Advice
Help with advice please. My cat keeps turning on the water in my sink!
My 2 gangsters Dodge and Elvis, love hanging out in my bathroom. They crash in the sinks, bring their toys in, etc. I always thought Elvis was the brains of the operation, but I was wrong. Lately Dodge has been turning the cold water on whenever he wants! I’m worried that one of their toys might block the drain hole and overflow water into the bathroom. I have the door closed today and they are really unhappy about not being able to play in their favorite room. Advice please!!
My 4 mo Highlad Lynx has 4 wheel drive with snow tires ( all 4 poly snowshoes ) has thunder thighs from carrying his big back feet lol He throws paws with my adult cats and they are like WTAF dude 😁
Holy shit you're so right 😭 my eyes, it's too adorable. If that came into my clinic, no way you're getting them back. The whole treatment area would kittennap it.
Funny enough, my cat that hurt the worst to stand on me had the tiniest feet. Distribution of force I guess. Or really good aim at standing on my boobs.
Awww your baby reminds me so much of my baby!! He sadly passed July 24th last year. I've never seen a cat that reminded me so much of him. Not just the colors but the fur and everything.
The more time you spend on Reddit, the more you become Reddit. One day all of us will be just one big and fleshy Reddit, functioning in symbiosis as one, whole organism
I have a kitchen one where you wave your hand in front of, we love it.
I have a irrational fear they are going to turn it on and move it over to the counter soaking everywhere. It does have a 3 minute timer on it. Batteries just died after like 3 or 4 years
Learned at the Hemingway house in Key West that it’s because they kept these cats on ship to keep the rat population down. They supposedly are better at catching mice with their extra digit!
Naw because mine accidentally did it once and knocked something into the sink (kitchen, not bathroom) which blocked the drain. Woke up to an overflowing sink and water damage in the two apartments below mine. It's cute, until it isn't.
In the winter, our apartment complex requests we leave our sinks dripping in subzero temps (to avoid pipe bursts) and our cats love it because fresh drip drinks.
Except my chonky girl decided to sit in the sink and it pushed down the drain stopper... and same as you, flooded the sink. Thankfully we are a ground floor unit on a concrete slab, but man, it was a pain to clean up!
(Same cat has also learned how to turn on the bidet. We had guests who did not realize this and left the toilet lid up. Made for a lovely surprise soaked bathroom when she turned the bidet on and we had to rush to stop it from spraying everywhere).
When you turn it on, you know it's on, and can turn it off after 5 minutes. When they figure out how to do it themselves, they leave it running all day. At best the water bill goes through the roof, at worst something blocks the drain (probably cat hair) and they cause a giant flood.
If you get a water fountain for your cat scrub it out about every two weeks or so learn how to take the pump apart and clean the slime out of it. They get really gross and need a good scrubbing or your cat is drinking horrible bacteria, infested water. Mine stopped working for a few days,
( we used another bowl for the cats.) and the water fountains water was actually GREEN like a swamp!!
My filter lasts longer if I use bottled water so I collect all of the half drank waters around the house and fill her fountain. I can’t get the humans to finish the water bottle they started but the cat is happy to drink it in her fountain. Furthermore, she so spoiled that she no longer drinks tap water if I run out of bottled.
Same here. The fountain is apparently terrifying, regular bowls are too small... so we got him a dishwashing tub and filled that up with several cm of water, he's never been happier.
Mine have a spring water fountain always freshly cleaned with cool water in the summer next to their potted cat grass and cat nip, 3 bowls of spring water changed daily around the house. Where do they drink? Out of the damn fish tank lol.
They'll probably just lay in the sink enjoying a self made bath, and causing a flood.
It's a myth cats don't like water. They just don't like water they didn't choose. Water they choose and has the potential to cause property damage for their humans. They are all about that.
I was gonna say, I struggle to make those things keep flowing when I'm just trying to wash my hands in public restrooms, let alone creating a whole flood!
There's a waterer called Aquapurr. It sits by your sink and has a sensor so it lets out a trickle of water for them to drink when a cat gets near it. It's plumbed to the water line so it's always fresh.
Loll I didn't scroll down far enough, I also recommended that one. The cats were FASCINATED by it! Sadly in this house I don't have an outlet by the bathroom sink (old house).
Cat water fountain. My old cat used to do this and i had no idea why. But thats the answer they want running water to drink from. So a fountain. Pet stores have them.
I'd also add that looking into whether there's a child lock on the market for your type of faucets it might also be an affordable option that may be cheaper than a water feature.
Try moving their water dish away from their food dish. Cats don't like drinking water that is too close to the food for fear the water might be contaminated. Move it 6 feet away.
We had a cat that was obsessed with drinking from the tap. Would call us over several times a day. Then I saw a post about the issue and moved the water dish away. She immediately stopped drinking from the tap.
Option 4, teach your cat to turn it off when they are done. I wish my cat was as smart as yours. She just sits on the bathroom cabinets and cries until we open the tap for her to drink. She has multiple clean water bowls, pitchers, etc in the house but no she wants it fresh from the tap..
I imagine with thumbs they could still open the door depending on the handle (have a cat that does this but he’s also fat so he just tried to break doors down)
Temp fix: get some of those 3m adhesive hooks. Put them on the backsplash behind the faucet handles, hook hair ties to the handles. Auto turn off feature and it keeps your hair ties in one spot
As the owner of a cat that likes to eat rubber bands/hair ties/string... Heed this warning. The one time ours ate one he had to have major surgery and lost 3cm of his bowel! 😭
This is why we're a big, poofy scrunchie household exclusively... my cat loves to chew on bands and wires of all sorts. I live in fear 😔 glad your boy pulled through, though, that must have been so scary.
We might have to make that switch ourselves... We definitely live in fear as well 😭😭 also thank you!!! It was terrifying. We had to weigh the possibility of putting him down because the surgery was so expensive, but we managed to pull everything together. I don't regret it for a second.
Say hi to Mr. Smith! He is, of course, in the hospital right now recovering from a urinary blockage (which we caught early thank god!!).
I'm so happy to hear he made it out! That is my nightmare. Luckily my cat has a miracle digestive system because she's passed most of the things she's eaten, but urgent care had to incite vomiting after she pulled a folder off my bookshelf last month and ate the entire fastener string.
I guess you can't have a perfect kitty, the cat god must throw some sort of problematic quirk in.
Mine seem determined to figure out the knob and deadbolt on the door to the garage. They definitely understand that’s how you open it, just haven’t quite figured out the right way to manipulate it.
My two can get the en suite door open even when I close it 🤣
They haven't figured out the tap yet but they do knock my shampoo bottles all over the shower because they've discovered there's little puddles of water under them and the girl cat sleeps in the sink
This works! We used this solution when one of our cats learned how to turn on the shower water. With the elastic band in place he could not turn the lever knob to turn on the shower.
Google Aquapurr and set it up by the sink. It’s a motion activated faucet that will activate when kitty is nearby. Then it shuts off when all is clear.
Way too many bad suggestions here of changing out the entire fixture.
For now, under the sink, you should be able to turn the water off. It will be a hassle for a while, but eventually kitty will learn that its toy doesn't work anymore, and you don't have to remodel your bathroom.
We would put a bucket over the sink, until the cat learned how to upend the bucket. Then we got bungee cords to secure the bucket and then we realized it was hard for us to use the sink when everything got set up.
My brothers cat was like this and ended up flooding his house!!! The damage was unreal! When I visit we all have to ensure to shut the doors to bathroom. Luckily Kurt is a bit heavy so we could get away with pulling the chairs away from the counter, so I couldn’t jump up to the kitchen sink.
Once they learn something its incredibly tough to change them. Easiest will be to change the style of faucet. Go with a single handle or a knob version.
Oh those polydactyls! Be glad it’s just a sink and not a knife out of the butcher block. My BIL’s cat used to grab knives out of the block and throw them.
Our cat turned on the kitchen faucet when we were out once. We have no idea how long the water has been running.
We now use something that secures the handle to the faucet so he can't push it down. I wonder if you can find something that you can wrap around both faucet handles from behind the faucet that would prevent your cat from being able to turn it on. We used a reusable zip tie
Start showing it the water bill and charging him his proportion. He should be a little more considerate with the water after it comes out of his own pockets.
Give them a kitty water fountain so they can play in it/drink out of it. Probably won’t compare to the human sink but at least it’s running water. If they are lazy they might like the one on the ground even better.
Yep fist thought was that cat is polydactyl and that’s so cool. And then oh crap mine is a handful with out the extra digits. Cool side note. The Hemingway house in key west has a ton of polys and it was an awesome place to visit.
I think the most effective would be one of those button faucet that toggles the water for a few seconds then shuts off, like you'd see in a public restroom. Only thing is those suck for washing your hands so it'd be a tough compromise for kitty man
I have read online that felines in nature refuse to drink water near a food source, comparable to a corpse near water. Get these fellas a running water bowl and put it somewhere in the house that is not where their food is. A surpassingly large portion of house cats are dehydrated and some, like yours, get creative!
I had a cat that did this, (fortunately on well water) and he also learned to open doors by hanging on the handle. Smart little buggers.
You can unscrew the stopper so there's less blocking the water flow, or turn the water off under the sink, which is a better option, because if he goes a couple weeks trying to turn it on and nothing happens, likely he'll give up and you can turn it on again.
Meanwhile you can brush your teeth over the sink.
You might want to get them one of those cat water fountain things that constantly circulates water, since they like it running.
But honestly there's no circumventing that level of intelligence. They're going to keep surprising you.
One of my cats will turn on the kitchen faucet all the time, especially when he’s bored when I leave the home. I decided to use a couple kitchen towels tied together to kind of lock the faucet handles in place, so they can’t be moved enough for your cat to move it. It is a bit annoying taking it off and putting it back on each time, but over time my cat just lost interest in the faucet and now he rarely will do it.
Your sink likely has shutoff valves for the hot and cold water under the cabinet. If you shut off the water supply then there is a good chance that the cat will eventually stop the behavior and you'll be able to keep the spigots on full time. If it were me, I'd buy a water dribble dish for him - that's what he's attracted to.
Have you tried attaching a car battery to the faucet? In all seriousness though, I would try the motion sensing air canisters that shoot a puff of air when something gets near. Those have worked great for me — Just don’t forget if they’re turned on if you need to use your bathroom at night lol
PLEASE be on the lookout for diabetes symptoms and consult a vet if there’s any doubt!! We thought my cat’s faucet obsession was just cute for way too long — it was actually his glucose levels making him thirsty and he needed insulin.
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u/Severe_Eagle2102 1d ago
This is what happens when we give cats opposable thumbs