's just water. It's by far a gross concept to you and me, but to a cat, it doesn't matter. I've seen my mother's outside cats drink out of the creek, out of puddles in the driveway, even in nasty old objects that might be laying around in the yard.
Don't worry about it unless the cat is making a mess - remember, it bothers you more than it bothers the cat.
1 person likes this
@Maggiepie (7816)
• United States
25 May 08
LOL! Not at the moment, but I HAVE had those which do.
Currently, however, I'm blessed with the company of a B%W patches kitty, "Miss Miniver Whitecheek (Minnie for short"), who has her own peculiar water source.
She bypasses the always-fresh water in HER BOWL to come to the bathroom to drink from a vase in which I recently began keeping pretty rocks & marbles. The water magnifies the items, & makes the colors stand out.
At first I thought the water was just evaporating, as it WILL, since I have central air, but I finally got suspicious when I noticed the water in her bowl wasn't going down, & in fact, had DUST on top!
Then, sure enough, one day I saw her going at it. And she'd drunk SO MUCH that the vase was half empty, & her head was all the way into the thing!
From then on I just made sure the water in the VASE is kept full & fresh, too.
We are _such_ slaves to the little darlings, aren't we?
(I can just read her mind: "As you SHOULD be...." LOL!)
Maghgiepie
@Maggiepie (7816)
• United States
26 May 08
LOL! Good question , & I have a good answer.
We (my helper & I) refill her bowl with clean water a lot, BUT, mine is an especially dusty environment & it only takes an hour or so for film to subside over EVERYthing -- not just her water. My helper dusts a LOT, but she can't even keep up.
EVERY time I'm in the bathroom, I refresh the "vase water." It never gets a film because she's drinking from it! The other water just goes undisturbed, until (for whatever reason. e.g., I'm sick in bed) I haven't refilled her vase water.
In any cas, I've NEVER let EITHER of the waters go 'til undrinkable.
And as a pal pointed out to me when I fretted over it once, "Hey, we're talking about an animal that drinks out of PUDDLES, here."
LOL!
Maggiepie
@wolfie34 (26771)
• United Kingdom
24 May 08
I think they know it's frowned upon so they'll do it all the more, our Meg doesn't do that, but my ex's cats were terrible for it, we always had to put the seat down, especially the youngest but she cottoned on that it was better for her to go to the sink and jump into there and lick the drippings from the tap, she was more refined and less uncouth than the others!
@CatsandDogs (13963)
• United States
26 May 08
Mine try to but like you, I close the lid. It is disqusting. Ugh! lol I have clean water for them everywhere but this one cat of mine likes her own water where no other has drank out of so I'll turn on the water fawcet on a drip in the bathroom sink for her to drink out of.
1 person likes this
@Kashmeresmycat (6369)
• United States
27 May 08
Hi Terry,
No, Kash is too chubby to jump up on the toilet, and being 16 years old, I don't think she feels it's worth the effort, haha.
When Kash and her sister were babies though, they use to jump up everywhere, including the toilet, and I was always in fear of them drowning. It use to scare me terribly so I did keep the seat down all the time. They were both so adorable and full of fuzzy hair.
1 person likes this
@dragon54u (31634)
• United States
24 May 08
I wish my dogs would drink from the toilet. I know that sounds really strange, but I live alone and don't have any close friends and if I keel over and die nobody would know for quite awhile. My poor dogs wouldn't have any water once their dish ran dry.
If it makes you feel better, toilet water is clean. The fact that you tinkled in it then flushed it doesn't mean it's full of germs since urine is actually sterile.
@dragon54u (31634)
• United States
25 May 08
They play in it?! LOL!
Get them a little kiddie pool and put it in the back yard! 
@chaunce54 (55)
• United States
24 May 08
My cat also drinks out of the toilet. She will also drink from the bathtub or sink. We have put out a water dish for her, but she does not drink from it, and will still use the toilet instead! I don't think it is really any more disgusting than drinking from a mud puddle, which alot of cats will do if you let them outside.
1 person likes this
