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How to stop my cat from drinking toilet water and use his fountain?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Cat | American Shorthair | Male | neutered | 1 year and 6 months old | 16 lbs

My cat refuses to drink from his automatic water fountain and is only interested in the toilet

1 Answer

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Andrea M. Brodie, DVM

Veterinarian

Published on May 12th, 2018

I am afraid you may have to live with this....automatic waterers are great, but often the water gets warm and then the cat does not like it anymore. Also when the water is too close to the food, cats will not like to drink from it. Toilet water is cool and pretty much running water, and many cats prefer that. So it is likely that your kitty will keep preferring that. You can try moving the waterer at least 6 ft away from his food and put ice cubes in it to keep the water cool in summer.

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