We have a stainless steel fountain for our 4 kitties. They are on a mostly raw diet now (frozen pre-packaged). We keep the fountain in the basement separate from where we feed them. They love it! They slap the water and play and make quite the mess, but it's a very old tiled floor in a very old house, so no worries! They all drink in their own way, it's really cute. Our water quality is excellent here, among the best in Canada.
Thank you! I’ll pass this video along to my friends and family. So informative! I’m so glad I found your channel! What would you do to lower calcium levels in a cat aside from feeding more wet food? My 11 year old cat’s calcium level is 13.2. She’s eating, drinking, playing, using box, etc. Her vet wants her to eat Hills cd diet and for me to give her Murilax (which I have been doing) but I’m hearing Hills is not that great and I’m not sure I completely trust Murilax. I wish I could get my cat into a holistic vet. I feel stuck and trust your opinion. Thanks in advance for any help!! Her liver and kidney function are in the normal range as well as her thyroid function.
My cats never drink water. They're so hydrated from their food already 😂 The vet looked at me like I had two heads when I told her we don't leave water out 😬
When my girl got CKD I looked into water. Ph is also important. And Walmart SPRING water by the gallon has the best at 7.5. It beats out all the pricey brands. I’ve been getting that for about a year. Very happy with it.
Do you include a sample of your filtered water? We have a reverse asmosos water filter, from which we only give to the cats in their water bowls. Occasionally we'll let them drink from the tap, and they often drink from my bathtub where a very small leak is, but most of their water consumption is from the RO water ran through the filtered water bowls. You mentioned uv light, but didn't expand on that, will that be in your more in depth water treatment video? I've had one cat - your cats twin, who had severe crystal issues a year ago and we almost lost him. I'm very picky and anal about his moisture intake since then. I have 6 cats, his mate and their 4 offspring (all fixed- so no more babies interbred). The peeing issue gets really out of hand when one has issues and urinates outside the box to "get my attention". Usually at least half of them will come along and add their marking to the mix🤦♀️. Could be that it's due to momma and 2 girls, Daddy and 2 boys, so they are equally divided in gender. Usually boys will do the cover up first. I've been trying to get them all on raw for over a year. It's a battle as they all prefer freeze dried raw dry over moisturized and well you know cats... they'll persist and six cats "persisting" at your feet makes for pressure! But Shalomy, the one with crystals, daddy cat, he'll persist the longest and I give in just because I worry he'll go into crystal crisis again. Half of them will eat raw meat, they love ground lamb, which we eat in our meals (not raw). One of my cats has nothing to do with human food, the rest will beg us, especially for chicken when we have that. We still give Shalom the canned Hills diet canned daily as this helped his issues the most and he loves it. We let him eat his fill and the rest goes for the others to finish, which only two really show interest in. Canned food has never been any of their favorite. So i battle to get them on raw, usually from Hare Today, so frozen, thawed with added nutrient powder. But several are so resisted they won't eat it and wait till the next meal (as we're still in transition phase 1) to eat. Before Mama- Zivah conceived, both her and Shalomy were both mostly on raw. Though Zivah having been raised on kibble was the hardest to convert. Then with the kittens (we purposely allowed Zivah to get pregnant) I personally believe it's healthiest for females to give birth at least once in their lifetime to avoid hormonal dysfunctions) she was over a year old when she conceived. The kittens did ok with raw when it was time to ween, but then the formula of the raw food we were getting (the ONLY one Mama would eat) and they all turned their nose up at the new recipe. I was beside myself! Ugh! Since then it's been a battle. Their favorite food it cat-man-doo's freeze dried chicken and salmon (not mixed but I mix them). If which is pure protein only with nutrients being low on the organ front, so I mix in freeze dried hearts, lung, liver. This is their preference. They are OK with feline naturals and Purpose freeze dried. But so far I can't find the formula that all six will consume raw. Sorry for the book... anyhow my interest in the water is huge. So I'll look forward to the next one! Thank you so much Jessica for all you do here! Smiles and blessings...
The sample was unfiltered tap water, aerator removed. Straight from the pipes! My brother wants me to get reverse osmosis but I can't make structural changes to my apt. But I just found a countertop one! So I'm going to talk to him about it and maybe get that one then retest the water using the reverse osmosis. I will cover all of that in more videos! I have a page dedicated to urinary care here : www.caticles.com/urinary-care/ - along with veterinary resources on the topic. The most important thing is moisture! For the crystals you mentioned.
Both of my cats havent been wanting to drink water and i have no idea why. I do hydrate their wet food but either way its odd to me that out of nowhere they both dont want water. Does anyone have any advice?
Try getting a cat fountain. Cats dont like still standing water (a bowl of water) as that water in nature would have bacteria & pathogens that could make them sick. They have evolved to seek out running water. So a cat fountain might be a good way to go. They're pretty cheap. My cat actually likes to jump up to the sink & I run the tap for her. She loves it.
Did you change foods from dry to wet and now they don't want to drink water? Is adding more water to their wet food new? As I mention in the video, at ~67% moisture content cats regulate their water needs without drinking water.
I would say it's probably the switch to a high moisture diet and temperature. As I mention in the video, warmer temperatures and dry food require more water.
Hello Jess! I've heard things like "it's better to give the worst commercial canned food to your cat than the best kibble". Is that really true? My cats eat dry Acana and I want to put them on canned food and then homemade food but where I live the canned food is pricey and I got 4 cats, so I was checking the cheap ones at the supermarket and those have meat and byproducts, etc. is that still a better option than dry Acana? The ingredients are like this: Meat and animal by-products (minimum 4% poultry), mineral substances. Nutritional Information: Additives: With colorants. Nutritional additives: Vitamin D3: 320UI/kg, Iodine (potassium iodide): 0.15mg/kg, Manganese (Manganese oxide (II)): 1.63mg/kg, Zinc (Zinc sulfate monohydrate): 3.64mg/kg. Technological additives: Cassia gum: 2.6g/kg. Analytical constituents: crude protein 9%; crude fiber 0.4%; crude fat 6%; crude ash 3%; moisture 81%. Is this still better than dry? Thank you very much and sorry for the long text!!
I agree that the worst wet food is still better than the best dry. Simply because of the moisture content. You're right, the ingredients aren't better. But as mentioned, water is the most essential nutrient! Also be mindful that Mars (the candy bar company) bought acana/orijen a few months ago. So their ingredient quality will probably go down soon anyway!
