[hal1]

As a younger kitten Toby had zero thirst drive. All he would do is paw out all his water from his bowl. He doesn't even have interest in drinking water running from the tap.

He only gets canned and I add a fair amount of additional water to it, which he always finishes, so he's getting 2/3 cups water a day in addition to what's in his food.

So, today, for the first time in 5 months I put down a bowl of water. After doing his thing where he paws half of it on the floor, he really went at drinking it, wow.

My question in about why he has to paw at it first? I read somewhere that cats like to see water movement?

 

[Carmel]

We'll never know for sure why they do what they do, but yes, a lot of cats like batting at the water, so much so that sometimes there's nothing left to drink! If I was to hazard a guess I'd say it's because of the movement the water makes. Some cats also do this simply to lick the water off their paws, heh.

 

[MowMow]

I read somewhere that often cats will tap the water with their toes to watch it ripple so they can gauge where the surface is (so as not to slam their entire face in it).

Perhaps he's just young and not very good at it yet?