Lon, read this: The problem with cats drinking directly from the faucet or tub is that our tap water tends to contain minerals and heavy metals that can contribute to urinary tract infections, bladder stones, and kidney issues. These conditions are not only painful and expensive to treat, they can be life threatening for your kitty.
So where is Lon supposed to get the water for Cranberry to drink ? Are you saying that he should buy her bottled water, @Cody Fousnaugh ?
Yvonne, I'm not saying that, but the article states not to let a kitten/cat drink faucet water, which is shower water. So, obviously, bottled water would be better.
Ella makes a point of jumping up to the sink whenever I've run the water so that she can lick some of it up while she can. She likes to get in the shower when it's dry and chase her tail. I think the walls make that a more desirable place to chase her tail, or maybe it's the sound effects but, unless we make a point of closing the shower door firmly, she will pry it open. While I am running water, and waiting for the water temperature to adjust, she seems to want very much to go in there but hasn't braved that yet.
Your shower water IS your tap water. So is your toilet water. I would not worry about it. I just read an article that said to not give your pets flouridated water. Another said to buy a kitty fountain (so the water is always running) and fill it with distilled water. Unless I'm mistaken, animals drink out of streams and other sources in part to get minerals and nutrients. Distilled water has none of those. Your cat is not an iron. The only thing I would worry about is hardness, because cats can get kidney stones. Anyone can post an article on the internet.
I think the reason for the running water recommendation is that cats are attracted to running water and are likely to drink more water if it's running. In the wild, a cat would get much of its water needs from its food, being fresh kills. Those that eat primarily kibble need to drink water, and is particularly important as they grow old, since kidney problems is perhaps the most common killer of senior cats.
That's exactly right. That's the gist of that recommendation. It's funny reading about the recommended quality of the water, because when I first here and was on a well for the first time in my life, I only used my well water to make coffee, and used bottled water for everything else. I did not realize how hard that water was. I had my first kidney stones about 20 years before moving here, and had not had them in maybe 10 years. The hard water brought them right back. After I started using bottled water for my coffee (and later installing a water softener), they went away again. I can see how hard water might screw up a cat. Heck, salt-softened water might not be that good for them, either.
I use tap water for coffee but I drink bottled water. That's more of a taste thing, though. We have one of those bottled water coolers upstairs, but when I make coffee downstairs, I use tap water.
So @Lon Tanner, how are you and Cranberry getting along, anyhow? Do you talk to her? Does she answer back? I talk to mine all the time. Ella looks at me as if she thinks I'm making fun of her, while Bubba answers me verbally nearly every time I talk to him. He's quite a conversationalist and can tell some good stories but he's not much for politics.
I have always been a big water drinker. Even when I was drinking beer, I still drank lots of water. I never drank sodas or anything else. I don't worry about what my well water might contain, I worry about all that municipal water I drank when living outside of DC. I used to have aquariums when I was a kid, and could let the water "season" until the chlorine evaporated off. At some point I understand they chemically bonded the chlorine to the water so the chlorine would not evaporate off in the transmission lines. I know my showers pretty much smelled like a Clorox factory.