Well, one evening 4 years ago on my way home from work I stopped by Petsmart and bought one. I'm sorry I can't remember the name but on my way to work the next morning I returned it. It was made of plastic and the motor was LOUD. Orry doesn't like "motorized" noise of any type so back it went. Now I just empty/clean his glass water bowl once a day.

 

When I was first prepping for the kittens, my roommate mentioned that her cat never drinks from a fountain so I passed on it. The day that my boyfriend and I were scheduled to pick them up from the shelter, we stopped in at Petco and my BF picked the Petco Waterfall Cat Fountain and the two of them love it.

Sure, they enjoy drinking water from the sink and random glasses (but for some reason, never bowls), but we've had a lot of success with it.

It doesn't have a lot of favourable reviews but it works out for us (plus it was $20 so not a huge investment) and while we do need to refill it everyday -- all 3 cats in the house are using it often.

 

Do you know if its made out of plastic? That would be a no no for one of my cats. If not, then you can't beat 20 bucks! ?


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We have the stainless Pioneer Pet fountain and we love it and so do the cats. It's quiet and easy to clean and the cats all drink from it. I recommend it and I haven't had any problem with the motor.

 

I have this one too. My cats love it.

I read that the motors go because of the buildup. If you wash it regularly, you likely shouldn't have a problem with the motor blowing.

I just handwash it once a week. I top it up every day. The motor gets louder when the water is below where it should be.

 

Thank you for your response! I appreciate it. I really like the look of the stainless steel. Do you just clean it in the dishwasher?


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Definitely plastic.

 

The stainless steel ones look cool, too bad its not available in Sg. I am using Catit, its plastic and i noticed, whenever I feed more kibbles, ET will certainly drink from the fountain. The pump is easily available, I just buy those for fish keeping. The original pump is still working but I wanted something of lower wattage, so I replaced it with one for fish keeping.

 

I had two: drinkwell platinum and pioneer stainless steel. both were quite loud (making weird noises) and my cats did not really drink from them. i returned them and now we dont have any.
but i have to mention that my cats are on 100% wet diet and i add extra water to their food so they plenty of water with their meals. I guess thats why they dont drink much water anyway. if they are thirsty, they will drink from their bowl.

 

but i have to mention that my cats are on 100% wet diet and i add extra water to their food so they plenty of water with their meals. I guess thats why they dont drink much water anyway. if they are thirsty, they will drink from their bowl.

Now I have a question about the 100% wet diet. Do you not leave any dry food out? How much wet food do you feed your cats? 5 oz per cat?



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Ya, after switching ET to 90% wet and adding water too, I noticed the water level in the fountain didn't drop very much as compared to when he was on 50/50. But the past few days, I was feeding more of the kibbles cos of the festive season, I caught him drinking from the fountain a couple of times.

 

I bought the Pioneer Pet Rain Drop fountain last year, because I really liked the look of it and I thought I could use another fountain in my bedroom. The motor stopped working 2 days later. I took it back and got another one. That motor didn't work from Day 1. So, I took it back and never bothered with it again. Very attractive...but wholly unrealiable.

My mainstay fountain (the one I've had now for over 3 years) is the Drinkwell Platinum. I've heard people complain about the cleaning, but I take it apart once a week and it only takes about 5 minutes to clean (after 3 years I think I've got hang of it!). Mine is in my family room about 5 feet away from where I sit and it's dead silent, unless it starts to run out of water, which reminds me to fill the tank. Once filled, it's silent again. My girls love their fountain, and they refuse to drink water from a still bowl. Neither they nor I are bothered by the plastic.

 

I used to have a fairly expensive Drinkwell, and I really didn't like it. It was almost impossible to clean, and it made a lot of noise. I finally got rid of it because I could tell that grime and bacteria were building up in a part of it I couldn't get to.

Then just recently, I tried again with a $20 AquaCube from K-mart, and I couldn't be happier with it. It comes completely apart and is easy to clean, and it's much quieter than the one I had before. It's plastic (BPA free,) so that may not work for some cats, but mine don't have an issue with it.

The cats have been drinking more water, especially Maisie who needed to drink more. I'm really glad I got it. It's totally worth it. The pricier one I had before, though, was not.

 

I just don't think I can afford to feed all high quality wet, unfortunately. If I fed 5 oz to my two cats per day, I would be spending around 100 dollars a month in wet food. And I plan on getting another cat eventually... So we're looking at $150 in wet food per month if I stay with Wellness CORE. 24/pack is 48 dollars...so yikes.?

That's why I might have to stick with wet and dry food. At least with EVO I know it's low in carbs and high in protein!


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if you stay with wellness core, yeah it is going to be expensive. i spend around $60-70 for food for two cats per month, but I buy bigger cans Wellness and EVO, so it is considerably cheaper.
you can always go for something cheaper than wellness core - there is plenty of good quality grain-free wet cat food at lower price.

 

and why do you pay so much for 24pack wellness core? chewy.com has it for $40 per 24pack, my local store has it for $1.69 so 1.69 times 24 is $41.

 

Hence why I wouldn't mind getting a water fountain to increase their water intake! ?


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Actually I paid $42 for a 24 pack/5.5 oz but I paid 9.99 in shipping from PFD.

Still, $42 per cat is a lot. And that's not even a full month, just 24 days worth! So it will be around $50, maybe more.

What other brands do you recommend that are high-quality and grain free that are cheaper?


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What other brands do you recommend that are high-quality and grain free that are cheaper?

petfooddirect is the only pet online store i know that charges for shipping even if you order above $50.
if you shop online, you can get the same or better price and free shipping in other online stores if you order for $49 or more.
doggiefood.com releases coupons all the time that give you 15%-20% off whole order and free shipping if you order for $100 (so you end up paying $80 for $100 worth if food).
if you have local pet store, you can buy there and dont need to pay for shipping.

since i dont know how you prefer to shop for pet food i will give you few examples of cheaper grain free wet cat food from chewy.com (if you order there for $49 you get free shipping):

EVO $24 for 12-pack of 13.2 oz cans (super good price)
Wellness regular, not core, but grain free versions $28 for 12-pack of 12.5oz cans
Merrick before grain from $32 for 24-pack of 5.5oz cans
By Nature $28 for 24-pack of 5.50z cans
Felidae pure elements $24 for 12-pack of 13oz cans
Halo $32 for 24-pack of 5.5oz cans
Taste of the wild $30 for 24-pack of 5.5oz cans


there are few more brands but as you see, core is really one of the most expensive wet grain-free cat food. if you get case of EVO, case of Felidae and case of Wellness you will get equivalent of more than 72 5.5oz cans for $76. so easily you are close to $60 per month for two cats feeding them high quality 100% wet food

 

If you feed EVO, one big can is more than enough for two average sized cats a day. That's around $70 a month. I get food at cost, and I use 5oz cans since only one cat eats canned and I spend less than $40 a month. I spend less than $45 a month to raw feed my two boys.


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Just want y'all to know that PFD is having a sale on By Nature canned cat food... $23.49 for a 24 pack of 5.5 oz! And for over $49, they have a promo code for FREE shipping. Awesome ???


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Did you see that PFD is having a sale on their By Nature wet food? It's a pretty good deal too! Can't beat $23 for some
high quality wet food! Especially since the wellness CORE was costing around $42. Yikes! Lol.

And I hear ya on the student loans! I just paid mine off a few months ago, thank god. But even with a well paying job and being debt free, it's still painful spending so much money on food. Worth it and I would never go back..but it does hurt the wallet a bit. ?You would think they could just make good food to begin with!! But you do what you can with what you can. you're feeding them better than most cat owners I think.

My parents have owned cats their whole life and they fed super market kibble as long as I can remember. I finally coaxed them into buying some high quality wet food and now they supplement Merricks with their dry food.

I'm still not sure about the water fountain idea. I'm moving into a tiny apartment in April and I just think the trickling would get on my nerves. I really like the Pioneer Pet...just a little wary. ?


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I did a lot of research & ended up buying two dogit fountains. I'd initially bought one dogit and one catit but they're both the same size and the dog one holds more. I put them through the dishwasher twice a week and I have a ceramic Big Max fountain that I put out in the meantime.

All of them are super quiet until they need more water at which point you can just hear a difference in sound. It's not loud really, just different.

When I'm washing the dogits I always take apart the pumps and clean those out really good too. All of them are very low maintenance since all can go in the dishwasher.


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Do you have to hand clean the pump or can that go into the dish washer? Is it a pain cleaning the pump? I read on a lot of these water fountains, the pump is the worst part to clean.


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Do you have to hand clean the pump or can that go into the dish washer? Is it a pain cleaning the pump? I read on a lot of these water fountains, the pump is the worst part to clean.

Generally the pump part can't go in the dishwasher. They vary on how hard they are to take apart, but my current one is easy. It just pops apart, and then the part with the cord attached gets cleaned with a q-tip while the rest of it can go in warm soapy water. I haven't found cleaning the pump to be a problem, personally, as long as you keep up with it so it doesn't get buildup.

 

Some say yes they're worth it, others say no. I've never had one... if I did get one, I'd only get a stainless steel one. Overall they seem like they'd be an added effort to maintain, possibly noisy. The motor going would leave it worthless too, replacements, even if they were made, usually are just about as expensive as going out and buying a brand new one, we live in a disposable society...

The cats are fed a mostly wet food diet. I see Blaze and Jasper use their water bowls and Blacky has to lick water off her fur when it rains and she drinks out of the two dog water bowls as well. I don't feel the need for an extra gadget about the house.

 

The motor going would leave it worthless too, replacements, even if they were made, usually are just about as expensive as going out and buying a brand new one, we live in a disposable society...

That is why I usually prefer to buy things with easily available replacement parts and I replaced the pump with those used in fish tanks which is pretty cheap, I'm sure cheaper than if I were to buy from the maker of these fountains.

My cats have a Catit plastic water fountain, which gets a lot of use. It's not especially difficult to clean, though I do worry about not getting it clean enough because of the plastic and some of the more difficult to get at areas.

I'm also using Catit fountain and yes, it isn't difficult to wash, but seriously, I'm just wondering why the need to do such thorough cleaning. What I did was just a rinse and a little teeny bit of scrubbing, it isn't even slimy, maybe cos I use filtered water in the fountain. I actually don't need a fountain for just one cat, but I tend to forget replacing still water and afraid I will breed mosquitoes so I settled with a fountain with moving water and partly to entice ET to drink more.

 

My cats have a Catit plastic water fountain, which gets a lot of use. I think it was a really good purchase for my cats, though I would be thrilled if it was made out of stainless steel or ceramic. It's not especially difficult to clean, though I do worry about not getting it clean enough because of the plastic and some of the more difficult to get at areas. I haven't tried it in the dishwasher, but I think I will, since I really do think it should be sterylized. I also bought the same fountain for my sister's fiance's cat, Bella, last Christmas, and she loves it! Both Bella and my five cats drink a lot more water than they did before we got the fountains.

 

Like Blakeney Green mentioned, you cannot put the pump in the washer. It's usually got the attached power cord on it anyway. It's really not that big of a deal to wash the pump. It takes me less than 5 minutes to take both apart and clean them and put them back together. It's just a few little parts.

I feel that my cats drink a LOT more water with the fountains than they would with standing water. Plus they all love "helping" me fill them up with water. Ha.


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I bought a water fountain at the recommedation of my vet when I first had my cats because they were getting dehydrated. I LOVE my fountain. The two kitties I had then were hesitant to use it at first, and the one I adopted later on used it without me even having to show her what it was. It can get a bit annoying when the water gets low, but I just keep it full as possible, and it isn't bad at all--can barely hear it then. My cats drink plenty of water now, and it was worth every penny, IMO. I don't remember which brand I bought, but it was the cheapest one I could find, and it works great. I've had it close to 6 months now, so it's definitely getting lots of use. Once this one breaks, I will definitely be buying another one.

 

I check the water level in my fountain every day and usually add some, so it never gets low. It's easier for me to just keep topping it up than to let it get low first and then try to remember it.

I take it apart and clean it thoroughly at least once a weak, more if it starts to look gross.