How to train a cat to drink more water. Why doesn't the kitten drink? When to see a doctor

From birth, the little kitten sucks milk, which is natural for him. When kittens are taken away from their mother cat, a problem may arise: the kitten wants to eat, but refuses to lap up milk from the bowl. Most likely, he doesn’t know how, and therefore loving owners will need to teach this to their little family member. How to properly train a kitten to lap at home? At what age should I start learning? What will you need for this and how often should you feed the kitten? Let us consider these questions one by one and in detail.

When to teach a kitten to lap

During the first weeks after birth, the kitten is still very small and not independent, so it is fed from a pipette. After two weeks you can switch to a nipple with a bottle.

In two weeks, your kitten will be one month old and strong enough to learn to lap milk from a bowl on its own. At one month of age, a kitten can stop bottle-feeding and be taught the adult way of feeding. What to feed a kitten? It is better to continue feeding with milk and give a little minced meat in the bait.

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How to teach

Need a comfortable bowl for lapping milk

Prepare a small bowl.
Place a small towel around it.
Heat the milk to body temperature and pour a small portion into a bowl.
Place the kitten near the bowl and gently dip its face into the milk.
Try to repeat the procedure several times.

Second way of learning:

Take a tablespoon.
Pour warm milk into it.
Bring it to the kitten’s face and dip it in milk.
Hold the spoon at muzzle level so that the kitten has no choice but to start lapping up the milk.

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How many times to feed

Kittens of exotic breeds need to be fed on demand. If the kitten starts squeaking and looking for something, then this is a sign to you that he wants to eat. He can eat up to 8 times a day. Therefore, when teaching a kitten to lap from a bowl, you need to sit with the “baby” for a couple of days and not remove the bowl of food too far away.

Conclusion

Almost everyone who adopts a kitten teaches it to lap from a bowl. Which method you choose depends on your time and patience. It would be better to teach him to lap milk from a bowl from the very beginning. Then, at the reflex level, your kitten will get used to his bowl and will know that there is food in it for him. We wish you success in such an important task - teaching your kitten to lap!
In addition to all that has been said, it should be noted that a very simple way to teach kittens to lap up water is to buy one.

What water to give a kitten

A kitten fed by a cat does not need water. He gets enough fluids with milk. The mother cat is the kitten's role model. She teaches him everything she knows and can do. A kitten without a mother may not drink water for the simple reason that it does not know how to do it. This happens if the kitten is taken away too early while the cat continues to feed it. Another reason is that the mother cat also drank little water.

The kitten is not able to understand that it needs to drink water, the taste and smell of which are different from mother's milk. You will have to accustom the kitten to the taste and smell of water. You need to be careful when choosing water for your kitten. Water quality is of great importance.

Water that should not be given to a kitten:

chlorinated;
boiled;
distilled.

Chlorinated tap water will not only repel the animal with its smell, but will also be harmful. You should not use boiled or distilled water because it is useless: it lacks the mineral elements necessary for metabolic processes in the body. If you pour boiled water into a bowl, after 3 hours it becomes dangerous due to infection. A sterile environment is an ideal place for microbes to multiply.

Bottled water is expensive. Settled and filtered tap water is the best option. Water for a kitten should be healthy, tasty, clean, and fresh. The kitten owner must ensure that all these conditions are met. Otherwise, getting used to water will take a long time and will require a lot of effort, including forced drinking.

In addition to the quality characteristics of water, it is important to choose dishes for water: shape, size, method of serving. The bowl should not have an unpleasant smell of low-quality plastic. In such a container, the water quickly stagnates and acquires the same smell and taste. To determine the kitten’s preferences, water is poured into several bowls of different sizes and shapes and placed in several places.

Observing the kitten will show which particular dish he will choose. The water temperature depends on the kitten’s taste, which the owner needs to find out. Fresh water can be: room temperature, chilled, heated.

How to teach a kitten to drink water

Learning to lap is an important stage in the life of a little kitten, if the mother cat has not yet taught it to do so. The pet owner must teach the kitten to drink water.

Features of a kitten's behavior that should be used when raising:

reflex (licking a wet nose);
playful;
curious.

For the reflex to appear, you need to start drinking milk, which tastes and smells like the kitten’s mother’s milk. Very young kittens do not need to be given water to drink. Milk will be the best choice for them until they grow up. Then gradually dilute the milk with water in a bowl, and thus, over time, make you drink clean water.

You can teach your kitten to use his tongue by wetting his nose first with milk and then with water. By licking its nose, the kitten will get used to the taste and smell of water and will understand that it is useful for it.

All kittens are playful. This habit can be used to teach a kitten to drink water: the stream of an artificial fountain will attract the attention of the animal. While playing with it, he will taste the water and eventually get used to drinking it.

It is not difficult to interest an animal without any special tricks. It is enough to pour water into a tall dark bowl and use a syringe without a needle, a cotton swab, or just your fingers to make drops. A curious kitten will definitely react to a mini-rain and glare on the surface if it lasts long enough (10-15 minutes). There is no need to rush and poke his face into the water. The whole process should be in the form of a game, then the animal will quickly understand and remember how and where to drink.

Why does a kitten not drink water well?

At 3-5 months, kittens change their teeth. During this period, the kitten drinks little water and may not eat well. A loose tooth makes it difficult to lap and bite. The animal will avoid unpleasant sensations and for this reason drinks less water.

At the same age, kittens chew everything that catches their eye due to itching in their jaws. It is possible that a foreign object may get into the throat and interfere with swallowing. In this case, the kitten not only refuses to eat, but also does not drink water at all.

Intoxication of the body in the form of vomiting and diarrhea is sometimes accompanied by a decrease in water consumption, which is dangerous for the kitten due to severe dehydration. In such cases, it is necessary to resort to forced drinking through a syringe or from a spoon.

How the kitten should drink depends on the type of food. If from the very beginning he receives dry food, then the kitten should drink more water than with wet food. The amount of water should be 3 times more than the volume of dry food. This proportion is necessary so that the food in the stomach is well soaked and absorbed by the body.

How a kitten is trained to drink water will determine its health status. Diseases of the stomach and intestines are inevitable if the kitten does not comply with the drinking regime when eating dry food. You should not experiment with food for a small cat. If he first receives wet food and then is given dry food, he will drink as much water as he is used to drinking. He does not have the developed instinct of an adult cat. A kitten may “complain” about its thirst, but not understand that it needs to go to the bowl and drink.

The playfulness of kittens is often the cause of their injuries. Without calculating their strength and coordination, they often fall from a height and hit their heads. A symptom of a concussion is the kitten's reluctance to drink water. He drinks very rarely, because it hurts to hold it down and make swallowing movements. At this time, there is no need to force the kitten to drink. This may cause bleeding in the brain.

A kitten, unlike an adult cat, can survive without fluid for much longer, since its tissues contain more water. A week without water will not do much harm to a kitten, while an adult animal will die in 5 days if it does not drink water at all.

Diseases that cause kittens to refuse to drink water:

rabies;
infectious peritonitis;
toxoplasmosis.

An unvaccinated animal can become infected with rabies, one of the symptoms of which is hydrophobia: the kitten does not drink at all. Associated signs should alert the owner and force him to take action. The disease in kittens is transient: they die within 5-7 days.

Viral peritonitis affects kittens and young cats under 2 years of age. One of the symptoms of the disease is loss of appetite, including refusal to drink. The cause of infection is food and contact with a sick animal. The disease is 100% fatal.

Toxoplasmosis in kittens occurs in acute form and has signs of a cold or food poisoning:

refusal of food and water;
constipation or diarrhea;
convulsions;
temperature;
discharge of mucus from the nose and eyes.

A kitten can become infected with Toxoplasma by walking down the street or eating raw cape. The disease becomes chronic, difficult to diagnose, and cannot be completely cured.

A small kitten is not much different from a child. A baby who is breastfed does not require drinking water for the first months. A kitten that grows up with a mother cat receives the right amount of liquid from milk. When the mother is no longer with the little fluffy, the owner must monitor the drinking regime.

In the body of a living creature, including a kitten, water makes up 4/5 of its body. The normal functioning of all functions and systems of the body depends on the amount of moisture; a lack of moisture leads to a slowdown in the absorption of nutrients into each cell.

If the kitten completely stops drinking water or eating wet food, the plasma and lymph begins to thicken, water-salt metabolism will be disrupted, which will lead to dire consequences. With age, the body becomes less and less fluid.

The body of a young kitten contains about 70-80% moisture, while an old cat has 50%.

The internal reserves of a young kitten are enormous, and even if he does not drink water for a week, he will be able to survive. With older cats the situation is more complicated.

Veterinarians believe that the amount of liquid that a kitten must consume can be calculated. It depends on the weight of the pet. The norm is calculated using a simple formula: weight * per 0.03.

Normally, it is believed that an adult cat should drink 40 ml of water per 1 kg of its weight, but kittens drink several times less. The amount of fluid a kitten needs also depends on the time of year. Logically, in summer the body needs more fluid than in the cold season.

It is important to remember that drinking a lot of water for your pet is more dangerous than not drinking it. If a cat drinks a lot of liquid, then its kidneys are in danger or it...

Which water is best for a kitten?

The health of a kitten depends not only on the amount of water, but also on its quality. Before you worry about the amount of liquid you need to drink, you need to take care of which water is best for your kitten.

Types of liquid:

Boiled;
Distilled;
Raw;
Tap;
Bottled.

Boiled water has very few nutrients. Scientists call such a liquid dead, and after three hours after boiling it becomes harmful due to the attraction of bacteria and viruses that are in the environment. Veterinarians do not advise giving your kitten boiled water not only for this reason, it can lead to the development of urolithiasis.

Distilled water is practically useless.

Tap water is endowed with many chloride compounds, various bacteria, organisms, salts and metals.

The entire composition of fresh tap water is absolutely unnecessary for a cat’s body, especially a small one.

Raw water from a spring or well is useful, but at the same time it can contain a large amount of unnecessary substances, including nitrates, iron and salts.

The best option is bottled water, but it must be of high quality. It is better to give the kitten water from a bottle, which is obtained from underground sources, of the highest category. Such water is usually not cheap and not every person buys it.

In order not to complicate your life with trips to the store and a difficult search for water of the highest category, you can give your kitten regular tap water. Before pouring it into saucers, it is worth settling or filtering the water.

What should water be like for a kitten?

Water for your pet must be correct:

Room temperature;
Clean;
Odorless and colorless;
Be in an open container;
Constantly change;
If the water is tap water, it must be free of chlorine;
If the water is hard, then it should not be given to the animal.

Why doesn't the kitten drink water?

A pet who does not want to drink water does so for a specific reason:

The kitten has just been weaned from its mother and is not accustomed to water.

If a small animal has just been weaned from its mother, then it must be taught to drink from a saucer. Ideally, a kitten should transition from breastfeeding to food and water following the example of its four-legged parents.

The kitten does not drink because the bowl or place is unclean.

As already mentioned, water for your pet should be odorless and colorless. Accordingly, the water bowl should be clean and free of food odor. Since childhood, cats have been fairly clean creatures who will not drink water in a polluted dining area. It is precisely because the container or dining area is unclean that cats will not drink liquid from a bowl, but rather drink from a tap, aquarium, or sink.

The pet does not drink liquid from low-quality containers.

Some pet food and water containers are made of low-quality, smelly plastic.

People, as a rule, do not pay attention to the quality of plastic, but such a sensitive creature as a cat reacts very strongly to low-quality dishes.

For this reason, it is better to purchase ceramic dishes for your pet that are odorless and easy to clean.

The kitten is not used to drinking from a bowl.

It is imperative to teach your kitten to drink from a dish. By analogy, he will not do this. If a small cat doesn’t know where to drink from, he starts catching liquid by smell and gets used to drinking from a sink, tap, toilet, or aquarium. In this case, you should try to replace the container by analogy.

Water quality matters to your pet.

If the kitten feels that there is an unpleasant odor or uncleanness in the water, then for its own protection it refuses to drink. Therefore, it is necessary to filter the water, settle it, or buy it in bottles.

The kitten may not drink due to illness.

Refusal of water in itself is not a symptom of illness. To establish a diagnosis, additional symptoms are necessary, for example, lethargy, drowsiness.

If a small cat is not accustomed to water, then the difficult responsibility falls on the owner’s shoulders to teach him to drink liquid. There are several ways to teach your baby to drink.

Add water in small quantities to food or milk. This must be done so that the kitten gets used to the smell of the liquid and receives the required amount.
Place bowls of liquid throughout the apartment, especially in the most interesting places for the cat. They should interest a playful pet. According to the experience of kitten owners, babies are most attracted to either interesting vases or fountains with water. The sound of rushing water attracts kittens.
Very young kittens become accustomed to water if the owner dips his finger in a bowl of water and wipes the baby’s nose and mouth with it. The kitten, by inertia, will lick the owner’s finger, thus getting used to the taste of water.

Myths about why a kitten does not drink liquid

There are some myths about kittens drinking water.

Myth 1. There are different breeds of cats, some drink it more, others less. It is not true. All individuals need the same amount of water.

Myth 2. The liquid is contained in wet food, so there is no need to give the kitten additional water.

This myth is partially true. But in order not to harm the kitten, it is necessary to calculate the amount of fluid that it needs and compare it with the amount of fluid in the pet’s diet, based on the composition of the food.

Little kittens growing up under the care of a mother cat receive the fluids they need from her milk. This is why the kitten does not drink water while being nursed by the mother cat. However, drinking regime is an important aspect in a pet’s health, and complete refusal of water is an alarming signal.

There is no need to worry about your kitten's hydration when it is receiving mother's milk, canned liquid food, or home-cooked food. In addition, you can add kefir, fermented baked milk, cottage cheese, and eggs to the kittens’ diet - these products contain a lot of water.

Fluid refusal is a dangerous condition for babies deprived of breast milk

However, there is a danger to a kitten's health when the bulk of its diet contains very little water. Therefore, it is very important that owners make sure that the kitten drinks plenty of water.

Water for baby kittens is a vital component for health.

Lack of water can cause urolithiasis and other serious diseases that are dangerous to health and can be fatal for a kitten.

In addition, water plays an important role in the development of a growing organism. Dehydration negatively affects not only the growth of the kitten, its fur, whiskers, but also its general well-being.

The kitten does not drink water: why?

For some reason, kittens refuse to drink water. Water withdrawal can be overcome by simply changing the water or bowl.

A dirty bowl repels picky cats and they do not want to drink or eat from dirty dishes. That is why you need to clean the bowl of old food and rinse it as often as possible.
The kitten does not like the bowl that the owners have chosen - it may smell strongly of plastic or detergents. Therefore, it is best to choose a ceramic saucer for water. Metal bowls can work, but many cats won't drink water from them.
It happens that the location of the bowl is not convenient for the kitten if there is an unpleasant smell next to it, spilled puddles and it is very dirty. The kitten will only be able to drink water from a place that is comfortable for it - where it is clean and there is a bowl of food nearby.
Dirty, stagnant water naturally repels clean cats. The water in the bowl should be fresh and clean every day.

But what to do if the measures taken could not “convince” the kitten to drink more water? If, despite all the efforts made, the kitten drinks little, a good way is to artificially increase interest in water. Usually, bowls with drinking water are placed throughout the apartment, especially in those places where the kitten is most often located. An interesting bowl, or for example, a vase, can attract the baby’s attention, and he will approach the bowl out of curiosity.
Often, experienced cat owners install a water fountain in their home - the sounds of babbling water will help attract a playful kitten to the water.

What kind of drinking water is suitable for a kitten?

Many owners give their furry charges water from the tap, despite its hardness and high chlorine content. For a kitten, as a growing organism, such water will be extremely unhelpful. Therefore, boiled or purified water from bottles or springs is recommended for children. A very small addition of chicken broth to the water will improve the smell of the water and make the kitten drink more.

In the first weeks of life, the kitten does not need additional moisture. He gets enough of the liquid contained in his mother's milk. Later, the cat teaches him drinking skills. But if the cub is separated from the nursing mother early, then the owner must teach him to drink enough water.

If there is insufficient moisture supply, your pet's urine becomes concentrated. Salt precipitates and settles on the internal organs. This leads to kidney and bladder diseases, and the animal may die. Therefore, it is imperative to teach your pet to drink water.

Why does a kitten refuse water?

By carefully observing your pet, you can understand whether he drinks liquid or not. Sometimes it happens that a pet ignores the sippy cup and looks for liquid elsewhere. Some cats lap up tap water, others find it in an aquarium or in a container with flowers.

When a kitten eats natural food, it receives 80% of the moisture it needs to live. And if at the same time the pet drinks a lot of milk, then there will be enough fluid in its body, and the kitten does not need to be given additional water.

When your pet primarily eats dry food, veterinarians recommend giving it the required amount of liquid. It should be three times the volume of dry food. If in this case the animal refuses to drink, it is worth thinking about the reasons.

Often kittens do not want to drink due to poor quality of the liquid. It should not only be clean and fresh, free of foreign odors, and contain a sufficient amount of microelements. Cats can sense the slightest unpleasant taste. The best option for cats and cats to drink is filtered water after it has settled. Bottled drinking water that does not contain mineral salts is also recommended for kittens. It is not recommended for animals to consume liquid from the water supply. Cats will detect the smell of chlorine in it and refuse to drink. In addition, it is harmful to kittens. There will be little benefit from boiled water, since it does not contain the substances necessary for the pet. You cannot store it for a long time, the liquid acquires an unpleasant odor, and bacteria quickly multiply in it.

It's easy to check whether your pet is dehydrated or not. The skin on the scruff of the neck should be pulled back and then released. If its shape is quickly restored, then everything is in order. Otherwise, you will have to show the animal to the veterinarian. The cat will have to be forced to drink.

There are several other reasons why a kitten refuses to drink.

1. The pet is not accustomed to drinking. If a cat has not had time to teach her baby to drink water, then the pet simply does not know its taste.
2. The animal has an unclean container. Cats are very squeamish and will never drink from dirty dishes. This is one of the main reasons for refusing water.
3. The kitten doesn't like the place. Cats will not drink if the container is next to their feeding bowl.
4. The pet smells an unpleasant odor. It could be the smell of plastic or detergent.

It is possible that the kitten refuses water due to illness. In this case, you will need the help of a veterinarian.

How to teach your pet to drink?

It's easiest to do this from a young age. There are several tips on how to teach a kitten to drink water:

1. Very young kittens should be trained as follows. Wet your finger and wipe your pet's nose and mouth. By licking a finger, the cat gets used to the taste of the liquid.
2. Milk, which kittens readily drink, can be gradually diluted with water. This is done so that small pets get used to its taste.
3. Many cats prefer running water and therefore lap it up from the tap. It happens that it is not possible to retrain them. Special drinking bowls with a fountain are available for sale for such animals. But these devices are expensive and have to be connected to electricity. This is dangerous for the animal, because a playful pet sometimes chews the wire.
4. Cat lovers recommend placing all kinds of containers in the house or apartment in the kitten’s favorite places. These can be bowls and cups of different shapes and colors. The pet will choose where it is convenient for him to get drunk.
5. The contents of the sippy cup should be changed several times a day. It is desirable that the water temperature is close to room temperature. You should choose open earthenware or glass containers; plastic and aluminum containers give the liquid an unpleasant aftertaste.
6. Many owners teach their animals to drink through play. Water is poured into a saucer. Pieces of treats or a bright toy are placed in it. The kitten begins to play and licks its wet paws. A small amount of liquid enters his mouth.