How to get a cat to drink more water

Hydration and wet food

Cats evolved from desert animals and have a low thirst drive, so many drink less than ideal, especially on an all-dry diet. Wet food is around 75 to 80% water and meaningfully increases total water intake, which supports urinary tract health. Encourage drinking with wide, shallow bowls kept away from food and the litter box, multiple water stations, and a fountain if the cat prefers moving water.

Source: Cornell Feline Health Center

How much water a cat actually needs

A 2025/26 scoping review of 32 papers puts a healthy cat’s total water target at roughly 40 to 60 mL per kg of body weight per day, counting both drinking water and the moisture in food, with urine specific gravity (USG) at or below 1.035 as the physiological goal. Cats on wet diets took in about 42 mL/kg/day and produced urine at a USG around 1.031; cats on dry food took in 34 mL/kg/day and produced concentrated urine around 1.054. Cats reaching 42 to 51 mL/kg/day met the USG target. In the same review, 87.6% of apparently healthy clinic cats had urine more concentrated than 1.035, and dry-fed cats had between 2.6 and 15.9 times the risk of lower urinary tract disease compared with wet-fed cats. For a 4.5 kg cat that is about 180 to 270 mL of total water a day. A pouch of wet food at 78% moisture supplies roughly 65 mL on its own.

Source: Scoping review of feline water intake, 2025/26 (32 studies)

Get them drinking more

Cats barely feel thirst. Dilute urine means fewer crystals and blockages, and a blockage is a $1,500 to $4,500 night.

1. Move the water bowl to a different room from the food. Cats instinctively avoid drinking where they eat.
2. Swap to a wide, shallow bowl and fill it to the brim. Whiskers touching the sides puts many cats off.
3. Add a second and third bowl around the house. More stations, more sips.
4. Swap one meal a day to wet food. That single change adds more water than any bowl trick.
5. Rinse and refill daily. Slimy film (biofilm) builds in two days.

Fountains

Three studies found fountains didn’t raise intake overall. Some individual cats love them. Buy one if you see yours use it.

Drinking a lot more than usual

That’s a vet question, not a win. Increased thirst is an early sign of kidney disease, diabetes and hyperthyroidism.

Source: AAFP/ISFM Environmental Needs Guidelines; feline hydration scoping review 2025/26

Fountains do not raise intake; food moisture does

The evidence on fountains is less flattering than the marketing. Three studies (two in 2010 and one in 2019) reviewed in the 2025/26 hydration scoping review found that water fountains produced no significant increase in how much cats drank. Moisture in food is the lever that works: in a 36-cat study, foods at 80% moisture more than doubled total water intake and urine output compared with dry food, and Waltham located the threshold for meaningful urine dilution at between 53% and 73% dietary moisture, a level that ‘cannot be achieved by simply providing drinking water alongside dry food’. A 2025 crossover study measured 103 to 104 mL/day total water on all-dry, 125 to 140 on a 50/50 mix and 155 to 169 on all-wet. A fountain is fine if the cat likes it and it is cleaned weekly, but if the budget only stretches to one change, swapping some dry food for wet does more than any bowl.

Source: Scoping review of feline water intake 2025/26; WALTHAM Petcare Science Institute; Journal of Animal Science 2026 crossover

Why the water bowl goes in another room

The guidelines state that food and water resources should be separated from each other. Cats evolved to avoid drinking near a kill, where water could be contaminated, and house cats keep the instinct: many drink noticeably more when the bowl is moved to a different room from the food. Use wide, shallow bowls filled to the brim so whiskers do not touch the sides, put two or three around the house, keep them away from the litter box, and rinse daily because biofilm builds within two days. Together with one wet meal a day this is the cheapest hydration fix there is.

Source: AAFP/ISFM Environmental Needs Guidelines (Ellis et al. 2013)