Is Your Cat Dehydrated?
The short answer is more than likely. This is one of those topics that I always find it best to just be straight forward. If your cat's main source of food is kibble or any form of dry food, they’re definitely dehydrated.
Why is that? Let’s talk about it!
Cats are desert animals
Our feline best friends can be linked back to desert dwelling animals. They could actually go an extended period of time without literally drinking water because they’re built to get most of their hydration from the food they eat. Cats are obligate carnivores, meaning their diet ideally, should be “whole prey”. That means exactly what you think it does. A lizard for example is anywhere from 60-80% water, so when cats are hunting and eating whole prey, they satisfy almost all of their hydration requirements with what they’re eating. Given that a large percentage of house cats are indoor only, that takes the whole prey diet off the table for most families. Luckily, there are a few steps you can take to help keep your kitty from being dehydrated.
Here’s a few:
Swap their diet
The most effective thing you can do to provide adequate hydration for your cats is to swap them off of dry food. That’s not just me looking down on kibble, even more biologically appropriate options like air dried or freeze dried raw don’t contain enough moisture. Kibble just has other attributes that I wouldn’t say are a plus, but we can get into that in a different blog post, if you’d like. If you’ve made it to the blog from my socials, you’ve probably already heard me tell you this 100 times. Aside from the many other benefits that come with making the swap from kibble, hydration is one of the biggest! Kibble is dry, duh you knew that. If cats are biologically designed to get most of their hydration through their food, then it seems obvious dry food isn’t a good fit in general. Switching to wet food, or even better, raw food will make a massive difference in their overall health.
Add a lil’ extra
You basically can’t overdo it on the hydration. Well, you literally can, but you’d be adding an insane amount of hydration. For reference cats need about 4 oz of water for every 5 pounds per day. Meaning a 10 pound cat wouldn’t need more than 8 oz of water in one day, which is 2 oz more than a cup. Like I said, it’s a lot - just be mindful and you’re not going to overdo it. You’ve probably watched me add in hydration to both my pets meals every single time I feed them, no matter what base I’m using. Adding in things like bone broth, raw goats milk or even just some extra water is always a good idea! There are a ton that we use and love! Primal makes some great raw goat's milk that even comes in various flavors along with multiple proteins of bone broth. The Native pet makes some of our favorite dehydrated bone broths. You can also find turkey and beef dehydrated bone broth from The Honest Kitchen along with goats milk as well. Wild Acre also makes dehydrated goats milk that we love and if you didn’t want a dehydrated version, Open Farm has 3 protein options for pouches of bone broth. The dehydrated versions are great because they’re shelf stable and extra convenient. All you do is add in warm water and boom - hydration! These are also great ways to add interest and diversity into your cat's diet without changing it too much! A little bone broth or goat's milk in a saucer would make a great snack for them as well. Like I said, any chance to sneak in some extra hydration is a chance worth taking.
Always have clean, fresh water available
Cats are intuitive, their instincts are way more inline with their feral side than their common canine counterparts. If you can get your cat to drink from a bowl, make sure you keep it clean. They would literally rather die than to consume something that they don’t think is clean, and I’m not exaggerating. Moving their water bowl away from their food is also recommended. Again, in the wild they wouldn’t drink water near where they have their prey, it would get contaminated.
Does your cat ever go for a water cup you got for yourself? If so, they probably realize the water you’re drinking is clean and safe, so it’s a good opportunity for them to snag a few sips. Same with cats who like drinking from the tub, or straight from the faucet in the kitchen. If this sounds like your cat at home, leaving a convenient glass of water out for them isn’t a bad idea!
Make it move
Similar to their instincts telling them not to drink where they eat, a large percentage of house cats won’t drink from a bowl or still water source in general. Nature tells them still water sources aren’t safe. Pathogens, bacteria, contamination, there is just the sense that it is generally unclean. Moving water sources are typically much safer in the wild. So, try a water fountain! We’re pretty lucky and even with feeding Milkshake a moisture rich diet, she still regularly drinks from bowls and her water fountains. However, she definitely prefers the fountains. There are a ton of options on the market. I’d recommend stainless steel if you can get one, but the plastic fountains are also fine, just remember to wash them more often. Nowadays there’s even cordless water fountains, so you can place it anywhere.
House cats inherited a low thirst drive from their ancestors and then we changed their diet. From all directions we’re working against our cats staying hydrated and they’re equally making it difficult by being stubborn by nature. They need a little push and some assistance from their humans to keep them on the right path. Even if they’d never admit it.